Speciality plant-based natural ingredients company Naturex has posted its financial results for 2016 and following a reorganization and restructuring of the business, results appear to be paying off as it posted a substantial boost to profits - a net income of €17.9 million (US$19.2 million), a significant jump from the €0.6 million (US$ million) in in 2015.

According to Naturex chief executive and director Olivier Rigaud last year was the “first year of major progress” and the company finalized reorganizations to seize growth opportunities across different markets.

Revenue for 2016 amounted to €404.4 million (US$434 million), or organic growth 3.6%, like-for-like and at constant exchange rates. At current exchange rates, revenue was up 1.6% from 2015.

“2016 was the first year of major progress in executing our Bright2020 strategic plan.

We finalized the regionalization of our organization providing greater agility, cross-functionalities and efficiency in order to better seize growth opportunities in our different markets. At the same time, we continued to simplify our business model through targeted actions across our entire value chain according to the Bright2020 plan’s strategic priorities, Care, Execute & Grow,” says Rigaud.

“These initiatives allowed us to deliver quality organic growth from our two strategic platforms by targeting our customer approach in our traditional markets and boosting our presence in emerging countries.”

“Gains in efficiencies from structural efforts applied to the conduct of all our operations and a better allocation of our resources led to a sharp increase in our current operating margin and a very robust improvement in net income that was multiplied by 30.”

Driven by strong market trends in favor of natural and functional ingredients, the two strategic platforms of natural food range and natural self care segment, achieved quality organic growth.

My Natural Food increased 6% with annual sales of €208 million (US$223.3 million) and a 4.4% jump for My Natural Selfcare with €137.5 million (US$147.6 million) in sales. Other activities registered a 14.3% decline in sales mainly attributable to the discontinuation of the krill toll manufacturing business and the reduced number of stock keeping units (SKUs) identified in 2016.

“Our business model has been reinforced by these measures and is now more resilient and efficient. We have in this way created the optimal conditions to seize the opportunities offered by the market acceleration for natural products,” adds Rigaud.

“Building on these sound and solid foundations, Naturex begins a new phase in its development cycle in 2017 to deliver its Bright2020 objectives. Our priorities are clearly focused on top-line growth and profitability, with however a less favorable 2017 first half resulting from the acceleration of simplification measures and comparison base effects for certain product categories.”

Setting up a regional sales organization boosted the performances of emerging markets in Latin America and Asia-Pacific with continuing growth. Their combined sales amounted to €83.9 million (US$90 million), with 20.1% in organic growth, and representing 20.7% of Group revenue.

The Europe/Africa/Middle East region displayed good momentum with solid organic growth of 4.5% to reach €147.5 million (US$158.3 million) in sales; North America registered 3.6% decline in sales to €172.9 million (US$185.6 million) largely reflecting the volatility of the nutraceutical market in the US going through a phase of reconstruction as it adapts to new regulatory requirements, according to Naturex.

“A pioneer in the universe of nature 25 years ago, Naturexs fundamentals across the entire value chain constitute unique and differentiating strengths that influence its ecosystem: a clearly defined mission and strategy, expert, driven and fully focused teams, an efficient and agile regional organization, a high level of expertise in science and innovation, a solid entrepreneurial culture and a profound sense of social responsibility,” adds Rigaud.