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(Alliance News) -Â Infection prevention products provider Tristel PLC on Monday said annual profit grew as hospital surface disinfectant sales helped to offset a decline in medical device decontamination sales.
Revenue for the financial year ended June 30 was GBP31.7 million, up 21% from GBP26.2 million the year before. Pretax profit rose 40% to GBP6.6 million from GBP4.7 million.
"We delivered another very sound performance in a year turned on its head by Covid-19, the impact of which was a reduction of GBP0.5 million in medical device decontamination sales and an increase of GBP2 million in hospital surface disinfectant sales," said Chief Executive Paul Swinney.
During the March to June period, when the impact of Covid-19 was at its greatest, global sales were GBP11.8 million compared to GBP9.1 million in the same period last year, an increase of 30%. Medical device decontamination product sales accounted for 74% of sales in this period, while sales of hospital surface disinfection products accounted for 15%.
Tristel said it was able to steer its way through the early Covid-19 crisis by mitigating the fall in demand for its primary product portfolio via a rapid increase in supply of its hospital surface disinfection products.
Turning to the recently-started financial year, Swinney said the company has seen a "gradual recovery" in demand for medical device products in all its markets in the first quarter.
"Since February, we have acquired a significant number of hospital customers for our surface disinfectant products. We expect this build-up of our hospital surface disinfection business to continue throughout this and future years. It is a key strategic focus of the company," he added.
While further Covid-19 lockdowns may "temporarily interrupt our group's forward momentum", Tristel is optimistic for the year's trading outlook.
Tristel raised its full-year dividend by 12% to 6.18 pence.
Shares in Tristel were up 2.2% at 509.00p in London on Monday.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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