In a year destabilized by capital constraints, lower R&D spending and order delays, a new leader emerged as the largest provider of analytical and life science instruments and aftermarket products, based on IBO’s annual calculation. Life Technologies, which resulted from the merger between Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems (see IBO 6/15/08), further expanded its leadership in the life science tools market to attain the premier position among 2009’s list of top 30 analytical and life science instrument companies. However, Life Technologies’ supremacy may be short lived following the sale of its joint-venture MS business to Danaher (see IBO 9/15/09), Agilent’s pending acquisition of Varian (see IBO 7/31/09), and Thermo Fisher Scientific’s positive revenue growth outlook for 2010 (see IBO 2/28/10).

Given 2009’s tough economic environment, total calendar-year analytical and life science instruments and aftermarket sales of the top 30 companies declined 2.9% to $25.8 billion to account for approximately 70% of the total instrument market (see IBO 1/15/10). In reported currency, total sales for the top 30 companies fell roughly 4%.

IBO’s calculations of the top 30 companies’ total revenues include analytical and life science instruments and related aftermarket sales in US currency for calendar-year 2009. For each company, only sales of instruments and aftermarket products that fall into one of nine instrument categories, as defined by IBO’s annual forecast issue (see IBO 1/15/10) are counted. These nine instrument categories are: atomic spectroscopy; general analytical techniques; laboratory automation; life science techniques; MS; materials characterization; molecular spectroscopy; separations; and surface science.

The merger between Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen caused numerous shifts among the ranking of the top 30 companies in 2009, compared to 2008’s ranking. In fact, for the first time in several years, the order of the top 10 companies was reshuffled. Thermo relinquished its number one position, which it has held since 2007, slipping into the number two spot due to lower sales of analytical instruments primarily for environmental and process control in the industrial markets.

Becton Dickinson moved up one place to fill the number nine spot vacated by Invitrogen, and Sigma-Aldrich climbed two positions to number 10. In addition, Shimadzu and PerkinElmer, as well as Bruker and GE, exchanged positions. All four companies were negatively impacted by lower spending by industrial end-markets. However, the decline in revenue growth for Shimadzu was partially offset by the conversion to US dollars, while Bruker minimized its revenue loss due to strong global stimulus spending for high-end research systems, including NMR and X-Ray systems. In total, the top 10 companies accounted for 59% of the top 30 companies’ revenues.

The other companies, 11 through 30, experienced a more dramatic rearrangement due to changes in revenue growth, which varied by product category, geographic area and end-market segment. The most notable change was Illumina, which climbed seven spots to number 13 due to strong demand for sequencing instrumentation. Roche experienced a similar leap to the number 15 position, following strong sales of microarrays, DNA sequencing reagents and nucleic acid sample preparation products. Other notable changes in ranking due to positive revenue growth included QIAGEN, which scaled three spots to number 14 due to robust sales of lab automation products. Abating revenues also triggered significant changes in the rankings of the top 30 companies. Hitachi High-Technologies fell six positions to number 21, despite the favorable currency conversion, and Varian declined five spots to number 16 due to purchase delays related to the recession and the pending acquisition by Agilent. Nikon dropped four places to number 29 due to industrial instrument–related sales and revised estimates of the company’s instrument sales by IBO. In reported currency, Nikon sales slumped 18%.

As expected, those companies that recorded the largest changes in ranking were also among the top five fastest-growing companies in 2009’s top 30. Roche, Illumina and QIAGEN topped the list of the five fastest-growing analytical and life science instrument companies, with revenue growth of 18.3%, 17.6% and 11.0%, respectively. The fourth fastest-growing company in 2009 was Life Technologies, which reported strong sales of genomic assays and PCR systems. The company’s total analytical and life science instrument and aftermarket-related revenue grew 6.4%. Rounding off the list of the five fastest-growing companies was Affymetrix, with revenue growth of 1.6%. Affymetrix benefited from demand for RNA and DNA consumables, and microarrays. The top five fastest-growing companies were all part of the life science instrumentation market, which sustained significant growth despite the global economic downturn, especially for sequencing, nucleic acid amplification and microarray products. Only two other companies in the top 30, JEOL and Bio-Rad Laboratories, managed to record positive revenue growth for 2009, climbing 0.9% each.

The five slowest-growing companies in 2009 among the top 30 were led by Varian and MDS Analytical Technologies, which showed sales declines of 17.8% and 17.2%, respectively, due in part to pending acquisitions. Revenue for the remaining three slowest-growing companies, Spectris, Mettler-Toledo and Hitachi High-Technologies, fell 16.3%, 11.4% and 10.6%, respectively. Hitachi High-Technologies recorded slow semiconductor-related sales, while Mettler struggled with lower demand for lab instruments. Spectris was negatively impacted by the conversion rate to US dollars. In local currency, revenues for Spectris, whose instrument companies include Malvern and PANalytical, declined 2.2%.

In total, there were 25 changes in the 2009 rankings, including the addition of Eppendorf, which debuted at number 24 following revised estimates of the company’s instrument and aftermarket sales by IBO. On a regional basis, North American companies accounted for 70% of the top 30’s revenues last year. European and Asia-Pacific companies accounted for 18% and 12% of sales, respectively.

The Top 30 Analytical and Life Science

Instrument Companies of 2009

Rank Company CY Rev. ($B)

1 Life Technologies 2.98

2 Thermo Fisher Scientific 2.63

3 Agilent Technologies 2.10

4 Waters 1.50

5 Shimadzu 1.17

6 PerkinElmer 1.15

7 Bruker 1.06

8 GE 1.04

9 Becton Dickinson 0.95

10 Sigma-Aldrich 0.84

11 Danaher 0.72

12 Beckman Coulter 0.68

13 Illumina 0.67

14 QIAGEN 0.66

15 Roche 0.65

16 Varian 0.63

17 Merck KGaA 0.62

18 Mettler-Toledo 0.59

19 JEOL 0.58

20 Bio-Rad Laboratories 0.56

21 Hitachi High-Technologies 0.55

22 Olympus 0.49

23 Carl Zeiss 0.49

24 Eppendorf 0.39

25 Dionex 0.39

26 Spectris 0.39

27 Tecan 0.36

28 MDS 0.36

29 Nikon 0.34

30 Affymetrix 0.33