PureCircle pins future success on obese world

A relatively new Japan-developed sweetener was still proving a hit this week, as PureCircle revealed it was expecting a significant increase in sales this year.

The AIM-listed, Kuala Lumpur-based producer and marketer of stevia ingredients said its expected sales in the first half of the year to be no less than $54m (£36.9m), a 25% increase against the same period last year.

PureCircle said there had been growth across all global sales regions and across all its ingredients, as more producers adopted stevia as a sweetener and the company supported continued roll-outs of existing products.

The group said it also expected gross margins, EBITDA and net results to increase significantly compared to last year.

EBITDA was expected to be no less than $13m, an increase of $7m.

PureCircle also incurred a number of unusual costs through the period, including the $2m cost of listing in London, and costs of $4m related to its Long Term Incentive Plan and related activities.

The Malaysian ringgit has also suffered a significant decline of more than 20%, however, which gave the group a foreign exchange gain of $3m.

"Global obesity continues to worsen with more than 600m people now predicted to be obese by 2035", said PureCircle CEO Magomet Malsagov on the company's growth prospects.

"These developments give further support to our long-held assessment that stevia has the potential to become a mass volume mainstream ingredient in food and beverage products, and for PureCircle to contunue to play a leadership role in the development of that market", he added.