LONDON (Alliance News) - Animalcare Group PLC on Wednesday reported a rise in profit in its recently-ended financial year which it said was largely due to strong sales growth in its Licensed Veterinary Medicines division.
Shares in Animalcare were trading up 7.1% at 235.50 pence Wednesday morning.
The veterinary medicines supplier reported a 13% rise in pretax profit in the year ended June 30 to GBP3.0 million from GBP2.7 million, as revenue grew 5.1% to GBP13.5 million from GBP12.9 million.
Animalcare said revenue growth was principally driven by strong sales in its Licensed Veterinary Medicines division of 8.8%, which benefited from the main competitor to its Buprecare product being absent from the market in the first half of the year. Buprecare is an analgesic and controlled drug. This in turn drove an increase in pretax profit.
Animalcare will pay a total dividend of 6.1 pence for the year, up 11% from the 5.5p it paid the year before.
"I am delighted that we've followed last year's growth with another set of solid results, particularly with a strong performance from our Licensed Veterinary Medicines business. Again a key feature of our financial results has been the impressive cash generation of the business which has allowed us to continue our investment in new product development whilst maintaining a progressive dividend policy. We are well positioned to deliver further growth as planned from 2017 onwards," Chief Executive Iain Menneer said in a statement.
Animalcare noted that latest industry figures show that dog numbers in the UK have declined by 4.7% to 8.5 million and cats by 6.8% to 7.4 million, with this trend appearing to reflect across other pet species too. It said there are no clear reasons for this change at a time when the UK economy is growing, though it noted that animal charities believe these changes are as a result of their campaigns promoting responsible pet ownership.
"We believe we have limited exposure to these changes in pet population due to the clinical nature of our product portfolio and the demographic of veterinary customers likely to have been affected by changes in pet ownership," the company said.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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Animalcare Grp (ANCR)