Sales have grown rapidly at Synergy Health, the Swindon-based international medical sterilisation group, ahead of its acquisition by a major US healthcare firm for £1.2bn.
In a trading update to the London Stock Exchange, Synergy said its revenue for the nine months to December 28 increased by 5.7% to £303.1m.
Stripping out the impact of currency movements, revenue growth was even stronger at 9.6% for the firm, which operates from more than 115 sites worldwide providing a range of sterilisation services to hospitals and medical organisations. It employs 2.200 people in the UK and Ireland. 
Sales growth gained momentum over the nine-month period, Synergy said, with third-quarter revenues before currency effects up 14.2% on the same period in 2013. Its operating margin was 50 basis points higher than the comparative period.
Last October Ohio-based Steris Corporation, which provides infection prevention to clients in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and research industries, formed a new company to acquire Synergy.
The new company, 30% owned by Synergy shareholders with the balance owned by Steris stockholders, is expected to have a combined revenue of about $2.6bn and employ about 14,000 people in 60 countries. The move is awaiting clearance by competition authorities in the US and UK.
Steris is listed on the New York Stock Exchange but the new company will be registered in the UK to reduce Steris’ tax bill.
Synergy’s head office, on Swindon’s Windmill Hill Business Park, while the HQ of its Applied Sterilisation Technologies division is on the town’s Elgin Industrial Estate. It also operates an electron beam sterilisation plant and microbiological services laboratory at South Marston.
Synergy acquired Swindon-based sterlisation group Isotron in 2007 and later moved its head office to the town.
