New owner vows to keep Analtech in Newark

Most people know Analtech only as the Newark business with the funny name.

And that’s alright with general manager Steven Miles, who took over ownership of the company last month.

“It certainly gets people’s attention,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many people we’ve had stop and take photos of the sign over the years.”

But Analtech – whose name is pronounced with a short “a” in the first syllable, as in analytical technologies – is more than the butt of a thousand jokes.

The 54-year-old business off South Chapel Street is better known in scientific circles as the only U.S.-based manufacturer of glass plates and other accessories used in thin-layer chromatography, or TLC.

A low-tech method for separating mixtures, TLC produces faster results for a fraction of the cost of newer gas or liquid chromatography techniques.

For those reasons, the lab equipment made by Analtech is used around the world in everything from early-stage drug discovery to the investigation of counterfeiting and art forgery.

“Our products have been used on the TV show ‘CSI,’ as well as by real CSI, the CIA and the Secret Service,” marketing director Ken Grant said.

Today, the company generates sales of more than $2 million a year and exports to more than 70 countries, a revenue stream that’s expected to grow as the business develops new products under Miles’ ownership.

Yet Delaware likely would have lost Analtech if not for former owners Matt Lamkin and Ken Rainin, whose commitment to their 14 employees continued even after their deaths.

“Dad always made it clear that he wanted the company to remain where it is,” said Steve Lamkin, who inherited a portion of the company in 2012.

“Some of those guys have been working there 35 or 40 years and were like a second family to me growing up,” he said, “so there was never any question that we were going to follow his wishes.”

Matt Lamkin founded Analtech in 1961 while working in DuPont’s paints and coatings division.

At the time, chemists already were using chromatography to separate mixtures and identify their components. But the glass plates covered in silica gel were typically prepared one at a time, often with wide variations in quality.

Lamkin developed one of the first reliable methods for mass producing those plates – a technique the company still uses today.

Rainin, an entrepreneur who built a fortune backing scientific and medical products, later became a silent partner, holding a majority stake until his death in 2007.

Incredibly, the name Analtech was created by a marketing firm Lamkin hired soon after leaving DuPont to focus on the business full time.

“Maybe people were so much more prudish back then that the other word didn’t come into their thoughts,” said Miles, who joined the company in 1987.

By then, the brand was already well-established and Lamkin had no interest in bowing to sophomoric pressure. But he always kept a sense of humor whenever the subject came up.

The rise of the internet, however, began to move the name from a lark to a liability.

YouTube videos promoting Analtech’s products directed viewers to less-than-wholesome websites, while clients reported being blocked by their own security protocols.

A customer survey asking whether Analtech should change its name produced results “right up the middle,” Miles said.

The company slowly added the name iChromatography to its website and promotional materials, but a full re-branding effort took a back seat to larger issues the company faced after both owners passed away.

For years, revenue remained stagnant as new innovations were put on hold while the Lamkin and Rainin families explored selling the business. Suitors came and went, some deciding the company wasn’t a good fit while others backed out over the families’ insistence that the company stay in Newark.

“At one point, we discussed an employee buyout, but there weren’t enough people or enough money,” Miles said. “So earlier this year, I approached them with an idea.”

Miles struck a deal with the families in which they would loan him an undisclosed sum to purchase the company, thereby ensuring Lamkin’s legacy would remain intact and in place for years to come.

“If anyone can turn the business around and keep it going, Steve Miles is the guy,” Steve Lamkin said. “But I would still like to see him keep the name.”

For now, Miles says his main focus is on expanding the company’s product line.

“The plan is to keep TLC as our foundational product but build around that with other chromatography products and common lab items,” he said. “Once we have the extra cash flow, we can get more adventurous.”

Would that ever include a name change?

“I really can’t say for certain right now,” Miles said.

“There’s a long history there, but you wonder sometimes whether people are taking your product seriously,” he said. “But for now, I’m happy to keep calling us Analtech.”

Contact small business reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.