First Quarter Trading Statement

RNS Number : 5748F

Croda International PLC

28 April 2011

 



28 April 2011

Croda International Plc

First quarter trading statement

Martin Flower, Chairman of Croda International Plc, is due to provide the following update on first quarter trading for the period ended 31 March 2011 at today's Annual General Meeting:

"I am pleased to report a strong start to 2011 with record sales and profits in both Consumer Care and Industrial Specialities with robust demand continuing across all major geographies.

Group sales increased 13.2% to £277.9m (2010: £245.5m) despite adverse currency translation of 2.4%. Overall volumes were slightly down as we continue to reposition our Industrial Specialities operations away from lower price/higher volume products towards more speciality business. Average prices rose during the quarter as we passed on significant raw material cost increases into the market. We have implemented further price increases where necessary in April.

Group pre-tax profit from continuing operations increased 40.2% to £60.7m (2010: £43.3m).

On a segmental basis, Consumer Care operating profit was up 22.2% to £42.4m (2010: £34.7m) with Personal Care, Health Care and Crop Care all seeing significant sales and profit growth.

Industrial Specialities again achieved extremely robust profit growth of 63.7% to £18.5m (2010: £11.3m) despite the volume decline described above and adverse currency movements.

Net debt reduced by £5.3m since the year-end to £215.1m despite an unfavourable currency movement of £1.5m.

We are pleased with the performance to date and are confident of reporting further progress throughout 2011."

For further information, please contact:

Mike Humphrey, Group Chief Executive	Tel:  [phone]
Sean Christie, Group Finance Director
Hazel Stevenson, Financial Dynamics	Tel:  [phone]

The company will host a conference call for analysts at 8.00am (BST) today:

Dial-In: [phone]

Please quote "Croda International"to gain access to the call

Croda International Plc
Unaudited income statement before tax and exceptional items
31 March 2011
£m
		3 months to	3 months to
		31 March	31 March
		2011	2010	Change
	Consumer Care	146.3	128.1	+14.2%
	Industrial Specialities	131.6	117.4	+12.1%
	Revenues from continuing operations	277.9	245.5	+13.2%
	Consumer Care	42.4	34.7	+22.2%
	Industrial Specialities	18.5	11.3	+63.7%
	Operating profit from continuing operations	60.9	46.0	+32.4%
	Net bank and loan interest payable	(2.0)	(2.8)
	Net retirement benefit scheme financing	1.8	0.1
	Profit before tax from continuing operations	60.7	43.3	+40.2%
	Operating margin	21.9%	18.7%
Analysis of turnover uplift for continuing operations
	Volume			-0.5%
	Currency impact			-2.4%
	Price/mix			+16.1%
				+13.2%

 

END

 

 

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