LONDON (Alliance News) - PureCircle Limited Monday said its full-year pretax loss narrowed following strong sales growth of its stevia products.
Stevia sales at PureCircle increased by nearly 57% to take revenue to USD71.2 million, which slightly sweetened the taste of a pretax loss which, though narrowed, still came in at USD9.4 million for the year ended June 30, compared with a USD26.7 million pretax loss previous year.
PureCircle, which produces sugar substitute, stevia, said that sales growth can be predominantly attributed to its high purity ingredients, driven by "new innovations in our Stevia PureCircle proprietary portfolio of all-natural sweetener and flavour ingredients." All regions, comprising of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America, Asia Pacific and the USA, experienced sales growth.
The company also notes that sales of its carbonated soft drinks have been encouraging, following a number of product launches driven by the development of new ingredients by PureCircle. While sales figures do not yet reflect the rise in market usage, in the future they "are likely to represent the largest single category volume for high purity stevia," said the company.
PureCircle's expectations for the future of the carbonated soft drink market are supported by significant breakthroughs in the adoption and use of high purity stevia during FY13 by some of the industry's big players. The company notes, "The reformulation of Sprite in France was extended to the UK, Ireland, Benelux and Switzerland; and Pepsi Next was launched in Australia and France. In the United States Sprite and Fanta Select were test marketed. Notable expansion took place in Latin America as well with Fanta, Fresca and Sprite reformulations in Mexico; and in June Coca-Cola Life was launched in Argentina. Numerous other Carbonated Soft Drink adoptions have been launched or are ready in development pipelines for launch."
PureCircle said its customer base has increased significantly, expanding to service 300 different customers around the world, an increase of more than 200 against full-year 2012.
"Whilst sales still remain modest compared to our invested production capacity, the strong improvements in financial result seen in FY13 provide strong evidence of the scalability of our business model. Further improvements in profitability should arise as volumes increase," Paul Selway-Swift, chairman of the firm, said in a statement.
The company's full annual report and accounts will be posted to shareholders in November 2013.
PureCircle shares were Monday morning quoted at 345.84 pence, up 0.84 pence, or 0.2%.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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