Naturex Announces Buoyant Return to Organic Growth in H1
30 Jul 2015 --- Naturex, the global leader in specialty plant-based natural ingredients, has announced a return to organic growth in its 2015 first-half consolidated revenue. Organic growth increased by 4.7% and the company reported this comes from all three division and spans all regions.
Consolidated revenue for the 2015 first half rose to €203.2m, with particularly robust growth of 28.3% compared to last year's same period and including organic growth of 4.7%.
This performance was driven by:
sales growth for the historical Group structure with a strong acceleration in the 2015 second quarter (+9.5% in organic growth) following steady first-quarter sales;
a very favourable foreign exchange environment compared to the 2014 first half with a positive currency effect of €18.8m largely reflecting the significant contribution of sales in US dollars;
a Group scope effect of €18.5m from Vegetable Juices Inc. sales.
Buoyant growth from our three activities: Food & Beverage had revenue of €130.3m, up sharply by 32%. After moderate growth at the start of the year, sales picked up in the second quarter with good contributions from strategic product segments (phytoactives, fruit and vegetable-based ingredients, natural colours and natural antioxidants).
Nutrition & Health achieved very strong growth (+24.6%) with sales of €61.1m. This strong momentum was driven by targeted commercial campaigns promoting Naturex's expertise in product ranges with clinically substantiated benefits and innovative concepts.
Personal Care achieved further gains among key accounts in the cosmetics market, with strong organic growth (+62.1%), to reach sales of €5.1m, up from €3.2m in the 2014 first half.
Toll Manufacturing revenue of €6.6m originated primarily from krill toll manufacturing. These sales are destined to be phased out in the second half by the transfer of the operations to the Houston plant (joint-venture with Aker BioMarine).
The Europe/Africa region had €77m in revenue, up 1.9%. The stabilisation of sales confirms the first positive effects of the plan implemented in the first quarter for recapturing growth.
The Americas region registered a spectacular 61% increase in revenue to reach €102.8m. The United States contributed significantly to this growth, largely attributable to the successful repositioning of the nutraceutical offering and the plan for re-energizing business development for Food & Beverage. Vegetable Juices Inc., consolidated by the Group as from June, continued to outperform the market, albeit at a slower pace than in 2014.
The Asia/Pacific region grew 23.6%, confirming Naturex's strong position in the nutraceutical market and enabling it to meet an ever increasing demand from emerging countries.
