Nutrition division drives DSM Q2 profits up 19%

For the quarter, the nutrition division saw sales jump 23% from €899m to €1108m, with EBITDA profit increasing 28% from €195m to €249m. For the half, the pre-tax profit was 20% improved from 387m to €464m. Fortitech contributed €49m and EBITDA of €11m in Q2. "Nutrition, with its higher profits and healthy margins, is demonstrating the quality of its broad offering across the value chain,” said Feike Sijbesma, CEO/chairman of the DSM Managing Board. Overall DSM sales grew 9% from €2268m to €2468m with EBITDA rising 19% to €345m from €290m despite a €20 million hit in its performance materials division due to a poor caprolactam market. Sijbesma added: "For the rest of this year, we will continue to fully focus on operational performance and on the integration of our acquisitions, ensuring the capture of synergies." "In addition, the early successes of our profit improvement initiatives leave us confident that this group-wide program is well on track. We expect strong EBITDA growth in 2013, moving towards €1.4 billion." He said the group remained in a period of consolidation after spending more than €2bn on mostly nutrition-focused acquisitions like Ocean Nutrition Canada and Martek BioSciences since 2010, although smaller buys were not out of the question. Responding to yesterday's headline-grabbing lab-grown hamburger meat demonstration in London where FoodNavigator joined a multinational media scrum, Sijbesma said DSM welcomed such biotech advances but added, "for the next decade we will not eat out of a lab." DSM is the largest nutrient and ingredient supplier in the world and houses a portfolio including vitamins, minerals, enzymes, herbal extracts and nutritional lipids.

Nutrition division drives DSM Q2 profits up 19%

Organic growth and a healthy boost from last year’s €500m Fortitech investment lifted Q2 pre-tax profits 19% to €345m at Dutch ingredients and chemicals giant, Royal DSM.

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