The purchase of contract sterilization and related services firm Isotron gives Steris a foothold in the European market on which to further expand throughout the continent. Announced July 20, the cash deal is valued at $110 mil.

A provider of sterilization services for single-use medical products like syringes, sponges and prostheses, Isotron has operations in the UK and Ireland. These include five gamma irradiation facilities, two electron beam accelerators and two ethylene oxide facilities.

The buy "will allow Steris to provide broader geographic coverage and to increase our capability to expand into additional markets such as continental Europe," Chairman, president and CEO Bill Sanford remarked.

Steris currently provides contract sterilization and microbial reduction services in the U.S. and Canada through 15 facilities. The firm added contract sterilization services to its line of infection prevention, contamination prevention, and surgical support systems and services in 1997 with the $142 mil. acquisition of Isomedix (¹ Also see "Steris to add contract sterilization services with $142 mil. Isomedix acquisition." - Medtech Insight, 18 August, 1997.). The company offers products and services to sterilize all types of devices whether reusable, reposable or disposable.

In addition to broadening geographic coverage, the deal allows Steris to leverage its production capability by supplying Isotron facilities with consumables and durable equipment. Steris' flagship System 1, for example, is billed as "a complete system for just-in-time sterile processing at or near the site of patient care." At the same time, the buy gives Isotron added resources to expand and a broadened product portfolio.

Isotron has about 200 employees and recorded net income of $6.4 mil. on revenues of $20.9 mil. in fiscal 1998 (ended June 30). Steris, with a headcount of about 4,700, recorded fiscal 1999 (ended March 31) revenues of $797.6 mil. (up 10.8%), with net income of $84.9 mil. (up 30%).

The Isotron purchase, which is expected to close in August, follows the July 2 acquisition of Minneapolis contract sterilization business Quality Sterilization Services, covering the upper Midwest, for undisclosed terms.

Steris' Isotron Acquisition Adds European Contract Sterilization Services

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