Harvard Bioscience* is a global developer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of specialized products, primarily apparatus and scientific instruments, used to advance life science research and regenerative medicine. We sell our products to thousands of researchers in over 100 countries, primarily through our 850 page catalog (and various other specialty catalogs), our websites, through distributors, including GE Healthcare, Thermo Fisher Scientific and VWR, and via our field sales organization. We have sales and manufacturing operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain with additional facilities in France and Canada.
Our goal is to become a leading provider of tools for life science research and regenerative medicine. We refer to these two segments as our core Life Science Research Tools division ("LSRT") and our Regenerative Medicine Device division ("RMD").
Our LSRT strategy is to have a broad range of highly specialized but relatively inexpensive products that have strong positions in niche markets in life science research:
- We believe that having a broad product line reduces the risk of being dependent on a single technology;
- We believe that having relatively inexpensive products reduces the volatility associated with expensive capital equipment;
- We believe our well established products, brands and distribution channels provide strong barriers to entry; and
- We believe focusing on niche markets reduces head-to-head competition with the major instrument companies.
We seek to grow this range of products through a combination of organic growth driven by internal development of new products, direct marketing, distribution channel expansion and the acquisition of closely related products. We use acquisitions to expand our product offerings because we believe we can use our well-established brands and distribution channels to accelerate the growth of these acquired products. We also believe that our expertise in operational management frequently allows us to improve profitability at acquired companies.
Our products are typically highly specialized for particular research applications in molecular, cellular, behavioral and physiology research. Our products are typically well-established in fairly mature markets.
Our brands are typically well-established names that convey quality, consistency and reassurance to scientists concerned about getting the highest quality data from their research. Our brands are often leaders in their niches. These brands include: Harvard Apparatus, Biochrom, Hoefer, Panlab, Warner Instruments, KD Scientific, Hugo Sachs Elektronik, Scie-Plas, BTX, and Denville Scientific.
Our distribution channels are as well-established as our brands and are intended to give us broad access to scientists across the globe.
Our RMD strategy is to leverage our existing technologies to provide tools to researchers and clinicians in the emerging field of regenerative medicine.
The growth in our continuing operations has been driven by a combination of organic growth and the acquisition of closely related product lines. The execution of this strategy has grown our revenue from continuing operations from $11.5 million in 1997 to $108.2 million in 2010, a CAGR of 19%. We believe we can continue to implement this strategy and achieve high levels of both growth and profitability.
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