COLLTECH Australia Limited will close its $4.5 million IPO this Friday, January 23, and, if all goes to plan, will produce collagen from sheep by the end of the year.
With the help of the State Government, CollTech has secured a site in Collie, adjacent to the Western Power Collie Power Station, where it plans to produce collagen for three core markets – food, medical, and cosmetic.
The deal with the Government provides water and waste disposal, which significantly reduces the capital costs to CollTech.
CollTech aims to produce collagen at the Collie site by the end of the year and export it worldwide.
CollTech’s main point of difference from other collagen producers is that it uses sheep rather than pigs or cows.
The demand for Collagen is growing from industries varying from food to cosmetics, according to the company’s prospectus.
“A report [by the Freedonia Group] forecasts that the overall market will grow by over $US150 million between 1995 and 2010, with cosmetics and toiletries forecast to account for 32 per cent of the market by 2010,” the prospectus says.
Since its inception three years ago CollTech has developed, and is now commercialising, its high-yield-low-cost collagen extraction process.
It recently completed an Industrial Research and Development Board study (the company was awarded $250,000 by the Federal Government to conduct the research) into the industrial scalability of the extraction and purification of collagen from sheep.
