Business units Audited

The Bioscience business unit – which provides products and services to support life science research – continued to grow in line with the market, reporting an organic increase of 2.0% to sales of € 455 million in 2012 (2011: € 421 million). Growth was driven by Asian and Latin American markets offsetting softer conditions in North America and Europe. On a product level, reagents and kits were the main growth contributors, as well as newly launched products, including Muse™, a closed system of instrument and consumables providing quantitative information on cell health, cell death and cell cycle at the individual cell level. Also launched was the Direct Detect™ system that increases the simplicity and reliability of quantitative protein and peptide analysis. To strengthen the cell biology platform, the division acquired CellASIC in October 2012, a company offering a system allowing in-depth studies of living cells. In August 2011, the acquisition of Amnis extended the business units offering of cell imaging solutions.

The Lab Solutions business unit generated € 1,097 million in sales (2011: € 1,006 million). This performance reflects an organic growth of 3.1% as a result of solid demand for laboratory water products and biomonitoring solutions primarily used for sample preparation and analytical purposes, respectively. Geographically, all regions contributed to organic growth with the Emerging Markets being the strongest growth contributor. Lab Solutions’ reported sales also saw a 3.1% growth impetus from acquisitions, primarily Heipha and Hycon in March 2011.

Sales of the Process Solutions business unit totaled € 1,046 million in 2012 (2011: € 956 million). This represents an organic growth of 5.3% driven by double-digit growth rates in Emerging Markets and Rest of World countries in addition to a solid mid-single digit growth rate in Europe. Organic sales growth in North America was slightly negative; however, adjusted for the above mentioned non-renewal of a supply contract for insulin, organic growth for the total business unit was in the high mid-single digit area. The business mainly benefited from higher volumes of biologically manufactured drugs, seeing strong demand for biosafety solutions, process systems hardware and single-use manufacturing technologies. In November 2012, the business unit’s product portfolio in the area of cell culture media was strengthened with the takeover of Biochrom.