History and Development

 

Cryo-Save Group N.V. was co-founded in 2000 by Marc Waeterschoot and Johan Goossens in order to introduce, and develop the opportunities in, adult stem cell storage in the European market. The Group initially raised €3.5 million of seed financing and used the majority of those funds to acquire a licence from Cryo-Cell, a US NASDAQ quoted stem cell storage company. Under this licence the Group acquired the right to use the Cryo-Cell name, technology and business processes in Europe to establish its own stem cell storage business. In 2003, the Group terminated its licensing agreement with Cryo-Cell and re-branded its operations as ''Cryo-Save''. The Group no longer has any contractual arrangements with Cryo-Cell.

The Groups holding and finance centre was established in Zutphen, the Netherlands with the principal processing and storage facility in Mechelen, Belgium. All management and marketing activities are carried out through Cryo-Save AG, the operating company established in Switzerland. In pursuing international expansion, the Groups strategy was to establish operations in conjunction with a local partner who typically had a scientific or medical background. The local partner would usually take responsibility for driving the operation forward in the relevant jurisdiction and would be responsible for sales, marketing and obtaining the relevant approvals for the collection of stem cells. The Group would provide the local partner with technical expertise and support, as well as processing and storage services through our facilities.

On 6 November 2007 the Groups shares were admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and it raised €33.9 million in net proceeds to pursue its strategy of acquiring business partners and competitors, to invest in marketing and sales and in its processing and storage facilities.

2008 was a transitional year for the Group. It transformed from a company with a central facility in Belgium, with sales offices and business partners, into a multinational business with subsidiaries across Europe, Asia, and South Africa. This was achieved by completing the acquisition of eight subsidiaries and business partners in Germany (Output Pharma Services and Stemcell, 100%), Hungary (Sejtbank, 70%), Czech Republic (Archiv Bunĕk, 70%), South Africa (Cryoclinic, 100% of which the Group held already 50%), Spain (Crio Cord, 100%), Portugal (Valor Conexo, 100%) and South Eastern Europe (Cryo-Save Balcanica, 100% of which the Group held already 50%). The Group also expanded its processing and storage capacity, by building a new state-of-the-art processing and storage facility in Niel, Belgium and it acquired a new site in Lyon, France. The Group expanded its operations across Europe, and started new operations in France and in India.

In August 2009, the Group moved its Belgian processing and storage activities from Mechelen to the new Niel facility to cover the significant growth of its business, and subsequently closed the Mechelen facility. Also in 2009, it acquired Salus Futura S.r.L., a service company in Italy.

The Cryo-Save Group currently trades in, and has an international reach to, 39 countries.