First quarter trading statement

26 April 2012

Croda International Plc

First quarter trading statement

STRONG START TO 2012

Martin Flower, Chairman of Croda International Plc, is due to provide the following update on first quarter trading for the period ended 31 March 2012 at today's Annual General Meeting:

"I am pleased to report that we achieved record Group results in the first three months of 2012, driven by our highest ever quarterly sales and profits in both Consumer Care and Performance Technologies.

Group sales from continuing operations increased 4.7% to £291.0m (2011: £277.9m). We achieved sales growth in all the major geographical areas in which we operate and volumes were much improved versus the run rates seen during the second half of 2011. Group operating profit from continuing operations was up 8.0% to £65.8m (2011: £60.9m).

Group pre-tax profit from continuing operations increased 7.2% to £65.1m (2011: £60.7m).

All business areas within Consumer Care saw very good growth, resulting in a sales uplift of 9.2% to £159.7m (2011: £146.3m) and a 13.7% increase in operating profit to £48.2m (2011: £42.4m). Return on sales was 30.2%.

Performance Technologies sales increased by 2.9% to £106.9m (2011: £103.9m), in line with expectations, and operating profit increased by 1.2% to £16.3m (2011: £16.1m). Return on sales was 15.2%. This was an encouraging result against very strong comparatives in the first quarter of 2011 when we experienced profit growth of 56.3%.

In Industrial Chemicals, which represents less than 2% of Group operating profit, sales fell by 11.9% to £24.4m (2011: £27.7m) due to slow demand in Europe. This led to a 45.8% fall in operating profit to £1.3m (2011: £2.4m).

Raw material costs have started to rise and we began to introduce price increases across a number of product areas from April.

Strong cash generation and a final receipt of £15.9m from the 2008 sale of our Chicago business reduced net debt by £45.2m to £185.9m (year end 2011: £231.1m).

The Board believes that these results represent a strong start to the year and we remain confident that 2012 will be another year of progress for Croda."

For further information, please contact:

The company will host a conference call for analysts at 8.00am (BST) today:

Dial-In: 020 3140 0724

Please quote "Croda International"to gain access to the call

Croda International Plc

Unaudited income statement before tax and exceptional items