With a prestigious international award under its belt, sales booming, new products on the way and virtually no debt, rising costs are forcing cashed up Perth company Advanced Nanotechnology to consider shifting at least part of its operations overseas.
First quarter 2005-2006 sales at $804,000 are already 53 per cent of 2004-2005’s full year sales of $1.5 million, which were 74 per cent higher than the previous year.
At this rate, the currently expanding Welshpool plant will reach capacity in about two years.
ANL CEO Dr Paul McCormick told WA Business News overall costs were too high in Australia and there was a lack of corporate or personal tax concessions or other incentives, despite plenty of these types of benefits overseas.
“We are all very pro WA, but I fear that if we stay, it will limit the company’s growth,” Dr McCormick said.
The company has about 30 employees.
One option is to move production overseas and keep the R&D in Perth.
Another factor is that ANL’s current markets are mainly in the US, Europe and Korea. Other WA companies in a similar costs versus expansion position – including bio nanotech company pSivida and medical R&D companies Regenera and Dr Fiona Woods’ Clincial Cell Culture – have opted in one way or another to be where their big markets are. For these companies that has meant Europe and the US.
ANL makes dispersions of nano (very small) particles from various metals in transparent liquids. The technology is called MCP, a unique, patented technology that has enabled the production of nanopowders of controlled size, shape, surface and chemistry that do not agglomerate or cling together when dispersed into a transparent medium.
Applications include electronics, cosmetics, fuel additives, advanced ceramics, high-performance alloys and coatings, medicine, biotechnology, drug delivery and ultra violet resistant coatings. Each market segment can be measured in the billions of dollars and, as such, is attracting a lot of government support worldwide.
Earlier this month, ANL won the prestigious Frost & Sullivan’s 2005 Excellence in Technology of the Year Award in the field of nanomaterials.
The New York-based analytical group said ANL’s “path breaking efforts towards the development of MCP technology has brought a new paradigm to nanopowder production.”
ANL arose from R&D work at the University of Western Australia, which retains a 29 per cent stake in the company. ANL’s share price has risen from eight cents in mid-late May this year to 26 cents mid September and has since retreated to 14 cents. The company currently has a market capitalisation of around $22 million.
