High growth rates in food and water analysis
Total revenues of the Laboratory Business subdivision, which is represented with its own employees in 42 countries worldwide, remained stable in comparison with the previous year. Particularly strong growth was achieved with products for food and water analysis and with products for microbiology. Special mention should be made of the strong increase in the business with manual rapid microbiological tests for detecting harmful and pathogenic microorganisms in foods, such as Salmonella and E. coli bacteria, as well as water quality monitoring tests from the Spectroquant® range.
Good business development with customers in the pharmaceutical as well as food and beverage segments was complemented by growth achieved with customers in the global mining industry. Customers in this segment use tests and reagents from Merck to determine the ore content and purity of mined samples. Sales of test kits and reagents for in-process and final control laboratories to customers in the chemical industry performed well. The business with high-purity solvents developed extremely well in all customer segments.
Innovative rapid tests for water and food
In 2007, Merck launched a series of new products such as Spectroquant® Pharo – new spectrophotometers for food and water testing applications – as well as the instrument-assisted bead-based assays for biomarker detection in pharmaceutical, biotech and academic research. Laboratory Business expanded the range of rapid tests for detection of pathogens, ready-to-use culture media (RTU media) as well as Chromolith® separation columns for chromatography. Innovative packaging solutions were developed for solvents based on eco-friendly plastics as a replacement for glass.
On a regional basis, Laboratory Business performed particularly well in India with high, double-digit sales growth. Double-digit growth was also recorded in central and southeastern Europe.
