'Can't wait': Eco-friendly Yorkshire firm Xeros prepares for milestone sales moment
A pioneering Yorkshire firm seeking to make the world’s washing machines and jeans more eco-friendly says it is in a “strong position” after raising more than £5m from investors as it prepares to start selling its products in shops.
Rotherham-based Xeros has published its full year results for 2025 recording a 50 per cent increase in revenue to £240,000 and a 24 per cent reduction in EBITDA losses to £3.3m as the publicly-listed company which started life as a University of Leeds spinout continues on a path of commercialising a variety of technologies.
The firm also raised £5.95m in November, generating proceeds of £5.4m to support commercialisation work.
The company is due to start selling its XF3 external filtration product, which can be retrofitted to existing washing machines and stops microplastics ending up in waste water and ultimately oceans, this summer in the UK and Europe after agreeing launch plans with Russell Hobbs and MediaMarkt.
CEO Neil Austin said: "Our team have created point of sale materials that can really explain the technology in a way people can understand. I’m very confident we are going to full coverage across the key markets in Europe with a combination of lead distribution partners.”
Finance director Alex Tristam said it will be a milestone moment for the company. “I can’t wait to go into a retailer and buy a Xeros product. I’ve been here a long time and seen this technology. The first time I can go and buy one from a retailer, I’m going to be delighted. That is weeks away now in a way it has not been before.”
Xeros has also got an agreement in place with an unnamed ‘top ten global washing machine brand’ relating to the use of its laundry care technology. That entails patented polymer spheres – effectively nylon beads – being placed into washing machines alongside clothing to reduce water and energy usage in a cycle, with the beads collected at the end of the wash ready to be used again.
Xeros said the manufacturer it is involved sells seven million washing machines a year while it is in other technical verification discussions with three other leading washing machine companies. It said making agreements with the four companies “would potentially give us access to 62 per cent of the global washing machine market”.
Mr Austin said the majority of the company’s fundraising will go towards helping bring its laundry care technology to market “as quickly as possible” as the industry shows increasing interest in what it can achieve.
"We feel the market is coming towards us. We know we have got a perfect opportunity in the next 18 to 24 months to push home our technology as the answer to that problem that everyone knows about, which is we are buying too many clothes which don’t last and end up in landfill.”
Other technology designed to reduce water and energy use in the production of jeans has been successfully tried in Pakistan, with machines using the Xeros methods now due to be tried in Egypt, Turkey and Bangladesh.
Mr Austin said he is keen the Xeros name will feature on products that use its technology, potentially even on jeans labels.
"That will be massive for the credibility of the business,” he said.
He said the business is well-placed to start growing its revenues. "This is still a period of build for the business. The technology was always good enough. What we needed to do was find the right distribution partners. We now have high quality partners we didn’t have before.
"We don’t take it for granted but we are seeing the things we want to see which gives us the confidence the revenue profile will build.”