Highest ever profit recorded at Progressive Genetics

THE profit and loss account and balance sheets of Progressive Genetics have undergone a revolution in the last few years.

The year ending 31 December 1999 shows the highest ever profit level of ¯192,057 after tax - compared with just £2,005 in the preceding year.

But by far the biggest contributor to this massive turnaround has been the lack of any re-organisation costs. Last year these staff redundancy and reorganisation payments took £260,000.

Staff numbers have been reduced from 74 in 1998 to 59 in 1999, while total staff costs fell from £1.83 million to £1.4 million but other avenues for growth are being looked at.

Looking behind the figures the reasons for chairman Noel McDonnell's concern is obvious. Insemination continues to fall and total sales were marginally down from 5.9 million in 1998 to 5.8 million in 1999.

Despite the reduction in staff costs other expenses continued to mount and at the operating level, profit actually fell from £327,000 to £282,000.

The balance sheet reflects improvement in profitability with net debt falling from £1.5m at the end of 1995 to £647,000 at the end of 1999. Interest charges have mirrored this fall in debt with interest payments now down to a very manageable £43,000, which leaves an interest cover of almost five times.