Dechra boosted by acquisitions
Acquisitions and new products have driven a huge jump in revenues at animal medicine maker Dechra Pharmaceuticals.
The company, which has a key operation at Sansaw Business Park near Shrewsbury, delivered a 35 per cent increase in sales to £172.6 million in the six months to December 31.
Dechra has been on an acquisition drive in the last two years, taking over Croatian chicken vaccine specialist Genera and Mexican firm Brovel in 2015, before adding American company Putney and Australia-based Apex Laboratories last year.
Those takeovers delivered £40.9 million of sales in the first six months of the financial year, compared with £10 million which they added to the top line in the same period in 2015.
Pre-tax earnings were also well ahead of the previous year, rising by 27.7 per cent at actual exchange rates to £41.6 million.
Chief executive Ian Page said: "Our core portfolio continues to grow, the enhanced product pipeline is delivering new products and good progress has been made on the rationalisation and integration of our recent acquisitions."
He added: "The group continues to perform well with current trading meeting management expectations.
"Our core portfolio continues to grow, the enhanced product pipeline is delivering new products and good progress has been made on the rationalisation and integration of our recent acquisitions.
"The board therefore remains confident in our strategy, our future prospects and our expectations for full year performance."
Dechra employs more than 20 people at Sansaw to the north of Shrewsbury, where its regulatory team works on getting new products into the UK market. The Shropshire base for the firm also contains a marketing operation.
