Tecan

Tecan Group Ltd.

Headquarters	Männedorf, Switzerland
Products	Laboratory Equipment
Website	http://www.tecan.com/
Footnotes / references Tecan Headquarters in Switzerland

Tecan Group Ltd. is a Swiss company providing laboratory instruments and solutions in biopharmaceuticals, forensics, and clinical diagnostics for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments and diagnostic laboratories.

The company focuses on development, production and distribution of automation and detection products for life science laboratories.

Founded in Switzerland, in 1980, the company has over 1200 employees, owns production, research and development sites in both North America and Europe and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries.

In 2012, Tecan generated sales of CHF 391 million (USD 416 million; EUR 323 million). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (TECN; ISIN CH0012100191).

History

Engineers Heinz Abplanalp, Heini Maurer, Heini Möckli and Gallus Blatter are the founders of Tecan (March 18, 1980), a company with the aim of developing measuring, analysis and laboratory automation devices. The first company office was in the home of the CEO, Heinz Abplanalp, in Hombrechtikon, Switzerland. Tecan soon also started to produce instruments for laboratory automation and environmental analysis. The first instruments were made in renovated barns, apartments and warehouses spread across the whole village of Hombrechtikon. In 1982 the company opened Tecan US in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for sales and marketing in North America, and Tecan Production Corp. to manufacture for the US market take place. Two years later 48% of the share capital was taken over by the finance company Zelux. In 1985 Tecan entered the market with the Tecan Samplers 500 series, the first process-controlled and fully automatic group of pipetting devices. Other products were pH-electrodes, the Tecan Plant SAP Extractor 400 and the Tecan RSP 5052.

In 1986 Tecan was nominated as the Swiss Company of the Year by the Zurich industrialists Branco Weiss and by publishers Jean Frey and Ringier, and awarded the Branco-Weiss Prize for innovative companies (TV broadcast). In the same year Tecan Holding AG was founded and Tecan Asia opened in Singapore. With 80 employees, Tecan achieved a turnover of almost CHF 20 million in 1986. Listing on the Zurich stock exchange followed in 1987. All employees received shares in the company. Tecan acquired ten companies, including OEM Cavro Scientific Instruments in the USA (today Tecan Systems, Inc.).

In 1988 Tecan acquired SLT Laborinstrumente GmbH in Grödig near Salzburg, Austria (today Tecan Austria). At the end of the year, Tecan Holding included 29 companies. By the middle of the year, Tecan was in financial difficulties, and trading in shares was temporarily suspended. Under CEO Hans Widmer, Tecan had an increase in capital and sold a large proportion of its companies in 1990. Remaining in the group were just the production sites in the area of liquid handling and robotics (Switzerland, USA, Austria) and the sales centres in Germany, Great Britain and the USA. Tecan returned to profit following a concentration on laboratory automation. The founder Heinz Abplanalp left the company. Peter Bollmann become CEO. One year later the other founding members also leave the company. Two years later Gottlieb Knoch took over the majority of Tecan shares as an industrial investor. He became President of the board and CEO of the Tecan Group. In 1994 all production sites were certified to ISO 9001.

The Genesis Series was launched in 1995, based on new technology (electronics, communication protocols, new storage systems, etc.). In 1997 the life-sciences company Perkin-Elmer acquired the package of shares from Gottlieb Knoch and thus the majority of voting shares. In 1998 a collaboration followed with Abbott Laboratories in marketing Genesis FE 500 Workcell. Emile Sutcliffe became CEO in 1999. Perkin-Elmer sold its Tecan shares on the open market. Tecan was restructured and went public for the second time, listed in the main sector of the SWX Swiss Exchange.

In 2001 Tecan moved to new headquarters in Männedorf. Two years later more than 5,000 Genesis platforms were sold. The launch of the new Freedom EVO platform took place and Aitor Galdos became CEO in 2003. He left Tecan at the end of 2004. In 2005 Tecan celebrated its 25th anniversary. Thomas Bachmann became CEO. Tecan took over the company REMP based in Oberdiessbach, Switzerland, supplying automated laboratory and logistics systems in the life-science area.

In 2006 Tecan Austria received two awards from the Federal State Salzburg, Chamber of Commerce. The first award cited Tecan Austria for being the most innovative company in industry with their product family ‘Infinite’. The second award for Tecan Austria was the federal state winner of the innovation prize for the state of Austria.^[1] In 2007 more than 1,000 Freedom EVO platforms sold.

In 2010 Tecan celebrated its 30 years anniversary.

References