Naturex robust revenues driven by plant-based, natural trends

01 Aug 2017 --- Plant-based, natural ingredients specialist, Naturex, has announced its 2017 second quarter results and first half revenue, which shows a steady performance that is “on track” with the company’s strategy. Consolidated revenue for the first half of the year amounted to €207.5 million (US$245 million), largely stable over the two-quarters, compared to the high base for the same period in 2016. Like-for-like revenue contracted marginally 1.9 percent.

Naturex actively supports the global shift from synthetic to natural through an offer built on two main focus areas: My Natural Food and My Natural Selfcare. Its portfolio includes colors, antioxidants, specialty fruits & vegetables, phytoactives, and numerous other plant-based natural ingredients, designed to create healthy, authentic and effective products.

The company’s performance continued to be driven by positive underlying trends for specialty plant-based natural ingredients, with coloring and antioxidant properties in particular.

“The steady performance for 2017 first-half sales was on track with the roadmap presented at the start of the year and consistent with the Simplification and Execution pillar of our Bright2020 strategic plan,” says Olivier Rigaud, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Naturex.

“During this period, we accelerated efforts to reduce the number of SKUs which impacted the level of sales of our two business platforms, My Natural Food and My Natural SelfCare. At the same time, progress was made in optimizing our product mix through our four strategic categories.”

“At the geographical level, the deployment of our regional organization has strengthened our presence in emerging countries and consolidated our strategic position in the nutraceutical market in North America, while the EMEA region suffers from unfavorable base effects slowing its progression.”

“This progress in the structure of our sales mix, combined with operating expense efficiencies and the optimization of our performance levels will positively impact H1 2017 recurring operational EBITDA, in line with our execution plan.”

“On that basis, we are confident in the outlook for the second half as we fully concentrate on accelerating our growth by exploiting the potential of the Bright2020 strategic plan's three engines: innovation & science, consumer focus and emerging markets.”

My Natural Food
My Natural Food had revenue in the first half of 2017 of €107.1 million (US$126.6 million) compared to €107.9 million (US$127.5 million) in the prior year's same period.

This performance continued to be driven by positive underlying trends for specialty plant-based natural ingredients with coloring and antioxidant properties in particular.

Meanwhile, the 2017 second quarter registered a marginal decline from a high comparison base for the same period in 2016. My Natural SelfCare had revenue of €71.5 million (US$84.5 million), slightly above the level achieved in the 2016 first half, in light of Naturex's commitments in the areas of sustainable access to natural resources, traceability and quality control of its raw materials and plant extracts.

The 2017 second-quarter confirmed the first quarter's return to growth, with in particular, the development of phytoactives associated with clinical studies. Revenue for other activities was largely stable at €28.9 million (US$34.1 million) for the period.

Worldwide markets
The Europe/Africa/Middle East region had revenue of €69.8 million (US$82.5 million) in the 2017 first half compared to €77.8 million (US$92 million) for the same period in 2016. This region is particularly impacted by product references streamlining, amplified by the postponement for the region of invoicing for a specialty nutraceutical product, which masks the positive effects from the commercial approach implemented in strategic categories.

The 2017 second-quarter registered a marginal improvement in sequential growth, although it was adversely affected by the high comparison base from the 2016 second quarter. Also to be noted is the adverse currency effect from the GBP on a portion of sales, says Naturex.

Meanwhile, revenue in North America amounted to €91.4 million (US$108 million), up from €90.9 million (US$107 million) confirming a return to growth for the nutraceutical business activity in the US.

The 2017 second-quarter was down slightly from the same period in 2016, reflecting the base effect from the food processing business.

The emerging markets of Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region continued to show strong momentum to reach combined sales of €46.2 million (US$54.6 million), representing 22.2 percent of Group revenue.

In the 2017 second-quarter, growth in Latin America was impacted by volatility in certain product categories, whereas the sales for the Asia-Pacific region in this period reflected the transfer of billings from Europe.

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