5th Dec 2018 09:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Image Scan Holdings PLC said Wednesday it sunk to an annual loss as revenue fell sharply on the cancellation of a key Asian order and generally lower sales, yet the firm expects to return to growth in new financial year.
For the year ended September, the X-ray scanner maker sunk to a GBP154,222 loss from a GBP477,377 profit the year prior. This was after revenue plummeted to GBP3.5 million from GBP5.0 million the year before.
Performance was hurt by a fall in sales of its portable X-ray orders primarily due to the cancellation of a "substantial" order by an "important" Asian customer as well as lower orders elsewhere.
The firm explained it did not see these sales falls as being "symptomatic of any wider decline in this market". In the first two months of the new financial year, Image Scan has secured orders for 20 portable units.
Shares in Image Scan were 8.8% lower at 2.60 pence on Wednesday.
"Image Scan grew rapidly in both sales and profits between 2015 and 2017 and so the cancelled order and the failure of the attempted acquisition have come as disappointments," Image Scan Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Bill Mawer said. "A decline in portable X-ray orders has exacerbated this. Our order pipeline is strong, we have strengthened our team and re-focussed our research and development activity to drive the business forward through organic growth."
Image Scan does not pay a dividend.
"In financial 2019 we plan to expand our security product range, extend our geographical market reach, and further build on our recent operational improvements," Mawer added. "Our industrial activity is performing well and continued tightening of automotive emissions legislation around the world provides a helpful backdrop for the highly specialised inspection systems we provide."
"The company has attractive and highly differentiated products in strongly performing market segments," Mawer continued. "We are well placed to put the setbacks of 2018 behind us and return to the growth of previous years."
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