Eurofins is an international group of laboratories headquartered in Luxembourg, providing testing and support services to the pharmaceutical, food, environmental, agriscience and consumer products industries and to governments. Eurofins Group has an international network of more than 800 laboratories across 47 countries and a portfolio of over 150,000 validated analytical methods for characterizing the safety, identity, purity, composition, authenticity and origin of products and biological substances. Through research and development, in-licensing and acquisitions, the Group draws on the latest developments in the field of biotechnology and analytical sciences. Eurofins acquired German company MWG-Biotech and in 2011 of the US company Lancaster Laboratories, the latter being acquired for 150 million euros.
History
Eurofins Scientific was founded in 1987 with 4 employees, when Gilles Martin purchased the rights to the SNIF-NMR technology from the University of Nantes, a patented analytical method used to verify the origin and purity of several types of food and beverages and identify sophisticated fraud not detectable by other methods. This technology had been researched and developed by his own parents, who were professors at the university. During this start up period, the SNIF-NMR® patent was registered and approved in the US and broadened to apply to a wider range of products than the original wine test, such as fruit juices and other non-alcoholic beverages. The strategy was then formulated to develop the offering in-house and to expand the range of tests provided to customers. From 1997, the focus for Eurofins was to buy the very best labs with unique technologies and know how with the potential for global recognition. Additionally the Group expanded to eight new countries and grew to include over 50 laboratory sites. Leading positions were built up in core markets and also key segments such as genomic information and contaminants testing. This in turn enabled the group access to new, top-tier clients in the pharma and retailing sectors. This was funded firstly with the IPO in Paris in 1997 and then the secondary listing in Frankfurt in 2000. From 2002, Eurofins started developing the infrastructure to support the business, including a unified IT platform.
Recent news
On 1 July 2014, Eurofins purchased Viracor-IBT Laboratories from Ampersand Capital Partners for $255 million. The company will continue to be known as ViraCor-IBT. In May 2015, Eurofins acquired QC Laboratories in the US and Experchems in Canada as part of its North American expansion strategy. In June 2015, Eurofins announced the acquisition of Biomnis in France for 220 million euros. In September 2017, Eurofins Scientific announced to acquire EAG Laboratories, a scientific services company that serves technology and life-science-related industries. On 5 March 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced to collect a $600,000 penalty from Eurofins QC, LLC for falsifying whole effluent toxicity test results. Eurofins purchased Nanolab Technologies Inc, a service lab for the silicon valley industry, on 2 August 2018. Eurofins acquired MET Labs on 11 January 2018, which enabled them to have a Nationally Recognized Test Laboratory as established by OHSA. At the end of 2018, a deal was finalized between Eurofins and the JSTI Group for the acquisition of TestAmerica Environmental Services, LLC, adding 24 laboratories and 40 service centers to the Eurofins environmental testing network. On 3 June 2019, Eurofins reported that some of its IT systems were infected with ransomware and many servers and systems were taken offline. Eurofins paid the ransom after heavy disruption of their services. Court hearings were postponed as the forensics division was unable to take new samples. On 11 July 2019, was Eurofins's latest acquisition.
Product authentication
The company has developed an exclusive method of food analysis, testing and authentication that has thwarted the counterfeiting of food goods, and also cigars. The company's testing can also detect food contaminants.
