Huntingdon said it would rebrand earlier today, explaining that the move was prompted by its acquisition of Harlan Laboratories last year and subsequent integration of the business into the wider company.
The services lab current known as Huntingdon hired “one of the world’s leading branding agencies helped inform the decision, following an extensive review of existing customer relationships, synergies across the two organisations and the projected outlook for the market sectors that they serve.”
The firm added that: “A huge amount of internal integration work, both strategic and operational, has already been completed and the two companies will be formally merged under one brand in the coming months.”
This work involved setting up a research models and services business – that will operate from 30 sites worldwide - and a contract research services unit.
Company CEO Brian Cass said: “The decision to rebrand the two companies as one entity is the natural progression of a sustained integration process that was put in place last year.
“It is a symbol of the fact that as one integrated company we are now able to further diversify the range of products and services we can provide to the market, further supporting existing relationships whilst growing our business globally with new customers."
The only detail omitted from the announcement is the firm’s new name. All we know is that Huntingdon-Harlan will rebrand later this year.
Announcement of the name change comes just a week after LabCorp’s proposed acquisition of Covance, a major Huntingdon rival, was given the green light by shareholders.