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Companies · ECL

ECL Reported this cycle

Ecolab

Saint Paul, MN Founded 1923 Chemicals & Materials

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Latest analysis

Updated Aug 6, 2026

Ecolab Q2 2026: CoolIT Systems acquisition at $4.75B signals aggressive pivot into data center liquid cooling; Life Sciences organic growth accelerates to 15%

Ecolab's Q2 2026 10-Q is defined by two structural developments: the $4.75 billion acquisition of CoolIT Systems — a pure-play data center liquid cooling company — which closed July 2, 2026, and the 15% organic sales acceleration in Global Life Sciences driven by a bioprocessing spike that drove segment operating margins up 5.5 percentage points to 26.5%. Reported net sales increased 10% to $4,415.4 million, with 5% organic growth powered by pricing (4 points) rather than volume (1 point), while a newly introduced energy surcharge signals that commodity cost inflation is becoming acute enough to require explicit pass-through mechanisms. The balance sheet absorbed $5.1 billion in new senior notes to fund CoolIT, nearly doubling total debt from $8.2 billion to $13.2 billion, even as net debt to EBITDA held at 2.0x on the strength of trailing EBITDA of $3.9 billion.

Tone: mixed

Revenue

$16.1B

ECL 10-K · FY 2025

Employees

48,000

Revenue FY2024

$15.7B

Founded

1923

Profile

ECL 10-K Item 1 · Feb 23, 2026

Ecolab is a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services, generating approximately $16 billion in annual sales across more than 170 countries. The company serves customers in food, healthcare, data centers, microelectronics, life sciences and hospitality through four reportable segments: Global Water, Global Institutional & Specialty, Global Pest Elimination, and Global Life Sciences. Its differentiated value proposition combines science-based chemistry, digital monitoring, AI-enabled technology and direct field service to help customers optimize water and energy use while reducing environmental impact.

Read filing description ↓

A trusted partner for millions of customers, we are a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services that protect people and the resources vital to life. For more than a century, we have advanced innovation by integrating science-based solutions, data-driven insights, AI-technology and world-class service. This unique combination enables us to partner with customers to define what best-in-class looks like and scale it across their operations, helping them achieve peak performance. Today, we have $16 billion in annual sales, 48,000 associates and customers in more than 170 countries and 40 industries. We help protect one-third of the world's food production and a quarter of the power generated while delivering innovative solutions across food, healthcare, data centers, microelectronics, life sciences and hospitality. Our comprehensive approach protects what's vital, aiming by 2030 to help protect 2 billion people from infections and enough drinking water for 1 billion people while enhancing business performance. We pursue a 'One Ecolab' enterprise selling strategy, built on the legacy of 'circle the customer – circle the globe', where we provide an array of innovative programs, products and services designed to meet the operational and sustainability needs of our customers throughout the world. Sustainability is core to our business strategy. We deliver sustainable solutions that help companies around the world achieve their business goals while reducing environmental impacts. In 2024, we helped our customers conserve more than 226 billion gallons of water and avoid more than 4.6 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Primary products

  • water treatment products and technology programs
  • cooling water treatment programs
  • boiler water treatment programs
  • wastewater treatment programs
  • ultra-pure water technologies
  • scale and corrosion inhibitors

Business segments

Global Water Global Institutional & Specialty Global Pest Elimination Global Life Sciences

End markets

food and beverage processing manufacturing transportation chemical primary metals and mining power generation global refining petrochemical pulp and paper foodservice hospitality lodging government education retail healthcare data centers microelectronics life sciences quick service restaurants food retail pharmaceutical animal health blood purification and dialysis biologic products cosmetics medical devices

Geographies

North America Europe Latin America Asia Pacific India, Middle East and Africa Greater China

Named customers

ChampionX

We believe our business is not materially dependent upon a single customer. Additionally, although we have a diverse customer base and no customer or distributor constituted 10 percent or more of our consolidated revenues in 2025, 2024 or 2023, we do have customers and independent, third-party distributors, the loss of which could have a material adverse effect on results of operations for the affected earnings periods; however, we consider it unlikely that such an event would have a material adverse impact on our financial position.

“We believe we are one of the leading global suppliers of products and programs for chemical applications within the industrial water treatment and petroleum refining industries.” Competitive position, as stated in the filing

Revenue commentary · FY 2025

Reported sales increased 2% to $16.1 billion in 2025 from $15.7 billion in 2024, with organic sales growth of 3% when excluding currency effects and acquisitions.

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Analysis, signals, diligence answers, M&A activity and every quote, each citing the filing it came from.

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