Bruker restructure will see more than 200 jobs lost

By Joseph James Whitworth

- Last updated on GMT

Bruker seeks buyers for GC service and ICP-MS business.
Bruker seeks buyers for GC service and ICP-MS business.

Related tags Mass spectrometry

Bruker’s Chemical and Applied Markets (CAM) division is to be reduced with the loss of 200-250 workers.

The firm said it had generated significant losses for the last four years, and with its broad product and market scope there was no way to reach acceptable financial performance in the foreseeable future.

Bruker is seeking strategic buyers for its Gas Chromatography (GC) service business and separately for the Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) business.

It will continue to develop, manufacture, sell and service EVOQ LC-MS and SCION GC-MS triple-quadruple (TQ) products as part of the Bruker Daltonics mass spectrometry product portfolio.

The CAM segment, headquartered in Fremont, California was established in April 2010.

It provides instruments for customers in applied industrial areas including food testing, environmental analysis, quality control and pharmacokinetics and helps in the migration of technology from research to the commercial laboratory.  

‘Difficult decision’

Elmar Illek, senior vice president Bruker Daltonics commercial operations, said it was a difficult decision and it will work hard with customers to ensure minimization of inconvenience.

“As a result of this decision, effective immediately, Bruker will stop selling its stand-alone GC systems and its single-quadrupole (SQ) GC-SQ mass spectrometry systems.

“Bruker will deliver and install our existing GC and GC-SQ order backlog, and we will continue to provide service and support for these products and there will be no change in customer service.”

Bruker will deliver and install GC and GC-SQ backlog during the second half of 2014, and accept last-buy orders for GC and GC-SQ during the third quarter of 2014.

The firm said it will continue to invest in TQ-MS systems and applied market applications.

SCION GC-TQ and EVOQ LC-TQ systems will be retained for sale by commercial team and approved distributors.

Potential charges

The CAM division generated $100m in revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013.

Actions have the potential to impact the company’s operating performance in 2014 and 2015 and are expected to lead to CAM-related restructuring and other one-time charges of between $35 and $40m.

Of which $10 to $13m are expected to result in future cash charges for employee separation and facility exit costs, and $25 to $27m for inventory write-downs and asset impairments.

GC systems service may be transferred before the end of 2014 and the ICP-MS business within the next few months.

Related topics Food Safety & Quality

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