News

Plantic Technologies is confident about its long-term growth prospects, in spite of incurring a net loss of AUD5.6m (£2.6m) in the first half of 2008.

The Australian developer of environmentally friendly plastics for packaging saw its sales volumes increase by 52% in the first half of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007.

The firm also finished the six months to 30 June with a "strong order book", mainly to fulfill orders from DuPont for the launch of the DuPont Biomax TPS brand of its injection moulding and resin sheet.

Although Plantic's net loss increased by AUD1.15m compared with the same period in 2007, chairman Ian Wightwick said its finances remained "strong", with a cash position of AUD31m at the end of June.

The loss included redundancy payments, share-based payments and losses from foreign currency fluctuations.

Plantic also incurred expenses of AUD1.3bn relating to research and development costs, down from AUD1.5bn in 2007.

In addition, the commissioning of the resin manufacturing line completed in 2008 increased engineering and manufacturing costs and had an adverse impact on gross profit.

Wightwick said the strength of the order book was "extremely encouraging" and the Plantic board remained confident about the firm's long-term growth prospects and success.

The firm has taken orders for HP1, its high-performance biodegradable packaging sheet made from high-amylose corn starch, which was launched at Interpack in Germany in April.

It also has "ongoing business" with Cadbury, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's and has extended its distribution agreement with DuPont to cover Japan.

Plantic's share price fell by 2p to 36p this morning (2 September).