Having redoubled our efforts to seed international markets with Accoya® wood, we are very pleased to announce that since 1 October 2009, we have signed eleven new agency and distribution agreements with partners in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. We are closely collaborating with our distribution partners, with joint marketing programmes, to encourage and develop markets and applications for Accoya® wood.

Our production facility in Arnhem continued to benefit from the process improvements implemented earlier in the financial year. This allowed us to meet the increasing demand from our distribution partners such that sales volumes of Accoya® wood for the period from 1 October 2009 to 31 January 2010 increased by 36% compared to the same period last year.

We are also encouraged by the increased interest expressed by companies across the world to explore the possibilities of licensing our technologies to produce both Accoya® wood and Tricoya® panel products, although we are aware that many are at an early stage and may or may not be furthered by either party. We are continuing to work with our current licensees and our joint development partner, Medite, and look forward to reporting further progress.

We raised a gross amount of €16.9 million by way of a subscription for shares in Accsys Technologies PLC by various new and existing investors. All conditions to the fundraising, including approval from shareholders, the UKLA and the AFM (the English and Dutch regulators respectively) were satisfied earlier this month. The fundraising has been completed and a prospectus was published on 10 February 2010.

Paul Clegg commented: “We are starting to see improvements in the trading environment and are making good progress on all fronts. The restructuring that was implemented earlier in our financial year is starting to show positive results and we continue to make improvements to best position the Company for the challenges ahead as we exploit the markets for our products”.
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