A PHARMACEUTICAL firm based in Co. Armagh has announced that annual sales have exceeded £1bn for the first time.
Almac Group, which has its global headquarters in Craigavon, reported revenues of £1.027bn for the year to September 2024, marking a 7 per cent (£69.5m) increase on the previous year.
Pre-tax profits also rose by 27 per cent to £119m, up from £93.8m the previous year
"Today's results mark another successful year of growth for Almac," said chairman and chief executive Alan Armstrong.
Almac Group was founded in 2002 by Co. Tyrone native Allen McClay.
He had previously founded the Galen pharmaceutical company in Craigavon in 1968 — which subsequently became Northern Ireland's first £1bn company — before leaving the firm in 2001.
After McClay established Almac with the purchase of several Galen businesses, the group acquired pharmaceutical manufacturing operations from Galen in 2003 before purchasing the firm in 2004.
Today, Almac is at the forefront of developing, manufacturing, testing and distributing essential medicines to patients around the world.
'Innovate and expand'
During this financial year, the group was involved in the development of hundreds of life-saving drugs spanning more than 20 therapeutic areas including oncology, cardiology, immunology, gene therapy and neurology.
The company's latest figures cover the third year of the group's £400m global expansion plans, which were announced in November 2021.
As part of the plans, the group opened a new state-of-the-art, £65m commercial manufacturing facility at Craigavon in March of this year.
The 100,000sq ft facility enhances existing capabilities in commercial manufacture of oral dose treatments for a variety of therapeutic areas.
As well as its global headquarters in Craigavon, Almac Group — which employs more than 7,700 people at 18 facilities across the globe — also has its European headquarters in Dundalk.
The company's US and Asia Pacific headquarters are in Pennsylvania and Singapore respectively, while it has dozens of sites across Europe, Asia, North and South America as well as Africa and Australia.
"As a privately-owned and independent company, we re-invest all our profits back into the business, enabling us to innovate and expand to meet the growing needs of our global clients, working in partnership to advance human health," added Mr Armstrong.
"I am proud of the continued progress we are making, which is thanks to the dedication of our valued global workforce."
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