You mentioned that Halma initially wanted to acquire GDS. Do you know how much did they bid for it?

I'm not exactly sure, but it was in the region of maybe £6.5 to £7 million because I found out afterwards that they had come very close to purchasing and then there was a discussion of why that wouldn't work. I'm fairly sure Judges acquired GDS for about £7.5 million. At the time that was definitely their biggest investment. The Halma price could have been more. I found out afterwards that the founder and owner Patrick was very reluctant to sell to Halma because they had made it very clear they wanted the name and the IP. They didn't want any of the staff and any of the knowledge. I think he was happier, as strange as it sounds, to take less money knowing that his legacy and his staff would live on and be there longer.

Could you walk me through one testing example—even if you don't manufacture those machines—that was more simple and commoditized versus one sample on the higher end? What would be a typical example of a component or material you would test?

On the other end of the scale, you take what looks like a similar sample but out of granite. That would have to be bored, machined, and tested to a very accurate size. Then it would be put in a machine that took 100 MPa pressure, which is over 10,000 PSI. You're talking ultra-high-pressure equipment made out of Hastelloy material, which is very strong and can withstand high pressures and high loads. The machine was probably about six meters tall and barely fit in the building. When we used to ship them, we had to have cranes on site to pick the machines up and move them. That would probably be half a million pounds worth of machine. Essentially, different ends of the scale, doing the same thing—testing for deformation, how quickly, and at what pressure. You take that small core and extrapolate, calculating how many cores you would need to replicate what would happen with your skyscraper or house. That was the two ends of the scale.