24th Feb 2015 07:33
LONDON (Alliance News) - Specialty chemicals company Croda International PLC on Tuesday reported a fall in pretax profit in 2014 amid lower sales, as the group was hit by currency translation headwinds.
FTSE 250-listed Croda said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP229.4 million, down from GBP250.1 million a year earlier.
Group sales for the year fell to GBP1.05 billion from GBP1.08 billion a year earlier, hit by a fall in its personal care sales and by industrial chemicals revenue. In constant currencies, group sales for 2014 actually rose to GBP1.11 billion.
But the group declared a slight rise in its final dividend to 36 pence per share from 35.5 pence, bringing its total dividend for the year to 65.5 pence, up 1.6% on the 64.5 pence paid a year earlier.
"After a challenging first half of 2014 in difficult market conditions, we delivered improved revenues across all core sectors in the second half of the year. This reflected accelerating innovation, improved trading outside Western Europe, and the early benefits of our new organisational structure," said Martin Flower, Chairman of Croda.
Flower added the group has started 2015 in line with its expectations, adding it expects demand in Europe to remain subdued but saying Croda is focusing on profitable sales growth.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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