A remarkable heritage and a very bright future

Mar 21, 2022

As Tunstall celebrates its 65^th anniversary, UK and Ireland Managing Director Gavin Bashar reflects on its success to date and looks forward to future developments.

Reaching 65 years in business is not an everyday achievement. On 20th March 1957, Norman Tunstall and Jack Byers established Tunstall Byers, a small television repair shop near Doncaster. The company became the first to use technology to enable older people living in local authority accommodation to summon help in an emergency using their Warden’s Intercommunication Call System (WICS). A newspaper of the time described the concept as being ‘years ahead of Government thought’. This was to be the first of many new concepts. 

The company was also the first to transmit alarm calls over the public telephone network, and in 1982 Piper Solo was launched, the very first social alarm unit. This was swiftly followed by the development of Mark I, the first monitoring centre to handle both dispersed and grouped alarm calls.

In 1984, Tunstall moved to its current location at Whitley, five miles away from where it all began. Around this time Tunstall Response was established, providing monitoring services on behalf of local authorities, housing providers, emergency services and charitable organisations throughout the UK.

In the early 2000s, telecare and telehealth were both introduced, creating the technology enabled care market as we know it today, and we have continued to innovate and create more market firsts ever since. Our latest solutions remain focused on maximising the opportunity presented by technology to help older people and those with long term support needs to live more independently, and with an improved quality of life. As these solutions become increasingly digital and cloud-based, they are creating a more connected and intelligent world that can enable the delivery of more efficient, proactive and integrated care, and we continue to work closely with our customers to help them improve their services using the latest technology.

Today, Tunstall operates in 19 countries around the world, and remains a global leader in its field. Thousands of people have worked for Tunstall over this time, and millions have benefitted from its products and services, and continue to do so. As much as our philosophy is based on the transformative power of technology, there is nothing more important than people. With this in mind, I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who has played a part in enabling Tunstall to thrive for the last 65 years; colleagues, customers and consumers alike. Here’s to the next 65!