Merck 2014 Annual Report Download - page 121

116 GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT → REPORT ON ECONOMIC POSITION → Life Science
%
Europe → 1,036.3
North America → 725.0
Emerging Markets → 673.1
Rest of World → 248.1
27
25
9
39
LIFE SCIENCE →
SALES BY REGION – 2014
€ million / % of divisional sales
In 2014, the Life Science division achieved organic growth in all
regions. Accounting for an unchanged 39 % of divisional sales,
Europe remained the division’s largest geographic market, deliver-
ing organic growth of 2.7 % and sales of €1,036 million (2013:
€1,010 million). In this region, the strong sales increases achieved
by the Process Solutions business area more than offset the slight-
ly weaker business of the Lab Solutions and Bioscience business
areas.
In North America, the division achieved organic sales growth
of 3.7 %, which was mainly driven by the Process Solutions busi-
ness area and its products for biopharmaceutical manufacturing,
supported by the solid sales performance of the Lab Solutions
business area. Sales in North America rose to €725 million (2013:
€711 million), which represented an unchanged share of 27 % of
the Life Science division's global sales in 2014.
Sales developed very positively in the Emerging Markets region,
which delivered organic sales growth of 9.1 %. Despite currency
headwinds of – 4.2 %, sales rose to €673 million (2013: €642
million). The strong organic sales development was fueled by
good demand for products from all the division’s business areas,
with Process Solutions delivering double-digit growth rates in
particular. The share of divisional sales generated by the Emerging
Markets region therefore increased by one percentage point to 25 %.
As a result of significant currency headwinds of – 7.8 %, espe-
cially relative to the Japanese yen, sales in the Rest of World region
declined to €248 million (2013: €263 million). With slight organic
growth of 2.5 %, this region’s share of divisional sales declined to
9 % (2013: 10 %).