 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Instrumentation |
| Founded | 1915 |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Key people | Mark Williamson, Chairman Andrew Heath, CEO |
| Revenue |  £1,449.2 million (2023) [1] |
| £188.6 million (2023) [1] | |
 £145.4 million (2023) [1] | |
Number of employees | 7,600 (2024) [2] |
| Subsidiaries | Brüel & Kjær |
| Website | www.spectris.com |
Spectris plc is a supplier of precision instrumentation and controls. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
The company was founded by Richard Fairey in 1915, as the Fairey Aviation Company with the objective of manufacturing seaplanes. [3] In 1980 the business was acquired by Pearson from which it was the subject of a management buy-out in 1987. [3] It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1988. [3] In the 1990s the Company focused on electronics selling its electrical insulator and hydraulic actuator businesses. [3]
In 1997 it acquired Burnfield, a measuring instruments manufacturer, and in 1999 it bought Servomex, an industrial instruments manufacturer. [3] In 2000 it bought four instrumentation businesses from Spectris A.G. of Germany and then in 2001 changed its name to Spectris plc. [3] In 2002 it bought the Philips Analytical business. [4] In 2011, Spectris bought Omega Engineering for $475 million. [5]
In December 2012 it sold Fusion UV to Heraeus Holding, GmbH. for US$172 million in cash, using the proceeds to pay down debt. [6] In 2014 it acquired ESG Solutions, an industry leader and pioneer in microseismic technology and services for the oil and gas, mining and geotechnical industries. [7]
In January 2018, Spectris Group acquired Concept Life Sciences from the private equity firm Equistone Partners for £163m. [8] In April 2018, Spectris acquired Revolutionary Engineering from company management for US$19m on a debt and cash-free basis and merged the company into the Spectris owned subsidiary, Millbrook Proving Ground . [9] In July 2018, Spectris acquired the leading provider of turnkey solutions, VI-Grade for an undisclosed sum. [10] It joined Spectris as an independent company; however, following changes in the business merged with Spectris owned HBK in February 2020. [11]
In July 2018, Andrew Heath was announced as the new CEO of Spectris following the retirement of John O’Higgins. O'Higgins served as CEO of Spectris for 12 years. Heath formally joined Spectris as the CEO in September 2018. [12]
In September 2019 it announced the divestment of BTG to Voith for total gross cash consideration of €319 million (£283 million). [13]
In January 2020, Spectris announcement the divestment of EMS Brüel & Kjær, a joint venture with Macquarie Corporate Holdings Pty Limited. Spectris and Macquarie Corporate Holdings Pty Limited divested EMS Brüel & Kjær to Envirosuite Limited, an environmental management technology company. Spectris received AUD35 million cash, less repayment of EMS B&K's debt facility on completion, and 10 million shares in Envirosuit in consideration. [14]
In November 2020, it was announced that HBK subsidiary, VI-grade would acquire Imtec Engineering for an undisclosed sum. [15] Further to acquisition of IMTEC Engineering, the traffic simulation and sensor simulation company, RightHook, was acquired and merged into VI-grade in November 2020 for an undisclosed sum. [16]
Spectris announced in December 2020 that Millbrook Proving Ground would be divested from the Spectris portfolio of companies and acquired by UTAC CERAM for £133 million. [17] The divestment was completed on the 2 February 2021. [18]
In December 2020 it was announced that B&K Vibro, another Spectris company, would be acquired by NSK Group for £163 million in cash. [17]
In April 2021, Spectris announced the acquisition of the real-time operating system developer and manufacturer Concurrent Real Time from Battery Ventures, a Boston-based PE firm, for a purchase consideration of $166.7 million (£121.2 million) in cash. [19] Spectris also announced the divestment of ESG Solutions from its Industrial Solutions Division for $4 million to SCF Partners to be merged into their existing company Deep Imaging Technologies, Inc. [20] Following this, on the 24 August 2021, the divestment of NDC Technologies was confirmed. NDC was acquired by Nordson Corporation from Spectris for $180 million. [21]
Spectris announced on 11 January 2022 that the specialist bioanalysis sensor company, Creoptix, had been acquired by Malvern Panalytical for an undisclosed sum. Creoptix would be integrated into Malvern Panalytical throughout the first half of 2022. [22] In April the Spectris operating company, Red Lion Controls, announced that they have acquired MB Connect Line for an undisclosed figure. [23]
On the 19 April 2022, Spectris announced its intention to divest Omega Engineering to the Dwyer Group, an Arcline portfolio company, for $525 million subject to regulatory approval. [24] In addition, Spectris announced a share buyback programme of up to £300 million, with an initial tranche of £150 million followed by a further £150 million subject to approval by shareholders. [25]
In May 2022, it was announced Spectris had acquired the California-based designer and manufacturer of piezo-electric accelerometers and dynamic force sensors, Dytran Instruments for £66 million. [26]
The company is organised as follows: [27]
ABB Ltd. is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Västerås, Sweden, and Zürich, Switzerland. It is traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zürich, the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Sweden and the OTC Markets Group's pink sheets in the United States. It was ranked 340th in the Fortune Global 500 list of 2020 and has been a global Fortune 500 company for 24 years.
Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A Fortune Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $64.1 billion in 2023. Accenture's current clients include 91 of the Fortune Global 100 and more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500. As of 2022, Accenture is considered the largest consulting firm in the world by number of employees.
