Mettler-Toledo International Inc. operates as a supplier of precision instruments and services.
The company manufactures weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial, packaging, logistics, and food retailing applications. The company also manufactures several related analytical instruments and provides automated chemistry solutions used in drug and chemical compound discovery and development. In addition, the company manufactures metal detection, and other end-of-line inspection syste...
Mettler-Toledo International Inc. operates as a supplier of precision instruments and services.
The company manufactures weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial, packaging, logistics, and food retailing applications. The company also manufactures several related analytical instruments and provides automated chemistry solutions used in drug and chemical compound discovery and development. In addition, the company manufactures metal detection, and other end-of-line inspection systems used in production and packaging and provides solutions for use in certain process analytics applications. The company’s primary manufacturing facilities are located in China, Switzerland, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Mexico.
The company has strong leadership positions in all of its businesses, and it holds global number one market positions in most of them. The company is recognized as an innovation leader and its solutions are critical in key research and development, quality control, and manufacturing processes for customers in a wide range of industries including life sciences, food, and chemicals. The company’s sales and service network are one of the most extensive in the industry. The company products are sold in more than 140 countries, and it has a direct presence in approximately 40 countries.
The company’s business is geographically diversified, with net sales in 2024 derived 42% from North and South America, 28% from Europe, and 30% from Asia and other countries. The company’s customer base is also diversified by industry and by individual end-customer.
Business Segments
The company has five reportable segments: U.S. Operations, Swiss Operations, Western European Operations, Chinese Operations, and Other Operations.
The company manufactures a wide variety of precision instruments and provides value-added services to its customers. The company’s principal products and services are described below. The company also describes its customers and distribution, sales and service, research and development, manufacturing, and certain other matters. These descriptions apply to substantially all of the company’s products and related reportable segments.
Laboratory Instruments
The company makes a wide variety of precision laboratory instruments for sample preparation, synthesis, analytical bench top, material characterization, and in-line measurement. The company’s portfolio includes laboratory balances, liquid pipetting solutions, automated laboratory reactors, including real-time analytics, titrators, pH meters, process analytics sensors and analyzer technology, physical value analyzers including density and refractometry instruments, thermal analysis systems, and other analytical instruments such as UV/VIS spectrophotometers, moisture analyzers, and cell counters. The company’s laboratory instruments have leading-edge embedded software, and it also offer LabX, its laboratory software platform to manage and analyze data generated by its instruments.
Laboratory Balances
The company’s laboratory balances have weighing ranges from one ten-millionth of a gram up to 64 kilograms. To respond to a wide range of customer needs and value/price points, the company markets its balances in a range of product tiers offering different levels of functionality. The company also provides filter weighing and automated powder and liquid dosing systems. Based on the same weighing technology platform, the company manufactures mass comparators, which are used by weights and measures officials, as well as National Measurement Institute laboratories to ensure the accuracy of reference weights. Laboratory balances are primarily used in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, testing lab, food, chemical, cosmetics, academia, and other industries.
Pipettes
Pipettes are used in life science research laboratories for dispensing small volumes of liquids. The company develops, manufactures, and distributes advanced pipettes, including single- and multi-channel manual and electronic pipettes. The company also develops and produces high-value consumables, such as pipette tips. The company maintains service centers in key markets where customers periodically send their pipettes for certified recalibrations. These service centers, combined with the company’s advanced asset management solutions, provide its customers with innovative solutions to maintain their instruments and meet regulatory compliance. The company’s principal end-markets are pharmaceutical, biotech, and academia.
Analytical Instruments
Titrators measure the chemical composition of samples and are used in environmental and research laboratories, as well as in quality control labs in the pharmaceutical, testing lab, food and beverage, and other industries. The company’s high-end titrators are multi-tasking models, which can perform two determinations simultaneously on multiple vessels. The company’s offering includes robotics to automate routine work in quality control applications.
Thermal analysis systems measure material properties as a function of temperature, such as weight, dimension, energy flow, and viscoelastic properties. Thermal analysis systems are used in nearly every industry, but primarily in plastics and polymer industries and academia and increasingly in the pharmaceutical and advanced materials industries.
pH meters measure acidity in laboratory samples. The company also manufactures and sells density and refractometry instruments, which measure chemical concentrations in solutions. In addition, the company manufactures and sells moisture analyzers, which precisely determine the moisture content of a sample by utilizing the loss on drying method, and UV/VIS spectrophotometers that optimize spectroscopic workflows. The company also manufactures and sells microplate readers to measure chemical and biological assays and automated cell counting and viability assessment instruments.
Laboratory Software
LabX, the company’s laboratory software platform, manages and analyzes data generated by its balances, titrators, pH meters, physical value analyzers, and other analytical instruments like UV/VIS spectrophotometers. LabX provides full network capability; assists with workflow automation; has efficient, intuitive protocols; and enables customers to collect and archive data in compliance with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s traceability and data integrity requirements for electronically stored data (also known as 21 CFR Part 11).
