Small Companies, Big Success
Two years into his job as CEO of Athens Research and Technology (ART), John Mitchell is still impressed by the variety of resources Georgia offers companies.
“We get more help and support in this state than anywhere else I have worked,” he says. “Our international sales went up 39% in 12 months, and that’s because of both local and state resources.”
Named small company Exporter of the Year for 2022 by GDEcD, ART purifies critical proteins, from both human and animal sources, for use by researchers to better understand disease and develop new treatments, Mitchell explains. Proteins are found in blood and plasma, which may contain hundreds of proteins. Researchers seek particular proteins which ART is able to identify, extract and purify at scale.
The company was founded in 1986 by noted UGA biochemist James Travis and three local pathologists. It began shipping internationally almost before it was established, Mitchell says. It has 22 employees (soon to be 28) and now ships directly to some 30 countries and has distributors in others. Mitchell credits the more than 1,500 research papers over the past 10 years that have named ART as their source of proteins for helping to spread the word about the company.
Read more: https://www.georgiatrend.com/2023/06/27/an-optimistic-outlook/