Interview With Eric Anderson and Kani Leung of Buck Scientific

Many companies tout the “started in a garage” success story. In the story of Buck Scientific, the 1970s saw similarly humble beginnings arising from ingenuity, knowledge and passion. Robert Anderson, CEO of Buck Scientific, was then a service engineer for a large instrument firm based in Connecticut. When he wanted to apply to more lucrative sales positions within the company, he was dismissed because of his “nonacademic” background. From that point on, he stuck by his abilities and instinct—and worked to found what has become known as the Buck Scientific of today.

I had the opportunity to speak with Robert’s son, Eric Anderson, general manager at Buck, and Kani Leung, Buck’s marketing manager, about the beginnings of Buck Scientific and why the company continues to produce some of the longest-lasting instruments on the market.

Q: How was Buck Scientific founded?

A: Robert Anderson, and his first employee, Ed Nadeau, saw opportunity in offering service and support for high-end analytical instruments at far more competitive rates than the manufacturers themselves. Robert took his technical knowledge and abilities with him to start his own business. Quite literally, in the basement and the garage of Eric’s childhood home, instruments were disassembled and reassembled, and parts were scattered about. Robert and Ed traversed the United States to service instruments, often clocking more than 300,000 miles on their vehicles from their combined efforts. Many times, discarded prototypes or old/unwanted instruments from the “big names” proved to be repairable, or otherwise, sources of hard-to-find parts. In order to buy new parts for instruments, Robert had to launch an official corporation, and that’s when Buck Scientific was born.

Q: Can you provide insight into the company name?

A: “Buck Scientific” pays a very respectable nod to Buck, the maiden name of Robert Anderson’s wife.

Q: What was the main story behind Buck Scientific’s coming into the mainstream market?

Derek Hodgeman, Eric Anderson, Jack Coen, Bob Anderson and John Vaughan of Buck Scientific

A: A meticulous reputation for attention to detail and quality, great customer service, along with competitive rates, quickly made Buck Scientific the name for accessible quality. By 1980, Buck broke through the $1,000,000-per-year ceiling. In addition to servicing and rebuilding instruments, Buck was selling new instruments from other manufacturers. At one point, an order for 12 atomic absorption spectrophotometers almost went haywire when the manufacturer abruptly discontinued the product line. In a quick-thinking reaction, Robert and his colleagues saw an opportunity to create his own line of Buck instruments to replace the order. He hired an engineer to research instrument designs and then, create the first proprietary Buck instruments. From that point on, Buck had its own product lines.

Q: What was the company’s first instrument? What factor led to the great success of Buck’s instruments?

A: In the early 1980s, Buck launched the Model 200 Atomic Absorption spectrophotometer—a model still serviced and supported by Buck to this day. It was affordable, durable and highly serviceable. In the 1980s, as scientific instruments became increasingly more computerized, Buck stood by the notion of producing high-quality, durable and relatively simple instruments to accomplish the same tasks as the more expensive instruments, for a lower cost per sample. Leaping forward into the twenty-first century, this philosophy still holds true. Buck’s instruments continue to be built with exceptionally high quality and attention to detail, lending to their low cost of upkeep. For Buck’s customers nationally and overseas, it’s a win.

Q: Can you talk about your company values? What makes Buck Scientific different from the big names in the analytical marketplace?

A: Believe it or not, when you call Buck Scientific for service engineering and instrument support, you are likely to reach a real person. Better than that, you will have the opportunity to speak with someone who either designed or assembled the instrument. Buck’s service engineers “live and breathe” their instruments, and that’s why customer service begins with direct contact with product engineers—the very engineers of the instrument. Product engineers like Derek Hodgeman, who has been with Buck for nearly 30 years, stands by his motto regarding customers: “We treat them like family.” For international customers in over 40 countries, a global support network helps customers keep their instruments, whether made in the 80s or 2000s, operating like new.

In addition to Buck’s philosophy of customer support, Buck instruments bear the company trademarks of simplicity and quality. Instrument lines such as the atomic absorption spectrophotometers and the infrared spectrophotometers are designed and manufactured in-house in Buck’s facility in Norwalk, Conn., U.S.A. Metal instrument components are machined to high specifications in local machine shops. In most instances, where a competitor inserts a plastic part into an instrument, Buck creates the equivalent component out of aircraft-grade metal, promoting increased performance, longevity, and lower maintenance costs. Strict attention to detail and quality translates to better measurements and lower cost per sample.

Q: What industries are most commonly utilizing your instruments?

A: Because Buck Scientific’s instruments are ruggedly durable and affordable, they are immensely popular with academia, the petroleum industry, mining, wastewater and environmental analysis and chemical companies.

Q: Please describe Buck’s global outreach.

A: In the late ’80s, Buck Scientific reached into India, where its instruments became workhorses in laboratories demanding reliability, performance and limited upkeep. Since then, its reach into Europe, Southeast Asia, Asia and Arabian markets greatly expanded. Buck Scientific will be showcasing in Dubai at the ARABLAB conference 2015 from March 23 to 26, 2015. International customers receive the same quality customer service as all of Buck’s customers. Because of its reputation for quality, simplicity and low cost, Buck is quite popular with the international crowd: commonly, the instruments showcased at Buck tradeshow exhibits are purchased “on the spot” at international events. For example, Buck’s M530 Quick-Scan Infrared Spectrophotometer costs roughly half that of competitive FTIR units—and it’s by far the easiest to maintain, translating to a “win” for international (and domestic) customers!

Q: Buck Scientific is known for quality, affordable instruments. What is the latest model showcasing this mantra?

A: Buck Scientific has teamed up with Nanalysis Corporation out of Canada to sell and support a new groundbreaking benchtop NMR spectrometer for under $50,000. The Canadian-made NMReady is about the size of a shoebox and comes with an easy-to-use graphical user interface. It is a revolutionary instrument in terms of its cost, size and ease of use. Now, budget-conscious research settings, such as academic labs, can reach out for NMR instrumentation. Some NMR instruments, especially in the early days, easily took up the space of an entire room and required dedicated operators. The NMReady, like all of our other instruments, is also supported by the same family-oriented customer service that Buck is known for.

Emilia Raszkiewicz is managing editor, American Laboratory; [email protected]