Medtech company optimistic of recovery
Medtech company Surgical Innovations which said in March that its business continued to be impacted by the effects of Covid-19 is now on the road to recovery, according to its latest trading update.
The Leeds-based firm noted that a number of key healthcare markets were beginning to resume elective surgery at “close to pre-covid levels” and that the pent-up demand is leading providers to seek innovative ways to increase productivity and reduce waiting times and costs – with the NHS utilising a seven day operating week and continuing to use the private sector to reduce the backlog.
As a result the business noted that as a result of the returning market evaluations of its products which were paused during the second wave of the pandemic have now restarted resulting in the UK team expecting three key accounts to convert to initial orders in the coming weeks.
Trading is still behind the 2019 levels with the group revenue for the first five months of 2021 at least 80% of those achieve for the comparable period in 2019 but up 50% on the same period last year. Sales within the US and Japan have been encouraging with “substantial levels of restocking orders”, while in the UK sales have continued to improve with figures for May 2021 at the highest level since September 2019.
The group’s focus on sustainability which saw it launch the Green Surgery Challenge in February alongside Royal College of Surgeons and the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare via its wholly owned subsidiary Elemental Healthcare has recently benefitted from a new clinical paper out of the University of Brighton Medical School which noted that “reposable products” manufacturing by the company could play “an important role in meeting carbon reduction targets in healthcare and saving money”
Looking ahead the board considers the prospects for the Group to be “very positive in the mid to long term” although it remains cautious in the short term.
