Business Valuation 101 for Testing Laboratories

/in , /by Adam Wiskind

Testing laboratories operating in the agriculture, food production, environmental, manufacturing and construction industries provide essential and recurring services to their customers. As such they can be attractive to investors looking for steady growth, recession-resistant acquisition opportunities. If you own a testing laboratory and are thinking about an exit, you’ll likely want to know its value. Business valuation can help lab owners to plan for their future and to understand how to improve their company’s financial health.

Valuation is the process of analyzing value drivers such as market conditions, business model, customer base, competitive landscape, and financial performance. In this article, we discuss the basics of business valuation and explore some key drivers for testing laboratories that can help you to understand the value of your laboratory business.

Different Valuation Approaches

There are three fundamental approaches to determine value: Asset, Income and Market. Most valuations triangulate the analysis results using each approach.

  1. Asset – based on the fair market value (adjusted from book value) of a company’s underlying assets and liabilities and the identification of intangible assets.

  2. Income – based on present value of the expected future benefit stream (cash flow) adjusted for risk.

  3. Market – based on a principle of substitution where value is based on a multiple of an operating metric (earnings) derived from the publicly available value of companies with similar characteristics.

The fundamentals that drive value in testing laboratories are the same as for any small business, strong cash flow, consistent growth and known and controllable risks. Cash flow is measured by EBITDA, which is net operational income less interest expense, state and federal taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA can be used to analyze and compare profitability between companies and industries because it eliminates the effects of financing and accounting decisions. The more consistently profitable a business is, the more valuable it will be. A well-executed valuation does not just consider historical performance but will analyze future growth prospects and risks for the business.

Value Drivers for Testing Laboratories

Within the testing industry, we’ve identified some drivers that commonly result in strong business performance and enhance value:

  • Provide in-demand services: Demand for testing is typically driven by third party government agencies, vendors or customers requiring verifiable evidence of reliability, safety or regulatory compliance. It is important to keep testing procedures relevant to changing demands and compliant with regulations. Laboratories that understand the sources of industry demand and position their services accordingly will be more valuable.
  • Recommendation/accreditation from authoritative source: Quality and consistency of service is vital to testing laboratories. Obtaining laboratory and quality systems accreditation like ISO will help to improve service delivery and demonstrate to the marketplace that the laboratory can provide a high level of service.
  • Contracts: Maintaining long-term vendor and customer relationships creates a more stable business and a pedestal to plan for the future. One approach to encourage these relationships is to establish vendor contracts that provide consistent pricing and terms and customer contracts that provide recurring revenue. Businesses with these contracts in place are more valuable.
  • Access to highly skilled workforce: Companies need to employ highly qualified and highly skilled scientists and support staff who are knowledgeable not just in test protocols, but how test results are utilized by the industries that they are servicing. Businesses with a committed and capable management team are better positioned to perform after a business owner exits.
  • Prompt, consistent delivery to market: The ability to deliver results in a timely manner is important due to the results-oriented nature of this industry. To remain competitive, laboratories need to be located close to clients for quick delivery of test results and utilize processes, equipment and technology that produces efficient and accurate test results.

Exit Strategies Group helps business owners to value and exit their testing laboratories. If you’d like to have a confidential, no commitment discussion on your exit plans or have related questions, please contact Adam Wiskind, Senior M&A Advisor at (707) 781-8744 or awiskind@exitstrategiesgroup.com.