Hospital hardware revenue continues to exceed pre-pandemic levels. Photo: Supplied
Respiratory equipment manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare says hospital hardware sales are on the rise as Covid-19 and an early start to the flu season drive up demand.
The company expects full-year operating revenue for the 2023 financial year to be within a range of $1.55 billion to $1.6b, compared with last year's $1.68b.
"Consistent with what we experienced during Covid-19 surges over the last few years, we are seeing increased sales of our hospital hardware and consumables in China as the country manages its current wave of the virus," chief executive Lewis Gradon said.
"An early start to the flu season and the prevalence of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) also fueled demand for our hospital consumables in North America during the final months of 2022, though this now appears to be easing."
He said hospital hardware revenue continued to exceed pre-pandemic levels.
"For the second half of this financial year, we currently estimate the relative proportion of our hospital sales between hardware and consumables will be similar to the first half."
Demand for its homecare product group, including masks, had also remained strong and tracking ahead of the first half.
"Our rapid response to recent demand surges in both China and North America includes both positive and negative short-term impacts to our gross margin," Gradon said.
"While these impacts are ongoing, we currently believe they are unlikely to materially change the second half constant currency gross margin guidance that we provided in November 2022.
"We also do not currently expect any material impact on our full year constant currency operating expense growth target that we guided to in November."