Eurofins completes 2012 Laboratory Expansion Plan

Date:10-04-2012

Eurofins announces that as part of its commitment to developing and maintaining the most modern and efficient laboratory network in the industry, and in preparation for market growth, the Group has successfully completed its laboratory expansion plan for 2012, on time and on budget. The investments undertaken in 2012 are part of the expansion plan to further enlarge and modernize its existing laboratory network.

In June, Eurofins Food Testing UK moved to its new 4,000m2 facility in Wolverhampton. The new state-of-the-art laboratory will be the hub for many of the Group's food testing activities in the UK, with significantly increased capacity and higher efficiency.  In July, Eurofins completed a new 1,500m2 facility in Glostrup, to house its growing pharmaceutical testing activities in Denmark. The Group also recently completed a 2,200m2 extension to its site in Saverne, which will be officially opened on 23 October, 2012, to increase capacity, with a view to further consolidating the environmental testing market, and strengthening its market leadership in France.

At the Group's Annual Investor Day in Nantes, France, today, the management will host analysts and investors at one of the flagship food testing laboratories in its network, and provide an insight into the Group's strategy of being the industry reference. Eurofins Nantes is the largest single-site independent food testing laboratory in the world, with 11,500 m2 total laboratory surface and capacity to analyse up to 1 million samples per year with a broad range of technologies. The site houses two of the Group's 14 Competence Centres (Authenticity and Allergen testing), and leads the markets where it is active in, and as such is able to optimise efficiency through specialization, concentration and lean management. Eurofins Nantes incorporates the latest state-of-the-art technology, combined with analysis and automation tools developed in-house to ensure high sample throughput in optimal conditions. The benefits are reflected in high quality testing analysis with short turn-around-times (TAT) for customers, and increased efficiency, and hence profitability, for the Group. Eurofins Nantes is an example of Eurofins' strategy of being a market reference, having the scale to invest large amounts in research and development (R&D), optimise efficiencies, and maximise profitability.

This strategy, combined with a positive outlook for its businesses, underpin the management's confidence that the Group should continue to deliver on its objectives. As communicated earlier, the Group has brought forward its objective of generating EUR 1bn by one year. Following much stronger organic growth than its 5% objective, and more acquisitions completed earlier than planned, revenues should exceed its twice-upgraded EUR 1bn revenue objective in 2012. Furthermore, the management is confident that the Group should be able to demonstrate significant progress in profitability for the full year compared to 2011, and believes it is on track to exceed its EUR 210m adjusted EBITDA objective for 2013, despite the cost of integrating multiple recent acquisitions.

Based on results to date, channel checks with clients, and its acquisition plans, the medium-term outlook remains very positive for the Group. The management is confident that Eurofins' reputation as the global reference in food, environmental and pharmaceutical products testing should allow the Group to remain at the forefront of consolidation in the markets where it operates. Furthermore, the management believes that the Group should be able to maintain an average organic growth of at least 5% per year over the next five years, which, in addition to a robust pipeline of acquisition opportunities, should allow Eurofins to double in size by 2017, with sales in excess of EUR 2bn by then.