News: Inditherm increases turnover following NICE recommendation

Innovative Rotherham company, Inditherm, has released their latest financial results highlighting an increase in turnover and gross profit for the 12 months to the end of December 2011.

The Manvers firm is the only UK manufacturer of patient warming systems and have developed products using low voltage carbon polymer technology to provide heat.

The preliminary results show good progress in its core medical business thanks to The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the UK government's regulatory authority, issuing guidance last year that supports the use of Inditherm patient warming systems for patients undergoing operations which carry risk of inadvertent hypothermia.

The recommendations have led to increasing Inditherm's profile within the NHS and led to a gathering momentum of enquiries for their operating theatre products.

A deal was recently signed that will see Inditherm supply more than 25 complete systems to be installed in hospitals at four separate sites across the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

Mark Abrahams, chairman of Inditherm, said: "Against a backdrop of significant uncertainty in the NHS, the publication of the NICE guidance on our operating theatre products in August 2011 has stimulated a significant increase in sales enquiries and we anticipate that this will translate into increased order flow in the year ahead.

"Despite the variable nature of the export sector of our medical business through independent distributors, with partners now in over 50 overseas countries, we expect that sales growth can continue.

"Additionally, we are involved in a small number of potential projects involving the use of Inditherm technology in third party products (OEM), some of which we hope will reach a successful conclusion in the second half of 2012."

As part of the focus on medical products, Inditherm signed a distribution agreement for their industrial business with a subsidiary of the ADI group in 2010. The order intake for standard heating pads used in ADI's process solutions activity showed encouraging growth during the year.

The company reported a 25% increase in overall revenues to £1.66m and gross profit increased by 24% to around £1m. This helped to cut its pre-tax loss from £409,000 to £121,000.

Mark added: "The company has traded profitably in seven of the last twelve months to the end of February 2012, which includes a modestly profitable start to the current year. This gives us reason to be optimistic of entering a more profitable period."

Inditherm website

Images: inditherm.com