TUTA Products, as it was originally known, was established in the entrepreneurial years following World War II by Bruce Rose, a former RAAF pilot. The first TUTA products were essentially novelties which included cheap plastic sporting and leisure items – even ships in bottles. It was during World War II hostilities that Perspex was invented as one of the first ‘plastics’. This became an important military commodity. Rose had first- hand experience of Perspex and was quick to see that there was a future in plastics. He was open to other ways his company’s knowledge of this new field could be exploited. Up until that time, almost everything in medicine was re-usable and laboratory equipment was no exception, despite the obvious biological hazards of re-use. Rose initially developed a plastic Petri dish that was hugely successful and opened the door for TUTA to the world of medicine. He then engaged the services of Len Wisdom, a microbiologist at the University of Melbourne and also a former RAAF pilot, and the company went ahead in leaps and bounds, pioneering the development of plastic blood collection and transfusion sets at the request of the Red Cross Blood Transfusion service, forging strong professional relationships with anaesthetists and haematologists, the legacy of which still remains today. Key to TUTA’s success is innovation and a customer-centric focus that allows us to design and develop new products to enable advances in clinical techniques that meet the requirements of leading medical professionals. Our ability to quickly adapt and meet the needs of surgeons globally is recognised throughout the medical profession and puts us at the forefront of the industry.
