Beckman Coulter CEO stands by revenue target

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Beckman Coulter Inc (BEC.N), a maker of biomedical test systems, sees its revenue from consumable supplies growing at least 7 to 9 percent a year, long term, despite the uncertainties of U.S. health reform, its chief executive said.

That target, for what the company calls "recurring revenue," consists of consumable supplies including reagent test kits, service and lease payments.

"Next year can be a very good year," driven by an improving economy, international expansion, the acquisition earlier this year of Olympus Corp's (7733.T) diagnostics business and new products, Beckman CEO Scott Garrett said on Monday at the Reuters Health Summit in New York.

The company is also targeting earnings per share growth in a range of 9 to 10 percent, and expects its operating profit margin to grow steadily to the mid-teens, Garrett said. "It's possible the earnings per share could be better than that, based on the Olympus acquisition," he added.

The Olympus acquisition is on track to generate expected revenue of approximately $500 million in 2010, he said.

Garrett expressed no concern about unforeseen developments in the health reform process upsetting financial expectations, saying the company has a stable "installed base" of customers.

"Our retention rates are very high, in the 80 to 90 percent range," he said.

Beckman also is developing a line of DNA-based tests that it expects to offer by 2012. Garrett said the first such products will test for infectious diseases, including hepatitis C and HIV, and the offerings may gradually widen to cover cancer and genetic-based diseases.

The DNA-based tests would likely have better margins than current tests, he said, but he declined to cite specific targets.

(Reporting by Susan Kelly and Debra Sherman, editing by Tim Dobbyn)