Ultralase stays profitable as it weathers the recession

The Leeds-based company had sales of 41m last year, which was a fall of 12 per cent on the previous year.

The firm said it remained profitable in 2009, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 6m, down from 10m in 2008.

The figures for 2008 and 2009 were finally released yesterday following a major financial restructuring at Ultralase in which a group of banks took a majority stake in the business.

Tony Veverka, the chief executive, told the Yorkshire Post he is pleased with the company's performance.

He said: "Despite tough market conditions within the industry and the UK as a whole, Ultralase has performed well throughout, with significant achievements year-on-year in terms of clinical excellence, revenue and treatment volume.

"With continued momentum in a stabilising economy and leading-edge technology, unbeatable results and clinical standards, Ultralase is well positioned to achieve yet further market share gains within the industry, as more people choose Ultralase for their vision correction."

He declined to discuss the pre-tax profit figures, but said: "We are profitable and generate significant cash flow as well.

"We are nowhere near loss-making."

Reports suggest the laser eye sector as a whole fell by 20 per cent in 2009, said Mr Veverka, with Ultralase "outperforming the market".

The year was actually relatively flat, he said, with most of the damage done in the final quarter of 2008, which saw the height of the financial crisis.

Sales stabilised in 2009, he added, as Ultralase became better at converting inquiries into business.

The company said year-on-year sales were up six per cent in the first quarter of 2010.

Mr Veverka said: "There's clearly more demand in terms of consultations.

"What is difficult to gauge at the moment is whether that's us getting better at targeting or whether it's to do with more consumer confidence coming back into the sector. I suspect it is a bit of both.

"It would have been better if it had not been for the weather in the early part of January.

"We lost capacity out of the system to be able to do operations.

"The April forward order book is expected to be considerably higher than March."

Ultralase has set a target of 10 per cent growth in sales in 2010. Mr Veverka said he is "cautiously optimistic" that this will be achieved, although this comes with a "huge caveat".

"It's only the first quarter," he said. "The election has just been called. That may impact consumers and it is by no means certain that we are out of this potential double-dip scenario."

Despite the uncertainty, Ultralase has maintained investment in its services, facilities and staff training programmes.

Last month the company said it was improving its Harley Street clinic so it could offer more services in-house.

Ultralase is spending around 250,000 on the London upgrade so it can carry out intraocular procedures within its own facilities, which would improve both the customer experience and the bottom line.

Intraocular procedures tend to be more invasive and are suitable for customers with complex or extreme eye conditions.

If the Harley Street project is successful, the company has said it will roll out the improvement programme to strategic positions across the UK.

Investment's value trimmed

Private equity firm 3i paid 174m for Ultralase at the start of 2008, but had to write down the value of its investment as the economy turned for the worse.

In the subsequent restructuring, Ultralase placed one of its holding companies, Ultralase Finance, into administration and sold it the same day to CLVC Group, a new vehicle backed by lenders Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Bank of Ireland.

Tony Veverka, the Ultralase chief executive, said the restructuring has had no real impact "other than people seeing the benefit of it being done".

Ultralase claims to be the UK's longest-established vision correction specialist.

It has 31 clinics in the UK and Ireland.