24 July 2025

Animalcare Group plc

("Animalcare", the "Company" or the "Group")

H1 Trading Update and Notice of Results

Strong contribution from Randlab and continued strategic delivery

Animalcare Group Plc (AIM: ANCR), the international animal health business, provides an unaudited trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2025 (the "Period"), ahead of the expected announcement of the Group's interim results on 30 September 2025.

Highlights

¹ Extracted from unaudited pre-acquisition records for H1 2024

² The Group presents a number of non-GAAP Alternative Performance Measures (APMs) which exclude non-underlying items. APMs are calculated in line with the Group's accounting policies and therefore may not be directly comparable with other companies.

Operational Review

Positive trading performance

The Board is pleased to report an overall positive trading performance in the period, with the Group delivering revenues of £43.8m, an increase of 18.5% at AER and 20.8% at CER. This performance consists of steady organic revenue growth of c. 2% at CER coupled with a strong contribution from Randlab, the Australian Equine business acquired on 3 January 2025, in trading conditions which remain varied across our end markets.

Randlab contributed £6.4m of revenue in the period, delivering strong like-for-like organic growth of c. 14% at CER (c. 7% at AER), in line with expectations for the first half. This performance underlines the strength of Randlab and reinforces Animalcare's strategic rationale in building a leading franchise in the global equine market, providing confidence in accelerating investment in both the Group's domestic and export commercial footprint.

Within Companion Animals, the Group's key products, Daxocox and Plaqtiv+, delivered another period of double-digit growth, up c. 39% and c. 30% respectively, benefitting from prior approvals in new territories. The Group continues to launch new products to ensure ongoing evolution of the portfolio.

Overall, Companion Animal growth and margins have been impacted in the first half due to a top 10 product, Conofite, experiencing significantly reduced sales due to the unexpected implementation of antibiotic consumption surveillance in January 2025. This impacted topical products such as Conofite which Animalcare, and others in the industry, believe was unintended. The Group is optimistic that this will be clarified and any restriction removed, however the timing of this is uncertain.

Successful launches in H1 include ProAuris and ProAtop: innovative, microbiome enhancing topical skin and ear preparations containing live bacteria. The Group has also entered into a strategic alliance with YUN, a Belgian biotech innovator in the field of probiotics.

Revenues within Production Animals grew in the first half, driven by demand for a number of the Group's larger-selling brands, while Equine sales (excluding Randlab) were broadly in line with the prior period, underpinned by continuing momentum in Danilon.

The Board expects underlying² EBITDA in the period to be approximately £9.2m (H1 2024: £6.6m) with the growth on the prior period principally reflecting Randlab's significant contribution to EBITDA, underpinned by its high gross margins, further enhancing the Group's overall profitability. 

As flagged at the time of the Group's FY24 Results, with c. 80-85% of Group revenues generated outside the UK, the appreciation of Sterling has a negative currency translation effect on the Group's results. The Board expects this effect to continue in the second half of this financial year.

Cash conversion has continued to be healthy, in line with expectations. The Group's balance sheet remains strong, with net debt excluding lease liabilities at 30 June 2025 of £7.9m (31 December 2024: £9.0m), providing the platform and funding headroom to continue to invest in the Group's strategic growth drivers.  

Building a balanced pipeline and portfolio

Central to the Group's strategy has been improving the sustainability of its portfolio, through both the rationalisation of products, focusing on novel and differentiated brands, and growing owned and long-term license products. As part of this, the Group is committed to increasing investment in its development pipeline, whether that be through life cycle management projects or innovative technology.

During the period, the Committee for Veterinary Medicinal Products ("CVMP") of the European Medicines Agency adopted a positive opinion for a grouping of variations requiring assessment to add a new indication to Daxocox for the treatment of pain and inflammation associated with orthopaedic or soft tissue surgery. This permits broader market access and reinforces the Group's growth ambitions for the Daxocox franchise.

The Period saw the approval of the Plaqtiv+ range and Orozyme for distribution in Australia, Hemosilate in UA, and Metrocare and Doxycare in UAE. A total of 27 new applications are in progress.

Further M&A progress

Animalcare has continued to build scale internationally, notably via the 25% strategic equity investment in InVetro Pty Ltd, announced on 13 June 2025, an Australian-based Companion Animal health business, expanding Animalcare's presence in the growing Asia-Pacific veterinary market. 

Jenny Winter, Chief Executive Officer of Animalcare commented:

"The success of our strategic initiatives are now starting to flow through into our financial results, with the Group delivering substantial revenue growth. Our newly acquired Australian equine business, Randlab, has performed strongly post acquisition, and our key products, Plaqtiv+ and Daxocox, have continued to grow. We continue to achieve new marketing authorisations across our product portfolio, providing the pathway to expanded market access in future periods. This, coupled with continued investment in our development pipeline, means we are increasingly well positioned to address the evolving demands of the growing global veterinary market."

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About Animalcare

Animalcare Group plc is a UK AIM-listed international veterinary sales and marketing organisation. Animalcare operates in seven European countries as well as Australia and New Zealand and exports to approximately 40 countries in Europe and worldwide. The Group is focused on bringing new and innovative products to market through its own development pipeline, partnerships and via acquisition.

For more information about Animalcare, please visit www.animalcaregroup.com