“EBITDA grew strongly, driven by organic growth, the continuing strength of the U.S. dollar and the benefits of our productivity improvement program Streamline, which are coming through at a more rapid pace than initially expected,” said Tjerk de Ruiter, chief executive officer (CEO) of Amsterdam-based Corbion, when second-quarter results were given Aug. 12.
EBITDA excluding one-off items were €40.1 million ($44.8 million), which compared with €26.8 million in the previous year’s second quarter. EBITDA was €39.9 million, which compared with €24 million. Net sales in the second quarter increased to €232.3 million ($259.8 million) from €188.3 million.
In the company’s Biobased Ingredients segment, EBITDA excluding one-off items was €40.8 million, up from €30.1 million in the previous year’s second quarter, and net sales were €228.9 million, up from €187.1 million. Within the segment, food business contributed EBITDA excluding one-off items of €34.3 million, up from €27.1 million, and net sales of €177.9 million, up from €143.8 million.
“In the U.S., our bakery activities benefited from the general consumer recovery in addition to good results with our innovative products in bread and sweet products,” Corbion said. “This was despite a temporary production disruption created by the Grandview incident.”
Corbion previously has said it expects a March 11 explosion in a spray tower at a manufacturing facility in Grandview, Missouri, U.S., to have a negative financial impact of about €3 million in net sales for fiscal year 2015. Three employees were taken to a hospital on March 11 and released the same day.
Also within the Biobased Ingredients business, biochemicals had EBITDA excluding one-off items of €10.8 million, up from €9.8 million in the previous year’s second quarter, and net sales of €51 million, up from €43.3 million.
In its Biobased Innovations segment, Corbion sustained a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, excluding one-off items, of €800,000, which compared with a loss of €3.3 million in the previous year’s second quarter. Net sales for the segment in the quarter were €3.4 million, up from €1.3 million, behind strong organic sales growth in bioplastics.
In the first six months of the fiscal year, Corbion companywide posted EBITDA excluding one-off items of €77.3 million, up from €51.9 million in the same time period of the previous fiscal year, EBITDA of €77.1 million, up from €49.1 million, and net sales of €452.3 million, up from €371 million.
