Proteome punished as sales fail to perk up

Total revenues of £1.32m for the six-month period ended 30 June were down 2.4% on the period the previous year, as the company said the uptake in sales was “slower than anticipated” , but the firm’s loss before tax was still slashed by 22% to £1.41m.

Proteome managed to cut administrative costs by 18% to £2.02m after a laboratory consolidation in Frankfurt and office relocation to Central London pushed last year’s figures up.

As at 30 June the group had cash resources of £0.50m, down from £0.87m in 2017.

Chief executive Jeremy Haigh said: "Performance during the first six months of 2018 was behind expectations, with recognised revenues from our services business still lagging committed work orders as we continue to build our customer base; TMT revenues were ahead of the equivalent period in 2017."

Haigh added that interest in Europe and the US had grown after a marketing campaign and Proteome’s attendance to a variety of international conferences and conventions.

In total, the company secured 16 service orders with a total value of £0.49m in the period, outstripping the comparative period in 2017.

"We continue to broaden the range of our proteomic services and are optimistic that these, combined with our commitment to reliability, cost and quality, will allow us to develop our presence in an important and expanding market. As in previous years, we expect a stronger second half with further progress," said Haigh.

Proteome Sciences’ shares were down 8.08% at 3.47p at 0819 BST.