With a turnover of 9.2 billion euros, DSM seems to have completely recovered from the corona crisis. Turnover is the same as in record year 2018. Profits also rose sharply to 1.7 billion euros.
Sale
These figures are largely due to the sale of part of the materials branch. The activities for resins of coatings and functional materials went to the German Covestro for 1.4 billion euros. Furthermore, only acquisitions also resulted in additional turnover of more than 100 million euros.
But the company also saw the turnover of current parts rise sharply, such as that of the food branch by 10 percent. According to the company, it is taking advantage of the trend from cure to prevention. Consumers would be more interested in products to prevent disease.
Food ingredients aimed at health and animal nutrition now make up more than 80 percent of DSM. In baby food, DSM saw slightly less turnover than hoped. According to the group, because the corona pandemic has led to lower birth rates worldwide.
Higher prices
In order to cope with rising prices for raw materials and energy, DSM raised the prices of many of its products in the last quarter of last year. As demand remained strong, this also contributed to the substantial increase in turnover. In particular, demand for pet food companies rose as customers stock up for fear of later shortages.
The materials branch also had a good last quarter. Partly due to the improving car industry to which DSM supplies plastics. Despite the good figures, DSM remains prepared to divest the branch in order to eventually focus solely on health and nutrition.
Crucial year
“2021 was a pivotal year in which we continued to focus on striving to fully align the company with health, nutrition and bioscience,” said board chairmen Geraldine Matchett and Dimitri de Vreeze in a joint commentary on the figures.
Everything out of the closet
According to the company executive, DSM also had to pull out all the stops because of problems with raw materials and logistics. The company also expresses positive expectations for 2022. The board also proposes to increase the profit on a DSM share by 10 cents to EUR 2.50 per share.