Surgical Innovations Regulatory News (SUN)

25 Jun 2008 12:00



Surgical Innovations™ Group plc

("SI" or "the Group")

AGM Statement and Trading Update

Surgical Innovations™ Group plc (AIM: SUN), the designer and manufacturer of innovative surgical devices, will be holding its Annual General Meeting today at 1:00pm in Leeds.

At the meeting Doug Liversidge, Non-Executive Chairman, will provide the following trading update: 

"2007 was a year in which we once again delivered improved levels of sales and pre-tax profits.

"To meet the anticipated worldwide growth in minimally invasive surgery and the increasing demand for our suite of obesity-related products, we made the strategic decision to invest in new facilities that have substantially increased our capacity. This relocation, our first since trading began in 1992, is complete and has tripled our floor space, consolidating all our operations into one location in Leeds. The move and subsequent refit has, as expected, required significant capital expenditure and we look forward to the benefits that this will provide the Group in the future.

"YelloPort™ Plus, our advanced laparoscopic port access system, continues to be well received by surgeons in the US. A series of important evaluations by major surgical procedural tray supply companies is progressing. This should open important routes to the procurement decision-makers in hospital groups across the country.  As a result of this, we anticipate that sales for the year will be biased towards the second half, as occurred in 2007.

"Elsewhere we see good opportunities to establish ourselves within new and growing markets - in particular in Eastern Europe where closer integration with the EU has meant that trading conditions are becoming more favourable. Countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia are beginning to invest further in laparoscopic surgery and we are already receiving orders from those countries following successful trials.  YelloPort™ Plus is now established in Spain following trials and evaluations, in addition we are also focusing on growth within Scandinavia and other key territories.

"To ensure we maintain our competitive advantage we continue to invest in product development in conjunction with our end-users and partners. We have recruited new designers and engineers to ensure we can meet the demands of an ever changing market.   We will be launching new products later this year and we are also reviewing new technologies and product licences where we see synergies with our existing range.

"There are approximately 1.2 billion overweight people around the world according to the World Health Organisation and this offers us the opportunity to further develop our instrumentation targeted at operations for obesity."

- Ends -

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Notes to Editors:

Surgical Innovations Group plc specialises in the design and manufacture of innovative devices for use in minimally invasive surgery and industrial markets. The Group employs over 50 people and is headquartered in Leeds.

The Group's subsidiaries Surgical Innovations Limited and Haemocell Limited are focused on strong international growth in two specialist areas namely minimally invasive surgery, where products are used in 'keyhole' surgery which is more accurately known as laparoscopic surgery, and products for autologous blood transfusion whereby a patient's own blood is recycled.

The Group's subsidiary company Core Precision Limited utilises Surgical Innovations' core medical device design expertise and technology in innovative engineering applications.

For more information, see www.sigroupplc.com