While growing MicroBioLogics, Inc., into one of the world’s largest suppliers of microorganisms, Robert Coborn heeded the advice of his entrepreneur father to “do something no one else wants or knows how to do, and you’ll be successful.”
In this case, Coborn steered MicroBioLogics to become an expert in selling and shipping live microbiological materials to clinical and industrial laboratories around the world. Starting with Italy in 1997, MicroBioLogics now sends its microorganisms to 100 countries via a network of 130 distributors. In the process, the company must wade through a thick docket of federal and international regulations.
“Including MicroBioLogics, there are four companies that are licensed to do what we do, and we are the only company that has a global presence,” says Coborn, who joined the St. Cloud–based company in 1982 and became CEO two years later. His father, Robert Coborn Sr., started the business with a partner in 1971, initially setting up shop in the field of water testing.
Today, MicroBioLogics provides quality control bacteria to the clinical, industrial, food quality, environmental, and educational markets. With more than 3,000 items in its product line, including 700 strains of microorganisms, the company supplies businesses with microbes to test a multitude of products. On the clinical side, MicroBioLogics’ bacteria help labs test products, personnel, and laboratory procedures, such as analyzing how well antibiotics work on specific bacteria.
This unit proved extremely relevant after a salmonella outbreak in tomatoes sickened nearly 383 people in the United States as of late June 2008. The culprit, salmonella St. Paul, is a highly unusual strain that lab technicians don’t often encounter. But techs need to be intimately familiar with the bacteria to develop therapies for infected people and to test food and humans for the strain. After buying salmonella St. Paul from a culture collection, MicroBioLogics produces the bacteria en masse and sells it to labs.
During his tenure at MicroBioLogics, Coborn has grown MicroBioLogics from five employees to 50 and has grown sales to $20 million annually.
The company’s high standards and success recently attracted the attention of Granite Equity Partners, which bought a stake in MicroBioLogics in February. The St. Cloud–based private equity firm provided much-needed capital for conducting additional research, inking new distribution agreements, and enlarging facilities.
Coborn is proud that by teaming with Granite, MicroBioLogics will stay a Minnesota-based company. After all, it’s his employees—with an average tenure of 10 to 15 years—whom Coborn credits with MicroBioLogics’ success. “It’s uncommon for a private, entrepreneur-driven business to succeed in global, specialized markets to the extent that we have,” Coborn says. “One of the reasons we have succeeded is the work ethic, motivation, and tenacity of the employees of MBL.”
Together, Coborn and Granite will help MicroBioLogics continue to beat expectations and meet its mission to produce products for a healthier world.
