LGC builds reference material portfolio with acquisition

LGC has acquired a manufacturer of organic and inorganic reference materials.

The firm said the deal for o2si smart solutions bolsters its portfolio of reference materials for the food and environment markets.

Euan O’Sullivan, managing director of LGC’s Standards Division, said o2si will be added to the Standards division.

“It offers a highly complementary fit to our existing manufacturing capabilities across the United States and Europe, adding organic solution standards expertise as well as a quick turnaround, custom standards workflow to our offering.”

o2si’s products are accredited to ISO 17025 and ISO Guide 34 and certified to ISO 9001. o2si will continue to operate from its facility in Charleston, South Carolina.

LGC produces reference materials for different markets at its headquarters in Teddington, England and manufacturing facilities in the US (Manchester, New Hampshire and Cumberland Foreside, Maine) and Germany (Luckenwalde and Augsburg).

Investment firm KKR acquired LGC from Bridgepoint for an undisclosed amount last year.

Dan Biggerstaff, technical director at o2si, said LGC has a fundamental knowledge of reference materials.

“We are now part of one of the world’s most respected reference material manufacturers. This also provides our employees tremendous opportunities for growth.

“We look forward to providing our customers with continued high quality service as well as an expanded product offering by coupling LGC’s organic neat reference materials and o2si’s organic solutions and custom standards."

Meanwhile, the Inorganic Analysis team at LGC has had the first Agilent 8900 mass spectrometry instrument in the UK installed.

The technology combines quadrupole separation with inorganic mass spectrometry (ICP-QQQ-MS) and will support work on the characterisation and quantification of nanomaterials.

Heidi Goenaga-Infante, principal scientist and science fellow, said: “We are delighted to have the first UK capabilities to measure very fast events generated by e.g. laser ablation of single cells, for detection of single nanoparticles with greater sensitivity and selectivity than achieved with previous ICP-MS instrumentation.”

In the future, the instrument will be used to develop trace inorganic analysis in complex real-world samples and improve inorganic imaging methods for healthcare.