Clariant reports “robust” sales growth for leather
31/10/2012
Third-quarter sales increased by 3% to CHF (Swiss francs) 1.923 billion from CHF 1.865 billion in the same quarter in 2011. Earnings before tax and exceptional expenses fell by 7% to CHF 201 million from CHF 216 million in the third quarter last year, affected, Clariant said, “by lower volumes and investments into growth”.
Chief executive, Hariolf Kottmann, said on announcing the results: “Given the further deterioration of the global economy, in which slower emerging markets growth could no longer offset a weakening in Europe, Clariant achieved a solid performance in the last three months. This was driven by a stable development of most core businesses, manifesting the consequent execution of our profitable growth strategy.”
The company had expected the global economy to stabilise during the third quarter, but this has not happened. It said Latin America had continued on a solid growth path and North America had remained stable, but that the downturn in Europe had spread from the southern countries across the continent. At the same time, the major economies in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa have started to soften.
Clariant’s business unit for leather, which also makes chemicals for textiles and paper, recovered from the low previous-year levels and posted what the company called “robust single-digit sales growth in local currencies”.
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