Rebranding of BritainsDNA and ScotlandsDNA as MyDNA Global

There appear to be changes afoot at BritainsDNA and ScotlandsDNA following their acquisition by Source BioScience in December 2015.

If you visit the websites of BritainsDNA, ScotlandsDNA and the other associated websites (IrelandsDNA, CymruDNAWales, YorkshiresDNA, IzzardsDNA) you are now greeted with an error message. Here's the message as it appears in Google Chrome after clicking on the Advanced button. 

Here's the message as it appears in Firefox.

If you disregard the warnings and proceed to the websites then they are still functioning as normal. The security certificate mentions a company called MyDNA Global. I took a look at their website and it is a direct copy of the BritainsDNA family of websites but with a new name.

It therefore looks as though Source BioScience, the new owners, are in the process of rebranding the various BritainsDNA websites. There is also a newly created MyDNA Global Facebook page and Twitter account.

There is no change in the product offerings but the websites have been pared down. There is no longer a list of employees and the events page has disappeared. The legal verbiage on all the sites now appears in the name of MyDNA Global.

I've spoken to a couple of people who have tested at BritainsDNA but so far no one has had any communication from the company informing them of the changes.

Source BioScience have now published their annual report for the year ending on 31 December 2015. which provides further information about the acquisition. Here is a quote from page 17:

In December the Group acquired BritainsDNA, a provider of DNA-based ancestry and genealogy products to the consumer market. Source BioScience has been providing the laboratory testing and analysis for BritainsDNA for a number of years. The acquisition will deliver incremental revenue and increased operational efficiency for this business. The commercial activities will be migrated across to the Group’s e-commerce platform and e-Shop early in 2016.

The financial details of the acquisition are given on page 77. It would appear that the Moffat Partnership, the parent company of BritainsDNA (now renamed as Source BioScience Scotland) had considerable financial liabilities amounting to £570,000 but little in the way of tangible and intangible assets. These liabilities appear to have been offset by a goodwill valuation of £584,000.

There have not been any announcements from Source BioScience about their future plans for BritainsDNA/MyDNA Global so it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months. If anyone has any further information do let me know.

Big changes at the Moffat Partnership, the parent company of BritainsDNA and ScotlandsDNA

There seems to have been a big shake up at the Moffat Partnership, the parent company of BritainsDNA, ScotlandsDNA, CymruDNAWales, IrelandsDNA and YorkshiresDNA. According to reports filed yesterday at Companies House Alistair Moffat, Lindsay Moffat, Jim Wilson, Angelika Kritz-Wilson and Francis Rowan Oldfield De Courcy Hamilton stood down as directors on 9th December last year. Three new directors were appointed on 9th December: Timothy Charles Metcalfe, Dr. Nicholas Watson Ash and Dr. Nicholas Ivor Leaves. The three new directors all work for Source Bioscience, the company who process the Chromo2 DNA tests for the Moffat Partnership companies. Nick Ash is the CEO of Source Bioscience. Dr Nick Leaves is the company's Chief Operating Officer and Timothy Metcalfe is the Group Finance Director. It therefore looks very much as though the Moffat Partnership has been acquired by Source BioScience though I can find no official announcement. The various Moffat Partnership websites seem to be trading as normal.

Here is a description of Source BioScience from the company website:

With over 15 years of Sanger sequencing experience, the service operates from state of the art facilities in Nottingham, Cambridge, Oxford, Rochdale and BioCity Scotland, with European facilities in Ireland and Germany. The sequencing service provides unique benefits for the customer including an Overnight service, easy online ordering and SpeedREAD automated data delivery. 

Complimenting this, the next generation sequencing service for life science research, molecular pathology and clinical diagnostics utilises the Illumina MiSeq™ and HiSeq™ platforms to provide the most comprehensive and advanced service from GLP/GCP accredited laboratories. 

Contract research services feature a broad range of microarray, genotyping and gene expression applications on Affymetrix, Agilent, and Fluidigm platforms.
An extensive product portfolio includes over 20 million clones and over 200,000 antibodies, plus a wide range of research reagents for use in applications such as cell culture, immunology, nucleic acid analysis and cloning, gene expression and regulation. 

Source BioScience can offer researchers in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry the highest quality resources and innovative technology with maximum flexibility and cost effectiveness.

No doubt further announcements will be forthcoming in due course. It will be interesting to see what the company's plans are for the various Moffat Partnership websites.

©2016 Debbie Kennett