Spanish chocolate group Natra has pointed to improved efficiency in parts of the business as it reported an increase in first-quarter underlying profit.
Natra posted profit from operations of EUR3.3m for the first three months of 2012. A year earlier, profit from operations was EUR1.9m. Natra reported EBITDA of EUR6.3m, up 21%.
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The disposal of shares in Naturex last year helped Natra’s bottom line and meant the company reported a net loss of EUR150,000 for the first quarter of 2012. A year earlier, Natra booked a net profit of EUR1.1m.
However, Natra said more efficient procurement of raw materials, a review of its sales prices after last year’s increase in commodity costs and increased sales of industrial products helped its profit from operations despite a fall in turnover.
During the first three months of the year, the cocoa and chocolate business, Natra’s main activity, saw operating income surge 47.8% to EUR1.67m.
The industrial goods unit within Natra’s cocoa and chocolate business saw sales increase 19.5% to EUR22.27m.
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By GlobalDataHowever, consumer goods sales, which accounts for 75% of Natra’s cocoa and chocolate turnover, saw sales decline 6.6% to EUR53.3m. Natra said it had ended contracts that did not meet its profit requirements and added elsewhere there had been a delay in the start of some new contracts. Group turnover declined 2.7% to $85m.
The company said the first quarter of 2012 was marked by the business operations improvement of Natra’s cocoa and chocolate business, which allowed the beginning of the margins recovery announced by the end of 2011.
Natra is confident in obtaining growth in both revenues and operating margins for 2012, especially driven by improvements in efficiency in the consumer goods division, punished in the previous year by the strong cost increase of raw materials.
