(Bloomberg) -- SGS SA, the world’s largest industrial testing firm, expects to grow faster through acquisitions, according to the company’s chief executive.
The Geneva-based company expects small acquisitions to boost its revenue growth to up to 9% annually in the four years through 2027, Chief Executive Officer Geraldine Picaud said in an interview in Rotterdam. It has a target of growing sales organically by 5%-7% in the same period.
“I need to participate actively in consolidation,” she said, citing the fact that not a single player in the testing, inspection and certification industry accounts for more than 5% of the total market.
Picaud, who took over the helm of the company in March, is in the process of executing a 100 million Swiss francs ($113 million) cost-saving plan which has led to about 2,100 job cuts. She also introduced quarterly sales reports this year for the first time.
The company was before “often making promises and not delivering,” Picaud said.
SGS expects sales of at least 600 million Swiss francs from services around sustainability, including biodiversity analysis and ESG assurance, it said in statement on its capital markets day on Wednesday.
The company seeks to double sales in North America by 2027. It is quadrupling its testing capacity for PFAS, which are known as “forever chemicals,” in the region by the end of next year. That increase is driven by greater demand from authorities in the US seeking safe drinking water, Picaud said.
The Swiss firm has made ten acquisitions so far this year. It announced the purchase of North American nuclear testing firm MP Machinery on Wednesday. “It’s effectively one a month since I took over. We are going to continue on that path,” she said.
(Updates with details from capital markets day statement)
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