Croda International sees profits jump 40%

28th Apr 2011 11:36

Speciality chemicals group Croda saw shares rise on Thursday after announcing solid trading results for the first quarter of this year, with record sales and profits, in which it saw continued robust demand across all major geographies.Group pre-tax profit from continuing operations increased by 40.2% to £60.7m, while net debt was reduced by £5.3m since the year-end to £215.1m, despite an unfavourable currency movement of £1.5m.Group sales rose by 13.2% to £277.9m, despite adverse currency translation of 2.4%. In at least some product categories, Croda said it has "implemented further price increases" and passed on raw material cost increases. Additionally, the firm said it is in the process of repositioning some of its business lines towards higher price/low volume market segments. On a segmental basis, Consumer Care operating profit was up 22.2% to £42.4m 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, despite the volume decline described above and adverse currency movements. The company has expressed confidence in its ability to report further progress throughout 2011.ab