BioGaia still feeling impact of fermentation sale
key Japanese customer helped reduce the impact of the divestment of
its Fermenation unit last year.
Swedish probiotics developer BioGaia said sales of its tablets to a key Japanese customer helped reduce the impact of the divestment of its Fermenation unit last year.
Net sales at the group dropped for the first half of the year to SK 29.9 million (€3.31m), down by SK 7.0 million compared with the previous year. Excluding the sold fermentation business however, BioGaia boosted sales by SK 14.8 million over the same period of last year, mainly due to sales of tablets to Erina in Japan.
The firm managed to reduce its operating losses to SK -18.7 million, from SK31.5 million over the preceding year, and almost doubled its gross profits reaching SK20.6 million.
But despite a reduced R&D expenditure from SK 17.5 million to SK 13.9 million and decreased capitalisation of development expenses, profits fell by SK52.3 million to SK -7.9 million, largely due to the capital gain of SK 74.3 million included in last year's result for the sale of the fermentation business.
BioGaia has announced a number of new developments this year however which look set to bring in new revenue, including the recent agreement with Swedish food manufacturer Procordia for use of its probiotics in foods, another with Australian supplement company Blackmores and extension of its LifeTop straw into new markets including Italy and China.
