THE easing of Covid led to Crumlin-based diagnostics giant Randox taking an £85 million hit on profits, its accounts reveal.
Having secured 22 government testing contracts during the pandemic worth £470 million, the company was able to post one of the largest annual profits ever recorded by a Northern Ireland business.
But in its latest set of accounts filed at Companies House covering the 12 months to June 30 2022, Randox Holdings Ltd saw profits decline from £275 million to £190 million.
However, sales at the company - which was founded more than 40 years ago and is still owned by scientist Dr Peter FitzGerald (72) - increased over the year to £626 million.
With the need for testing subsiding, Randox says it intends to use the hundreds of millions of pounds it made in the pandemic to give people control over their own health tests.
It says it is investing all of its pandemic profits in research and development, infrastructure for diagnostics programmes, and its clinics.
It produced 4.4 billion tests in 2022 to diagnose issues around heart disease, diabetes, cancer, kidney disease and Alzheimer’s among others.
Randox is building a 50,000 sq ft R&D facility near its Crumlin headquarters, and is opening an institute in London’s Fitzroy Square, specialising in immune-related conditions.
It says it will continue to invest in R&D to retain its position at the cutting edge of diagnostic healthcare delivery and development, including a £40m commitment to establishing the Randox Institute of Personalised Health in London and funding the inaugural Randox Profession of Medicine at Ulster University.
Randox launched its health clinic business in 2016 as part of a move to open its diagnostic testing technology to the consumer market and has now more than 20 sites across the north and Britain.
And it has just opened its first health clinic in the Republic in the affluent Dublin suburb of Sandyford, creating 30 jobs.
Its newly-filed accounts show that Randox maintains a global network of offices and distribution partners, and operates in 145 countries.
It operates six R&D and manufacturing sites in Northern Ireland with additional facilities in Ireland, the US and India.
Randox says around 5 per cent of the world’s population – equal to about 370 million people – receive medical diagnosis using its products each year.
At year-end, Randox Holdings had net assets of £4.2 billion.
The accounts show that the group's payroll fell slightly over the year from 2,112 staff to 2,050.
But total staff costs increased significantly - up from £63.1m to £85.2m. Nearly £8m of this is social security costs.
