Q Laboratories, Inc. was founded in 1966 by Herbert Quinn (that's where the Q comes from). Mr. Quinn originally operated a small microbiology laboratory, in the basement of his home testing mostly water. In 1985, Michael Knight, a former FDA Investigator, bought the company from Mr. Quinn and moved it into a facility on Harrison Avenue in the South Fairmount neighborhood of Cincinnati. Mr. Knight used his FDA background to expand the services offered to include testing of food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and dietary supplements and also opened the analytical chemistry department, implementing GMP quality standards throughout the entire operation.
Due to expansion and continued success, Q Laboratories, Inc. outgrew the South Fairmount facility and in 1995, bought the current Q Laboratories, Inc facility. After extensive renovations, the everyday operations of the laboratories were moved to the new building in 1997 and that is where Q Laboratories, Inc. resides today. In 2000, Mr. Knight passed away after a long illness, but had arranged to sell the business to David Goins, who at that point served as the Laboratory Director. Mr. Goins took over in 2000 and is still the owner of what has become one of the finest, privately owned, independent laboratories in the world.
The Q Laboratories, Inc. building has a unique place in Cincinnati history. Built in 1911, the building comprises over 16,000 square feet of space located in one of Cincinnati’s oldest neighborhoods, five minutes from downtown. The building originally housed the offices of the Herancourt Brewing Company, a now-defunct microbrewery that operated in the early 20th century. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Cincinnati was known as the as the brewing capital of the world, entailing over 36 breweries (including Herancourt) producing over 1.3 million barrels of beer a year. The building survived the great 1937 flood that struck Cincinnati, when the Ohio River actually engulfed several feet of the building.
The newly-renovated facilities now include state-of–the-art Analytical Chemistry, Microbiology and Research and Development laboratories, as well as administrative offices and meeting rooms on two completely refurbished floors. The winter of 2006 marked the completion of Phase III of a ten-year project to construct laboratory facilities second to none in the independent contract laboratory industry.
