NI pharma firm passes £1bn sales milestone for first time

Belfast Telegraph

28-05-2025

The milestone means it's joined the elite of successful homegrown firms with over £1bn sales including Pilgrim's Europe – which has now hit the £2bn mark – and Henderson Group.
Figures released today (Wed) for Almac's financial year ending September 30 2024 reveal £1.027bn of revenues, a £69.5m (7%) increase from 2023.
Pre-tax profits rose by 27% to £119m, up from £93.8m in the previous year, and average employee numbers grew by 3% to over 7,700 over the same period.
Almac Group, which carries out pharmaceutical development and manufacturing around the globe, said the figures were its highest ever revenue, profit and employee numbers.
Almac said it reinvests all its profits back into the business, and had now completed the fourth year of a £400m+ global capital investment programme, first announced in November 2021.
The programme has included a centre of excellence for diagnostic development and commercial manufacturing, a 100,000 sq ft pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, and an expansion of cryogenic and ultra-low temperature service capabilities for clinical supply across Durham, North Carolina and Singapore.
And it said a major expansion continues to clinical production and distribution capabilities in Souderton, Pennsylvania.
Almac said its work placed it 'at the forefront of developing, manufacturing, testing and distributing essential medicines to patients around the world'.
Over the financial year, the group had been involved in developing hundreds of life-saving drugs across more than 30 areas like oncology, cardiology, immunology, gene therapy and neurology.
Alan Armstrong, Almac Group chairman and CEO said: 'Today's results mark another successful year of growth for Almac.
"As a privately-owned and independent company, we re-invest all our profits back into the business, enabling us to innovate and expand to meet the growing needs of our global clients, working in partnership to advance human health.
'I am proud of the continued progress we are making, which is thanks to the dedication of our valued global workforce.'
Mr Armstrong received the Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 2025 Belfast Telegraph Business Awards earlier this month.
The judging panel said: 'His principles are second to none and he has grown Almac to such a significant global company – but stayed true to the legacy left by founder Sir Allen McClay.'
On receiving the award, Mr Armstrong said: 'At Almac, our mission is advancing human health. It's fulfilling to be part of developing products and compounds that will ultimately help humanity.'
Sir Allen founded Almac Group in 2002, 34 years after he had established his firm pharmaceutical company, Galen.
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He built Galen up to become Northern Ireland's first £1bn business, and led a successful float of the company on the stock market.
Sir Allen resigned from Galen at that point, setting up Almac in his late sixties.
Pilgrim's Europe, formerly Moy Park, became the first homegrown company in Northern Ireland to achieve £2bn in sales in 2023. Henderson Group, which owns the Spar and Eurospar convenience retail franchises here, recorded sales of £1.3bn in 2023.
And over the year to July 2024, W&R Barnett, which trades in goods such as as molasses, animal feed and corrugated board, reported turnover of £1.6bn.