29th Apr 2015 08:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Aquaculture breeding, animal health and technical publishing company Benchmark Holdings PLC shares plunged on Wednesday morning after the company issued a profit warning for the first half of its financial year, due to a weak performance for its Salmosan sea lice treatment, which has been hit by a competitive market.
Benchmark said its Animal Health division saw materially lower-than-expected Salmosan sales in key markets in the half to the end of March, notably in Chile and to a lesser extent in Norway, due to the introduction of generic products and a more rapid-than-anticipated take-up of those products.
Salmosan is a mature product and is off-patent, and though Benchmark said it had expected a decrease in sales over time due to the introduction of generic rivals, the ramp up in sales for the new challengers has been faster than it had envisaged.
As a result, it has shifted it sales strategy for Salmosan to reward customer loyalty and has secured new volume supply contracts with a number of major customers, which it expects to stabilise product sales in the coming year.
Elsewhere, the company's Breeding and Genetics division is performing well, with result in line with expectations, while its Technical Publishing business is also trading in line with its forecasts.
Benchmark shares were down 27% on the news to 79.90 pence, the worst performer in the AIM All-Share.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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