Byotrol narrows full-year loss on cost-cutting and higher revenue

Byotrol revealed a narrower loss in its full year results, buoyed by significantly lower operating costs and slightly higher revenue.The anti-microbial hygiene company posted a pretax loss of £0.7k for the 12 months to 31 May, an improvement from £0.8m a year earlier.Revenue was up to £3.3m, from £3.1m a year earlier, although headline revenues plummeted 63% from £0.8m to £0.3m in the consumer division, hit by a previously-disclosed one-off licence suspension payment made by a US licencee in the first half of 2014.Meanwhile operating costs shrank 21% from £2m to £1.6m.The company highlighted growth in its professional and pet care business and said it had enjoyed "substantial improvements and investments in breadth and quality of technology".A joint marketing agreement with ISS Facilities Services, a new technical development relationship with Solvay and the overhaul of many products to fit with EU regulations were cited in Byotrol's positive outlook for the coming year.However, chief executive David Traynor conceded: "The financial performance is not yet where we need it to be, but it is steadily improving and the quality of our products is improving in leaps and bounds.""We are now turning more aggressively to sales, using our own resources and those from alliances, agents and exclusive partnerships," he said of upcoming strategy."We would certainly like to expand our own in-house sales force substantially, but we will only increase overheads as sales and margins allow," he added.Byotrol was trading 4% lower at 3.6p as of 9:20 BST.