Speciality plant-based natural ingredients Naturex has announced that its sales grew by 16.7% for the nine months to the end of September to €223.1 million. At constant exchange rates, revenue grew 11.9%.
The company said that its positive momentum for the first nine months of 2012 reflects not only good performances in developed countries despite pressure on consumer spending in Europe but also strong contributions from emerging countries.
Growth in Q3 2012 accelerated with revenue of €75.9 million, up 20.2% from last year's 3rd quarter and 13.4% at constant exchange rates.
Growth of the three markets served by Naturex – food and beverage, nutrition and health and personal care – is, said the company, driven by an innovative offering of ingredients and extracts with a high technological content making it possible to propose customised solutions increasingly based on natural concepts as sources of differentiation.
The Food & Beverage division had revenue of €142.8 million, up 11.9% (8.4% at constant exchange rates), with accelerating sales in the US and emerging countries that offset weaker consumer spending in Europe and the slowdown for the distribution of ingredients of the Australian subsidiary; Nutrition & Health marked further gains, mainly in the US market, with revenue of €66.5 million, up 26.1% on the strength of thethe NATactivR and NATlife ranges.
The Europe / Africa region had revenue growth of 8.1% despite a drag on consumer spending from difficult economic conditions, the company said, while the Americas region had excellent growth with very strong continuing expansion in North America and positive momentum in Latin America.
The Asia / Pacific region delivered excellent gains with growing contributions from Asia to reach 55% of the sales for this region on growth of 29.5% for the period.
Emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East account for a significant 16.9% share of total Nauturex revenue, up from 14.1% one year earlier, with 40.5% year-on-year growth for the first nine months of 2012.
"These performances for the first nine months of 2012 confirm the relevance of Naturex's positioning both in mature markets marked by more selective growth trends and the faster-growing emerging countries" commented Naturex's Chairman-CEO, Thierry Lambert.
"Our diversified and innovative offering, high-level technical and scientific know-how combined with our international commercial network are key drivers for sustainable high value-added growth to provide our customers with customized solutions increasingly sensitive to issues of well-being and naturalness."
