By Michael Susin
Croda International downgraded its profit expectations for the year after reporting that its third-quarter performance was weaker than expected.
The London-listed specialty chemicals company said Monday that it currently expects 2023 adjusted pretax profit–the company’s preferred metric, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items–to be between 300 million and 320 million pounds ($367.2 million-$391.6 million). This compares with the previous target range of GBP370 million to GBP400 million.
The company said that during the third quarter, customers continued to reduce their ingredient inventories in consumer care, crop and industrial end markets due to a combination of destocking and a weaker demand environment.
“This has continued to depress sales volumes and our overall performance for the period was therefore weaker than originally anticipated,” it said.
Beauty-care business sales volumes were lower than expected in July and August but are expected to recover through the remainder of the year, albeit now from a lower base.
The industrial specialties segment, however, continues to be affected by weak industrial demand globally and isn’t expected to be profitable in the second half of the year.
Life sciences sales have also weakened, with improvement now expected in the first half of next year.
Croda will report 2023 results on Feb. 27.
Write to Michael Susin at [email protected]
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