Business Divisions reflect Positive Performance

Fiscal year 2022 saw global Life Sciences group Eppendorf’s consolidated revenue increase by €1.23 billion  from €1.1 billion a year ago – an increase of 12.1% compared to 13.8% in 2021. Operating profit amounted to €225.6 million against €272 million 12 months earlier. The EBIT margin was 8.3% compared to 24.7%.

Co-CEOs of Eppendorf SE, Eva van Pelt and Dr Peter Fruhstorfer summarised the year as ‘very challenging yet successful’ against factors such as Russia's attack on Ukraine, the energy crisis, supply chain disruption and rising inflation rates in numerous countries. "These challenges were handled in an outstanding manner by the Group's more than 5,000 employees worldwide. They played a major part in making this success possible," added Ms van Pelt, a sentiment echoed by Dr Fruhstorfer.

The Bioprocess business unit generated sales of more than €100 million, with the Separation and Instrumentation division sales up 14.1%, while Liquid Handling grew by 14.0%. Sales in China grew by 27.6%  despite restrictions imposed by corona lockdowns in cities such as Shanghai. The Americas and Asia/Pacific/Africa (APA) regions achieved sales growth of 26.1% and 10.4% respectively. In Europe, hard hit by the Ukraine war, sales declined by 5.7%; this was primarily attributed to a normalisation of customer demand, not unexpected after the Corona-related strong sales years of 2020 and 2021.

"In the past year, we continuously invested in the expansion of our international infrastructure. The focus was on new sales and service locations worldwide, new logistics sites, for example in Singapore and Enfield, USA, as well as the further expansion of our production capacities," said Ms van Pelt.

"With the acquisition of a production site in Wismar, Eppendorf has once again demonstrated its commitment to Germany as a production location. By building a high-tech plant for laboratory consumables, Eppendorf is strengthening one of its core businesses and stabilising strained supply chains through local value creation," explained Dr Fruhstorfer.

A new production site for centrifuges in Shanghai, China, helped to minimise logistics and transport costs, while supporting the company’s target to be climate-neutral by 2028.

Investment of 17.8% to €76 million by Eppendorf into its R&D budget, brought a strong focus on product development and digitalisation; its new sustainable tubes/consumables, made from material derived from organic food industry residues, was noted as a visible success.

Overall Eppendorf remains optimistic for the full year 2023, anticipating a weaker, but overall stable development of demand and expectations of sales growth in the single-digit percentage range.

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