Mesa Laboratories, Inc. announced the acquisition of substantially all of the assets (other than cash and certain inventories and fixed assets) and certain liabilities of Autoclave Testing Services, Inc., a New York company and Autoclave Testing Supplies, Inc., a British Columbia company. ATS is in the business of supplying products and services for dental steriliser testing in both the US and Canada. The acquisition is expected to add approximately $1,250,000 to Mesa’s revenues and to be accretive to our diluted net income per share during the first 12 months.
The bulk of the ATS business involves testing of small tabletop sterilisers in the US dental industry under CDC and State guidelines, which generally require that each steriliser is tested weekly using biological indicators (“BIs”). In practice, for each steriliser that a dental practice may have, ATS delivers a kit that contains sufficient BI’s for 52 weeks of testing. To conduct the test, the BI’s are processed through the steriliser in the dental office and then mailed back to ATS for testing to determine if the steriliser was working correctly. ATS also provides online access to test results, allowing the dentist to track the performance of each steriliser.
In addition to the testing business, ATS distributes self-contained biological indicators (“SCBI”) to the dental market in Canada in those provinces that have implemented mandatory daily testing of sterilisers. In this situation, in-office testing using a SCBI is the only practical solution, as test results are available within 10 to 24 hours.
After a short transition period, Mesa will integrate the ATS business into its facilities in Markham, Ontario for the Canadian customers and Traverse City, Michigan for the US customers.
“We are excited about the acquisition of ATS,” said Mr. John J. Sullivan, President and CEO of Mesa. “Mesa has a long history of manufacturing products used in dental steriliser testing, and last year, we significantly increased our direct sales into this market with the acquisition of the North Bay Bioscience business. The acquisition of ATS will increase Mesa’s dental testing business by approximately 30 per cent, improving efficiency and profitability.”
“Mesa is a quality organisation that will provide superior steriliser testing services and products to our customers throughout North America,” said Mr. Craig Walker, President of ATS. “We are committed to working closely with Mesa to ensure a smooth transition with our dental partners and are confident that Mesa will continue our tradition of providing valuable solutions to assist our customers in meeting their steriliser testing compliance obligations.”
