Croda International PLC on Tuesday reported strong annual sales and profit growth, as it lifted its total dividend by 8.0%.
The Yorkshire, England-based chemicals maker said sales rose 11% year-on-year to £2.09 billion in 2022 from £1.89 billion a year earlier. Constant currency sales rose by 5.0%, driven by ‘its ability to recover input cost inflation, with price/mix up by 24%.’
Pretax profit surged 90% to £780.0 million from £411.5 million, as basic earnings per share jumped to 465.8 pence from 230.0p a year ago.
Adjusted pretax profit was up 11% to £496.1 million from £445.2 million, as adjusted operating profit was up 10% to £515.1 million from 468.6 million a year earlier, which exceeded £500 million for the first time.
In Consumer Care, the firm noted lower second-half volumes and margins, due to destocking and supply constraints.
In Life Sciences, there was a strong performance from Crop Protection, with its ‘extensive’ pipeline of non-Covid delivery systems driving Pharma growth, helping to offset a fall in lipid systems for Covid-19 applications.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Foots said: ‘For the first time, we delivered over £2 billion in sales and £500 million in adjusted operating profit, reflecting progress across all areas of our business. Consumer Care is increasingly resilient, supported by encouraging growth in our F&F business, whilst Life Sciences has built on an exceptional prior year, with an exciting project pipeline in Pharma and a stand-out performance in Crop Protection.’
The company also reported strong performance in Asia, Western Europe and Latin America, other than North America where Consumer Care was ‘negatively impacted by significant customer destocking, with US customers particularly impacted by lower exports to China following lockdowns’.
Croda lifted its annual dividend by 8.0% to 108.0 pence per share from 100.0p a year prior.
Looking to 2023, it is trading in line with expectations, and expects destocking to end during the first half. It expects its performance to be weighted towards the second half.
Croda shares were down 3.7% at 6,672 pence each on Tuesday morning in London.
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