September 9, 2026 | News & Notices
Reorganization of UK Group Companies; Business Operations Commence Under New Structure
Enhancing Development Capabilities for Mass Spectrometers and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Instruments
Shimadzu Corporation has merged its UK group company, Shimadzu Research Laboratory (Europe) Ltd. (SRL; President: Gordon Kearney; headquartered in Manchester, UK), into Kratos Analytical Limited (Kratos; President: Shinichi Iwamoto; headquartered in Manchester, UK), with Kratos as the surviving company. Concurrently, personnel from the Mass Spectrometry Business Unit Overseas of Shimadzu UK Limited (President: Stuart Phillips; headquartered in Milton Keynes, UK) have been transferred to Kratos. The companies have subsequently commenced operations under the new structure, with the aim of strengthening Shimadzu’s development capabilities for mass spectrometers (MS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) instruments.
Through this organizational restructuring, R&D and production functions have been consolidated, enhancing agile development capabilities for MS and XPS in Europe. Both products are analytical instruments that support R&D in fields such as medical care, drug discovery, food, the environment, semiconductors, and batteries. Kratos is a development and manufacturing center for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometers (MALDI-TOFMS). Before receiving the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Shimadzu Executive Research Fellow Koichi Tanaka engaged in research and development at Kratos and SRL for approximately six years.
Product photos： MALDI-8030 matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometer developed by Kratos (left) and KRATOS ULTRA2 imaging X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (right).