Chr. Hansen has announced that it achieved “strong” results in 2017/18, and growth is set to continue in 2018/19. For the full year, organic growth was 9%, and adjusting for a negative currency impact of 6%, corresponded to a revenue increase of 3% to €1,097 million. Food Cultures & Enzymes saw 12% organic growth, while Health & Nutrition achieved 8% organic growth. Natural Colours grew organically by 5%.

For the fourth quarter, organic growth was 10%, and adjusting for a negative currency impact of 5%, corresponded to a revenue increase of 5% to €297 million. Food Cultures & Enzymes saw 12% organic growth; Health & Nutrition achieved 10% organic growth; and Natural Colors saw 6% organic growth.

CEO Mauricio Graber said: “2017/18 was another good year for Chr. Hansen, and we finished strongly in Q4 driven by Food Cultures & Enzymes and Health & Nutrition. We achieved all the overall financial targets that we set at the beginning of the year, in spite of currency headwinds impacting both revenues and earnings, with organic growth reaching 9%, EBIT margin before special items increasing to 29.2%, and free cash flow before special items and acquisitions increasing by 4% to EUR 196 million. For the full year, Food Cultures & Enzymes delivered strong growth organic of 12%, performing well above the long-term ambition of growing 7-8% per year, while Health & Nutrition and Natural Colors delivered moderate growth and grew by 8% and 5%, respectively.”

2017/18 was also a good year from a strategic perspective: We updated our strategy to become Nature’s no. 1 Sustainably and set a new financial ambition to take us to 2021/22. We reconfirmed that the products behind 82% of our revenues directly support three of the 17 UN Sustainability Development Goals. We began utilizing our new fermentation capacity in Copenhagen, which is the largest and most modern culture production plant in the world. Our three lighthouse projects each showed great progress through the year. Revenue in bioprotection grew around 35% and with the second-generation products showing impressive early progress.”

“The key focus for Chr. Hansen in 2018/19 will be to continue to execute the Nature’s no. 1 Sustainably strategy and to bring strong organic growth through innovation.”

The company’s outlook for the coming year sees it expecting to achieve organic revenue growth in the range 9-11%.