Christopher James O'Connell - President, Chief Executive Officer and Member - Board of Directors
Management
Sure, sure, happy to comment a little on those things. Yeah, Europe was a really good quarter. As you know, Europe is pharma heavy, and we really saw a lot of strength in the recurring revenues there as well as solid instrument business, and so I think what we're seeing in Europe is just a reflection of what we're seeing more broadly on the pharma side. As we look at the back half of the year, I tend to take at a look at the entire first half and not one quarter in particular, and while we're, I would say, optimistic generally on the pharma market, the – we're more cautious on the industrial and academic markets in Europe in general. So, I'd say, we have a balanced outlook for the back half of the year in Europe that we're really keying off of the overall first half experience. As it relates to the UK, we're in a unique situation in England as well as in Europe broadly, with a big part of our mass spec footprint in the region, and by the way, don't forget that we also have significant operations in Ireland. So, we really have quite an opportunity to balance a number of considerations over time depending on how the exit plays out, depending on how currencies play out, depending on what trade barriers or trade agreements get struck, what type of tariffs ensue. Obviously, it's way too early to make any calls. We don't expect the government to invoke Article 50 for some time, probably into early to mid-2017. There is a lot of posturing right now. The new government is just forming in England or in the UK and not really showing its hand. We've done some work with some smart people who are beginning to conceptualize a couple of different possible scenarios. But really it's a stay calm and carry on message in our organization. We've really pushed our team to just remain focused on what we do well and what we can control. As you know, it's a good end market for us in the UK, less than 5%, but a good end market, that's pretty well balanced between pharma and academic at the top of the list. But we also have a meaningful amount of R&D in the UK and in Ireland, as well as product costs. So in the near-term, we're benefiting from some of the weaker currency. But again, it's a dynamic situation and I'm confident that no matter how it shakes out, we'll have avenues to continue to be successful in that region not just from a commercial standpoint, but also from an operational standpoint.