Sartorius reaps rewards from Asian boom
pharmafile | February 15, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Â
German lab and processing equipment group Sartorius reported a bumper year in 2010, with revenues up nearly 10% on the back of strong uptake for its products in the Asia-Pacific region.
Group sales came in at 659 million euros ($889 million), while operating earnings rose more than 40% to 86 million euros thanks largely to the high profitability of Sartorius biotechnology division Sartorius Stedim Biotech, which makes equipment used in biopharmaceutical production.
Asia-Pacific was once again the company’s key growth driver, with biotechnology sales there surging more than 25% to 400 million euros – and order intake rising by around 52% – on the back of investment by the fast-growing regional drug industry in the installation of new systems.
Recent figures from IMS Health suggest that the drug markets in Asia-Pacific market will grow by more than 15% this year, headed by China which will expand more than 25% to $50 billion, consolidating its position as the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical market.
Meanwhile, Sartorius Stedim Biotech has also benefitted from its investment in the development of disposable production equipment.
“The company’s business with single-use products for the biopharmaceutical industry substantially fuelled this growth”, said the company in a statement. “Bioreactors and other biotechnological production systems also added positive momentum”, it added.
North America also made a positive contribution to the company’s biotechnology business with sales rising around 12%. The European business was flat, but suffered by comparison with buoyant 2009 figures which resulted from a high investment in production of pandemic flu vaccine production in that year.
Meanwhile, Sartorius’ mechatronics division, which produces laboratory equipment and weighing machines used in manufacturing, also had a good year with sales revenue up 12% to 227 million euros, orders up 16% over 2009 and a 20-fold increase in operating profit to 15 million euros.
As for 2011, Sartorius said it expects sales to grow 6% to 8% for both its divisions and profit to rise 14%.
Phil Taylor
