Results round-up

Blood monitoring company Lidco Group swung to a pre-tax loss for the year ended 31 January 2016 as revenue slid.

The group reported a pre-tax loss of £578,000 compared with a £238,000 profit the year before, on revenue of £7.6m, down from £8.3m.

Lidco said it sold and placed 160 monitors in hospitals in the period, down from 267 the previous year.

Meanwhile, in the UK, a number of monitor sales slipped into the current financial year and the company said the last few years' purchases of disposables have been impacted by both changes to, and the introduction and then withdrawal of, central incentives for NHS hospitals to procure hemodynamic monitors and disposables.

In Continental Europe, Lidco sales fell to £0.73m from £0.89m in 2014/15, with monitor sales of 31 units compared with 50 the year before.

Chief executive officer Matthew Sassone said: “Our main challenge going forward is not one of validation for our technology, but rather execution and ensuring that we have the resources to expand our product sales into the many countries where adoption of advanced hemodynamic monitoring is now occurring.

“We are making good progress with the strategy laid out in October 2015 and have plans to expand our commercial efforts to achieve significant top line growth."

During the year, the company was awarded a five-year purchasing agreement by MedAssets, a US-based firm purchasing organisation working on behalf of a large 38 hospital healthcare group.

After year end, the group won a NHS supply chain framework agreement for its products and renewed a five-year commercial agreement with Argon Medical to distribute their pressure monitoring products in UK & Ireland.

Recruitment firm Michael Page said first quarter gross profit grew 3.6% to £142.4m in constant currencies, despite the timing of Easter and the challenging market conditions in several of its larger markets, including Greater China, the UK and Brazil.

The company saw particularly good performances in the US, and Continental Europe, which now account for over 40% of the group. However, challenging conditions in the Middle East, as a result of ongoing political instability and the depressed oil price, resulted in a drop in gross profit of 28%.

"Current market conditions remain stronger at lower salary levels and in temporary roles. This was reflected by the strong growth of 9% in our Page Personnel business, where temporary recruitment represents 41% of gross profit,” the company said.

“Our Michael Page business, where temporary recruitment represents only 17%, grew 2%. Overall, temporary recruitment grew by 10.6%, compared to 1.6% in permanent."