Eco Animal Health revenues offset by rising costs

Eco Animal Health, which specialises in the development and marketing of medicines for the control of disease in livestock, saw its pre-tax profit for the year creep higher after revenue gains were slightly offset by rising sales costs.

Pre-tax profit was £2.32m (2011: £2.29m) on revenues of £28.3m (2011: £27.1m), while the cost of sales increased from £16.4m to £17.5m year-on-year.

A small amount of additional income (£0.76m compared to £0.18m the previous year) helped to boost profits higher.

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Diluted earnings per share were 4.19p against 2.96p the previous year, with income pushed higher by the continued growth of the consumption of meat protein and the animal industry.

UK sales grew more than 30% during the year, reflecting the continued success of its direct-to-market strategy with its Aivlosin product.

Peter Lawrence, Executive Chairman of ECO Animal Health Group, said: "ECO has delivered another strong set of results for the year ended March 31st and the current year has started well.

"We are confident that the long awaited marketing authorisations in the US and Canada will have a major positive effect on the development of ECO, although it will be some months before the product launches gain momentum. We do not expect a noticeable impact on our financial performance until next year.

"ECO is very well placed to further broaden its product ranges and its global reach will ensure that it capitalises on opportunities as they arise in all the Company's major markets."

The share price fell 0.39% o 256.50p by 12:10.

NR