History
The origins of Intertek can be traced back to three businesses: a marine surveying business formed by Caleb Brett in the 1890s, a testing laboratory formed by Milton Hersey in Montreal in 1888, and a lamp testing centre established by Thomas Edison in 1896. [4] These businesses were all acquired by the multidisciplinary services firm Inchcape plc during the 1980s and early 1990s. [4]
During November 1996, Inchcape Testing Services was acquired by the private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners in exchange for £380 million; it was promptly renamed Intertek. [4] [5] By this point, the company was heavily involved with numerous governments and other authorities around this world, in America alone, agencies of the US government collectively paid Intertek $35.7 million in exchange for roughly 250,000 tests that were performed between 1994 and 1997. [6] [7] During the late 1990s, Intertek was the only American-based registrar for BS 7750. [8]
During September 2000, Intertek's American subsidiary was reported to have allegedly been involved in the falsification of test data that had impacted multiple US government agencies; U.S. Department of Justice brought criminal charges against 13 former employees of the firm for their role in the scandal. [6] The news led to a planned floatation of the company being postponed. Richard Nelson, Intertek's chairman and chief executive, announced that the labs that carried out the work had been closed down and that the firm had reprocessed the relevant data. [6] [9] Almost two year later, new plans were announced for the company to be floated on the London Stock Exchange; at the time of the announcement, the company had 10,300 employees and operated in 99 countries through 149. [5] [7]
In June 2004, Intertek's ETL SEMKO division acquired the automotive part tester Entela Inc. [10] On 19 September 2007, the firm announced its acquisition of National Software Testing Laboratories; [11] that same year, it also acquired the analytical R&D lab Quantitative Technologies Inc. [12]
In 2010, Intertek acquired Ciba Expert Services’ Environmental, Safety, & Testing and Regulatory businesses, which included Cantox Health Sciences (Cantox) and Ashuren Health Sciences (Ashuren); [13] separately, it also bought Pacifica Marine. [14] One year later, the firm purchased Labs & Testing S.A. (L&T). [15]
During April 2011, the company acquired the technical services specialist Moody International in exchange for £450 million. [16] [17] [18] In the early 2010s, both the energy and agriculture sectors were major sources of growth for the firm; in particular, Intertek benefitted from the enactment of more stringent regulations in the wake of the 2013 horse meat scandal through its involvement in food testing, although this sector only reportedly accounted for 2.5 percent of its total revenue at the time. [19] [20] Accordingly, during early 2013, Intertek recorded record profits accompanied by a 22 per cent dividend hike. [21]
During 2015, in the aftermath of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, the firm experienced an increase in testing work within the automotive sector. [22] [23] Other beneficial trends for Intertek in the mid 2010s included greater public interest in sustainability, [24] and the weakening value of the pound sterling. [25] During the late 2010s, the firm focused upon increasing its operating margins and organic growth. [26]
In May 2021, Intertek acquired SAI Global's Assurance and Standards Business units. [27] Two years later, the firm allegedly dismissed a whole team of ex-SAI Global executives over auditing failures. [28]
Operations
Intertek Consumer Goods and Retail is the largest tester of consumer goods in the world and has a network of more than 1,000 laboratories across around 100 countries. [29]
The company has more than 44,000 employees across 100 countries in over 1,000 locations including large-scaled offices and testing facilities in New York City, London and Hong Kong. [3] Centered around its laboratory testing services, the company provides quality and safety assurance to industries such as construction, healthcare, food and transport. Products tested include batteries, accessories, apparel and chemicals. [30]
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£3,328.7 million (2023) [2] 
