Strong growth in nutrition and health, coupled with double-digit rises in its food and beverage activity have seen French ingredients firm Naturex report robust sales growth for the first half of its financial year (H1).
The plant-based ingredients business said sales for the first half of 2012 amount to €147.2m – up 15.0% over H1 for 2011. It added that recent acquisitions had helped boost growth.
"We are very pleased with the growth generated over the 1st half of 2012 on all of our markets and geographical regions, in a difficult economic context,” said Naturex Chief Executive Officer Thierry Lambert.
Lambert said the growth figures confirm the company’s excellent positioning “in the still active mature markets as well as in emerging markets with a high growth potential."
Market progress
Naturex revealed ‘sustained growth’ in its main three markets – food and beverage; nutrition and health; and personal care – driven by an expanded products and solutions offering after acquiring Burgundy Botanical Extracts, Pektowin and Valentine. Burgundy processes fruit and vegetable powders and natural colours, Valentine specialises in fruit pectins and juice concentrates and preparations for processed food products.
Strong market trends for natural ingredients saw the group’s food and beverage sector sales rise by 10.2% over 2011 sales - up to €94.3m in revenue. In addition, ‘excellent performance’ in the US market had contributed to sales in nutrition and health areas soaring by 28% (to €44.3m).
Emerging growth?
Emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East have formed new dynamic areas for growth, said Naturex. The company revealed that such ‘emerging’ areas now represented 15.2% of the group's sales – compared to 13.4% over H1 in 2011.
The European and African markets recorded revenues of €73.5m - up 3.4% on 2011, meaning that the areas now represent nearly 50% of the Naturex’s total sales.
The Americas region experienced strong growth (32.6%), achieving €57.9m in revenues, due to strong market conditions in the US coupled with accelerated growth in Latin America.