Charles River Laboratories Reports $4.02 Billion Revenue and Leadership Transition for Fiscal Year 2025

Charles River Laboratories Reports Fiscal Year 2025 Results, Announces Leadership Transition

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (CRL) reported total revenue of $4.02 billion for the fiscal year 2025, a decrease of 0.9% compared to $4.05 billion in fiscal year 2024. The decline was primarily attributed to lower volume in the Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA) business, reflecting cautious client spending in the biopharmaceutical sector. This was partially offset by increased revenue in the Research Models and Services (RMS) business, driven by higher sales of large research models.

The company's operating income for fiscal year 2025 was $25.2 million, representing an operating income margin of 0.6%. This is a significant decrease compared to the $227.3 million operating income and 5.6% margin reported in fiscal year 2024. The decline in profitability was primarily due to intangible asset impairment charges within the Manufacturing and RMS businesses, accelerated amortization expense related to certain CDMO client relationships, and the aforementioned revenue impacts. These factors were partially offset by decreased charges related to goodwill impairments, lower severance costs, and the absence of an inventory charge incurred in connection with the investigations by the U.S. government into the non-human primate supply chain in fiscal year 2024. Net loss available to common shareholders was $144.3 million, compared to net income of $10.3 million in the prior year.

Strategic developments during the year included the integration of Discovery Services and Safety Assessment into a unified DSA organization. In January 2026, the company acquired certain assets of K.F. (Cambodia) Ltd., a provider of non-human primates, for $510 million. In November 2025, the Board of Directors announced a comprehensive strategic review, focusing on strengthening the core scientific portfolio, divesting non-core assets (approximately 7% of 2025 revenue), maximizing financial performance, and maintaining a disciplined approach to capital deployment. The company also announced a leadership transition plan, with Birgit Girshick appointed as the next Chief Executive Officer, concurrent with James C. Foster’s planned retirement in May 2026.

Key operational metrics included a decrease in DSA backlog to $1.9 billion as of December 27, 2025, from $2.0 billion as of December 28, 2024. The RMS backlog was approximately $640 million, and the Manufacturing backlog was approximately $123 million. The company continued to implement cost-saving initiatives, including workforce reductions and site optimization, with the goal of achieving approximately $300 million in cumulative, annualized cost savings by the end of 2026. As of December 27, 2025, the company had approximately 19,700 employees, with 59% located in North America, 32% in Europe, 7% in Asia, and 3% in other regions.