# Versarien PLC Q&A with CEO Neill Ricketts: Cambridge Graphene Update

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/versarien-plc-qa-ceo-neill-ricketts-cambridge-graphene-update/412726062
- Published: 2017-03-24T08:00:10+00:00
- Author: Amilia Stone

**Versarien PLC** Chief Executive Officer Neill Ricketts caught up with DirectorsTalk
for an exclusive interview to discuss their Cambridge Graphene RNS, the progress
of scaling up the graphene manufacturing capabilities and what it means to have 
the equipment already in place

 

**Q1: Neill, we saw an update earlier on your Cambridge operations, can you remind
of the details and the rationale behind the acquisition of Cambridge Graphene?**

**A1**: Sure, so things are moving very quickly for us, we announced that we’ve 
acquired a majority stake in Cambridge Graphene, which is a spin-out for the University
of Cambridge, a couple of weeks ago. On the back of that, we had an over-subscribed
placing in order to get the capital equipment required to really start to take that
technology and to develop it at the University. The reason that we’re really interested
in that is that they have a different type of graphene that they produce there from
the graphene we produce as a result of our own patented process, the 2 processes
work very closely together and in fact they operate in completely difference areas
which enables us to cover all of the graphene market. The material that’s produced
at the University of Cambridge is an ink and will be used in things like printable
electronics and RFID tags, technologies of the future, that will enable us to really
know what’s happening in our environment. So, it’s really important for us to really
get going on that, we’ve got some really good enquiries and now we’re building up
our capacity.

 

**Q2: At the time of your fundraising, earlier this month, you said that you’d be
using the proceeds to significantly scale up both graphene manufacturing capabilities
and marketing efforts and to take advantage of the substantial commercial opportunities
that you’d seen. How are you progressing with this?**

**A2**: So, as Versarien were able to announce this morning, we’ve established a
base now at the University of Cambridge, we’ve now got the kit ordered and actually
commissioned in a period of about 10 days, which I think is simply staggering from
our team and they’ve already sold their first order out of that facility down in
Cambridge to a company looking for some graphene ink. In terms of the Nanene and
the new materials we announced just a couple of months ago, I’ve just come out of
a marketing meeting where we are managing expectations with some very very large
customers at a very early stage in order to facilitate getting that technology really
moving as well. We haven’t actually ordered the equipment for that yet until we 
can establish that we’ve got significant demand but it’s all ready to go and we’ll
looking forward to placing all that equipment on order. We’re a relatively small
team so at the moment we’ve concentrated on getting Cambridge up and running, getting
it to the same sort of levels that we’ve got down in Cheltenham and then it’s all
go on the Cheltenham facility.

 

**Q3: What does it mean having the equipment in place already, what does that mean
for Versarien PLC?**

**A3**: So, we’ve got an established production base down here in Cheltenham, where
I am today, and the guys are downstairs making material for the guys to sell we 
were just talking about in this meeting and that means that we’re up and ready, 
we’re able to satisfy the demands of our customers. We’ve just expanded on that 
by having this other capability down at the University of Cambridge and over the
next couple of weeks we’ve got a very active schedule and we’ve got lots of opportunities
for us to display our technology at various technology events. Having the equipment
in place means that our customers are able to place orders with confidence that 
we’re able to supply, in fact one of our investors asked us the other day what would
happen if he placed a rather significant order right now and one of our guys in 
the Cheltenham office said it’s not a problem, we’d be able to supply that straight
out of the stock. For customers, it means that there’s a degree of confidence, in
being able to place an order with us, to be able to satisfy their needs.

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