Eurofins invests €22m in food testing lab expansion
The French facility brings size of the campus to 23,640 m2, including 4,200 m2 of spare capacity for future growth.
It is home to nearly 700 employees who carry out microbiological, compositional, speciation and authenticity analyzes.
Eurofins Nantes contributes to ca. 45% of food testing revenues in France, processing nearly 1.5 million samples and performing five million analyses per year.
Since the first lab in Nantes the firm has grown to have 400 labs in 41 countries across six continents.
Growth experienced and expected
The lab extension was in response to the strong growth experienced and expected by Eurofins.
It was inaugurated after a meeting on the prevention of fraud with Francesco de Angelis from INTERPOL; Charles Pernin of SYNABIO; Emmanuel Vasseneix, president of UNIJUS; Bill Folkerts from USP and Michèle Lees, Eric Jamin and Fayçal Bellatif of Eurofins.
The modernized site will help the firm better serve the food industry in France, and throughout Europe, and support the group’s strong acceleration in market share gains.
Eurofins said the lab layout is expected to improve efficiency, scalability and turn-around times (TAT).
The extension will also increase service offerings of the various Eurofins companies at the site.
These include nutrition analyses, molecular biology, water, asbestos, air and soil testing, DNA sequencing as well as, contaminants and authenticity testing.
François Vigneau, general manager for Eurofins Food Testing South Europe, said: “It is remarkable that in just 30 years, Eurofins Nantes has transitioned from a small beverages testing specialist to a global leader in food, pharmaceuticals and environmental testing.
“This large investment in laboratory expansion is another demonstration of the Group’s strong commitment to always offering its clients faster, more sensitive and more cost-effective advanced testing services.”
Q3 results and performance in 2017
Meanwhile, Eurofins said organic growth in the first nine months of 2017 was close to 6%, above the annual objective of 5%.
Revenues grew 16.2% in Q3 2017 to €731m, bringing revenues in the first nine months of 2017 to €2,128m, a 15.8% increase compared to the same period in 2016.
Revenues from North America, where it generated over 30% of total revenues, increased 12.9% in the first nine months of 2017.
Dr Gilles Martin, CEO, said Q3 results and performance over the first nine months of 2017 reflect the strong underlying trends that characterize the markets in which it operates.
“Our commitment to always develop or acquire advanced technologies and start-up laboratories to continuously expand our state-of-the-art portfolio of analytical services and laboratories has allowed Eurofins to grow rapidly, doubling in revenues every three years on average from 2005 to 2016,” he said.
“The group’s recent acceleration in M&A activity, including our largest acquisition year-to-date of EAG Laboratories, should help consolidate Eurofins’ markets, improve service to our clients and expand the margins of newly acquired firms that gain access to Eurofins’ portfolio of competencies, logistics and clients.”
