Revenues drop at listed animal health business

York-based Animal health business Animalcare Group has reported revenues of £71.1m in its full year results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2019.

This compares with £72.5m in 2018, a 1.9% decline, which the company attributes to “supply challenges”.

Its results also feature reported losses before tax of £1.6m (2018: £0.4m loss), while underlying EBITDA increased by 11.3% to £13.1m (2018: £11.8m).

Newly introduced Companion Animal products contributed to the Group’s sales, with £1.5m generated in the year.

And the business says four 2019 product launches are expected to show sales benefit in 2020.

Animalcare develops and sells veterinary products in the companion animal, production animal and equine markets.

Commenting on its response to the virus outbreak, the company’s report adds: “We have taken a number of steps, such as cutting overheads, careful management of inventory and a capital expenditure freeze for all but key development programmes and manufacturing transfers.

“This will limit cash outflows, thereby protecting our operational resilience and ability to pursue growth opportunities.

“This pandemic will pass and we will return to some form of new normality.”

Chief executive officer, Jenny Winter said: “Since the turn of the year the importance of employee safety and balance sheet strength has been thrown into even sharper relief by COVID-19.

“Performance over the first three months of the year was strong with the expected downturn in demand coming into view from Q2.

“The Companion Animals sector, where public health measures have often restricted veterinary activity to emergency treatments, has been the most affected.

“By contrast, the Production Animals segment has shown real resilience, helping to offset some of the decline in demand.

“Forecasting the exact shape and speed of the recovery will be difficult, though judging by the countries, like Germany, that have operated more normally through this period it is clear that the driver of the recovery in demand will be the speed with which vets return to work.

“We have noted the early signs of a return in some other countries more recently and continue to monitor the situation closely.”

 

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close