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Blatchford
Advanced prosthetic limbs and orthotics
Surgical robotics & devices
Basingstoke-based manufacturer of advanced prosthetic legs, knees and ankles, in continuous operation since 1890 and still designing and building in the UK.
The read
Blatchford designs and manufactures prosthetic legs, knees and ankles, alongside orthotic devices, from a Basingstoke manufacturing base that traces back to 1890, making it one of the oldest continuously operating device makers in the sector. Roughly four in five of its sales are generated outside the UK.
Private equity firm CBPE Capital took a majority stake in the business in 2018 alongside the founding Blatchford family and management. In 2025, CBPE began a formal sale process via Investec; as of mid-2026 no completed transaction has been publicly confirmed, so the company continues to trade as an independent UK-headquartered manufacturer.
The Bridgehead view
Blatchford is a reminder that not every credible UK medtech story is an AI startup: a 130-plus-year-old manufacturer can still be mid-restructure via a live PE sale process, which is exactly the kind of ownership transition worth watching rather than assuming is settled.
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