Automated Chemistry Solutions
The company’s automated chemistry solutions focus on select applications in the chemical and drug discovery process. The company’s automated lab reactors and in situ analysis systems are considered integral to the process development and scale-up activities of its customers. The company’s on-line measurement technologies, based on infrared and laser light scattering, enable customers to monitor chemical reactions and crystallization processes in real time in the lab and plant. In situ samples allow overnight sampling and testing. Additionally, the company provides industry-leading software solutions that enable its customers to manage, optimize, and improve experiments, as well as production scale-up. The company’s portfolio of integrated technologies can bring significant efficiencies to the development process, enabling its customers to bring new drugs and chemicals to market faster.
Process Analytics
The company’s process analytics business provides instruments for the in-line measurement of liquid and gas parameters used primarily in the production process of pharmaceutical, biotech, beverage, micro-electronics, chemical, and refining companies, as well as power plants. More than half of the company’s process analytics sales are to the pharmaceutical and biotech markets, where its customers need fast and secure scale-up and production that meet the validation processes required for GMP (Good Manufacturing Processes) and other regulatory standards like the USP (U.S. Pharmacopeia) regulations for ultrapure water quality.
The company is a leading solution provider for liquid analytical measurement to control and optimize production processes. The company’s solutions include sensor and analyzer technology for measuring pH, dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, conductivity, turbidity, ozone, total organic carbons, pressure, bioburden, sodium, and silica, as well as laser analyzers for gas measurement. Intelligent sensor diagnostics capabilities enable improved asset management solutions for the company’s customers to reduce process downtime and maintenance costs. The company’s instruments offer leading multi-parameter capabilities and plant-wide control system integration, which are key for integrated measurement of multiple parameters to secure production quality and efficiency. With a worldwide network of specialists, the company supports customers in critical process applications, compliance, and systems integration questions.
Industrial Instruments
The company manufactures numerous industrial weighing instruments and related terminals and offer dedicated software solutions for the pharmaceutical, chemical, food, discrete manufacturing, and other industries. In addition, the company manufactures metal detection, x-ray, checkweighing, and other end-of-line product inspection systems used in production and packaging. The company supplies automatic identification and data capture solutions, which integrate in-motion weighing, dimensioning, and identification technologies for transport, shipping, and logistics customers. The company also offers heavy industrial scales and related software.
Industrial Weighing Instruments
The company offers a comprehensive line of industrial scales and weighing devices, such as bench scales, floor scales, and weigh modules, for weighing loads from a few grams to several thousand kilograms in applications ranging from measuring materials in production to quality completeness control in manufacturing to weighing packages at the end of the line. The company’s products are used in a wide range of industrial applications, such as filling, formulating and mixing ingredients, counting, and quality control.
Industrial Terminals
The company’s industrial scale terminals collect data and integrate it into manufacturing processes, helping to control and automate them. The company’s terminals allow users to remotely download formulation recipes or access setup data and can minimize downtime through predictive rather than reactive maintenance.
Transportation and Logistics
The company’s supply automatic dimensional measurement and data capture solutions, which integrate in-motion weighing, dimensioning, and identification technologies. With these solutions, customers can measure the weight and cubic volume of packages for appropriate billing, load management, and quality control. The company’s solutions also integrate into customers’ information systems.
Vehicle Scale Systems
The company’s primary heavy industrial products are scales for weighing trucks or railcars (i.e., weighing bulk goods as they enter or leave a factory or at a toll station). Heavy industrial scales are capable of measuring weights up to 500 tons and permit accurate weighing under extreme environmental conditions. The company also offers advanced computer software that can be used with its heavy industrial scales to facilitate a broad range of customer solutions and provides a complete system for managing vehicle transaction processing.
Industrial Software
The company offers software that can be used with its industrial instruments. Examples include FreeWeigh.Net, statistical quality control software; FormWeigh.Net, formulation/batching software; and DataBridge, which supports the operation of vehicle scales. FreeWeigh.Net and FormWeigh.Net provide full network capability and enable customers to collect and archive data in compliance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements, 21 CFR Part 11.
Product Inspection
Increasing safety and consumer protection requirements are driving the need for more sophisticated end-of-line product inspection systems (e.g., for use in food processing and packaging, pharmaceutical, packaged consumer goods, and other industries). The company is a leading global provider of metal detectors, x-ray systems, checkweighers, and camera-based imaging equipment that are used in these industries. Metal detectors are most commonly used to detect fine particles of metal that may be contained in raw materials or may be generated by the manufacturing process itself. X-ray inspection is used to detect metallic contamination in applications unsuited to metal detectors and many types of non-metallic contamination, such as glass, calcified bone, stones, and pits. The company’s x-ray systems are also used for mass control and for determining and controlling the fat content in meat. Checkweighers are used to control the filled weight of packaged goods, such as food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. The company’s camera-based vision inspection solutions provide in-line inspection of package quality, labels, and content, which are needs for food and beverage, consumer goods, and pharmaceutical companies.
