BELFAST-based defibrillator maker HeartSine Technologies is hoping a new over the counter device for the US market can help revive its profits.
It comes after the company blamed a surge in the cost of electronic components for a pre-tax loss of £4.8 million last year.
HeartSine, which is behind one of the smallest, lightest and most portable automated external defibrillators (AED) available in the world, has now posted pre-tax losses of just under £11m for the past two years.
Despite the rising costs, the Airport Road-based operation said it increased the volume of units it sold last year, which helped lift turnover by 60 per cent to £54m.
But that was offset by supply chain disruption and raw material cost increases.
HeartSine’s latest accounts, which have been published by Companies House, show cost of sales rose by 55 per cent in 2022 (£13.5m), while administrative expensive increased by 37 per cent (£5m) to £18.6m in 2022.
It produced a loss before tax of £4.8m for the 12 months ending December 31. That followed a challenging year in 2021, when it recorded a pre-tax loss of £6.1m.
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However, the business remained in expansion mode last year, with an additional 31 staff bringing its workforce to 220.
The company’s directors also remained upbeat, describing market conditions in 2022 as “favourable”.
HeartSine Technologies was acquired by the US medical giant Stryker in 2016.
The accounts show its sales to the US market have recovered to match pre-pandemic levels, rising to £14.8m last year, up from £1.7m in 2021.
And the company last year completed the development of a new over the counter AED for the US market last year, which means it can be sold in the United States without prescription.
HeartSine’s directors said the device was approved in “record” time by the FDA, but said its launched was delayed until 2023 due to the global restrictions on component supply chain across the electronics industry.
The 2022 business review states: “It is one of only two over the counter AEDs in the US market; all other AEDs have to be purchased with a prescription, so this opens many more sales channels and opportunities for the business and increases the ease of availability of AEDs.”
The directors added: “With demand increasing we are confident of continued growth and return to profitability in the coming years.”
HeartSine Technologies was co-founded by the late Professor John Anderson in 1997. He had served as head of bioengineering at the Royal Victoria Hospital, when Professor Frank Pantridge invented the world’s ?rst portable defibrillator during the 1960s.
