Neogen reports record first quarter

Neogen Corporation’s income for the first quarter of fiscal year 2013, which ended Aug. 31, was up 11.8 percent over 2012 — $6,714,000 this year versus $6,004,000 a year ago.

According to a company news release, first quarter revenues increased 8.8 percent to $49,729,000; revenue for the same time period a year earlier was $45,697,000.

James Herbert, Neogen’s CEO and chairman, credited the strong start to the new fiscal year to increasing market acceptance for the company’s food and animal safety diagnostics.

The Lansing, Mich.-based company’s gross margin increased to 53.3 percent of sales in its first quarter of 2013, compared to 50.3 percent of sales for fiscal year 2012’s first quarter. The increase was largely the result of a shift in product mix toward diagnostic products in the food safety segment, which have higher margins.

The quarter marked the 74th consecutive profitable quarter from operations for the company, and was the 82nd of the past 87 that showed revenue increases over the previous year.

In early August, Neogen introduced its ANSR for listeria – which provides results after only 18 minutes of reaction time. The company’s ANSR for salmonella, introduced in April, has received performance validation from the AOAC Research Institute; approval is pending.

In the current first quarter, Neogen also recorded significant sales of its AccuPoint sanitation monitoring product line into China. In addition, its Brazilian subsidiary recorded a 54 percent sales increase as it continues to expand market presence there. In fact, Neogen’s percentage of revenue from international sources is at 41.7 percent of total revenue for the first quarter 2013, up from 41.4 percent a year ago.