Over the years most of the steady growth of our company has been ‘organic’ growth, with only a small number of acquisitions punctuating our history.  In recent years, however, we have been conducting more small acquisitions, and have enjoyed the challenge of planning and managing the transfer of ownership and operations into our business. 

In February we partnered with Sam Brooks in the largest deal we’ve done to date – the acquisition of Christchurch-based Food and Health Standards (FHS) and Auditing Solutions (AS).  At the same time, we moved the Water Compliance team from FHS into Hill Labs, while leaving the rest of FHS and AS as separate businesses under Sam’s leadership.  We wanted to do this deal because of the alignment of the food safety auditing services and municipal water compliance work with some of our existing laboratory testing services. 

Now, three months in, things are going well.  Sam is the new CEO of FHS and AS and has been getting to know the team and their customers.  They recently moved premises to join Hill Labs at our Print Place site, which further enables our businesses to work closely together.  One area of shared effort is in sales and business development, with our Christchurch-based sales team, led by Sara Hargraves, working with Sam to find new customers for FHS and AS.  We are particularly motivated to grow the food safety auditing business, which is an area that Sam has a lot of experience in. 

We are also bedding in the new water sample collection and compliance services into our Christchurch operations and are looking forward to growing these services within and beyond the Canterbury region.  Vertical integration from sample collection right through to reporting of laboratory results will allow us to provide ‘one stop shop’ solutions for the routine testing of water for our customers throughout the country. 

Finally, with the ongoing growth and evolution of our business, it has been wonderful to welcome Peter Lord into the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer.  Peter is settling in well and we are all enjoying his energy and enthusiasm, and the early contributions he is making to the running of our business have been valuable.