Ability Matters Group’s turnover jumps 26% as Group closes majority of mobility retail outlets
Ability Matters Group’s annual report has revealed the group enjoyed success for the year ended 31 October 2019, with a 26 per cent rise in turnover to £62.3 million.
Founded in 1989, Ability Matters Group has established major healthcare contracts for prosthetic, orthotic, postural and mobility services in the UK and Ireland. With headquarters in Oxfordshire, the group employs over 800 staff across the UK and Europe.
The company’s annual report has revealed the turnover for its UK operations amounted to £62.3 million for the year ended 31 October 2019, up £12.8 million from the previous period.
According to the report, the increase is due to contract gains in the NHS service business, as well as to increased product sales to third parties both in the UK and overseas.
During the year, the company stated that it closed the majority of its retail outlets in order to focus on its core clinical services contracts.
The decision was taken during the period to close its retail outlets in Manchester, Huddersfield, Oxford, Harrow, Newport Pagnell and Bletchley.
According to its annual report, its mobility retail operations’ achieved revenues of £1.2 million and pre-tax profits of £79k in 2018. In 2019, it reported sales of £792k and a pre-tax loss of £217k, with costs relating to the closure amounting to £140k.
Ability Matters Group is not the only organisation offering equipment services to the public sector that recently decided to move away from the mobility retail sector. In 2018, ICES provider Millbrook Healthcare closed and sold its bricks and mortar retail stores, MiLife, after the model failed to gain traction.
Despite largely exiting mobility retailer, Ability Matters Group expanded its business with several acquisitions.
In January 2019, Ability Matters Group purchased the trade and assets of the Orthotics Services division of Trulife, further strengthening its market share in the orthotics sector.
In August, the group acquired 100 per cent of the share capital of Flat Free Tyres – a move which enhanced its wheelchair supply chain – and of T&S Orthotics, increasing its orthotics manufacturing capacity and additional service contracts, states the report.
Alongside the growth in turnover, the company’s operating profit margin remained stable at 4.5 per cent (compared to 4.6 per cent for the previous period).
The group made a pre-tax profit of £2.5 million for 2019, an increase of 15 per cent against the previous period’s £2.1 million.