Naturex has reported what it describes as a slight decline in third quarter revenues, which at constant exchange rates saw a fall from €98.4 million to €96.6m. The acquisition of Swedish Oat Fiber was announced concurrently.

Naturex revenues decline, buys Swedish oat company

Naturex has reported what it describes as a slight decline in third quarter revenues, which at constant exchange rates saw a fall from €98.4 million to €96.6m. The acquisition of Swedish Oat Fiber was announced concurrently.

"2017 third-quarter revenue reflects the effects from the accelerating reduction in the number of SKUs in addition to time lags of selective customer projects,” said Olivier Rigaud, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Naturex. “Concerning 2017, we foresee a very limited impact on 2017 fourth-quarter growth that will marginally impact the consensus estimate of 16% for the EBITDA margin.

The focus on accelerating our product portfolio's development and strengthening our commercial pipeline is building momentum.”

“At the level of organic growth, commercial projects originating from our Springlabs network and partnerships through our Open Innovation Ingenium programme are promising, and at the level of external growth, the integration of the Haliburton International Foods assets is entirely on track, setting the stage for a positive outlook in 2018.”

Today's announcement of the acquisition of Swedish Oat Fiber, a specialised Swedish manufacturer of oat dietary fibres, oils and proteins will strengthen our position in the natural nutrition market.

In light of these initiatives to achieve focused, sustainable and profitable growth, we remain confident in the outlook for 2018."

For the first nine months, revenue amounted to €301.3 million, compared to €306.4 million in last year's same period, down 1.7%. Like-for-like and at constant exchange rates, this decline was 2.2%.

Pursuing its strategy to accelerate the development of its specialty product portfolio, Naturex has completed its third external growth operation of the year by acquiring Swedish Oat Fiber, a Swedish manufacturer and producer of oat beta glucans dietary fibres, oat oils and oat proteins addressing food industry, nutraceutical, cosmetic and animal feed applications.

"We are delighted and proud to integrate Swedish Oat Fiber, a leading company in natural oat ingredients and a pioneer in its field,” said Rigaud. “We are very pleased to welcome its talented employees who have succeeded in achieving such a level of excellence to this day. This acquisition will support our development and diversification strategy into very promising market segments, such as dietary fibres with strong health claims, and specialty plant-based proteins, in line with new consumer trends."