GE HealthCare Technologies, Inc., doing business as GE HealthCare, is an American multinational medical technology company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It was spun-off from General Electric on January 4, 2023, with GE retaining 13.5%. As of 2017, it is a manufacturer and distributor of diagnostic imaging agents and radiopharmaceuticals for imaging modalities used in medical imaging procedures. It offers dyes used in magnetic-resonance-imaging procedures; manufactures medical diagnostic equipment, including CT image machines; MRI, XRAY; Ultrasound; Cath Labs; Mammogram; Nuclear Medicine Cameras; and develops Health technology for medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. It was incorporated in 1994 and operates in more than 100 countries.
Boston Scientific Corporation ("BSC"), incorporated in Delaware, is a biomedical/biotechnology engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices used in interventional medical specialties, including interventional radiology, interventional cardiology, peripheral interventions, neuromodulation, neurovascular intervention, electrophysiology, cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, endoscopy, oncology, urology and gynecology. Boston Scientific is widely known for the development of the Taxus Stent, a drug-eluting stent which is used to open clogged arteries. With the full acquisition of Cameron Health in June 2012, the company also became notable for offering a minimally invasive implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) which they call the EMBLEM subcutaneous implantable defibrillator (S-ICD).
Collins Aerospace is an American technology company that is one of the world's largest suppliers of aerospace and defense products. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, it is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation.
Motorola Solutions, Inc. is an American video equipment, telecommunications equipment, software, systems and services provider that succeeded Motorola, Inc., following the spinoff of the mobile phone division into Motorola Mobility in 2011. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Sanmina Corporation is an American electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider headquartered in San Jose, California that serves original equipment manufacturers in communications and computer hardware fields. The firm has nearly 80 manufacturing sites, and is one of the world’s largest independent manufacturers of printed circuit boards and backplanes. As of 2022, it is ranked number 482 in the Fortune 500 list.
Clariant AG is a Swiss multinational speciality chemical company, formed in 1995 as a spin-off from Sandoz. Headquartered in Muttenz, Switzerland, the public company encompasses 74 subsidiaries in 36 countries (2022). Major manufacturing sites are located in Europe, North America, South America, China, and India. In 2022, sales from continuing operations were 5.198 billion CHF.
AVEVA Group plc is a British multinational information technology consulting company headquartered in Cambridge, England. The company started as the Computer-Aided Design Centre which was created in Cambridge in 1967 by the UK Ministry of Technology and Cambridge University.
Endo International plc is an American Irish-domiciled generics and specialty branded pharmaceutical company that generated over 93% of its 2017 sales from the U.S. healthcare system. While Endo's management, operations, and customers are almost exclusively U.S.–based, in 2013 Endo executed a corporate tax inversion to Ireland to avoid U.S. corporate taxes on their U.S. drug sales, and to avail of Ireland's corporate tax system.
Millbrook Proving Ground is an English vehicle testing centre located at Millbrook, Bedfordshire. One of the largest vehicle testing centres in Europe, it is near to the M1 and Bedford.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American supplier of analytical instruments, life sciences solutions, specialty diagnostics, laboratory, pharmaceutical and biotechnology services. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Thermo Fisher was formed through the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific in 2006. Thermo Fisher Scientific has acquired other reagent, consumable, instrumentation, and service providers, including Life Technologies Corporation (2013), Alfa Aesar (2015), Affymetrix (2016), FEI Company (2016), BD Advanced Bioprocessing (2018), and PPD (2021).
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, more commonly known as Labcorp, is an American healthcare company headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina. It operates one of the largest clinical laboratory networks in the world, with a United States network of 36 primary laboratories. Before a merger with National Health Laboratory in 1995, the company operated under the name Roche BioMedical. Labcorp performs its largest volume of specialty testing at its Center for Esoteric Testing in Burlington, North Carolina, where the company is headquartered. As of 2018, Labcorp processes 2.5 million lab tests weekly.
Thoma Bravo, LP, is an American private equity and growth capital firm based in Chicago. It is known for being particularly active in acquiring enterprise software companies and has over $130 billion in assets under management as of 2023.
Brüel & Kjær is a Danish multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Nærum, near Copenhagen. It was the largest producer in the world of equipment for acoustic and vibrational measurements. Brüel & Kjær is a subsidiary of Spectris.
Malvern Panalytical is a Spectris plc company. The company is a manufacturer and supplier of laboratory analytical instruments. It has been influential in the development of the Malvern Correlator, and it remains notable for its work in the advancement of particle sizing technology. The company produces technology for materials analysis and principal instruments designed to measure the size, shape and charge of particles. Additional areas of development include equipment for rheology measurements, chemical imaging and chromatography. In 2017, they merged with PANalytical to form Malvern Panalytical Ltd.
Enovis is a medical technology company with a focus in orthopedics. The company was founded by brothers Mitchell and Steven Rales as the Colfax Corporation in 1995. Enovis is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and is listed on the NYSE as ENOV. The company has over 5,000 employees operating at 12 sites around the world.
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is an American private equity firm based in Menlo Park, California. Its Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer is William Chisholm who co-founded the firm with Bryan Taylor and Dr. Romesh Wadhwani in 2002.
OMEGA Engineering is an American instrumentation company headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, with its main factory in Bridgeport, New Jersey.
Maxar Technologies Inc. is a space technology company headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, United States, specializing in manufacturing communication, Earth observation, radar, and on-orbit servicing satellites, satellite products, and related services. DigitalGlobe and MDA Holdings Company merged to become Maxar Technologies on October 5, 2017.