Order Reprints

Michael Cooper, left, and Single Source founder Robert Engster, have expanded the company’s geographic market to include business incubators around the Midwest. PHOTO COURTESY OF SINGLE SOURCE PROCUREMENT

By Nathan Peck | MiBiz
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

HOLLAND and KALAMAZOO — Think of it as getting in on the ground floor for the life sciences set.

Single Source Procurement, a full-service, life-sciences instrument and supply room management company, is expanding its footprint and growing its markets through forming relationships with life science research incubators around the Midwest. Single Source is the newest tenant at the Michigan State University Bioeconomy Institute in Holland, the 138,000-square-foot research and development facility formerly owned by Pfizer.

The company was founded in 2003 by former Pfizer purchasing executive Robert Engster as a means to help startup companies focus on their research and business, rather than the ordering, procurement and management of lab supplies and equipment. With modest office space in the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center in Kalamazoo, the company brings the expertise of Engster and COO Michael Cooper, two Pfizer “graduates” — a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek reference to their downsizing in 2003 — to bear on some of the newest life science firms in the region.

Engster founded the company as the SMIC was coming together in the wake of Pfizer’s reorganization and downsizing in Kalamazoo. The companies that were starting had great ideas, but not necessarily the purchasing expertise to keep on top of their supply needs. Startups lack the purchasing power to get their consumables — the gels, solvents and tools necessary to operate a lab — at affordable rates from suppliers, Engster explained. “These companies have no credit. They are too small and often don’t have the staff expertise to negotiate the best deals on the supplies and services they need to run their new businesses. They are scientists and inventors, not licensed purchasing agents,” Engster said.

Lab supply companies’ business plans are suited to the needs of large corporations, not necessarily a one- or two-person operation at a lab bench. Single Source can step in as a larger company, with sales of around $3 million, and get supplies at discounts and share the savings among its clients.

The company is looking to growth coming out of the recession and wants to keep its roots in Michigan. Cooper sees Single Source as being key to helping startups survive and thrive because the company can be a single touch point for vendors, while being an advocate for their customers.

“These companies don’t have the experience, the time, or the volume to get good pricing. The (downturn) has hit venture capital hard, (and) it has hit the life sciences hard. In 20 years at Upjohn and Pfizer, we didn’t want adversarial relationships with our vendors,” Cooper said. “Now as a vendor, we don’t want an adversarial relationship with our customers. We want to remain loyal to them, and in turn, they’ve been loyal to us.”

The company has facilities in Ann Arbor, Holland and Kalamazoo inside business incubators and has plans to expand to the Purdue Research Park at Purdue University and in facilities in Illinois.

Randy Thelen, president of Lakeshore Advantage, sees Single Source as a part of the infrastructure necessary to helping companies grow in the MSU Bioeconomy Institute in Holland.

“If we are to succeed in growing new businesses here, especially new biotechnology-based businesses with highly specialized needs, we have to be sure we are nurturing those service providers who create the infrastructure for their growth,” Thelen said.

There is a small window of opportunity for Single Source with the number of innovation and technology incubators operating in the Midwest.

“If we are not in there when the doors first open, the opportunity is lost. It is a timing issue,” Cooper said. “When the management of those facilities brings us in, they quickly recognize there is a need for this service. It helps the profit margins for these companies. It takes away the mundane back-of-house operations so they can focus on their work at the bench. You don’t need your CEO spending an afternoon ordering chemicals.”