Losses widen at Plant Impact

NORTH West crop nutrition specialist Plant Impact saw losses widen in the six months to September.

The Preston company, which develops and markets eco-friendly products which protect crops, said sales fell 34% to £638,400 during the period, while pre-tax losses grew from £889,000 last year to £1.1m.

In a statement chairman Martin Robinson said the group’s performance had been affected by regulatory delays, bad weather in the US and economic problems in Spain.

But he insisted the board remained confident in Plant Impact’s business model as the company continued to sign new distribution agreements and saw revenue from its crop nutrition product grow by 35%. Despite a fall in group turnover losses for the full-year will be “broadly in line” with expectations.

“Plant Impact has made progress on many fronts in the last six months,” said Mr Robinson, pictured. “Crop Nutrient sales and product gross margin have increased, we signed new distribution agreements, commenced trials on broad acre crops with Syngenta and received excellent results from our turf trials with the USDA [United States Department of Agriculture].”

He added: “We continue to make exciting progress with a number of major partners and hope to announce further commercial arrangements with these agrochemical companies shortly.”