All of the company’s technologies are integrated with material handling systems to ensure the correct presentation of the customer’s product to the device and the secure rejection of non-conforming product and are frequently designed to comply with stringent hygiene standards. The company’s technologies may also be used together as components of integrated packaging lines. ProdX Inspect is the company’s quality and productivity control software for helping customers comply with regulations and optimize process efficiency, either as a stand-alone solution or through integration with the customer’s manufacturing and enterprise systems.
Retail Weighing Solutions
Supermarkets, hypermarkets, and other food retail businesses make use of multiple weighing and food labeling solutions for handling fresh goods (such as meats, vegetables, fruits, or cheeses). The company offers weighing and software solutions, which can integrate counter, self-service, backroom, and checkout functions and can incorporate fresh goods item data into a supermarket’s overall food item and inventory management system. In addition, the company offers weighing solutions for fast-growing areas like self-checkout and unmanned stores, as well as AI-driven image recognition solutions for fresh goods. The customer benefits of its retail solutions are in the areas of enterprise-wide device management as well as article and price management, merchandising, and regulatory compliance. In North America and select other markets, the company offering also includes automated packaging and labeling solutions for the meat backroom, which are fully integrated with the scales in the store.
Customers and Distribution
The company’s principal customers include companies in the following key end-markets: the life science industry (pharmaceutical and biotech companies, as well as independent research organizations and testing labs); food manufacturers; chemical, specialty chemicals, and cosmetics companies; the academic community; food retailers; the transportation and logistics industry; the metals industry; and the electronics industry.
The company’s products are sold through a variety of distribution channels. Generally, more technically sophisticated products are sold through its direct sales force, while less complicated products are sold through indirect channels. The company’s sales through direct channels exceed its sales through indirect channels. A significant portion of the company’s sales in the Americas is generated through indirect channels, including sales of its Ohaus-branded products. Ohaus-branded products target markets, such as the educational market, in which customers are interested in lower cost, a more limited set of features, and less comprehensive support and service.
Sales and Service
Market Organizations
The company maintains geographically focused market organizations around the world that are responsible for all aspects of its sales and service. The market organizations are customer-focused, with an emphasis on building and maintaining value-added relationships with customers in the company’s target market segments. Market organizations also work closely with the company producing organizations by providing feedback on manufacturing and product development initiatives, new product and application ideas, and information about key market segments.
The company has one of the largest and broadest global sales and service organizations among precision instrument manufacturers it competes against.
Service
The company’s service business continues to be successful with a focus on providing uptime and calibration services, as well as further expanding its offerings to provide value-added services for a range of market needs, including regulatory compliance, performance enhancements, application expertise and training, and remote services. The company has a unique offering to its pharmaceutical customers in promoting the use of its instruments in compliance with FDA and other international regulations, and it can provide these services to most customers’ locations around the world. The company’s global service network is also an important factor in its ability to expand in emerging markets.
Research and Development
The company invested $189 million in research and development in 2024.
Seasonality
The company’s business has historically experienced a slight amount of seasonal variation, particularly the high-end laboratory instruments business. Traditionally, sales in the first quarter are slightly lower than, and sales in the fourth quarter are slightly higher than, sales in the second and third quarters. Prior to 2023, fourth quarter sales have historically generated approximately 27% to 30% of its net sales. This trend has a somewhat greater effect on earnings before taxes than on net sales because fixed costs are generally incurred evenly across all quarters. Quarterly seasonality in 2023 and 2024 was impacted by shipping delays at the company’s European Logistics facility in the fourth quarter of 2023, which was recovered in the first quarter of 2024.
Blue Ocean Program
Blue Ocean refers to the company’s program to establish a global operating model with standardized, automated, and integrated processes and high levels of global data transparency. It encompasses an enterprise architecture, with a global, single-instance ERP system. Within its IT systems, the company continues to move toward integrated, homogeneous applications and common data structures. The company also are largely standardizing its key business processes. The implementation of the systems and processes has been proceeding on a staggered basis over a multi-year period. The company has implemented the Blue Ocean program in its operations in the U.S., China, most of Asia Pacific, and most of Europe.
Intellectual Property
The company holds over 5,400 patents and trademarks (including pending applications), primarily in the United States, Switzerland, China, the European Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and India. The company numerous trademarks, including the Mettler-Toledo name and logo, which are material to its business.
Regulation
The company’s products may also be subject to special requirements depending on the end-user and market. For example, laboratory customers are typically subject to Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), industrial customers to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), pharmaceutical customers to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, and customers in food processing industries may be subject to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations.
History
Mettler-Toledo International Inc. was incorporated as a Delaware corporation in 1991.
