The Provimi Group, a world leader in animal nutrition, today delivers a trading update for the first six months of the year to 30 June 2011.
Excellent financial performance:
· Revenues up 11.5% to € 871 million
· Gross Margin increased by 5.2% to € 237 million
· EBITDA up 20.3% to € 86 million
· EBITDA margin at 9.9%
· Pet Food disposal completed on 9 June
· Net debt position has decreased by € 218 million since December 2010
· On track to deliver 2011 EBITDA target of € 175 million, up 10.9% on last year

Our positioning and capabilities are delivering solid growth

· Gross Margin in Premix and Specialties business grew by 9.0%, driven by good volume growth across our core markets
· Continued strong performance in our key growth markets of Latin America, Russia and Asia, in aggregate contributing 45.9% of total EBITDA for H1
· Strong, solid performance in North America
· NASSA, our Mexican acquisition, continues to outperform expectations and is fully integrated


Ton van der Laan, Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer commented:

"Our strategy of positioning Provimi as the leading global nutritional solutions provider in the centre of the value chain has resulted in double digit turnover and profit growth in the first half of 2011.

“We will continue to leverage and strengthen the capabilities that are required to deliver nutritional value to our customers worldwide. Our improved customer focus and extensive knowledge base enable us to deliver high-quality tailored solutions which improve the business results of our customers. This has led to solid growth in the profitable premix and specialities businesses in our core growth markets such as Latin America, Russia and Asia.

“In the second half of the year, we will continue to accelerate the Group’s performance. We are well on track to deliver an EBITDA of € 175 million for the full year, up 10.9% on last year”.