Ocean Harvest Technology Group PLC on Tuesday said it expects to report a drop in revenue, after failing to secure new orders from its primary customer.

Ocean Harvest shares were down 29% to 8.20 pence each in London on Tuesday afternoon.

The Reading, England-based company is a researcher, developer and supplier of proprietary blended seaweed products as functional additives for the global animal feed industry.

For the first half of 2024, the company expects to report revenue of approximately €950,000, 46% less than the €1.75 million generated over the same period last year.

Through 2020 to 2023 the company’s largest customer placed sustained orders. However, no further orders have been placed this year, leaving the company with excess inventory for its OceanFeed product.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Williams said: ‘We are confident that the disappointing financial impact of our largest OceanFeed customer not ordering product in 2024 will be rectified for 2025.

‘We expect our patented OceanFeed product to generate increased market traction on the back of the recent sales initiatives and further positive trial data through H2 2024, this will drive the business towards its significant potential in 2025 and beyond.’

Ocean Harvest focused efforts in the first half towards implementing new sales and marketing initiatives.

‘The company has made a number of changes to better access a wider geographic area and, where appropriate, increase the use of indirect sales channels.

‘This will give cost-effective access to many more mid and smaller sized customers globally, helping to increase overall market coverage and margins, and will reduce dependence on a concentrated base of larger customers,’ Ocean Harvest said.

In Europe, two pet food customers have been onboarded, while in Greece the company has secured a new distributor with poultry and aqua customers. Sales to new customers in India and Bangladesh have commenced too.

Ocean Harvest said: ‘The company is also finalising arrangements with several new European distributors and a Central American distributor based in Mexico, who covers Central America more broadly, and is preparing its first shipment of OceanFeed products to that region.’

Due to the lack of orders from the company’s main customer, Ocean Harvest expects to fall short of expectations for the full year.

However, a largely undrawn credit facility of up to €2 million provides the company with the means to support working capital requirements if needs be.

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.