26th Oct 2015 09:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - Agricultural bioscience company Plant Impact PLC on Monday said its pretax loss narrowed in the year to the end of July as it increased its revenue and expanded sales of its Veritas product across the Brazilian soy market.
Plant Impact, which develops crop enhancement products designed to boost crop yields and quality, said its pretax loss in the year to July 31 was GBP249,000, compared to a GBP853,000 loss made a year earlier. Thanks to an income tax credit, it made a profit after tax of GBP119,000, compared to a GBP668,000 post-tax loss in 2014.
Total revenue for the company rose to GBP4.5 million in the year, up from GBP2.5 million, while gross margin improved substantially, to 79.0% from 72.0%, as cost of sales only increased to GBP972,000 from GBP714,000. That benefit was broadly wiped out by higher sales and marketing, research and development and administrative costs, however.
The company said it flagship soybean foliar spray, Veritas, led the revenue increase thanks strong growth in Brazil, with the product now being sold to all sow-growing regions in Brazil. The technology is now undergoing field tests outside Brazil and technical trials are currently progressing for the company's second and third crop enhancement products for soy.
"We are delighted with the significant growth over the past year. Having achieved a series of strategic milestones, we remain on course to deliver our plans for 2016 and beyond," said John Brubaker, Plant Impact's chief executive.
"The board remains confident of the group's strategic direction and financial prospects over the medium term and the longer term scale-up potential. Plant Impact has a strong foundation to substantially grow the business as we focus on our strategy to expand our technologies into global broad acre crops," Brubaker added.
Shares in Plant Impact were up 9.3% to 59.00 pence on Monday morning.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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