Food safety firm Neogen reports net income up 30%

Revenues rose 23 percent to $172,683,000, up from $140,509,000 in the company’s previous fiscal year.

Lon Bohannon, Neogen’s president and chief operating officer, told FoodProductionDaily.com: “Our Food Safety group finished off a very strong year with overall sales growth of 12 per cent. ​

“Even more gratifying was the fact that this growth was broad-based across multiple market segments and product lines. All six operating divisions in Food Safety achieved sales increases ranging from 2 per cent to 38 per cent compared with the prior year. In terms of product lines, food allergens led the way in fiscal year 2011 with overall growth of 45 per cent. ​

E.coli, salmonella and listeria​

“Our Reveal product line to detect specific pathogens such as E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria as well as our Soleris test systems to detect spoilage organisms such as yeast and mold were both up 15% for the year.” ​

Recent third party market reports indicate the global food safety markets are growing at more than 10 percent per year.

The company’s Food Safety Division markets dehydrated culture media and diagnostic test kits to detect food borne bacteria, mycotoxins, other natural toxins, genetic modifications, food allergens, drug residues, plant diseases and sanitation concerns.

Its Animal Safety Division markets diagnostic products plus veterinary instruments, veterinary pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, disinfectants and rodenticides.

Meanwhile, Neogen's Life Sciences Division produces drug detection assays while its GeneSeek division is dedicated to speeding genetic improvement efforts and identifying economically important diseases inside the farm gate.

Revenue performance was driven by international sales which were up 30 percent for the year accounting for 42 percent of total revenues.

Mycotoxins​

“Neogen Europe continues to lead the charge in growing international sales achieving another year of outstanding growth with an overall sales increase of 27 percent,” ​said Bohannon. “Sales were up across a number of product lines - allergens, dehydrated culture media, soleris, mycotoxins - in the UK, France, Scandinavia and China. Distributors serving other EU countries and managed by our Neogen Europe operation also experienced an exceptional year with sales growth of 34 percent​.”

James Herbert, Neogen’s chief executive officer and chairman, added: “The results we are reporting clearly indicate Neogen is capturing a piece of the growing global demand for food and animal safety products.​

“Neogen is uniquely positioned to continue to seize food and animal safety opportunities wherever in the world they may exist from farms, ranches and aquaculture operations, through food processing and food service.”​​

Looking ahead, Bohannon said that the company planned to seek opportunities in new markets and allocate more resources to those markets that have the fastest growth.

Research and development also remained a priority. Last week, Neogen announced that it planned to prioritise the development of diagnostic tools to detect E. coli​ strains not just in ground beef but in other products including fresh fruits and vegetables.