creating the perfect environment - Entries from March 2008

OVERSEAS growth and a contract with the Tate Gallery to store works of art helped Vindon Healthcare to achieve record sales and profits last year, the Oldham-based company has announced.

Its core business involves storing drugs under development for pharmaceutical giants such as AstraZeneca, Glaxo SmithKline and Pfizer, to test whether they are affected by different temperatures and degrees of humidity. But AIM-listed Vindon has begun branching out into other areas, storing items such as chocolate, Fisherman's Friend lozenges, toothpaste, vitamins, make-up and perfume.

It has also secured an order from the Tate to store works or art, books and old films not on display.

These developments coupled with Vindon's first sales in to the United States and Belgium helped it achieve a 30 per cent rise in sales during 2007, from £3.84m to £5m.

Pre-tax profits surged 37.7 per cent, from £972,000 to £1.34. The firm is to pay a maiden dividend of 0.1p.

Shares in Vindon gained 4.3 per cent, or 0.5p, to 17p.

Vindon, which employs 50 staff, is to move later this year from its headquarters at Diggle to a purpose-built site on Rochdale's Kingsway Business Park.

The switch will give it six times its current storage space and more capacity to manufacture blood storage banks for hospitals and chambers for growing plants in research laboratories.

During 2007 Vindon opened a facility in Tramore, Co Waterford, and has secured several deals. It is eyeing sales in Italy, France and Germany this year.

Chairman Liam Ferguson said: "Vindon has made a good start to 2008 and the board is pleased with the present order book position and new business inquiry levels.

"The group has a distinctive business capable of substantial growth which is backed by a robust financial platform and an enviable client list and track record.

"This, combined with its loyal and knowledgeable staff and excellent facilities, means that Vindon can face the challenges of the future with confidence."

He said Vindon is benefiting from the trend towards outsourcing in the pharmaceutical, medical and healthcare sectors and from increasing life expectancy which is giving rise to greater demand for drugs to treat illnesses and for cosmetic purposes.

Vindon had £3.75m of revenues booked at the end of 2007 for annual contracts and storage trials, ahead of the figure a year earlier.

Anne Crow, an analyst at broker WH Ireland, said Vindon's results were ahead of expectations.

She has now revised her forecasts for 2008 and predicts profits of £1.69m on turnover of £5.88m.

ENVIABLE Liam Ferguson, chairman of Vindon, seen here with operations director Ian Gordon (left) and business development manager Pat Jackson (right) spoke of 'substantial growth'


kevin feddy

Manchester Evening News
(c) 2008

Oldham-based Vindon Healthcare has reported a 34 per cent increase in net income after it opened a new facility in Ireland and made its first sales in the US and Belgium. It said 2008 has started well and announced the payment of its first ever dividend.

Net income was £888,000, up from £662,000 in 2006. Revenue meanwhile increased 30 per cent, to just under £5m. The company said it will pay a maiden dividend of 0.1p per share.

Vindon said trading in its core markets of manufacturing and stability storage remained buoyant during 2007. It said good progress had been made with its new disaster recovery services, for which the first major order was secured. In September Vindon opened a new facility in County Waterford, Ireland, which allows customers to perform stability storage trials and provides a local base for the group’s Irish service and validation engineers.

This year Vindon plans to consolidate all of its UK operations into one new site at Kingsway in Rochdale to facilitate a significant expansion in manufacturing capability, as well as offering independent facilities for stability storage.

Chairman Liam Ferguson said he believes Vindon is well positioned for the future. “The group has a distinctive business capable of substantial growth which is backed by a robust financial platform and an enviable client list and track record. This combined with its loyal and knowledgeable staff and excellent facilities means that Vindon can face the challenges of the future with confidence.”

Shares in Vindon rose 1.5 per cent, to 16.75p in early trading.

By Claire Shoesmith

Dow Jones International News (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Vindon Healthcare Year ended Dec. 31, 2007 ()=Loss/Debit Figs in GBP'000 and pence (p), unless otherwise stated.

	2007	2006
Turnover	4,986	3,840
Operating profit	1,382	1,105
Pretax profit	1,338	972
Basic EPS(p)	1.07	0.86
Diluted EPS(p)	1.04	0.84
Final dividend	0.1	nil
Total dividend	0.1	nil

Highlights: • Record results • Maiden dividend • New facility in Ireland • First sales to USA • First sales to Belgium • Excellent visibility of revenues • Well placed for future growth Edited Press Release LONDON (Dow Jones)--Vindon Healthcare announced Tuesday a full year pretax profit of GBP1.3 million compared with a profit of GBP1.1 million in the same period last year. The company said that that Vindon is well positioned for the future. The Group has a distinctive business capable of substantial growth which is backed by a robust financial platform and an enviable client list and track record. This combined with its loyal and knowledgeable staff and excellent facilities means that Vindon can face the challenges of the future with confidence.