LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Treatt posted a rise in first-half profit and revenue on Tuesday as it expressed confidence over its full-year performance.
In the six months to the end of March 2019, adjusted pre-tax profit increased 7.3% to £6.2m on revenue of £56.6m, up 5.7% from the same period a year ago. The company upped its dividend per share by 6.3% to 1.70p.

Treatt, which manufactures and supplies ingredient solutions for the flavour, fragrance, beverage and consumer products industries, said the fruit and vegetables, tea and sugar reduction categories performed strongly.

Meanwhile, the citrus core product segment continues to lead the contribution to revenue despite a cyclical fall in raw material prices, while the speciality chemicals category outperformed management expectations at the half year.

Group chief executive Daemmon Reeve said: "Once again it is pleasing to report encouraging strategic progress. All categories have performed well despite cyclical weakness in some citrus raw material markets with particularly encouraging growth in our higher margin tea, sugar reduction and fruit and vegetable categories supporting the strong trend towards better for you and clean label, more natural beverages.

"The past six months have seen much work across the business strengthening our teams, building and planning infrastructure to drive future growth, establishing Treatt in new growth markets and expanding our offer in established markets. These actions were achieved whilst improving profitability and margins and give the Board confidence that the business is well placed to deliver on its strategic objectives over the coming years."

With order books "comfortably" above the previous year, Treatt said it remains confident of meeting its expectations for the financial year ending 30 September 2019.

At 0920 BST, the shares were down 2% at 401.70p.

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