Our story
Built by people who know production.
Intouch is a production monitoring company founded in 1997 by John Hardwick and Karl Edwin to give manufacturers real-time data from the shop floor. Nearly 30 years on, our software runs in more than 300 manufacturing sites around the world.
Where it started
Solving real production problems.
In the 1990s, John Hardwick was working in plastics manufacturing and spending around two days a week chasing production figures that were often wrong. The systems on the market were complicated, expensive and inflexible.
So John and his school friend Karl Edwin, an electronic engineer, built their own production monitoring system. Karl wrote the first version of Intouch in 1997, and both still lead the business today.
Our journey
Nearly three decades as a production monitoring company.
1997
Intouch is founded
John and Karl build a monitoring system that is simple to use, quick to install and affordable.
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1999
First Interplas
We launch on three stands at Interplas, under our original name, Outlook.
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2014
Multi-site roll-outs
Hanson Building Products installs Intouch across six plants in one year.
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2019
Into the cloud
i4 Cloud brings Intouch to a monthly subscription with little upfront cost.
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2020
Launch of the free trial
We launch our 60-day free trial, so manufacturers can see Intouch working in their own factory before they buy.
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2024
Room to grow
We launch the mobile app at NPE in Orlando and move to larger offices.
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Sep 2026
Joining Abingdon
Abingdon acquires Intouch to accelerate our AI development. John and Karl continue to lead.
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Nov 2026
Intouch Intelligence
AI built on nearly 30 years of production data.
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How we work
The same approach since 1997.
Built and supported in-house
Our software is developed and supported by our own team in Northamptonshire.
Led by our customers
The product develops in response to customer feedback. Superfos Packaging, our first customer, still uses Intouch today.
Growing our own
Several of our engineers joined as apprentices, including our Technical Manager and Senior Support Engineer.
Worldwide
From our offices in Northamptonshire and Rosemont, Illinois, we support manufacturers across Europe, North America and beyond.
1997
Founded
300+
Manufacturing sites
20,000+
Users worldwide
95%+
Of customers stay year on year
Where we are now
A new chapter, with the same team.
In September 2026, Abingdon acquired Intouch. Their investment helps us grow as a production monitoring company and speeds up the development of Intouch Intelligence.
- The same name and the same team in Northampton
- John Hardwick remains Managing Director
- Karl Edwin remains Technical Director
John Hardwick
Managing Director & Co-Founder
“We’ve been monitoring these machines for nearly thirty years… Abingdon understood that in our first meeting and is providing the backing to accelerate our development.”