Member Article

Strong product sales but pretax losses widen for Durham’s Kromek

Radiation detection technology firm Kromek has reported its strongest product sales year to date although losses still remain at the company.

The Durham-based firm, which focuses on the medical, security and nuclear markets, increased revenue for 2015/16 to £8.3m - slightly up on £8.1m last year.

However, pretax losses widened for the firm, increasing from £3.14m last year to £4.14m.

Despite this, Kromek made good progress during the period securing over $30m of new orders and says it delivered revenue ‘in line with expectations’.

The Group continued to maintain its strong market position as a key supplier of CZT detection systems both to commercial and government customers globally. It won significant contracts from multiple OEMs across its different key target markets, in particular in the largest growth opportunities of Nuclear Detection and Medical Imaging.

Kromek will remember the year for being awarded two of the largest contracts in the group’s history in its key growth markets.

Firstly, in Nuclear Detection, Kromek was selected as the sole source supplier by the U.S. Department of Defense agency, DARPA, to supply its D3S radiation detectors as part of the SIGMA programme in an agreement worth $6.0m.

Secondly, in the Medical Imaging sector, Kromek secured a five-year contract totalling $12.6m with a long-standing OEM customer in the BMD sector.

These two agreements, backed by multiple new contracts won through the year with new and current customers, left Dr Arnab Basu, CEO of Kromek, delighted with the firm’s commercial record for the year. commercial activities, strength of order book and revenue visibility.

Dr Basu said: “We are pleased with the results for this year where we saw product sales accounting for more than half of total revenues for the first time in the history of the Group.

“The year was also significant because we were awarded over $30m of contracts during the period - the largest value of contracts ever won in a year - and we strengthened our relationships with our current customers.

“We have entered the new fiscal year with increased momentum as we deliver on the contracts won in previous years. 3,500 units of the D3S radiation detectors have already been shipped to DARPA with the remainder of the contract to be delivered before the end of the year.

“Good progress has been made in the delivery of our CZT-based SPECT product to an OEM in Asia, which positions the Group well to capitalise on the significant commercial opportunity in the near term.

“Overall, the Group’s products continue to gain traction across the globe as Kromek deepens its relationships with long-term customers and expands its reach. With a strengthened order book in place and improved revenue visibility, the Board looks to the future with confidence.”

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