The Thames Valley 250’s 2023 CEO of the Year delivered what the award judges described as “unbelievable results”. His Marlow-based company, BAP Pharma, also scooped the Fast Riser award, writes Tim Wickham.
Speaking with CEO and founder Dr Bashir Parkar, it’s not hard to see why the TV250 judges were so impressed. Starting a business and taking it to a £340 million annual turnover in just 11 years is certainly a stand-out achievement.
“When I started in 2011, the business plan I presented to the banks showed we would attain a £200 million turnover by 2020 but they didn’t believe me,” he notes with a wry smile.
Dr Parkar estimates the global market for comparator medicines in clinical trials is worth around $3 billion. So, there’s plenty of room to accommodate BAP Pharma’s future growth plans.
One price to pay for such relentless growth is the unwanted attention it attracts. Every time the company publishes its financial results Dr Parkar is inundated with calls from private equity companies and boutique houses. “They ask me if I want to sell the business, which I don’t,” he says.
Another financial headache for BAP Pharma is a cashflow challenge. “Customers usually have 90-day payment terms, while suppliers don’t necessarily give us that much time.
It is more like 30 days. We have a good relationship with our bank, who extends loans to us which hit our profit margins.”
Big pharmaceutical companies are both customers and suppliers. BAP Pharma sources market-leading products that they all need when conducting trials of their own new pipeline medicines. BAP Pharma works with both sides.
For such a busy company, a tour of the ambient storage and refrigerator-laden warehouse within its Marlow head office is an eye-opener – as there isn’t much to see.
“We do not hold stock for long periods as we only buy and sell on demand. It is a quick in and quick out model,” Dr Parkar explains.
BAP Pharma’s impressive growth trajectory is set to continue with two new divisions recently added, which are expected to contribute significantly to the core business.
One of the new divisions relabels and repackages pharmaceutical companies’ drugs for use in clinical trials. BAP Pharma has operations in the US and Germany that handle this.
Dr Parkar says one of his best business decisions was to set up in mainland Europe before Brexit. Due to the impacts of Brexit, the flow of medicines to and from the UK and Eurozone has posed one or two challenges, which BAP have been able to overcome.
“We foresaw the negative impact of Brexit on our business in terms of getting EU clearance to move products around. We purchased a facility in Germany to ensure we had everything in place when Brexit happened,” he said.
The other division sources medicines that don’t yet have licences. “Pharma companies are often busy with research and development and when they receive an unsolicited request for unlicensed medicines, they often outsource this activity.”
By doing this, BAP Pharma supports unmet medical needs around the world. For example, patients who don’t qualify to be on a drug trial but whose physicians feel they would benefit from them. Or giving patients uninterrupted access to medicines during the period between a drug trial finishing and a licence being granted.
BAP Pharma has plenty of competitors and some are much larger. Dr Parkar believes it has a competitive advantage by offering high levels of customer service. “We go the extra mile, especially delivering on time for clinical trials, with the correct documentation.”
Another distinctive attribute is respect for both customers and colleagues. This outlook is coupled with a results-focused business ethos based on a ‘Promise Delivered’ philosophy.
In the ultra-secretive world of clinical research, BAP Pharma has a hard-won reputation for trust in handling medicines and their documentation. This is particularly important as pharmaceutical companies spend billions of pounds on research and development and maintaining confidentiality is very important.
There is a restlessness about Dr Parkar as he constantly looks for new areas to take the business forward. You notice a lot of empty seats in the Marlow office. The same goes for its offices in the US and Germany.
“The three new large offices that we have acquired are part of our future growth plan so there is plenty of room for expansion,” he explains.
BAP Pharma serves both large and small pharma companies and the new divisions will be particularly attractive to some of the smaller biotech companies, who feel they don’t necessarily get the same attention from larger pharma companies. “BAP always says every customer is important to us,” he says.
Dr Parkar is also looking further afield. China is probably next. An acquisition is a likely route as he believes the Chinese government is becoming more flexible in its views on foreign ownership of Chinese companies. In the longer term, he has his eye on Latin America and India.
Despite its broadening global reach, the company is keen to keep roots in the Thames Valley, having previously moved from Slough to Marlow. “We like it here and there are a lot of pharmaceutical and biotech companies based in the region,” says Dr Parkar.
When BAP Pharma was established, Dr Parkar used his vast experience in the industry gained from working in a number of different roles – from warehouse to project management to quality assurance.
He praises his hand-picked senior management and middle management teams, who are equally committed to the business. So is the 100-strong workforce. He is closely involved in recruitment decisions to ensure everyone buys into the company’s ethos and values. This includes a strong commitment to diversity in the workforce.
Having previously worked at companies in the clinical trials services sector, Dr Parkar knew what the best approach would be in setting up BAP Pharma. Helping to launch a division for an employer that reached £35 million turnover within two years gave him the confidence to set off alone at the age of 51.
He invested his life savings in BAP Pharma, much to his wife’s concern. She needn’t have worried as within the first nine months, Dr Parkar was successful and turned over a profit, which is rare for a new start-up business.
He says he is his own worst critic. “I constantly ask myself if I could have done things better and the answer is always ‘yes’. On the whole, he feels he has been quite cautious – “If I had taken more risk by recruiting more staff sooner, then the company might have grown faster, but you never know.”
Looking ahead, he envisages a point will come when he exits the business, but doesn’t know when that will be. Possibly via a management buy-out or a private equity buyout. “I would have to consider what is in the best interests of the company, our staff and customers.”
He will be content to walk away completely. “I’ll use the money to focus on philanthropic activities and to invest in other growing businesses.”
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