Corbion, the Amsterdam-listed sustainable ingredients company that champions preservation through application of science, has published its results for the year ending December 31, 2023.

Commenting on results, Olivier Rigaud, chief executive officer, stated: “I am pleased to report a 2023 full year outcome in line with what we indicated earlier. We have reported organic sales growth and double-digit organic growth in Adjusted EBITDA and Operating Profit, whilst facing a challenging geopolitical and macro-economic environment. We delivered a higher than anticipated positive free cash flow for the year due to our focus on operational efficiencies, optimizing working capital and capex discipline. As a result, we propose to increase the regular cash dividend to our shareholders with 9% to € 0.61 per share.

“In Sustainable Food Solutions, sales growth was driven by pricing. We observed strong growth in our product/market adjacencies like dairy stabilizers, natural anti-oxidants and natural mold inhibitors. In Q4, we saw a continuation of the upward momentum in volume/mix growth reflecting the end of destocking.

“In Lactic Acid & Specialties, we experienced lower lactic acid supply to the TotalEnergies Corbion joint venture as well as an ongoing market slowdown in semiconductors and agrochemicals. Biomedical polymers continued its double digit growth trajectory.

“Algae Ingredients continued their growth momentum as a sustainable alternative to fish oil in the aquaculture industry, and concurrently we expanded our product portfolio and pipeline of high-margin products for the petfood and human nutrition segments. In 2023, the sales has grown over 50%, surpassing the € 100 million landmark.

“We achieved the mechanical completion of our world leading lactic acid plant in December and are on track to commence the start-up phase after commissioning is completed near the end of the first quarter of 2024. In January 2024, we announced that we had entered into a binding agreement for the divestment of the Emulsifier business allowing Corbion to sharpen its focus on fermentation based technologies.”

Corbion is continuing to play a leading role in advancing corporate sustainability, according to the most recent assessment by global environmental non-profit CDP. Following a review of data submitted by Corbion in response to CDP’s 2023 climate change, water and forest questionnaires, CDP commended the company’s continuing actions to cut emissions, mitigate climate and water risks, and strengthen its forest-related policies. Within its sector, Corbion ranked among the 26 percent of companies at the Leadership level (A- score) on climate change that are implementing current best practices.

CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is widely recognized as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency. In 2023, 746 investors with over US$136 trillion in assets and 330+ large purchasers with over US$6.4 trillion in procurement spend requested thousands of companies to disclose their environmental data through CDP. More than 23,200 companies, representing over 66% of global market value, responded to this year’s questionnaire. Disclosure through CDP provides a basis for measuring progress toward a climate-safe, deforestation-free, water-secure future and a truly sustainable economy.

Corbion’s Rigaud said: "We value the CDP’s assessment as an important gauge of how well we at Corbion are maintaining our focus, commitment and leadership role in shaping a more sustainable future. Maintaining a high level of performance over time is very challenging, as requirements increase every year. We are proud of the work we’ve done to maintain momentum on our sustainability journey, and look forward to what we can accomplish in the coming year; that’s the mindset we must hold onto over the long term because that’s what this journey requires.”

Corbion has committed to achieving net-zero value chain emissions by 2050, and has received external validation of science-based targets aiming to limit global temperature rise to 1.5˚C.