A YORK veterinary medicine and animal healthcare group has seen an eight per cent rise in sales to almost £16 million ahead of acquiring a Belgian-based counterpart.

Animalcare Group published a trading update revealing underlying operating profits, for the 12 months ending June 30, are set to increase nearly 12 per cent to £3.57 million.

The business, which completed the acquisition of Ecuphar earlier this month, is split across three divisions, the most successful of which is the Licensed Veterinary Medicines group, where revenues rose 17 per cent to £5.46 million.

The growth was driven an increase in export sales of 70 per cent, with sales from new products launched in the last 12 months contribution around £200,000.

Sales from the Animal Welfare Products division fell by 3 per cent to £1.43 million, which the group attributed to a reduction in sales of its animal hygiene range.

The final group, Companion Animal Identification, which focuses on animal chipping, also saw revenues fall, down to £1.02 million from £1.46 million in the previous year.

Animalcare said it was expecting the fall due to the “lower addressable dog microchipping market” in comparison to the market in April 2016, when microchipping for dogs in the UK became compulsory in April 2016.

Animalcare’s board said: “Changes to our business model implemented late in the period have shown good early results in growing microchip database services revenue.”

Following the acquisition of Ecuphar, Animalcare is changing its accounting reference date to December 31.

The company said: “Investment in our product development pipeline has continued on track, in particular with regard to the identification of novel formulations which, as previously stated, are a strategic focus for the Group.”