Neogen acquires Australian food safety assets

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Mar 02, 2020, 08:45 ET

LANSING, Mich., March 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Neogen Corporation (NASDAQ: NEOG) announced today that it has acquired the food safety assets of Australia-based Cell BioSciences — a major supplier of food safety and industrial microbiology products. Cell BioSciences will continue to operate in its non-food safety markets.

With this asset acquisition, Neogen will now have a direct sales presence across Australasia for its entire portfolio, including food safety, animal safety and animal genomics. The company founded Neogen Australasia, Pty. Ltd., when it acquired The University of Queensland-Animal Genetics Laboratory in September 2017, and has since added animal safety and life science products to its offerings. Neogen will continue to operate Cell BioSciences' food safety business under Neogen's name from Cell BioSciences' existing Melbourne location to ensure excellent customer continuity, as Neogen Australasia looks to centralize its expanding operations in a future location.

"This acquisition completes the Neogen food security trifecta of our genomics, animal safety and food safety businesses under the umbrella of our Neogen Australasia operations," said Dr. Jason Lilly, Neogen's vice president of international business. "Our Australian business has tripled its revenues since our acquisition of the genomics lab in 2017. Adding the ability to directly sell to our food safety customers allows us to promote, market, and sell our Neogen solutions throughout the region, including to the large vertically integrated beef and dairy companies across Australia and New Zealand."

"Cell BioSciences has enjoyed a decade-long partnership with Neogen and has benefited through the sale of highly innovative microbiology products including Soleris and ANSR across Australia," said Joe Cardamone, managing director of Cell BioSciences. "It is a pleasure to see Neogen's commitment to the Australian food safety market, and I look forward to transitioning that portion of our business to Neogen, allowing it to expand and grow faster. Cell BioSciences remains committed to serving our non-food safety customers and focusing on our non-food safety business."

With the transition, an initial focus for Neogen will be the continuation of Cell BioSciences' expansion of sales of Neogen microbiology and sanitation monitoring instrument systems — including Soleris^® for general microbiology, ANSR^® for pathogens, and AccuPoint^® Advanced adenosine triphosphate (ATP) test systems.

Australia is a major global exporter of numerous food and animal products, including beef, aquaculture, fruits, vegetables, and grains. Annually, the country exports more than $3 billion each of wheat and bovine meat, and nearly $2 billion of sheep and goat meat.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Neogen Corporation develops and markets products dedicated to food and animal safety. The company's Food Safety Division markets dehydrated culture media, and diagnostic test kits to detect foodborne bacteria, natural toxins, food allergens, drug residues, plant diseases and sanitation concerns. Neogen's Animal Safety Division is a leader in the development of animal genomics along with the manufacturing and distribution of a variety of animal healthcare products, including diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, veterinary instruments, wound care and disinfectants.

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SOURCE Neogen Corporation