Investment in innovation bears fruit for biotech company
Sheffield-headquartered aquaculture biotechnology company, Benchmark, has hailed positive momentum as it publishes its second quarter and half year results for the six months ended 31 March 2024.
The business reports quarter two FY24 revenues of £39.8m, 10% below quarter two FY23 (£44.2m) along with a pre-tax loss of £700,000 (Q2 FY23 £1.7m loss).
H1 FY24 revenues of £80.2m were 19% below H1 FY23 (£98.7m) while for the same period the company recorded a pre-tax loss of £7.9m (H1 FY23 £1.2m loss).
Trond Williksen, CEO, said: “I am pleased with the company’s performance in the second quarter, and the first half as a whole, which demonstrated good momentum in the business supporting our positive outlook.
“We have delivered strong trading in our established business areas, have made excellent progress in Chile, one of our key growth vectors, and made significant progress in our innovation programme where our recent investment to strengthen our innovation capabilities is bearing fruit.
“We remain focused on the transition to a new business model for Ectosan® Vet and CleanTreat® which will strengthen our sea lice solutions portfolio and deliver a much needed alternative to our customers.
“With our unique platform of mission critical specialised solutions in areas where we hold market leading positions we are strongly positioned to continue to deliver growth and to build sustainable shareholder value.”
Benchmark adds that its group operating costs in H1 FY24 were £20.4m, 14% below H1 FY23 with a reduction across all business areas despite a high inflation environment.
It says this is the result of well embedded cost control across the group along with a programme of operational efficiencies.
It its outlook statement, the business says it is trading in line with management’s expectations for the full year.
