DawMed cleans up in Germany

DAWMED Systems, the company that designs and makes decontamination equipment used in the healthcare sector, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a major German company.

The deal will see Rotherham-based DawMed supply its 'AERclens Chemical' machine, a washer-disinfector for endoscopes, which are used to look inside the body, to Schulke & Mayr.

Schulke & Mayr is a subsidiary of AIR Liquide, a world leader in medical and industrial gases and chemicals, based in France.

Schulke & Mayr will resell, install and service the equipment to the healthcare sectors in Germany and Austria and will also sell all detergent and disinfectant chemicals directly to the users of the equipment.

Kevin Gilmore, DawMed's executive chairman, said the MOU was part of the AIM-listed company's strategy to increase its presence in export markets, particularly in Europe.

Mr Gilmore said: “Today's announcement is a further meaningful positive for DawMed which may or may not represent the first stage of a potential distributorship agreement with Schulke & Mayr for sales of DawMed's AERclens decontamination equipment in Northern Europe.”

Jean-Luc Charlet, managing director of Schulke & Mayr, said: “We are extremely pleased with this agreement with DawMed. This co-operation will help our customers to get a very efficient and very reliable solution to their daily problems in the field of instrument disinfection.”

DawMed warned in December that it was on track to make a significant annual loss due to an IT investment programme, litigation costs and a lack of spending by the NHS.

The group said it had seen an improvement in the second half of the year to September 30, but it will still make a loss for the period and the overall result for the year will therefore be a “significant loss”.