Investment dents Nanoco’s bottom line
FIRST half losses widened at the nanotechnology specialist Nanoco after it invested in staff and facilities.
The Manchester-based group opened its first commercial production facility in Runcorn during the period that has enabled it to scale up the production of quantum dots – tiny fluorescent particles of semiconductor material which have the ability to emit light.
They are in demand by the makers of liquid crystal displays for computers, TVs and phones because they consume less power than existing systems.
The AIM-listed business saw losses grow from £470,000 to £1.65m in the six months to January 31. Sales fell from £1.6m to £1.1m but the company said it had cash of £3.8m and is continuing to tightly manage costs.
Nanoco said it has a good pipeline of potential customers, mainly in Asia. It already supplies to Japanese manufacturers and last week said it had received a £1.2m milestone payment from one customer. The group said its Japanese parters had not been affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
Nanoco has rivals in the US, such as Nanosys and QD Vision, but it is the only firm producing quantum dots on such a scale and free of heavy metals such as cadmium. The Runcorn site has enabled it to scale up production of quantum dots from milligrams to its first kilograms.
Chairman Dr Peter Rowley, said: “During the first half of our financial year we built and commissioned our semi-tech lines and produced commercial quantities of cadmium-free quantum dots. The production of quantum dots on this scale is a world first, and gives us great confidence for the future. Scale-up of our production, which is based entirely in the UK, is proceeding well and we have a good pipeline of potential customers mainly in Asia.
“The current half has seen the dreadful earthquake and tsunami in Japan and we extend our deepest sympathy to the Japanese nation. We have been advised that our partners’ facilities there have not been directly affected and we will seek to ensure that the good progress made to date continues apace.”
Nanoco, which was established in 2001 to commercialise research from the University of Manchester and Imperial College, London, is also applying its technology to solar panels and anti-counterfeiting devices.
