History of Eurofins Scientific
Eurofins Scientific was founded in 1987 with 3 employees to market the SNIF-NMR™ technology, 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. Building on this unique technology, Eurofins expanded over the years in several phases by adding a very large range of bioanalytical technologies to serve a broader range of industries. Today the Eurofins Group is a leading provider of analytical services with:
- an international network of independent companies in 61 countries often specialised by end client markets and operating ca. 900 laboratories
- over 61,000 staff
- a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods
- more than 1.4 million m2 of laboratories
- Over €6.7 billion in annualised revenues in 2022
- more than 450 million tests performed each year to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability, and purity of biological substances and products, as well as providing innovative clinical diagnostic testing services.
Eurofins' history can be divided up into seven distinct phases:
Start-up Phase (1987 - 1997)
In 1987, Eurofins was founded when Gilles Martin, the current Group CEO, purchased the rights to the ground-breaking testing technology SNIF-NMR® from the University of Nantes. It uses Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to detect whether sugar has been added during the wine-making process to increase the alcohol content. Certain such additions were not detectable by any other existing method.
In the following years, the SNIF-NMR® technology applications were broadened to a wider range of products than the original wine test, such as fruit juices, natural flavours and other non-alcoholic beverages, picking up sophisticated frauds that traditional testing methods failed to detect. The strategy was then formulated to broaden the in-house offering and to expand the range of tests provided to customers, to cover the complete testing needs of the beverages industry and, over the years, other segments of the food industry. Now, over 30 years later, the SNIF-NMR® technology has not been equalled for detecting certain types of adulteration and still generates about EUR 1m annual revenues. Building on its research and innovation roots since its foundation, Eurofins has often been the first in the world to develop many new testing technologies that have a positive impact on day-to-day life.
Expanding the Technology Portfolio (1997 - 2001)
In 1997, as the company’s revenues reached EUR 7m, Eurofins’ IPO on the Paris Stock Exchange helped fund the company’s rapid geographic expansion. This IPO was followed by a secondary listing on Frankfurt Deutsche Börse in 2000, when revenues stood at EUR 51m. The purpose of these capital raises (EUR 57 million in total between 1997 and 2000) was to fund Eurofins’ strategy to join forces with the best laboratories, with the brightest talent and the most exciting technologies, in order to build a unique portfolio of tests to serve clients in the core markets chosen by the Group at that time – food and environment testing. Eurofins used these funds in a focused manner and only raised equity again more than 15 years later in 2016 when its revenues already exceeded EUR 2 billion.
By 2001, Eurofins was present in eight countries and had a network of more than 50 laboratories. Market leading positions were built in core markets in several European countries as well as new areas of activity such as genomic services and contaminants testing.
Establishing the Base Infrastructure for Europe (2002 - 2004)
This was a period of foundation building for the Group, developing the infrastructure to support growth and enhance service to customers, as well as operating much more efficiently. Bigger and more productive sites were developed, allowing Eurofins to drive higher sales and margins through economies of scale and additional cost saving measures (rent, productivity, consumables) while the first generation of a unified IT platform was developed that provided a cutting-edge logistical advantage and enabled cross selling of tests across this now Europe-wide network of food and environment testing laboratories.
Despite its rapid growth, Eurofins retained a start-up’s passion for innovation and ground-breaking science by structuring its laboratories as independent companies, led by entrepreneurs, including many centres of excellence, leading their industry globally in R&D, in their area of testing, nurturing top scientific talent and funding research.
Breaking into New Markets and Becoming a Global Reference (2005 - 2008)
Having established the building blocks to support the growth of the Group, focus turned to starting up and expanding operations in new markets and geographies, including China, Sweden, Norway and Ireland. Eurofins carried out significant investment to establish market-leading positions in its historic countries and optimise its global network of standardised state-of-the-art laboratories, through consolidation, modernisation and construction of laboratories to the highest standards as well as integration of recently acquired companies.
At the same time, significant resources were allocated to efforts to further strengthen Eurofins’ technological capabilities. This focus on technology resulted in many new exciting and cutting edge analytical methods being added to Eurofins’ portfolio. For example, Eurofins was the very first international laboratory group to offer bird flu virus (H5N1) testing in food in 2005. Eurofins has continued to lead the way in rapidly reacting in times of crisis. Later developments included the Animal ID DNA Test – quickly validated as a routine test by Eurofins in the wake of the horsemeat crisis in 2013, making Eurofins one of the first companies able to verify at high throughput the absence of undeclared horsemeat in a wide range of food products. This was preceded by the groundbreaking development of Eurofins TAG in 2001 in response to the mad cow disease (BSE) crisis, allowing, for the very first time, genetic fingerprints to be used to confirm that each package of meat in a supermarket originated from an animal that had been tested free of BSE, with each individual animal matched to one genetic profile.
Rapid growth continued throughout this period, with the Group achieving double digit organic growth in both 2007 and 2008, despite the global financial crisis. By 2008, the Group had grown to over 8,000 staff, and more than 150 laboratories in 29 countries. Its portfolio had grown to over 25,000 analytical methods. Reporting annual sales of EUR 633m in 2008, and expecting to continue to outgrow the market on an annual basis, the Group established its biggest ambition yet, to become a EUR 1bn global company by 2013.
