A YORK veterinary medicine specialist plans to press ahead with its positive plans for the future despite the ‘uncertainty’ following the Brexit vote.

Animalcare yesterday released a trading update for the year ending June 30 which showed overall revenue was up by 8.6 per cent, at £14.7 million compared with £13.54 million in 2015.

It said the board was “very pleased to report a positive trading performance” for the period, and “underlying operating profits are expected to be broadly in line with last year, exceeding market expectations”.

The update said: “The result of the EU referendum has introduced some uncertainty in the UK economy and in particular sterling weakness, which the group will continue to monitor.”

This would have an impact on the cost of pharmaceutical products imported from Europe and paid for in Euros, and microchips supplied in US dollars, but be balanced in part by increasing sales by Animalcare in Europe foe which it would be paid in Euros.

Export success was also highlighted in the update, with a dedicated export manager being employed at the start of the financial year and sales outside the UK growing by 22.8 per cent during that period, “ahead of management expectations”.

Animalcare chief executive Iain Menneer said: “Before Brexit we had some well-thought-out and well-structured plans for the business, and nothing has changed.

“And we are in the fortunate position to have the wherewithal to pursue those plans,” he said, pointing out that its year-end cash position was £7.1 million, compared with £5.8 million a year ago.

Mr Menneer said those plans included more recruitment and investing in the firm’s staff and investing in product development, and continuing to expand its export trade. Investment in product development had increased about tenfold in the past three years, from £150,000 to £250,000 to about £1.5 million.

The update, ahead of Animalcare’s preliminary results being released on Wednesday, October 12, said revenue from sales of the Licensed Veterinary Medicines group was up 7.7 per cent to £9.24 million, and sales from the Animal Welfare Products group improved by 4.9 per cent to £2.78 million.

The Companion Animal Identification group revenues increased by 16 per cent to £2.68 million, with a big surge in sales just before the introduction of legislation in April making it compulsory to microchip dogs in the UK.

The company said it expected the new law would reduce the number of dogs being microchipped, as technically all older animals should already have one, but it intended to gain new revenues from its database of chipped dogs.