Equilume has expanded its sales team in the US after identifying what it calls “significant new sales opportunities” in the North American market.

The company makes two light therapy products to assist overall health and reproductive success for horses, the Equilume Light Mask and the Equilume Stable Light.

The mask is an individual headpiece for horses that provides timed, low-level blue light to a single eye to ensure early reproductive success for horses.

The stable light provides horses with “biologically effective light that replicates the benefits of nature's environmental lighting indoors, designed to maximise health, performance and breeding efficiency for stabled horses,” says the company.

The firm has appointed Michael Lindsey as national account manager for North America and Michael Hardy as territory manager for Eastern USA, joining Stephanie Standridge, the company’s territory manager for Central and Western USA.

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Chairman Norbert McDermott said: “These appointments strengthen and extend our ability to reach broader markets. Having recently spent some time with the team in the USA, I am excited about the new opportunities for Equilume provided by the added knowledge, experience and diverse equine backgrounds of Michael Lindsey and Michael Hardy.”

Based in Co Kildare, the company was established by Dr Barbara Murphy in 2012 as a spin-out from UCD’s School of Agriculture and Food Science and is an Enterprise Ireland high-potential startup.

The Equilume light mask applies weak-intensity blue light to one of the horse’s eyes to help control and predict the mare's  reproductive season.

The reason is that January 1 is the ‘universal birthday’ for foals. Ordinarily, mares come into heat in the summer months and have a pregnancy cycle of around 11 months. Artificially inducing mares to come into heat in February or March facilitates earlier births, and the application of blue light tricks the mare’s body clock into believing that the summer is upon her.

Equilume says its product can increase average foal birth weights in early foaling mares, in an industry where birth size directly correlates with sales prices and success on the track. The product also induces coat shedding, which is beneficial for the sport horse segment and for the preparation of horses for sale.

Equilume Ltd booked a loss of €478,000 in 2018, bringing accumulated losses to €2.2 million.

The balance sheet shows €1.5 million equity invested and shares to the value of €250,000 classified as liabilities. Trade debtors at year-end were €50,000 and the company had a negative net worth of €735,000 in December 2018.

In the annual filing, the company states that the directors expect the company to be profitable in the near future based on projected sales figures and management accounts.

The filing also notes that the company received €500,000 in early 2018 in the form of a secured convertible director’s loan. Through 2018, the company reduced bank debt from €475,000 to €225,000. Total liabilities at year-end amounted to €1.7 million.