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Transaction Details
Company Name: Scientific Supply and Equipment
Address: 619 S Snoqualmie St Seattle, WA 98108 US
Company website: www.scientificsupplyandequipment.com
Purchase date: 2012
Transaction type: Buy-Side Representation
Buyer: Cliff Shelton
Description
Scientific Supply & Equipment, Inc. is a distributor of laboratory and scientific research instruments, equipment and supplies to medical and industrial customers in the Puget Sound region and beyond. The Company has effectively exploited a market need for local distribution and service to establish itself as the largest independent regional distributor in the Northwest. The Company is known for its superior customer service, product knowledge and breadth, competitive prices and strong customer loyalty. The Company is the largest independent regional distributor in the Northwest of laboratory and scientific research instruments, equipment and supplies. In its more than 30 years in business, the Company has established a loyal customer base and earned a reputation for excellent customer service and technical product expertise. The Company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, centrally located to service customers from Oregon to Alaska. The products offered by the Company include scientific instruments and equipment, laboratory equipment, clinical laboratory diagnostics materials and reagents, life science and drug discovery products, safety equipment, and science education products; in total more than 9,000 products sourced from more than 200 different vendors. Additionally, the Company is contracted with manufacturers as the exclusive distributor of several specialty equipment items for the Northwest region.
Facilities
The Company holds a 3-year lease on administrative and warehouse space at a comparatively low rate, with the ability to expand inventory by roughly 25 percent within the current space capacity. The building will have an additional adjacent space available next year, providing an opportunity for expansion in the current location if desired.
Competition
The Company is the largest independent dealer of scientific and laboratory supplies and equipment in the Northwest. As such, it faces limited competition from any smaller, regional firms. The competitors that SS&E faces in the market are primarily the large national supply and equipment firms such as Cardinal Health (www.cardinal.com), Fisher Scientific and VWR. While offering a comprehensive range of products, these companies don’t provide the same regional and customer service focus that the Company emphasizes with its customers. In fact, the Company is actually a sub-dealer for VWR and Fisher Scientific, delivering their products to regional customers. Since the beginning, the Company has placed an emphasis on customer relationships and service, and this is what its customers have come to rely on over the years. Many of its competitors have not been as strong in this regard, simply due to lack of regional focus. The Company has taken advantage of this market niche to grow its business over the years. For example, the larger national firms have reduced their regional sales teams as more and more large-scale purchasers rely on Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) and national contracts to drive sales volume at the enterprise-level, rather than a customer-driven personal service model focused on the laboratory users.
Growth and Expansion
The Company is in an extremely stable position. The Company’s core market of Clinical laboratory organizations is expected to see strong growth in the coming years and decades, driven by demographics, healthcare reform, and increasing use of technology in medical diagnostics and treatment. The Company has many attractive avenues for growth including: increasing sales to current customers, increasing the customer base among current market segments, and pursuing multiple potential market segments that would be a natural extension of current business. Relatively modest investments in marketing and sales infrastructure and staff would allow the Company to grow rapidly.
Reason for Selling
One Owner has retired and the other Owner is preparing to retire after transitioning the business to new ownership and management.
Next Steps
For more information, contact Roupp Acquisitions Inc at;
inquiry@rouppacquisitions.com or give us a call at 206.915.9635.
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