Company is a supplier of a broad range of services, instrumentation, equipment, and consumables to the Puerto Rican pharmaceutical, biochemical, and scientific markets
VWR International has announced the acquisition of Advanced Instruments Sales and Service, a San Juan, Puerto Rico-based supplier of a broad range of services, instrumentation, equipment, and consumables to the Puerto Rican pharmaceutical, biochemical, and scientific markets.
The acquisition is intended to expand VWR's service and product portfolio within the Puerto Rican sales and marketing region and the continental United States.
Advanced Instruments Sales and Service is a privately held firm, incorporated in Puerto Rico in 1985.
The company is said to be Puerto Rico's premier provider of a full complement of laboratory, analytical, validation, metrology and calibration services, and offers preferred brands of analytical instruments, equipment, balances, microbiology products, supplies, and technology.
The Advanced Instruments company consists of the Advanced Instruments Sales and Service product distribution organisation, the Caribbean Metrology Center division, the AQS Validation Group division, and the Adchem Pharma Operations subsidiary.
The company has a total of 95 employees.
The Caribbean Metrology Center meets the mass weights, pipette calibration and certifications, and other specialised needs of local scientific industries.
The AQS Validation Group provides pharmaceutical process and product validations, process optimisations, computer validations, auditing services, and cleaning method development.
Adchem Pharma Operations offers integrated warehouse, materials management, logistics and laboratory services to the pharmaceutical industry.
"We are excited about our ability to provide an expanded portfolio of products and services, as well as increased distribution capabilities to meet the current and future requirements of our customers in Puerto Rico and elsewhere," said Walter Zywottek, VWR president and chief executive officer.
"The broad portfolio of products and services within Advanced Instruments's brands are extremely complementary with VWR's product offering and distribution capabilities, creating important synergies and value for all of our customers".
VWR's investment in the Puerto Rican marketplace will include more than tripling the capacity of the general distribution warehouse, significant expansion of the environmentally controlled hazardous chemical storage capabilities, increased capabilities within the metrology and technical laboratory services, and an increase in the workforce to support the expanding services business.
"These investments will have a positive impact on the local economy and signify our long-term commitment to the Puerto Rican marketplace," said Zywottek.
Carlos Rodriguez, current president of Advanced Instruments, will lead the new combined organisation in Puerto Rico.
According to Rodriguez: "The combined organisation will provide customers with significant synergies that will help them improve their own efficiencies.
"For the first time customers will enjoy the benefits of having a single premier distributor with an expanded product offering, asset management and analytical services.
"This combined products and services offering will help our customers get access to new products faster, allow them to concentrate on their core competencies and improve their global competitiveness."
