Jan 26 2012 --- NATUREX, a world leader in specialty plant-based ingredients, has reported strong growth in 2011, with excellent levels of activity over all markets and in all geographic areas where the Group is established.

In October 2011, NATUREX performed the acquisition of BURGUNDY, specialized in the production and marketing of plant extracts for the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, which sales have been consolidated from October 1 2011. Thus the sales generated over the year 2011 amounted to EUR253.6 million, an increase of 12.0%. At constant scope and exchange rate, the growth in sales was 12.3%, in compliance with the published annual growth objective.

“We are very satisfied with this excellent year of growth, marked by the positive orientation of all of our activities and geographic zones. The integration of BURGUNDY is now on the road to completion and our teams are working actively to quickly develop the commercial synergies.” declared Jacques Dikansky, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of NATUREX.

Dikansky told FoodIngredientsFirst.com that further acquisitions can be expected in the months ahead. “We are actively looking for acquisitions in the area of natural ingredients, for the health industry and for the food industry. Burgundy and Pektowin are part of this program. We expect to finalize a further four or five acquisitions in 2012,” he said. At least one of the acquisitions is expected to be finalized in Asia in the coming months. “Our past ten acquisitions (and a few future ones) have come in western Europe and the US. We want to increase our territory so we are looking at regions that are fast growing like Asia, East Europe and South America. Our business in Europe is growing quite well; but Asia is an emerging market with completely new opportunities,” he said.

The activity of the 4th quarter of 2011 was in the same growth dynamic as the previous quarters and the integration of the activities of BURGUNDY within NATUREX generated additional revenue of EUR2.7 million. The sales for the 4th quarter of 2011 thus amounted to EUR62.4 million, up 12.0%.
 
Growth was good in the different markets, the integration of the activities of BURGUNDY enabled to complete the offer in the fields of Nutrition & Health and Personal Care.
•    The Food & Beverage activity generated a turnover of 153.4 million euros, up 11.9%;
•    The Nutrition & Health activity increased by 11.9%, for a turnover of 84.5 million euros and includes 2.3 million euros from the nutraceuticals activity of BURGUNDY;
•    The Personal Care activity recorded a turnover of 3.0 million euros, up 11.0% and includes 0.4 million euros of sales generated by BURGUNDY.
 
With commercial coverage widened to 18 locations, including 3 openings of commercial offices over the year, NATUREX has not only strengthened its positions worldwide, but has also created real proximity with local and regional customers, enabling it to catch the growth of both mature markets and emerging markets:
•    The Europe/Africa zone recorded a growth of 12.1% over the period, confirming the solidity of the European market in spite of the difficult macroeconomic context;
•    The Americas zone continues to progress, supported by the dynamism of sales in North America and the acceleration of sales in Latin America, particularly in Brazil;
•    The Asia/Oceania zone recorded good performances, driven by strong sales growth in Asia and a buoyant activity in Australia over the last two quarters of the year.

The emerging markets of Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East which represented 14% of the Group’s sales over 2011, compared with less than 10% one year previously, offer highly promising development prospects.
 
“With our strengthened geographic positioning, the highly favourable acceptance of our new product ranges and our industrial and scientific expertise, we are confident in our ability to continue to outperform the future growth of our markets,” Dikansky concluded.
 
A full interview with Jacques Dikansky, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of NATUREX will appear in the February 2012 issue of The World of Food Ingredients.