Versarien PLC (AIM:VRS) said it has made good progress with its graphene developments in the year to end-March 2021 and subsequently, but Covid disruption affected its mature businesses.
Neill Ricketts, chief executive, said the focus remains on the commercialisation of its graphene technologies, especially through its GSCALE suite of development projects.
“I am pleased to report that the manufacturing scale-up is advancing in tandem with the progress on the commercialisation of the project's applications.
“Highlights include the development and supply agreements for textiles and the number of infrastructure opportunities following the successful pourings of graphene-enhanced concrete.
“In addition, we are working with multiple industrial partners to develop composite structures for automotive, aerospace, defence and rail.
“We have also demonstrated 40% improvement in concrete strength, 30% increase in tyre rubber stiffness and have applied to trademark GrapheneWear as part of the textile commercialisation."
Versarien added that the acquisition of the Hanwha CVD graphene assets and patents, the setting up of VKL in South Korea and the partnership/investment from GLL are laying the foundations of a global platform for its technology.
“We now have operations in the United Kingdom, Spain and South Korea as well as a sales presence in the USA and in China," said the statement.
“The graphene prospects in both the UK and abroad are extremely exciting with our transitioning from laboratory to real-world demonstrators in multiple sectors including defence, automotive, aerospace and construction; in particular, interest in using our graphene in large infrastructure projects and in textiles.
Group revenues for the year were £6.6mln (£8.3mln) with an adjusted underlying loss of £1.8mln (£1.6mln).
Including non-cash items and one-off charges, losses before tax were £8.1mln (2020: £4.7mln), while cash at the year-end was £2.4mln.