Biome Tech Regulatory News (BIOM)

7 Nov 2008 07:00



7th November 2008

STANELCO PLC ("the Company" or "the Group")

Interim Management Statement

The Board of Stanelco Plc today issues its interim management statement for the nine month period ended 30 September 2008.

Overview

The first nine months of the year saw 120% growth in sales revenue to £12.2m compared with the same period last year (2007: £5.6m). We continued to make progress in reducing our operating losses.

Divisional Performance

BioPlastics

Commercialisation of the bioplastics technology continues as the Company broadens its base of regular customers, which is now developed across a variety of European markets.

Sales of bioplastics, made directly by Stanelco, are now up 450% compared to the same 9 month period last year. Direct sales in the third quarter were up 24% on the second quarter, reaching £1.4m year-to-date.

In the third quarter the Company opened a small sales office in the USA to begin the process of exploiting the emerging opportunity for sustainable bioplastics in North America. This renewed activity is being driven by an experienced plastics industry professional and is already creating an encouraging pipeline of trials.

We have continued to strengthen the BioPlastics division in the UK by recruiting further senior technical and customer support expertise with substantive relevant expertise.  

Further minor investment in development and testing equipment was also made at the UK development facility in the period. Development trials continue to establish pace and laboratory success, with a number of new products having moved to pre-commercial trials with several customers.

RF Applications

In RF Applications division, the strong enquiry book is gradually being converted into orders and we expect to see some benefit of that in the second half as the General Manager and newly appointed Sales Manager begin to achieve traction.

The optical fiber furnace market continues to show encouraging signs, driven by continued fiber demand in Asia. In the third quarter, Stanelco continued to strengthen its position in China with its first order for its new generation of higher capacity furnaces powered by Stanelco's new RF generator.

There is also growing interest in the newly developed mobile welding products. However, the long lead times from enquiry to order mean that this is likely to have limited impact on this financial year's results.

Financial Position

We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet. Our cash position at 30 September was £6.9m, strengthened since the half year by working capital movements related to stock reduction.

Outlook 

Our strategy is clear and good progress is being made. We continue to look for compatible and sensible investment opportunities.

We remain alert to the rapidly changing economic conditions throughout the world, but we have not seen an impact on our business as yet. The Board's expectations for the financial performance for 2008 remain in line with those set earlier in the year.

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