Defying the Global Financial Crisis with Continued Organic Growth (2009 – 2011)
During the recession, effective regulation and the requirement for safe food and water, effective pharmaceutical products and a safe environment did not cease, and Eurofins continued to meet these global needs.
Eurofins’ organic growth remained positive throughout 2009-2011, a period characterised by worldwide economic austerity and ensuing revenue falls for many companies in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007 – 2009.
Continued growth during this period of economic difficulty proved the resilience of the Group’s strategic portfolio focused on life sciences and Testing for Life. The innovative services it had developed focused on specialised, diverse and strong non-cyclical end markets resulted in resilient growth for the Group at a time when many companies globally were continuing to experience severe repercussions of the downturn.
Eurofins continued to move forward towards its goal of becoming a EUR 1bn company by 2013, and by 2011, the Group, now employing over 10,000 staff in more than 150 laboratories across 30 countries, reported that its annual profit had more than doubled to EUR 57m. Having achieved leading positions in most European markets, Eurofins decided to increase its focus on growth in North America.
Becoming a 1bn EUR Business (2012 – 2015)
In 2012, the Group celebrated 15 years since its IPO and this milestone coincided with achieving its ambition of becoming a billion euro annual revenue business, one year before its objective.
Around the same time, the Group achieved a number of new and varied global market leadership positions and continued to grow its international footprint by entering into new markets. Eurofins became the global market leader in discovery pharmacology in 2012, and, around the same time, a global leader in the Japanese genomics testing market and in the food testing market in Brazil. In 2013, Eurofins became the second largest food testing service provider in the U.S.A. The Group also entered the specialty clinical diagnostics market for the first time in July 2014 with the acquisition of ViraCor-IBT, one of the largest independent laboratories servicing the specialty diagnostic market segment and the leader in testing to support organ transplant programmes. This further enhanced the Group’s capabilities in pharmaceutical testing and healthcare services.
Having secured numerous strategic global market leadership positions, at the end of 2012, it was time for Eurofins to set a new ambitious objective, to double in size to EUR 2bn by the end of 2017.
Building the Infrastructure of a Global Leader in Testing for Life (2015 – 2020)
By 2015, the Group, now employing over 22,000 staff in more than 225 laboratories across 39 countries, with a portfolio of over 130,000 analytical methods, announced 2.2bn pro-forma sales, reaching its objective of doubling in size to EUR 2bn, set in 2012, two years earlier than planned (2015 vs 2017).
With the goal of continuously strengthening its leading positions in its chosen end markets, the Group formulated a 5-year growth plan with the objective to double in size again within 5 years and achieve 4bn annual revenues by 2020 through a mix of organic growth and acquisitions. An operational goal was also set to develop the laboratory and IT infrastructure of a global leader in Testing for Life by 2020. This included investing in building very large (hub) laboratories to carry out complex assays and a significant number of satellite (spoke) laboratories to perform time critical analyses in most of its markets in North America and Europe. Eurofins also embarked on large IT solutions development programmes, using the latest technologies to conceive and build the IT systems required to efficiently run this unique global laboratory platform and share work across sites to generate value for its clients from the massive amount of data Eurofins laboratories generate every day.
2017 - 2018 was a period of exceptional M&A activity. Eurofins completed c. 60 acquisitions in 2017 and c. 50 acquisitions in 2018. This rapid growth enabled Eurofins to reach its target and become a EUR 4bn company once again two years earlier than planned (with pro forma sales of 4.2bn in 2018). At the same time, Eurofins became the market leader in food and environment testing in North America.
Today Eurofins believes it is the global leader in food, environmental, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products testing and in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, CDMO, advanced material sciences and in the support of clinical studies, as well as in esoteric speciality and molecular clinical testing services.
Looking to the Future (2023 and beyond)
In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, within just two months Eurofins laboratories developed a complete range of PCR tests to detect SARS-CoV-2 and serology tests to detect antibodies, as well as multiple programmes to support the biopharmaceutical industry in the development of new vaccines, drugs and medical products to fight the virus.
By 2022, the Group has grown to over 61,000 staff across a network of ca. 900 laboratories in 61 countries, offering a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods. Having now completed the building of a best-in-class global laboratory infrastructure and having achieved significant global scale as a result of its massive 2015-2020 expansion programme, Eurofins is now planning to leverage its unique position in a new phase of its development, with a particular focus on operational excellence and innovation.
Beyond 2022, thanks to the unique and best in class laboratory infrastructure established in Europe and North America and technological portfolio developed during previous years, Eurofins is looking to the future. The Group will focus on expansion of the network, with a focus on Asia and Latin America, through R&D based growth and organic expansion, and investment in innovation, digitalisation and advanced technologies.
Thanks to the very large investments in laboratories, state-of-the-art testing equipment and bespoke IT solutions carried out until know, and with further focus on R&D, Eurofins intends to continue to set standards in service and innovation in Testing for Life.
