Treatt tastes success fuelled by wellness boom

Natural extracts supplier Treatt has reported soaring profits as the pandemic further fuels the UK and US wellness boom.

The Bury St Edmunds-based business was founded back in 1886 and now works B2B supplying many multinationals with ingredients for everything from perfume to alcohol-free beers and cold-brew coffee.

Treatt, which has not missed a dividend since it floated in 1989, said on Tuesday that it saw pre-tax profits jump by 71.4% to £10.4 million in the six months to March 31, compared to the same period a year earlier, as revenues jumped 13.5% to £60.8 million.

The firm upped its forecast, saying it now expects full-year profit to exceed £20 million - above current market consensus of £18 million.

The pandemic has seen demand for low-calorie and chemical-free products grow around the world, as consumers become increasingly aware of their health.

The company highlighted the 57.1% revenue growth in the firm's "healthier living" categories - including its wellness products and tea - and said "demand from the health-conscious consumer shows no sign of slowing down".

Treatt, which makes most of its flavours inside a £12 million facility opened in Florida last year, has seen its share price rise 18x in the last nine years since chief executive Daemmon Reeve took the helm.

Reeve labelled the performance "remarkable in what remain challenging times" and said executives are "optimistic about demand returning from the re-opening of hospitality across more geographies in the coming months".

Reeve, who has been with the company thirty years, said trends in the coming months to look out for include alcoholic low-calorie "hard seltzers" from across the Atlantic. 

He said: "Retail beverage has done particularly well for us... What excites us the most is the progress we have seen in our 'better for you' categories. Calorie-conscious alcoholic beverages have done very well for us, with alcoholic hard seltzers begininig to come into the UK and European markets now, after performing very well in the US.