Northern Ireland family-owned healthcare tests firm set for international growth thanks to £1.7million backing

A family-owned diagnostics company is continuing to expand into international markets thanks to £1.7 million backing from HSBC UK.

Ballymena-based CIGA Healthcare, which supplies a wide range of over-the-counter & professional tests to pharmacies and health services, will use the bank’s support to help extend its sales of rapid test kits into new markets including India, Japan and Korea.

The company, which has banked with HSBC UK since its inception in 2005, will also use the funding to help improve the cycle time of the tests – from manufacturing to supplying the 80 countries in which it already operates.

Irwin Armstrong, CEO at CIGA Healthcare, said: “Through HSBC UK’s international footprint, we have been able to gain on the ground, local insight from each country we expand into, so the advice from the bank has really helped our international growth. We are grateful for the support from HSBC and we can’t wait to see where we go next!”

Lauren Dougherty, relationship director at HSBC Northern Ireland, added: “We have worked closely with CIGA Healthcare since it was founded and it has been brilliant to see it expand both its product lines and the countries that it supplies. We’re thrilled to continue supporting its expansion plans into new markets.”