Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) executives outlined early progress on the company’s “Project Revival” initiative and provided 2026 guidance that management characterized as a transitional year focused on strengthening the business while tracking improvement primarily through organic revenue growth.
Project Revival: organizational reset and brand focus
President and CEO Emmanuel Ligner said Revival is designed to “sharpen our strategic focus and to improve execution across the organization,” built around five pillars: evolving go-to-market strategy, improving operations, optimizing the portfolio, simplifying processes, and strengthening talent and accountability.
As part of that shift, management said it has recommitted to the VWR brand for the channel business. Ligner said suppliers, customers and employees routinely referred to the distribution channel as VWR, and the company has now restored that brand name. He also emphasized investments in digital capabilities, noting an update to the VWR e-commerce platform launched in the fourth quarter and an additional planned $10 million to $15 million of investment in 2026 to upgrade customer interfaces.
On operations, Ligner said new Chief Operating Officer Mary Blenn and her team identified $20 million of investment aimed at enhancing the company’s ability to serve customers. He added that a Revival project management office has been established to coordinate efforts and ensure accountability.
End-market commentary: stability after a challenging 2025
Management said Avantor’s end markets appeared more stable after a difficult 2025, though conditions vary by customer group.
- Biopharma: Ligner said the biopharma end market “continues to be healthy,” with production levels growing and companies planning capacity and efficiency investments. He cited continued patient demand for biologics and expected biologics demand growth in 2026 and beyond.
- Process chemicals and orders: Ligner said customer inventory levels across J.T.Baker and other process chemicals appeared “reasonable normal,” and he expected demand could improve modestly in 2026. He also noted the company exited 2025 with a book-to-bill ratio above one in process chemicals.
- Masterflex: He said the Masterflex fluid handling business remains positioned in areas aligned with customer preferences, including single-use assemblies and modular process solutions.
- Early-stage biotech, education and government: Ligner described 2025 as difficult for these customers but said the company was “cautiously optimistic” they are near the bottom, pointing to strong biotech funding in the fourth quarter and momentum continuing into January. He cited improved funding indicators in Europe and Japan, but ongoing uncertainty in the U.S., where customers remain hesitant to spend even when funding is committed.
Ligner also noted the addition of Sanjeev Mehra and Simon Dingemans to Avantor’s board of directors.
Fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results
CFO Brent Jones said Avantor delivered fourth-quarter results “largely in line with expectations,” with organic revenue, adjusted EPS, and free cash flow at or above guidance.
For the fourth quarter, Avantor reported revenue of $1.66 billion, down 4% year-over-year on an organic basis. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 15.2%, adjusted EPS was $0.22, and free cash flow was $117 million. Excluding transformation expenses, free cash flow was $150 million. Adjusted gross margin was 31.5%, down 190 basis points year-over-year, which Jones attributed mainly to unfavorable segment and product mix and price actions in the lab business intended to protect and grow market share.
For the full year 2025, Avantor reported revenue of $6.552 billion, down 3% organically. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.069 billion, representing a 16.3% margin, and adjusted EPS was $0.90. The company generated $496 million in free cash flow, or $599 million excluding transformation spend, with nearly 98% free cash flow conversion when adjusted for cash transformation costs.
Jones also noted Avantor repurchased $75 million of stock in the fourth quarter under a $500 million authorization. The company paid down approximately $300 million of debt in 2025 and added about $120 million of cash to the balance sheet. Adjusted net leverage ended the quarter at 3.2x adjusted EBITDA, flat year-over-year.
Segment performance and 2026 resegmentation details
In the fourth quarter, Laboratory Solutions revenue was $1.116 billion, down 4% organically, while Bioscience Production revenue was $548 million, down 4% organically. Jones cited a “reasonably stable” market environment in lab, though at lower activity levels, and said a prolonged government shutdown impacted the quarter, partially offset by end-of-year budget flush in equipment and instrumentation.
In Bioscience Production, Jones said bioprocessing (about two-thirds of the segment) declined at a high single-digit rate. Process chemicals declined double digits year-over-year due to backlog and a difficult comparison to the prior year’s fourth quarter, though it improved modestly sequentially. He said process chemicals (excluding serum) posted a book-to-bill above one for the quarter, and the order book was up high single digits year-to-date, while operational bottlenecks and elevated backlog remain areas of focus.
Looking to 2026, the company will report under two new segments:
- VWR Distribution and Services: A product-agnostic channel model, primarily third-party content plus VWR-branded products. Based on 2025 revenue, Jones said the channel component was about $4.4 billion and services about $300 million. The segment represented about 72% of 2025 revenue with an adjusted operating margin of 11.5%.
- Bioscience and Medtech Products: A channel-agnostic product business including process chemicals, fluid handling, NuSil silicones, and research and specialty chemicals. Jones broke out approximate 2025 revenues: process chemicals $500 million, fluid handling $400 million, NuSil $350 million, and research and specialty chemicals $600 million. The segment represented about 28% of 2025 revenue with an adjusted operating margin of 26.7%.
2026 outlook: transitional year with investment and margin pressure
For 2026, Avantor guided to organic revenue growth of -2.5% to -0.5%. The company expects foreign exchange to contribute about 1% to reported revenue growth, resulting in reported growth of -1.5% to +0.5%.
Jones said VWR is expected to “somewhat outpace” Bioscience and Medtech Products in growth, primarily due to difficult comparisons in the products segment related to serum, electronic materials, and NuSil. He also said the company expects to continue operational recovery in process chemicals and noted a strong order book there.
On profitability, Avantor expects EBITDA margins to contract by as much as 100 to 150 basis points in 2026, citing factors including mix shifts, Revival investments, incentive compensation reset, and price-cost spread. The company guided to adjusted EPS of $0.77 to $0.83 and free cash flow of $500 million to $550 million, with cash flow again expected to be weighted to the back half of the year. The guidance assumes no share repurchases in 2026.
For the first quarter, the company guided to EPS of $0.15 to $0.16, with Jones indicating it should be the low point of the year for most financial metrics and noting severe weather could be an additional headwind. In Q&A, Jones added that implied organic revenues in Q1 would be down 5% or more, offset by a meaningful FX tailwind.
Ligner said the company will prioritize organic revenue growth rate as the key metric to track Revival progress and reiterated that 2026 will be a year of transition and purposeful investment, with an emphasis on self-funding investments through efficiency and simplification efforts.
About Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)
Avantor, Inc (NYSE:AVTR) is a global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. The company delivers essential solutions that support research, development, production and safety applications. Its product portfolio spans from high-purity chemicals and reagents to biologics and cell culture media, as well as lab equipment, consumables and custom manufacturing services.
Avantor’s offerings are organized across two primary segments.
