Croda agrees to acquire Alban Muller after recording 'resilient' performance

Croda has revealed details of its latest acquisition to the stock exchange.

With an annual revenue of €18m for the year to 30 June 2020, Alban Muller is based in France and supplies natural and botanical ingredients for the global beauty industry.

The acquisition expands Croda's portfolio of sustainable active ingredients for customers in personal care markets, complementing its industry-leading positions with Sederma and Crodarom, the company said.

Steve Foots, Croda chief executive officer, said: "The acquisition of Alban Muller enhances Croda's position as a world leader in natural and botanical actives, helping us meet the increasing demand from customers looking for ingredients of natural origin to improve the sustainability profile of their products."

Croda has also announced its full year results for the year ended 31 December 2020.

Against the backdrop of the "extreme circumstances" experienced globally in 2020, Croda's financial performance was resilient, the company said.

In a statement, the company said: "We experienced only a 2.7% decline in underlying sales, supplemented by acquisition sales adding 3.8%, to grow overall by 1.1% in constant currency.

"In reported currency, sales increased by 0.9% to £1,390.3m (2019: £1,377.7m), with the proportion of sales from NPP products falling slightly to 27.4% (2019: 28.1%).

"Sales in the second quarter were hard hit by the first round of global lockdowns, with group constant currency sales almost 12% lower year-on-year. However, the second half saw a steady month-on-month improvement in both consumer and industrial markets."

Mr Foots commented: "During a year in which we have all faced unprecedented challenges, the response and commitment of our employees to maintain business continuity and serve our customers has been outstanding.

"The strength and quality of Croda's business model has been further tested and proven. Whilst customer demand in certain end markets has inevitably been impacted by the pandemic, Croda's financial performance has been resilient.

"Our strong financial platform has allowed us to make further progress positioning the business to focus on the fast growth markets of the future, capitalising on emerging trends in existing and adjacent markets.

"We have made significant investments to accelerate delivery of our strategy, notably the acquisitions of Avanti and Iberchem, so that life science and consumer markets now represent over 80% of Croda's profit generation.

"My proudest moment in more than 30 years at Croda came with our critical involvement with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, a fantastic example of our Purpose, Smart science to improve lives.

"I am more confident than ever that our recent acquisitions, relentless innovation and emphasis on sustainability will drive our future profitability."

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