Member Article

The business environment has toughened significantly, CEO at Boldon’s IDS

Patricio Lacalle, Chief Executive at Boldon-based Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings plc (IDS), spoke of an imperative need to execute the company’s ‘strategic plan without much compromise, and where possible, accelerate its implementation through acquisition’, following a ‘challenging’ six months for the company - reflected in negative financials released today.

Announcing its unaudited interim results this morning, for the six month period ended 30 September 2015 (H1 2016), the specialist solution provider to the clinical laboratory diagnostic market revealed a disappointing set of financials.

Financials

Group revenues dropped to £19.4m (H1 2015: £22.1m), a decrease of 12.5%. Similarly, gross profit came in at £12.1m (H1 2015: £14.7m), a gross margin percentage of 62.6% (H1 2015: 66.4%).

Moreover, statutory EBIT was £0.9m (H1 2015: £2.5m). Underlying EBIT in the six months to 30 September 2014 was £2.9m before exceptional costs of £0.5m.

Four strategic pillars

Mr Lacalle revealed that the group would continue to execute its ‘four strategic pillars’ plan, namely: Menu, Net New Placements, Cost Management and Corporate Development, as outlined in the 2015 Annual Report and Accounts.

He said: “We are about to change our approach in the market. Having been used to convenient sales inflow during the earlier days of 25 OH VitD, the business environment has toughened significantly.

“We will adjust to strong competition from the big 5 competitors by being the specialty partner for universities, reference laboratories and POL’s. Our products are of highly recognised quality and we must become more aggressive and better demonstrate the value of our offering.”

Mr Lacalle continued: “We now have a large portfolio of high quality manual assays. Our sales and marketing teams have run two sales campaigns to focus on either a specific product type or specific disease area.

“Our research and development teams all understand the necessity to triple our current portfolio and will work very hard to achieve this. This will all take time but we see a lot of opportunity in every market we are serving and also markets where we are not present today.

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