Optos sets its sights on overseas

PUSHING into overseas markets and selling machines rather than renting them out has led to a surge in profits at Dunfermline-based eye scanner maker Optos.

Chief executive Roy Davis yesterday told The Scotsman that sales had risen by a quarter in its key American market and had doubled in other overseas territories in the past year.

He highlighted strong growth in Australia, Germany, Japan and Norway, as well as a push into new markets in the Middle East and other parts of Europe.

Davis said: “We’ve seen good geographic growth. We’ve also built up the range of products we sell following the acquisition of Opto Global.”

The takeover of its fellow medical device maker in December has given Optos greater access to the Australian market and has also helped Davis’ strategy for the company.

Instead of getting eye doctors to pay Optos a fee each time they use one of its machines to take a photograph of the back of a patient’s eye, the company has been letting customers buy the devices outright.

Davis has also been broadening the range of products his sales team has to offer, with the acquisition of Opto Global and then the purchase of a range of equipment from Opko Health in September.

Results from Optos showed a 35 per cent rise in sales to $143.3 million (£91.2m) in the year to 30 September, with pre-tax profit leaping 73 per cent to $22m.