Since buying Pall in 2015, Danaher Corporation no longer publishes specific figures for individual business unit. However, in a conference call last week, Danaher CEO Thomas Joyce said Pall saw core growth decline over the quarter “primarily due to the negative impact of the recent hurricanes in Florida and Puerto Rico.”
Hurricane Irma hit Florida in September, partially affecting Pall’s fluid dynamic and aeropower businesses, but Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico had a significant impact on Pall’s life sciences Fajardo facility on the island.
“The hurricane impact was significant. We were shut down for two weeks in Puerto Rico,” Joyce told investors. The facility has since
“While the recovery has been a challenging one, we expect to get some of that production recovered in the fourth quarter, probably not all of it. Some of it will extend probably into the first quarter.”
Despite the supply issues, the firm remains confident about the strength of its life sciences division, which has seen mid-single-digit order growth over the past six months. Its bioprocessing business – comprising mostly of single-use equipment and technology – specifically is faring even better, seeing double-digit growth in sales and orders for the quarter.
“[While] we obviously saw the related softness on the shipment side that was associated with the hurricane impact… the order growth that we mentioned and you heard us talk about gives us great encouragement that we're going to see a meaningful acceleration in the top-line associated with biopharma in the fourth quarter.”