Rise in sales for Neogen’s allergen and pathogen detection kits
Revenues for the company's food safety segment increased 11% during Q3 compared to the prior year quarter.
John Adent, Neogen's president and CEO, said the quarter had revenue increases in core product lines across the food and animal market segments.
"We were generally pleased with our performance in the quarter, especially considering that we were facing a difficult comparison with last year's third quarter,” he said.
“The prior year's quarter featured strong sales of mycotoxin test kits due to an outbreak of DON in crops in the US and Europe, and sales of a disinfectant product line that we no longer offer.”
Positive results for food safety segment
Sales of rapid diagnostics to detect food allergens including gluten, milk, soy and peanuts, increased 14% in the current quarter.
Sales of general sanitation products increased 18% in Q3 of the 2018 fiscal year, compared to the prior year quarter and sales of foodborne pathogen detection tests increased 22% - including a 43% increase of systems to detect Listeria.
Included in the results was a 29% increase in sales of test kits to detect drug residues in milk.
In February, Neogen launched BetaStar Advanced tests for beta-lactam and tetracycline antibiotics in milk. Tests were developed for the US market to be performed with its Raptor testing platform.
Raptor allows users to do up to nine tests at once and the platform works with other Neogen tests.
For the current quarter, Neogen Europe's revenues rose 15% in US dollars and Lab M sales rose 20% as its products are increasingly integrated into the company's distribution channels.
Mexico-based Neogen Latinoamerica's sales increased 19% and Neogen China's revenues increased 28%, both on increases across its product offering.
Meanwhile, Neogen’s Listeria Right Now environmental pathogen detection system has won a CFIA (Carrefour des Fournisseurs de l’Industrie Agroalimentaire) innovation trophy.
It detects all species of Listeria in environmental samples in less than 60 minutes through ribosomal RNA (rRNA) without enrichment.
Steve Chambers, of Neogen Europe, said the recognition validates the work put into the process.
“The well-received and NSF International validated Listeria Right Now system has now been shown to provide the food industry with both the definitive test results they need, and the much easier and quicker methodology they want.”
