LIFESCAN Scotland, the diabetes monitoring specialist which employs over 1,000 people in Inverness, has suffered a fall in profits and cut research and development spending amid tough market conditions.
However, the company’s US owner continues to invest at the firm’s site in the Highlands city reflecting confidence in the prospects for the business.
The latest accounts for LIFESCAN Scotland filed at Companies House show the company made £79.4 million pre-tax profit in the year to 28 December down eight per cent, £6.8m, on the £86.2m achieved in the preceding year.
Turnover fell by two per cent annually, to £155.7m from £159.4m.
Owned by health care giant Johnson & Johnson, LIFESCAN Scotland makes products such as blood glucose monitoring systems used by people with diabetes around the world.
The Diabetes UK charity has described the illness as the fastest growing health threat of our times and an urgent public health issue. It reckons over five million people will develop diabetes in the UK alone based on current trends.
The market appears to be generating strong interest among medical technology firms at a time when health budgets are under pressure in countries such as the UK.
In their strategic report in the latest accounts directors of LIFESCAN Scotland wrote: “Turnover has decreased by two per cent year on year due primarily to adverse market conditions including a difficult economic environment and strong competitive forces which have impacted pricing.”
They added: “The markets in which the company operates are expected to remain competitive in 2015.”
LIFESCAN Scotland cut research and development spending by around ten per cent annually to £22.6m in the latest year, from £25.1m in the preceding period.
However, directors wrote: “The development of new and existing products continues to be important to the success of the company in all areas … Management remains confident that the company will continue to perform well in the future.”
A spokesman for LIFESCAN Scotland said the company does not provide updates on current trading.
He noted: “Johnson & Johnson continues to make capital investment in the Inverness site,” without giving details.
On its website LIFESCAN Scotland says the Inverness facility is regarded as a centre of excellence for those working in the field of diabetes and has a strong focus on future development.
Johnson & Johnson created LIFESCAN Scotland in 2001 when it bought the UK assets of Inverness Medical, which designed glucose test strips and electronic meters for the global market at Raigmore Hospital.
The highest paid director of LIFESCAN Scotland earned aggregate emoluments of £427,452 including gains on the exercise of share options in the latest year. His earnings totalled £223,191 in the preceding year, when he did not exercise any options.
In the latest accounts the company states: “The highest paid director resigned from his position as director during the year.” The company declined to name the director concerned.
The accounts state that William Printie, the company’s longstanding managing director, resigned as a director on 2 May 2014. Tito Bacerese-Hamilton resigned as a director on 31 January 2014.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here