Gooch & Housego : acquires ITL

Gooch & Housego has completed the acquisition of Integrated Technologies Ltd, or ITL, in order to expand its presence in the life and health sciences sector and further enable the Group's move into system based products.

ITL is a market leading specialist in the design, development and manufacture of high-quality medical and in vitro diagnostic (IVD) devices. Combining more than 40 years' experience with an established roster of long-standing international clients, ITL brings with it the reputation of being one of the most progressive and trusted contract design and manufacturing partners in the market today. The company is based in Ashford, Kent, UK and has a manufacturing facility in Shanghai and a client servicing capability in Ashland, Virginia.

Mark Webster, Chief Executive Officer of Gooch & Housego, commented: 'This acquisition provides a key step towards achieving our strategic aims of establishing critical mass in our life sciences business and moving up the value chain, through a more systems-based product portfolio. It means we are able to continue to diversify our business, allow G&H access to new high growth markets, as well as reducing, still further, dependency on the historically cyclical micro-electronic sector. ITL is a high quality business, with a long standing customer base, excellent engineering capabilities and a strong financial track record. We are very much looking forward to working with the management, staff and customers of ITL.'

ITL has an extensive, long standing international client base. It provides full product development, design, manufacturing and after sale service for the commercialisation of medical diagnostic, analytical, precision electro-mechanical and laboratory instruments This acquisition enables G&H to take a significant step towards meeting its strategic objectives, including doubling the revenue of its life science business and accelerating the Company's move up the value chain, with all of ITL's sales coming from system based products. ITL's core group of electronic, software and mechanical engineers, provides an enhanced platform on which G&H can expand its systems capabilities. Over time there are a number of potential benefits that will accrue from ITL becoming part of G&H. These include leveraging G&H's footprint in the US, China and Far East and combining the Company's photonic expertise with ITL's high level systems capability in order to provide a more attractive product offering to G&H's medical diagnostic customer base.

The organization is led by Managing Director, Tom Cole and Business Development Director, Greg Smith - both of whom will remain with the business.

Tom Cole, Managing Director of ITL, commented: 'This acquisition will further broaden our service offering and strengthen our ability to provide our customers with innovative solutions to meet their challenging needs. We are excited to be working with the G&H team and look forward to collectively growing our company and continuing to deliver outstanding service to the MedTech industry.'

For more information about ITL's products and capabilities, please visit the ITL website.