Funding boost for world-first health tech manufacturing site

Healthcare investment vehicle Impel Healthcare Catalyst has confirmed an additional seven-figure investment into its portfolio business Trio Healthcare.

The funding will be used to fast-track the development of Trio’s production facility at its manufacturing plant in Skipton, North Yorkshire, ahead of the anticipated launch of a “world-first” product for the ostomy market later this year.

Founded by Lloyd Pearce in 2006, Trio develops, manufactures and distributes a range of ostomy products, which have consistently delivered year-on-year growth for the company.

Impel, founded by Richard Anderson and Spencer Kerry, part of the former management team of Crawford Healthcare, made its first major investment in excess of £15m into Trio, taking a majority stake in the business. Anderson and Kerry joined the Trio board to leverage their previous experiences and success with Crawford.

This latest investment will accelerate Trio’s plans to finalise the development and commercialisation of a product which is intended to transform the lives of ostomy patients.

The new manufacturing process will be patent protected and will open up opportunities for a number of new highly-skilled jobs in the region.

Anderson said: “This is a crucial time for the multi-billion-pound ostomy market. With innovation at a standstill for over 60 years, the patients are in desperate need of innovation and the multinationals are flailing. Even worse, in some cases products are being withdrawn from the market due to the risk of harming patients.

“Industry data indicates 50 per cent of all ostomy patients report significant skin complications as a result of the products they are given and 50 per cent of those patients believe this to be ‘normal’.

“We at Trio believe it doesn’t have to be this way, and have accelerated plans to develop Trio’s new manufacturing plant and bring our game-changing product to market earlier than planned, which we believe will at least halve the cases of skin complaints in patients.”

Lloyd Pearce, founder and CEO of Trio, said: “What we are doing with help from Impel is truly ground-breaking and set to transform the lives of ostomy patients around the world.

“The technology has been under development for some time and we are incredibly excited to see it come to fruition. The creation of our manufacturing facility at Skipton is an important part of that journey.”