Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - Chemical technology company Accsys Technologies PLC on Monday said its pretax loss narrowed significantly in the first half on better revenue and an improved manufacturing margin.
The company - which focuses on the acetylation of wood to make it last longer - said its pretax loss for the half to the end of September was EUR100,000, compared to a EUR6.2 million loss a year earlier.
Revenue rose to EUR26.3 million from EUR21.8 million and the group's gross profit rose 88%, up to EUR9.4 million from EUR5.0 million, due to an improvement in its manufacturing margin. The revenue growth was driven by licensing and business development activities in the business, which resulted in it being earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation profitable for the first time since 2010.
The group struck a deal with Swiss chemicals company Solvay SA following the end of September to extend the deal between the two on the licensing, manufacturing and marketing of Accsys' Accoya wood product, while talks have now started with proposed partners for its Tricoya product.
"Our latest set of results confirms that our manufacturing process generates increasing returns, giving us greater confidence to progress with our objective of ensuring we maintain a share in new manufacturing capacity," said Paul Clegg, Accsys' chief executive.
Shares in Accsys were up 2.7% to 70.29 pence on Monday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.