Interview with Mary Lou Palacios Alcolado, Modus Gauges

For British instrumentation specialist Modus Gauges, the question before Bergman & Beving was one of resource. The business had more opportunities than its small, dedicated team could pursue at once. In Bergman & Beving, the company found long-term backing and values that matched its own, and it has kept its culture, its customers and its way of working intact.

Modus Gauges, based in Suffolk, has served UK industry with pressure and temperature instrumentation for more than 35 years, building its reputation on technical expertise, product quality, extensive stockholding and customer service. Its customers include installers, merchants and OEMs, in sectors from pharmaceuticals and HVAC to manufacturing, customers for whom reliability, responsiveness and speed matter just as much as the product itself. Modus joined Bergman & Beving in October 2025 and is now part of Orbital Fabrications, which combines its specialist measurement expertise with broader engineering capabilities and resources.

A people business

What sets Modus apart is not simply what it sells. It is the way the team listens. Customers value having access to knowledgeable people who understand how products are used in the real world and can quickly help solve problems. Over the years, the business has built its reputation on consistent support, technical reassurance and being there when customers need help.

The company was shaped by a small but highly committed team, including Michelle, Kim, Ian, Chris, Paul and Mike, people who care deeply about customers and take real pride in what they do. Their loyalty, resilience and willingness to step up whenever needed have been fundamental to the success of the business, and customers regularly speak about the reassurance they get from the team’s support.

Success has never come from complicated strategies. It has come from deep product knowledge, strong technical credibility and long-standing customer relationships built on trust. The business developed a clear niche and focused on doing a few things exceptionally well. Combined with a practical “we’ll get it done” mentality and an ability to solve customer problems quickly, Modus has consistently punched above its weight.

Finding the right home

Like many successful independent businesses, Modus reached a point where there were more opportunities than available resource. The same dedicated team was often balancing customer service, technical support, operations and commercial activity at the same time. There was significant potential to invest in business development, marketing, systems, customer relationship management and commercial processes, but unlocking that potential required long-term backing.

“For us, Bergman & Beving offered something genuinely unique: support without bureaucracy and independence without isolation,” says Mary Lou Palacios Alcolado.

What stood out from the beginning was the alignment in values. There was a shared belief in taking a long-term view, staying close to customers and building strong businesses through people rather than short-term optimisation. The decentralised approach means Modus can continue being Modus. The culture, the customer relationships and the way the team works remain intact, while the business benefits from the stability, investment and support it needs to grow with confidence.

For Mary Lou Palacios Alcolado, the exciting part is not changing what makes Modus successful, but building on it. The company can now invest further in people, strengthen its commercial capabilities, improve systems and processes, and pursue new opportunities with greater confidence, while preserving the culture and customer focus that customers have come to trust over the last 35 years.

What has impressed her most is how Bergman & Beving and Orbital respect the identity of the businesses they acquire, and the understanding that the value sits in the people, the culture, the customer relationships and the specialist expertise built up over many years. Her advice to another owner is to look for a partner that respects your people, your customers and your way of working. With the right backing, she says, you can accelerate growth and create new opportunities while staying true to everything that made the business successful in the first place.

“Selling a business is always emotional, but finding the right home matters more than the transaction itself,” says Mary Lou Palacios Alcolado.

Bergman & Beving, founded in 1906, is a Swedish publicly traded company group with extensive experience in acquiring and developing leading niche companies with a long-term ownership approach.