Abingdon Health: York firm says demand for ‘made in the USA’ products fueled US expansion
The executive chairman of York-based Abingdon Health has said that customer demand for a “made in the USA” solution drove the firm to expand its operations in the region.
In October, Abingdon raised £3.2m to support its expansion in the US, where it last year opened a research lab and commercial office.
It came after September saw Abingdon announce the second phase of a facility expansion at its site in Wisconsin.
Speaking on the US expansion, Dr Chris Hand, executive chairman of Abingdon Health, told The Yorkshire Post that the move had been “customer led”.
He said: “We had customers in the USA before we established our presence in Madison, Wisconsin, which we did just less than a year ago.
“We opened the research labs and the commercial office there in April last year, and what we found is that customers we were developing products for also wanted manufacturing to be based there.
“They were saying that: ‘we can work with you, provided you can offer us a made in the USA solution’, and we said: ‘yes, we can do that’, so we raised the money.”
His comments came after the firm also recently announced that it plans to list on the OTCQB Venture Market in the US.
The company will trade in the US under the abbreviation ABDXF, with a launch expected next month.
Dr Hand spoke to The Yorkshire Post as Abingdon announced its half-year results, in which the firm saw its revenues leap on the back of “significant” new contract wins.
The medical test developer posted revenues of £4.2m for the six months ending 31 December, up 37 per cent year-on-year.
It came as the company narrowed its pre-tax losses in the period to £2.3m, down from losses of £2.6m a year prior. The firm also narrowed its EBITDA losses from £1.9m to £1.7m.
Speaking to the results, Abingdon Health chief financial officer, Tom Hayes, said the firm’s growth had come on the back of “some significant contracts that we've won in the past 12 months”.
Mr Hayes said the contract wins had come in the UK and wider Europe, as well as the US.
He added: “As in previous years, we're expecting quite a significant weighting of revenues and profits towards the second half of the year again.
“That's really on the back of the bigger contracts that were won last year, and our expectation for H2 is that it should be EBITDA and operating cash flow positive, driven by higher revenues.”
Estimates from Cavendish see Abingdon posting a pre-tax loss of £1.7m in the full-year, before reaching close to break-even in 2027.
Mr Hayes said the firm’s full-year outcome would “depend on the speed of growth in the USA” and contract wins over the next few months.