boom times for drug testing

Just shows what can be achieved when you don't have clueless fools for managers.



Demand for drug testing bolsters Concateno
By John O’Doherty

Published: March 31 2009 03:06 | Last updated: March 31 2009 03:06

Families riven by parental drug and alcohol abuse have proved a boon to diagnostic company Concateno, as buoyant demand for drug-testing in family law cases has caused revenues to surge.

“If you’re a drug user and perhaps you have had your children taken into care, you need to demonstrate that you’re drug-free over a prolonged period of time in order to be reunited with your child,” explained Fiona Begley, chief executive of Concateno.

“That’s why you’d use a hair test ... so you can potentially look at a historical window [that indicates drug use] of up to six months as opposed to urine or saliva where you’re looking at a couple of days.”

Hair testing, used in child protection, family law and forensic cases is now the fastest growing division of Concateno, with revenue growth of 44 per cent year on year. It now accounts for more than ten per cent of group revenues.

Concateno also provides urine and saliva tests to check drug use, and its services are especially popular amongst businesses that rely on safety or security such as shipping or the military. The company’s customers include London Underground, the Irish army, Exxon Mobil, General Motors and 75 per cent of the UK’s police forces.

Concateno expanded rapidly by acquiring seven different non-competing drug-testing companies in 2007, which it is now consolidating.

For the year ending December 31, the company swung to a pre-tax loss of £592,000 on revenues that gained 82 per cent to £47.5m.

The swing into the red was caused by non-recurring costs related to the integration and restructuring of recent acquisitions, including £1.3m in redundancy costs. Operating profit more than doubled from £1.98m to £4.23m.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/258f28bc-1d0f-11de-a527-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=7aaa46b8-3039-11da-ba9f-00000e2511c8,print=yes.html