Daresbury hygiene group says it is confident of its full-year progress

Half year revenues have almost doubled and losses narrowed for Byotrol, the Daresbury-based hygiene products group.

Announcing its interim figures for the six months to September 30, today, it said turnover grew from £1.123m last year to £2.174m, while pre-tax losses fell from £972,000 in 2018 to £624,000.

Non-executive chairman, John Langlands, said: “We remain very excited about the business outlook for Byotrol.”

The firm said it has gross cash and cash equivalents of £2.01m at the period end, sufficient to complete its growth plans.

All its business units and strategic initiatives are progressing satisfactorily, while Medimark, which it acquired in August 2018, is running ahead of the previous year.

The results include US losses of £120,000 for the period, compared with £140,000 in 2018.

The group said: “In the US, we continue to seek a partner for Byotrol24 and are now engaged in a number of early-stage discussions.

“As this process continues we are reducing marketing spend linked to the Target retail trial and are now expecting the in-store trial to lapse at the end of March 2020. We hope to be in an alternative relationship with a better risk/reward profile by this time.”

Byotrol said in today’s statement that it has continued confidence in achieving a positive EBITDA at the year-end.

Mr Langlands said: “We are pleased with progress in the year to date.

“Trading losses are reducing rapidly and will continue to do so as the formal integration with Medimark concludes at year-end.

“The team is also working on a number of business development and monetisation opportunities that should improve results for the full year.

“The board remains confident that the company is on target to deliver sustainable operating profits.”