Revenues for the group increased by 20% year-on-year to €270m during the period. "Growth in food testing remained solid as Eurofins leverages its leading position and technological edge to further expand its share in core markets and enter new, fast-growing geographies (e.g. Chile)," said the firm in a statement.
In France, the impact of the strategic restructuring and reorganization of IPL Ile de France was partly offset by strong organic growth in food, and all environmental, testing, reported Eurofins. IPL, which is based in Les Ulis, France, is a laboratory specialising in waste water testing, including analysis of whether it is safe to drink.
Eurofins said its largest markets, US and Germany (24% and 17% of group revenues respectively), both achieved double-digit organic growth, as did the UK (6% of group revenues) across the quarter, driven by market share gains.
Activities in emerging markets
In addition, the group said activities in emerging markets and the Asia Pacific region had continued to gain ground, and now made up nearly 10% of revenues.
The company made six acquisitions during the first quarter, which it hoped would strengthen its position in existing markets or further expand its footprint into rapid growth areas. These included Dutch food and feed testing outfit Laboratorium Zeeuws Vlaanderen.
"The results achieved in the first quarter show that we are off to a good start," said chief executive Dr Gilles Martin. "Despite a seasonally quiet period and severe weather conditions in Q1 2013, we managed to drive revenues above our objective. This strong performance reinforces our confidence of achieving our revenue objectives of EUR 1.2bn for the full year 2013, and EUR 2bn by 2017."