Shares in Metir PLC (AIM:MET), the water and environmental monitoring group, rose 6.5% to 0.8p after it said it had signed an agreement intended to introduce its rapid toxicity testing technology to several of Britain's largest water companies.
The memorandum of understanding with MechLine-UK, a specialist in water treatment and filtration systems, covers the supply and installation of Metir's Microtox platform for testing and evaluation.
MechLine provides engineering, refurbishment and installation services to Thames Water, Affinity Water, Sutton & East Surrey Water and Portsmouth Water.
The deal is an attempt to address what Metir calls a greatly underdeveloped home market, with roughly 95% of its products currently exported.
Microtox screens water for toxicity within minutes, allowing contamination to be identified before it is released into supply networks or the environment.
Production of the Microtox LX instrument has increased, letting the company sell from stock and offer units for customer trials on either a lease or purchase basis.
Metir issued 144 customer quotations during 2026 and has sold 19 Microtox LX systems so far this year, with distributors forecasting further orders in the second half.
The company also reported significant progress towards restarting production of its QuickChek SRB kits, which detect sulphate-reducing bacteria in industrial and oilfield water systems.
Manufacturing was halted after demand outstripped capacity, a problem disclosed in July that stemmed from difficulties scaling production of a key antibody used in the kits.
A newly sequenced replacement antibody is expected to support a more robust process, with run-in production and deliveries due in October ahead of full commercial output in the fourth quarter.
Enquiries have been received for more than 20,500 kits, representing potential revenues of about £1.23 million at 2025 pricing.
Metir separately completed field evaluations of its detection platform for PFAS, the industrial compounds known as forever chemicals, at remediation specialist ProDecon's Nantwich premises in temperatures of up to 35C.
The resulting data will be used by FIDCHEM to develop machine learning tools for interpreting PFAS results.
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