North East tech company Kromek has seen sales jump 16% to £12.1m on the back of growing traction in the nuclear detection market.
The Durham University spin-out supplies radiation detection products to customers around the world in the medical, security and industrial sectors, and said growing revenues came from existing contracts and development programmes, as well as increased commercial traction. It posted an Ebitda loss of £1.2m on the back of supply chain issues pushing back completion dates, but this was reduced from the previous year’s loss of £1.7m.
Previous pre-tax losses of £6.3m were also narrowed to £6.1m in the year ended April 30. The company, which has manufacturing facilities at NETPark in Sedgefield and Pennsylvania, US, highlighted strong revenue growth in advanced imaging, and that it is continuing to ramp up in delivery of a medical imaging contract expected to be worth $58.1m over seven years.
Read more: L&G boss calls for action as cost-of-living worsens regional divide
Its handheld ‘dirty bomb’ detectors have also received a lot of interest, leading to multiple contract wins, including repeat orders from the European Commission and a four-year contract worth £1.7m from a UK government agency customer. Kromek has also invested in developing new channels to market, including the signing, post year end, of a distribution agreement with Smiths Detection Inc. for the North and South American markets. 32 new customers were also won in the civil nuclear segment.
Dr Arnab Basu, CEO of Kromek, said: “We are pleased to report a year of good progress as we delivered on existing contracts and development programmes in both the advanced imaging and CBRN detection segments. Our revenues grew by 16% compared to the previous year as we saw increased commercial traction, particularly in the CBRN segment, and ended the year in a better position than we began it.
“Looking ahead, we entered the new financial year with a higher order book than the previous year and the highest level of revenue visibility in our history. The current geopolitical environment is driving greater interest from government agencies for our CBRN family of products and in advanced imaging we are experiencing heightened engagement with OEMs due to our strategic position as the only commercial independent global supplier of CZT. Consequently, for FY 2023 we anticipate substantial year-on-year revenue growth and we look forward to the future with increased confidence.”
In a separate announcement Kromek announced two new orders worth a total of $751,000, from existing OEM customers in the medical imaging market.
It sealed a $500,000 order from a longstanding customer for the supply of detectors for bone mineral densitometry applications, plus a $251k order from a US medical imaging customer that will use Kromek’s CZT detectors.
Dr Basu added: “These latest orders from long-standing OEM customers in our niche medical markets continue the group’s momentum and underpin the board’s confidence in meeting current year expectations. The board also believes these orders are indicative of the regular, repeat nature of business in the advanced imaging segment.”
READ NEXT
