Water scarcity set to boost Xeros

Sheffield-based Xeros, a spin-out from Leeds University, is in the process of creating a broad sales network across North America of established laundry industry players.

The company also announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended January 31 2015.

Xeros said it was achieving “increasing customer traction” in the commercial laundry market. On January 31, the company had secured 41 installations with a further 61 committed to be installed.

In the domestic laundry market, it is involved in ongoing partner discussions with machine manufacturers and detergent companies.

The cash balance on January 31 2015 was £24.2m, compared with £29.5m on July 31 2014.

Bill Westwater, the chief executive of Xeros Technology Group, said: “The building blocks are in place for acceleration in our primary commercial laundry business. The combined impact of water scarcity and energy conservation, especially in our key US market, are now intense market trends. Our current enterprise customers are demonstrating that Xeros bead cleaning provides a robust and effective solution. This was clear from the excitement that we created at Clean Show 2015, with 61 channel partners signing up in four days to provide us with a scalable sales and service capability across North America.

“It is not only in commercial laundry where we have seen success. The joint development programme announced today with LANXESS provides an entirely incremental opportunity to develop and ultimately commercialise a Xeros bead solution in the $50 billion leather processing market. Just as we did in commercial laundry, our team is set to move from positive laboratory trials to a prototype in a tannery before the end of 2015.

“We continue to discuss partnership opportunities with major global players in domestic laundry. Our success in commercial laundry, especially as we move to smaller machines and end-user consumer trials, is creating greater interest from these global players.

“We’re hugely encouraged by the momentum building across the group’s activities as we continue to deliver a superior performing Xeros bead solution for a world that can no longer depend on traditional aqueous processes.”