LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - International healthcare group Venture Life recorded its maiden pre-tax profit of £0.1m as the company released its 2017 financial results on Thursday.
The pre-tax profit compares to a loss of £1.1m in 2016 as revenues improved by 12% throughout the year, up to £16.1m compared to 2016 sales of £14.3m as the company saw a strong performance from the UltraDEX brand and success in international markets.

The company also saw the widest distribution of oral care products range UltraDEX in the UK over the past five years and launched seven new products during 2017, with revenues for the brand rising 20% to £4.5m.

This success in the international market was illustrated through the record and growing annual sales of £0.5m for Lubatti skincare in the Chinese market while new markets including France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland signed for the UltraDEX brand.

Jarry Randall, chief executive of Venture Life, said: "Venture Life has delivered another year of good organic revenue growth across its business, and achieved another of its objectives by delivering a profit before tax for the first time. This coupled with a cash positive H2 2017, means we expect to be sustainably profitable going forward."

The AIM traded company's manufacturing capacity has been significantly increased through plant reorganisation and the investment of £0.3m in new equipment and lease and accounting changes.

"With the recent reorganisation of our plant in Italy, we have increased our capacity such that we can now accommodate twice the volumes of 2017. Our strategy continues to be a focus on revenue growth, through both organic growth of our existing portfolio and through acquisition. 2018 has started well with our order book ahead of the same point in 2017," said Randall.

The start of 2018 has seen the company sign long term agreements for Procto-eze Plus in Poland and Romania, as well as the launch of UltraDEX in France, Italy and the Nordic region.

As of 1448 GMT, Venture Life Group's shares were up 14.00% at 49.02p.

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