LONDON (Alliance News) - Premier Veterinary Group PLC on Friday said its interim loss narrowed in the first half of its financial year and it intends to cut costs further to turn to profitability.
The pet care firm said pretax loss narrowed in the six months to the end of March to GBP1.9 million from GBP2.1 million reported for the same period a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP1.5 million from GBP1.2 million.
On a regional basis, revenue grew across all territories. In the UK, Premier Veterinary saw a 17% revenue growth during the year to GBP1.0 million from GBP887,000, while in the US revenue nearly tripled to GBP146,000 from GBP49,000.
In addition, in Europe, revenue was GBP352,000, up 59% from GBP221,000 reported in first half of last year.
Europe and the US remain the loss making territories, where the company intends to focus on cost reduction measures. Current cost cutting programme brought about GBP103,000 savings in the US and GBP63,000 across Europe, Premier Veterinary said.
Meanwhile, administrative expenses came in higher year-on-year at GBP3.4 million versus GBP3.1 million the prior year.
The company recorded 32% increase in total number of pets on fee-generating pet care plans, which now covers 212,000 animals compared with 161,000 covered the year before.
Premier Veterinary also added extra clinics in each region. The total number of veterinaries grew by 47% to 1,298 from 885 across all territories.
Looking ahead, the group said it expects to grow the the number of pets on plan across all geographical territories. It anticipates the UK division to remain profitable while some European countries also have a potential to turn to profit.
"Premier Veterinary has continued to make significant investments across all its geographical territories to ensure that it remains at the forefront in working with veterinary practices to deliver preventative healthcare programmes for pets," said Chief Executive Dominic Tonner.
"We are continuing to explore options that will enable the group to capitalise on the investment that has already been made in the US whilst at the same time reducing the continuing cash burn in this territory," added Tonner.
Shares in Premier Veterinary were trading 7.5% lower at 31.00 pence each on Friday.