Biotechnology and fermentation company Evolva has announced that product sales doubled in the first half of the year, reaching CHF 1.8 million. Total revenues of CHF 3.8 million were up 6% on last year. The net loss narrowed to CHF 14.7 million (first half 2017 loss CHF 20.3 million).

CEO Oliver Walker said, “It is great to see Evolva’s transformation is delivering results. The increased focus on commercialization is visible in the doubling of our product revenues in the first half of the year. In this phase of Evolva’s development, we are now focused on accelerating our activities to further build Evolva into a customer-focused business. This is an important step in becoming a viable company with a predictable performance.”

COO Scott Fabro added “Evolva’s product sales are on track to our plan and we look forward to a continued growth trend throughout 2018 and well into the future. We are excited that the first orders of the EverSweet sweetener have been shipped and look forward to an acceleration in 2019.”

The company said that sales of its specialty ingredients into the growing Flavor & Fragrance market are progressing well, with growth coming from key global customers and from the very large and diverse range of smaller customers via its network of distributors.

In the first half of the year, Evolva expanded its presence into Latin America and Asia, and has recently expanded its range of Flavor & Fragrance products, expecting this to yield additional growth in the coming quarters.

Resveratrol is said to be continuimg its solid growth trend in 2018. As envisioned in February 2017 when Evolva launched its new brand, Veri-te Resveratrol, the company says it has seen a number of jointly branded products launched both in Europe and the US. In April this year Evolva launched Veri-te Resveratrol CWD90, a cold-water dispersible resveratrol powder. This application is said to represent a first in the resveratrol market, and will open up aqueous product development with resveratrol for customers. Initial interest from customers in this new application has been very positive, Evolva said, and it expects a solid growth in sales over the next several years.

Cargill commercially produces the EverSweet sweetener, and has started shipping the first customer orders, and is building up inventory.