Post-COVID and macroeconomic pressures continue to rattle Sartorius

Sartorius will again cut its 2023 guidance in the face of a slower than hoped for post-COVID recovery.

Ahead of the publication of its full 9-month results 2023 later this week, life sciences services firm Sartorius reported preliminary figures Friday, with expected revenues of around €2.55 billion ($2.68 billion), representing a decline of 16% year-on-year.

For its Bioprocess Solutions business, an 18% drop on the same period 2022 is expected, with the firm set to pull in €1.99 billion in sales.

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“Main drivers were the longer than expected ongoing inventory reductions after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, relatively low production levels at some customers, the discontinued business in Russia, and an overall muted investment activity of customers mainly in China and the USA,” the firm said.

Its Lab Products & Services business dropped 11% to €553 million, with Sartorius attributing this to “cautionary spending behaviour of customers in the pharma industry, mainly in China and the USA, which has intensified since the third quarter.”

As with its peers, Sartorius has reported dramatic drops in demand for its equipment and media over the past few quarters as it feels the headwinds from the end of two years of lucrative growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the company spoke of a “swift normalization of demand” back in October 2022, a year on Sartorius said the demand recovery is visible but “is proceeding only slowly.”

As such, Sartorius has cut its guidance again for a second time this year, with group sales now expected to decline by around 17%. This equates to a 12% drop, excluding COVID-related business. Previously, the company has expected sales to decline in the low to mid-teens, with COVID-related business falling in the mid- to high- single-digit percentage range.