Company Announcements

JEOL’s Scientific Instrument sales for the year ended March 31 declined 39.3% to ¥39,090 million ($341.0 million) (see IBO 9/15/08), as strong sales of transmission electron microscopes were offset by declining sales of X-ray fluorescence systems. Industrial Equipment sales rose 46.5% to ¥54,799 million ($479.8 million), led by sales of scanning electron microscopes.

For the year ended March 31, Oxford Instrument sales rose 9.2% to £176.5 million ($353.0 million), or 11.6% in constant currencies (see IBO 6/15/08). Acquisitions added £6.9 million ($13.8 million) to sales. Sales from Analytical Businesses increased 14.9% to £115.7 million ($231.4 million). Sales from Superconductivity Businesses were flat at £60.8 million ($121.6 million). North American sales were flat and accounted for 31% of total sales. Continental European sales grew 6.5% to 25% of revenues. Asian sales, excluding Japan, rose 27.6% to 18% of revenues. Chinese sales grew 32.4%. During the year, Oxford Instruments Innovation was disbanded, and the NanoScience business rationalized product lines and changed management.

Quantum Analytics and LEAP Technologies announced a comarketing partnership for front-end automation for leased chromatography and MS systems.

Genetix’s half-year sales rose 19.2% to £12.4 million ($24.3 million) (see IBO 8/31/08). Sales of cell biology products increased 26.9% to £3.3 million ($6.5 million). Clinical instrument sales increased 34.4% to £4.3 million ($8.4 million). Revenues from consumables and services grew 15.4% to £3.0 million ($5.9 million). Sales of genomics-based instruments stabilized. The US, Europe and the Rest of World accounted for 44%, 39% and 17% of sales and rose 4%, 22% and 69%, respectively.

Half-year revenues for Spectris’s Materials Analysis segment increased 14.2%, 8% on a constant currency basis, to £115.6 million ($226.7 million) (see IBO 8/31/08). Sales to the mining and pharmaceutical markets were strong. R&D increased nearly 40%.

MDS Analytical Technologies’ sales for the fiscal third quarter ended July 31 declined 8.8% to $104 million due to lower MS shipments. Segment product revenue fell 11.7% to $83 million, and service revenue rose 5% to $21 million. End-user revenue for MS grew 5%. Sales of drug discovery products declined due to lower sales of high-end instruments in North America.

In September, Millipore announced plans to close three manufacturing sites and one service center by 2010 in an effort to consolidate manufacturing. The company expects to incur related charges of $25–$30 million and to eventually generate annual savings of $11–$15 million.

Product Introductions

Thermo Fisher Scientific launched an Automated Phosphopeptide Workflow, combining the Pierce Phosphopeptide Enrichment Kit, the Kingfisher Flex magnetic bead purification system and the LTQ Orbitrap XL ETD hybrid MS.