Dechra’s Yorkshire facility given an £800,000 upgrade

Dechra, which employs 200 staff at its manufacturing base in Skipton, North Yorkshire, plans to enter the Italian market next month, and Canada by the end of the year.

The company said that work had started on expanding and redeveloping the liquid, creams and ointments suite at Skipton.

Dechra said this development will increase capacity, and is a big step towards its goal of achieving US Food and Drug administration approval. It said the Skipton site, along with its other manufacturing base in Bladel in the Netherlands, had delivered a strong performance.

In the six months ended December 31 2013, the company reported underlying operating profit of £22.3m, which includes the benefit of a stock release of £1m. This is an increase of 14.1 per cent, at constant exchange rate, on the same period the year before.

Ian Page, the company’s chief executive, said: “We believe we are well positioned to continue to strengthen our position within the global animal health markets and to deliver future growth.”

Half year revenue totalled £95.9m, a decrease of 0.7 per cent at constant exchange rate, and an increase of 4.3 per cent at reported rate.

In its results statement, Dechra said; “A good performance in most markets was offset by the continuing supply issues in the US, the disappointing performance in the Netherlands and the phasing of export orders. Excluding the impact of these headwinds, our revenue growth was 3.4 per cent.”

Mr Page said the company was also reviewing acquisition opportunities, as part of its growth strategy.