About LGC
Financial results
Financial highlights 2008-2009
LGC Group Holdings Limited reported a significant increase in
turnover and profitability during the year. Turnover increased to
£119.6m (2008 - £101.5m) and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation) before exceptional items increased
to £19.9m (2008 - £11.3m), reflecting a good performance across
most operating units. The principal growth drivers were strong
sales of our reference materials and proficiency testing schemes
both in the UK and overseas, increased demand for forensic casework
and DNA analysis and growth in the Group’s external scientific
programme management activities for UK government.
Acquisitions and investment
Acquisitions have been an important driver of
LGC’s growth since privatisation in 1996 and continue to be a
significant element of LGC’s growth strategy. In 2008-09 LGC
acquired Focus Forensic Telecommunications (Focus) and Kalagate,
two of the UK’s leading e-forensic companies. These acquisitions
added to our existing and rapidly expanding Digital and Document
Forensics business unit to form one of the largest and most capable
teams in the field of e-forensics.
In the UK, we enhanced our forensics service
with the opening of our new fully automated PACE (Police and
Criminal Evidence) DNA platform at our forensic laboratory in
Runcorn, Cheshire. We also invested in a Next Generation sequence
for our AGOWA genomics business in Germany. We continue to maintain
our commitment to delivering continuous improvement in our
scientific equipment and the efficiency of our operations and the
latter is supported by the upgrade of our IT infrastructure. We
also began to implement our new Group-wide ERP system ‘Sherpa’ and
we are at an advanced stage in our planning for the implementation
of our new Laboratory Information Management System.
Locations
LGC continued to expand internationally and
opened offices in Beijing, China and Istanbul, Turkey as well as a
new BSE testing laboratory in Exeter, England.
Highlights of the past year include:
- LGC won new contracts as part of the UK’s
SW/NW/Wales forensics tender, reflecting the high quality,
cost-effective services we provide.
- LGC was awarded a five-year extension to our
contract to manage the Department of Health’s Central Commissioning
Facility for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
This recognises LGC’s 12-year track record in delivering public
sector research programmes.
- In LGC’s Food quality area, we undertook
important work in relation to food safety issues over melamine in
milk, dioxin in pork and Sudan I dye.
- LGC opened a new BSE (bovine spongiform
encephalopathy) laboratory in Exeter, UK to enhance our
services to customers in the South West of England.
- LGC opened an office in Beijing, China,
offering our whole range of proficiency testing schemes including
custom-designed schemes, as well as our portfolio of over 50,000
reference materials.
- The opening of our representative office in
Istanbul, Turkey, further strengthens our position in Europe.
- Our new fully automated PACE (Police and
Criminal Evidence) DNA platform in our forensic laboratory in
Runcorn, Cheshire, was opened in April 2008 and doubles our
capacity to analyse PACE DNA samples. We can now analyse over half
of the UK requirement for PACE DNA samples for use connection
with the National DNA Database.
- In Germany, we invested in a new Next
Generation sequencer that will allow us to extend further the
services we offer to our growing genomics customer base from our
AGOWA genomics business in
Berlin.
- We acquired Focus Forensic Telecommunications
(Focus) and Kalagate, two of the UK’s leading e-forensic
companies.
- LGC received the Order of Distinction from
the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) for the
third consecutive year. This also follows many consecutive years of
RoSPA Gold, Gold Medal and Presidents Awards.
Download
Report and Accounts 2009 (467 kb)
Download
Annual Review 2009 (3,848 kb)