Academia - a strong player on the lab market
While the industry was short of money during the financial crisis, government incentives were in full swing in Sweden during 2009. - Our sales to academia increased ten percent last year, says Håkan Hjortsmark, sales manager at Perkin Elmer.
"Our sales figures for traditional industry fell by six percent during 2009 while our sales to academic customers increased by ten percent, says Håkan Hjortsmark, sales manager at Perkin Elmer."
Peter Simonsbacka, CEO at Bergman Labora, has the same feeling.
"The research sector has become more important now when the pharmaceutical companies are not as strong inverstors as they used to be. Astrazeneca and Pfizer were the major customers on the Swedish market back in then but that has changed, says Peter Simonsbacka."
One explanation as why the academia has become a stronger customer is that governmental economic incentives are starting to show in the budget of the academic institutions. Two years ago, the government granted a total of EUR 500 billion to research in the research bill. Of those, 180 million were directed to strategic research areas such as medicine, technique, and environment. Granting money to chosen areas where Sweden has good possibilities to be world leading is a new strategy and now efforts are being practically implemented. This has resulted in an increase in the procurement of instruments for, for example, chromatography and spectroscopy, used in environmental and material research.
The academic sector becoming a more important player is also the reason as to why Perkin Elmer has made stronger efforts in marketing at universities in Europe last year.
"In Sweden, these campaigns have had little effect since every purchase is regulated by the provisions of public procurement but in Europe this is very important. The academic sector has always been important to us but we now have a more aggressive approach to our marketing, says Håkan Hjortsmark."
There area no certain statistics of how large the academic market for laboratory equipment is but according to Perkin Elmer’s figures, universities account for 25-30 per cent of their turnover, when it comes to instruments for traditional analytical chemistry. When looking only at the life science-sector, the academic share is even larger, roughly 50-60 percent.
However, according to Håkan Hjortsmark, the stronger academic purchasing force is no lasting trend.
"I think academic purchasing power is merely a bubble and that the traditional industry will soon recover, says Håkan Hjortsmark."