STERIS plc (STE)

STERIS is a global provider of products and services that support patient care with an emphasis on infection prevention. The company offers innovative healthcare and life science solutions, including consumable products (detergents, endoscopy accessories, barrier products, instruments and tools), services (equipment installation and maintenance, microbial reduction of medical devices, instrument and scope repair, laboratory testing, and outsourced reprocessing), capital equipment (sterilizers, surgical tables, and automated endoscope reprocessors), and connectivity solutions such as operating room integration.

STERIS reports in three segments: Healthcare, Applied Sterilization Technologies (AST), and Life Sciences. The Dental segment was divested in fiscal 2025 and is presented as discontinued operations. Healthcare serves sterile processing departments and procedural centers with cleaning chemistries, sterility assurance products, endoscope reprocessing systems, endoscopy accessories, washers, sterilizers, surgical tables and lights, along with equipment maintenance, instrument and endoscope repair, and outsourced instrument reprocessing. AST provides contract sterilization and laboratory testing through a global facility network, plus integrated sterilization equipment such as accelerators and control systems and related service support. Life Sciences supports biopharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing, particularly aseptic manufacturing, with pharmaceutical detergents, cleanroom disinfectants and sterilants, sterilizers and washers, vaporized hydrogen peroxide decontamination systems, and high purity water and pure steam generators, plus equipment maintenance and specialty services.

Most revenue comes from healthcare, medical device and pharmaceutical customers. Demand is driven by aging populations, growing numbers of medical procedures including preventive endoscopies and colonoscopies, and customers' desire to operate more efficiently. In the year ended March 31, 2026, no customer exceeded 10% of revenue in any segment. Healthcare capital equipment sales tend to be higher in the fourth fiscal quarter. Capital equipment backlog was $490.7 million at March 31, 2026, with $392.1 million in Healthcare and $98.7 million in Life Sciences.

STERIS buys raw materials and components from numerous suppliers in the United States and abroad. It has long-term contracts for scarce or single-sourced materials such as ethylene oxide and cobalt-60 used in AST, and is expanding accelerator-based irradiation capacity to mitigate cobalt-60 supply risk. It manufactures, assembles and packages products in several countries under a global quality management system, and is regulated by the FDA, EPA, OSHA, NRC and foreign authorities. Sales and service are handled by regional clinical specialists, account managers and field support staff, supplemented by distributors and dealers. Competitors include 3M, Baxter, Ecolab, Getinge, Olympus, Stryker, Belimed and Sterigenics. The company held 606 U.S. patents and 2,402 patents in other jurisdictions as of March 31, 2026, and mentions operations in Ireland and the United States.