News

DSM 4Q sales rise 6%

23 Feb 2016

DSM has announced net sales up 6% to €1,926m and EBITDA up 3% to €261m for the fourth quarter, with Nutrition achieving 7% organic growth with strong volume growth in both Animal and Human Nutrition.

DSM has announced net sales up 6% to €1,926m and EBITDA up 3% to €261m for the fourth quarter, with Nutrition achieving 7% organic growth with strong volume growth in both Animal and Human Nutrition. For the full year, the company saw what it describes as a solid performance with group net sales of €7,722m and EBITDA up 4% to €1,075m

“DSM’s fourth quarter performance, slightly ahead of expectations, was encouraging,” said Feike Sijbesma, CEO/Chairman of the DSM Managing Board. “We are particularly pleased with our progress in Nutrition, where both Animal and Human Nutrition delivered strong organic growth. Performance Materials continued to benefit from improved margins. In addition, our focus on cash flow and working capital efficiency contributed to a strong operating cash flow of €313 million.”

This good progress in Q4 completes a year in which we achieved solid results. We delivered strong organic growth in Nutrition despite lower vitamin E prices. Cost savings and good margin management helped drive higher margins in Performance Materials, which also benefited from lower input costs. Currencies, while being a mixed bag, had a favorable effect overall despite the strengthening of the Swiss franc.”

We expect to make further progress with our growth initiatives in 2016 both in Nutrition and Performance Materials although the macro-economic context remains challenging. These will be underpinned by our group-wide cost and productivity improvement programs as well as our disciplined focus on capital allocation and working capital. We are on track with these initiatives which will help drive improved profitability and return on capital that we target with our Strategy 2018.”

DSM said that Q4 2015 sales were strong in Human Nutrition & Health, with 5% organic growth achieved against the background of ongoing weak market conditions in the US and Latin America. The strong growth in the quarter was encouraging, the company said, although DSM noted that it the comparison with the same quarter in 2014 was relatively easy.

Food & beverage markets showed a mixed picture, with ongoing weak conditions in the US and Latin America. Markets in Europe and Asia performed well. Dietary Supplements showed improved sales of both fish oil- and (multi) vitamin-based supplements despite continued weakness in the US market. i-Health, DSM’s consumer business, again delivered strong double-digit sales growth. Infant Nutrition reported higher volumes compared to the same period in 2014. DSM Food Specialties delivered 3% organic growth in the quarter on the back of solid performance in enzymes & cultures and particularly in solutions for sugar reduction and dairy.