Corbion has reported Q2 2014 sales of €188.3 million, down 0.9% compared to Q2 2013. Organic sales growth was 1.1%, mostly driven by the Biochemicals market segment with organic growth of 13.3%. The Biobased Food Ingredients market segment declined organically by 2.2%. EBITDA in Q2 2014 decreased by 2.9% to €26.4 million. Organic EBITDA growth in Q2 2014 amounted to 3.4%.
“Both sales and EBITDA grew organically in the second quarter compared to Q2 2013,” said Tjerk de Ruiter, CEO. “Similar to the first quarter, a contrasting performance was visible between both market segments: The performance in Biochemicals excelled in volumes and margins, while Biobased Food Ingredients, showing some improvement versus Q1, continued to disappoint. We are currently in the middle of a thorough strategic process, the outcome of which we will present in November. The strategic process is focused on future prospects for growth and value creation for Corbion and its shareholders.”
H1 2014 net sales was on par compared to H1 2013 at € 371.0 million with organic growth of 2.0%, mainly driven by volume growth. Net sales were negatively impacted by exchange rate effects of € -16.2 million (-4.4%), due to a weaker Japanese yen, Brazilian real and US dollar versus the Euro.
The Biobased Food Ingredients segment reported slightly lower volumes and sales in both Q1 and Q2, which also had a negative impact on EBITDA development. These declines were also caused by negative translation effects as the US dollar weakened throughout H1 2014 versus H1 2013. At the largest market unit, Bakery, we saw little improvement over a weak start in Q1, as the volumes in Q2 continued to be slightly down compared to last year. The innovation portfolio, launched last year, has seen increased traction with customers towards the end of H1, even though the up-take earlier in the year was slower than forecast.
For the remainder of the year Corbion said that it expects similar market circumstances as in H1 2014. For the Biobased Food Ingredients segment, the company sees some early signs of volume growth improvement, whereas in the Biochemicals segment the comparables versus last year for volume growth will become more challenging as the year progresses.
