Access Intelligence (ACC) [3.12p/£7.11 million]
The software provider has announced the opening of its new centralised development centre in York. The centre will be responsible for development, testing and delivery of the group's innovative cloud-based software solutions. It is key to Access Intelligence's strategy, as the chairman, Michael Jackson, explained: "We have always strived to deliver best practice throughout the group and our significant investment in this state-of-the-art centre will focus on both new product development as well as utilising technological advancements to better enhance our current software and service offerings".
The opening of the new development centre has resulted in the creation of over 30 new jobs and amongst Access Intelligence's new recruits are local graduates, a trend that they intend to continue.
Avacta (AVCT) [0.79p/£24.94 million]
Avacta (LON:AVCT) a leading provider of proprietary analytical and diagnostic technology, consumables and reagents to the drug-development and healthcare sectors, announced it has signed an agreement with Pall Corporation (PLL), a global leader in filtration, separation and purification.
Pall will sell and distribute the company's Optim protein drug development tool across India. Optim provides biopharmaceutical developers with information about the viability of their candidate drug molecules and formulations for research and development purposes and in order to optimise manufacturing. Having grown three fold in size from 2005 to 2010 the Indian biopharma industry offers significant potential opportunity for the company.
China Food (LON:CFC) [20.5p/£14.6 million]
The Chinese manufacturer of cooking and dipping sauces announced interim results for the six months to 30 June 2012, which saw a 16% increase in revenues to £9.7 million (2011: £8.4 million), though this coincided with the company posting a £2.8 million post-tax loss (2011: £1 million profit) after incurring marketing expenditure of £4.2 million during the period. Gross margins for the company also narrowed to 27.4% (2011: 41.5%).
The company's two main soya sauce products - Hao Tai Tai and the recently launched Xaka - have been a key focus for the company which has seen a large number of distributors being signed up in the North China region (173 at the end of August versus 118 at the end of April). Third-quarter sales of Xaka were 15% up quarter-on-quarter and the marketing strategy has been refined to include the selling of both brands for distributors in the region.
Soya sauce now represents 54% of…
