Chief Executive Officer, Corbion
Corbion 2022 Full Year Results - video with CEO, Olivier Rigaud
About Olivier Rigaud
Olivier Rigaud, CEO of Corbion, said in February 2023 that the company achieved record growth and profitability in 2022 despite what he described as the highest market volatility he had seen in 35 years. He stated that Corbion adapted to cost inflation and supply chain disruptions through price increases, mix improvement, and operating efficiency gains. Rigaud noted that the company achieved break-even in its algae-based omega-3 business, increased carbon footprint reduction targets, and invested in production capacity in Thailand, the United States, and Singapore. In January 2023, Rigaud participated in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he discussed Corbion’s focus on replacing synthetic ingredients with natural alternatives. He said the company works with suppliers to reduce emissions and provides customers with carbon footprint data. In comments on first-half 2022 results, Rigaud reported organic net sales growth of 23.4% and said the company had passed on cost increases to the market without experiencing adverse volume impacts. Earlier in 2022, he described a strong first quarter with above 20% organic growth and margin recovery, while emphasizing safety and innovation as ongoing priorities.
Transcript (8 segments)
O
Olivier Rigaud0:12
In my 35 years in the industry, I've never seen anything like the market volatility we've been and still are experiencing. Even so, for Corbion it was a record year in terms of growth and profitability, and we made real progress in delivering on our Advance 2025 strategy. We gained market share and raised organic sales growth substantially, grew adjusted EBITDA, invested in our organization and production capacity, achieved EBITDA break-even in our algae-based omega-3 business, and stepped up our carbon footprint reduction targets. We adapted to unprecedented cost inflation and supply chain disruptions through a disciplined combination of price increases, mix improvement, and operating efficiency gains.
In our core business, product mix improvement more than offset lower volumes, which says a lot about the strength of our differentiated portfolio. In Sustainable Food Solutions, we simply did better than our competitors at adapting and staying agile when faced with the supply chain disruptions, raw material shortages, pricing volatility, and labor scarcity that affected businesses throughout the value chain. We developed new solutions and technologies that reduced the impact of these challenges on our customers. In Bakery, we quickly helped customers reformulate when their supply chain broke down because of logistical disruptions, global conflicts, and the impact of climate change on agriculture. We've taken a comprehensive approach to preservation that goes beyond optimizing food safety and shelf life, encompassing many of the factors important to consumers and producers: taste, texture, color, yield, waste reduction, and sustainability.
In meat and poultry products, yes, but also in the still growing plant-based milk alternative segment. In 2022, we invested to grow our capabilities in consumer insights, expand capacity for producing natural ferments at our Peoria, U.S. plant, and extend our presence in Asia Pacific through a newly opened customer support and innovation center in Singapore.
In Lactic Acid and Specialties, we continue to see product development in hygiene and cleaning stimulated by the pandemic, in addition to product reformulation using safer, more natural ingredients. Our solutions for the semiconductor industry maintain an upward trajectory as growth in data processing, connectivity, and Internet of Things continues to drive demand for chips and memory. High crop prices also drove demand for the environmentally friendly crop protection solutions we help our customers in the agrochemical market create.
Our biomaterials business continued its post-COVID recovery as elective orthopedic surgeries became more frequent. Corbion biomaterials, a joint venture focused on a cost-effective new drug delivery methodology, continued developing its pipeline, and the JV's lead program expects to receive FDA approval and launch their first product by mid-2023. Our PLA business did see some setbacks in 2022 caused by COVID-related lockdowns in China as well as high energy and transport costs. Together with our partner TotalEnergies, we remain confident in the outlook for PLA and are committed to growing the business.
In June, we achieved EBITDA break-even in our algae business and established algae ingredients as its own separate business unit. These major milestones were made possible by a key breakthrough that improved our production yield and sparked significant customer adoption in aquaculture. We expanded into new markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and beyond agriculture into new categories like pet nutrition. We believe in the growth opportunity and profit potential for our algae ingredients unit, which will focus initially on our omega-3 offerings.
Because our core purpose is to preserve what matters, sustainability continues to shape decision-making at Corbion. We continue looking for ways to reduce the environmental impact of our businesses. After all, the climate crisis poses a threat to virtually every aspect of civilization, our environment, and the global economy. We are ahead of schedule in pursuing our initial emission reduction targets, but we are still discovering more opportunities to do even better. When it comes to reducing the impact of climate change, there is no such thing as overachieving. We are already pursuing more aggressive emission reduction targets which have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. Our new reduction goals align with the ambition to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Looking back on 2022, we can be proud of the way Corbion delivered on expectations despite challenging conditions, all the while standing by our purpose and our values, never compromising on safety, raising the bar on sustainability, creating value for our customers, and caring for our employees. I'm excited to continue our Advance 2025 journey together, finding new ways to preserve what matters.