Animalcare trading in line as it changes accounting date

Veterinary medicine supplier Animalcare Group said trading for the year ended 30 June was in line with current market expectations, as it changed its accounting date to 31 December as part of the acquisition of Ecuphar, completed on 13 July.

The AIM-traded company said total sales for the year were up 8% at £15.87m, and underlying operating profits were expected to increase by 11.8% to £3.57m.

Following the change of accounting reference date, trading during the six month period to 30 June had been in line with the board's expectations in both sales and profit terms, which saw revenue growth of 4.1% versus the same period last year to £7.90m.

The licensed veterinary medicines division continued to grow strongly in the second half, the board said, with revenues increasing 17.2% to £5.46m, principally driven by growth of export sales of over 70.0%.

Sales from new products launched in the last twelve months contributed around £0.20m, and gross margins reportedly remained “favourable” versus the prior period.

Sales from the animal welfare products group declined by 3.2% to £1.42m due to a reduction in sales of the hygiene range, however the board said the infusion accessories range was up by 7.5% as it continued to experience solid growth.

Animalecare’s companion animal identification group revenues fell by £0.44m to £1.02m, which it said was primarily as a result of the £0.3m incremental sales benefit observed in the prior period following implementation of compulsory microchipping for dogs in the UK in April 2016 and the expected reduction in sales volume as a result of the lower addressable dog microchipping market.

“Changes to our business model implemented late in the period have shown good early results in growing microchip database services revenue,” the board said in its statement.

Period end cash balances were approximately £6.3m, down from £7.0m on 31 December 2016 and £7.1m a year earlier.

“As expected, we have made a significant investment during the second half in our product development pipeline, totalling approximately over £1.4m.

“As anticipated, this brings the total investment for the 12 months ended 30th June 2017 to almost £2.0m.”

Animalcare said investment in its product development pipeline was continuing on track, in particular with regard to the identification of novel formulations which - as previously stated - are a strategic focus for the group.