Croda Plc has reported a strong growth in sales as well as profits in 2021. The company sales grew by 36% to £1,889.6 million in 2021 as against £1,390.3 million in 2020. The operating profit went up by 46% to £468.6 million in 2021 as against £319.6 million in 2020. Adjusted earnings per share up 43% on 2020 and FRS profit before tax up 53%.

The company has navigated inflation well leading to successful cost recovery. Increased innovation in New and Protected Products (NPP) has gone up from 27% to 37% of total sales. Company has proposed full year ordinary dividend increase by 10%.

Steve Foots, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “2021 has been an outstanding year for Croda, with record financial results and excellent strategic progress. All parts of the business have delivered underlying growth, ahead of 2019 pre-pandemic levels, with strong cost recovery in a high inflation environment. Our Health Care business delivered an exceptional performance as a result of the work we have done to support the global roll out of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and therapeutic drugs, and a rapidly building pipeline of non-COVID applications. This progress has been supported by further organic and inorganic investment to increase innovation and strengthen our platform for future growth.

“I’m grateful to Croda colleagues around the world who have risen to the dual challenges of responding to a rapid recovery in customer demand whilst managing ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. I am also delighted that we have established the Croda Foundation, which is already helping over 50 million people globally by supporting vaccine infrastructure.

“Our excellent strategic progress during the COVID-19 pandemic has included progressing our transition to a pure-play Consumer Care and Life Sciences company, with our agreement to sell the majority of our industrial businesses. As a result, Croda will now be focused on faster growth, higher return markets, positioning us to deliver more consistent sales growth and an even stronger profit margin.”

Growth is expected to continue in 2022 in line with our medium-term expectations. This should be supported by robust consumer demand, inflation cost recovery and the benefit of our recent investments more than offsetting moderation in customer restocking. Lipid systems sales are expected to be at a similar level to 2021. With an increasing proportion of Group sales coming from higher value add solutions, profit margins in Consumer Care and Life Sciences are expected to remain strong.

The combination of our differentiated business model, healthy innovation pipeline and current investment programme are expected to underpin performance and continue to generate value for all our stakeholders.