A mixture of higher sales and lower costs helped boost profits in 2010 at food ingredients group Givaudan.

The flavours and fragances producer today (8 February) booked net income of CHF340m (US$354.7m) for 2010, up 70.9% on 2009, when financing costs were higher and the company recorded one-off impairment costs.

Givaudan’s operating income stood at CHF556m in 2010, up from CHF460m a year earlier. Excluding restructuring and integration costs, operating income was CHF655m in 2010, against CHF525m in 2009.

As well as lower costs, Givaudan’s sales helped improve profits. The company’s group sales totalled CHF4.24bn in 2010, an increase of 8.9% in local currencies – or 7.1% when measured in Swiss francs.