Sonova Group, parent of the Phonak and Unitron hearing aid brands, issued a preliminary financial report announcing that its hearing-aid sales increased 10.1 percent in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, powered by strong market acceptance of its high-end hearing aids based on its new Spice sound processing hardware and software platform.
The Swiss holding company also announced that it is resuming sales of its cochlear implants outside the U.S. following approval by European regulators of manufacturing changes that it says solved its product quality problems with its Advanced Bionics cochlear implants following a worldwide recall after problems surfaced with several of its implants. The company also said it is filing notice of the manufacturing changes with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to gain approval for resuming sales in North America as well.
Sonova, which was rocked by an insider-trading scandal that resulted in the resignations of its chief executive officer and chief financial officer in April, said overall sales for the group, which includes its implant business as well as hearing protection products, grew 7.8 percent in the fiscal year. The company said it will report complete results for the fiscal year on May 24.