Micro-X, Bickfords win expansion grants

FOUR SA companies, including technology company Micro-X and beverages company Bickfords, have won more than $5 million in funding in the last and final round of the Federal Advanced Manufacturing Growth Fund.

File photograph of Chris Illman (centre), Bickfords group marketing manager at their Salisbury South factory with workers Buu Phan and Joe Lavista. (Sept 2017) PICTURE: Calum Robertson.

FOUR SA companies, including tech entity Micro-X and beverages company Bickfords, have won more than $5 million in funding in the last and final round of the Federal Advanced Manufacturing Growth Fund.

The funding is expected to help the companies unlock more than $15 million in investment for specific projects.

Tonsley-based manufacturer of lightweight X-ray imaging systems Micro-X, which is listed on the Australian sharemarket, will get about $2.4 million. It will go towards a planned $7.2 million investment in a new facility next to its existing manufacturing site.

Micro-X managing director Peter Rowland, Carestream business director Charlie Hicks Carestream and production manager Derek Rogers, photographed at Tonsley with the Carestream DRX Revolution Nano. (October 2017).

“Micro-X is investing in growing its manufacturing capability in its core technology x-ray imaging systems in anticipation of the new products currently in design and development,” managing director Peter Rowland said.

The company moved to SA from Victoria in 2015, supported by a $3 million loan from the former state government. The group reported a loss of $16.6 million to the end of June. Most of this was attributed to the continued development of its Carestream DRX Revolution Nano product – a mobile carbon nanotube X-ray system for use in hospitals.

Global X-ray systems giant Carestream – also a 7.9 per cent shareholder – is responsible for the sales and distribution of the system.

Last month, Micro-X said it had “developed a change to production processes” to fix problems encountered during earlier air cargo shipments.

It is also developing a lightweight X-ray imaging system to detect explosives hidden in consumer electronics and a new X-ray system, potentially to be used within a military deployed medical facility.

Other successful applicants were timber and hardware merchant Footersville who will receive more than $1 million towards a $3.2 million relocation to a new site at Edinburgh Parks, first announced in 2016. Bickfords will receive $987,520, towards its $3 million investment in new equipment.

Tarac Technologies which treats wine waste into resaleable goods, including potable spirits, secured $800,000 to introduce new technology to recover tartrates, a by-product of winemaking, from previously unexploited resources.