November 9, 2011

 

Balchem's Q3 earnings show increase

 

 

Balchem Corporation achieved record net earnings of US$10.8 million, an increase of US$2.3 million for the third quarter ended September 30, compared to the prior year comparative quarter.

 

Balchem's net sales of US$74.4 million were achieved for the quarter which is an increase of 16.5% above the US$63.9 million result of the prior year comparative quarter.

 

In this third quarter of 2011, sales of the Animal Nutrition & Health segment, including specialties, choline and industrial derivative product sales, totalled US$51.2 million, an increase of 20.9% or US$8.8 million from the prior year comparable quarter.

 

Global feed grade choline product sales were up double digit, principally a result of increased volumes sold from the company's North American operations to both domestic and especially international customers, along with increases in selling price which partially offset raw material cost increases.

 

ANH specialty ingredients, largely targeted to the ruminant animal markets, realised approximately 26% sales growth from the prior year comparable quarter, as regional US and certain export markets showed improvement in dairy economics, supporting greater volume demand for these products despite relatively high feed prices.

 

Earnings from operations for the entire ANH segment increased approximately 21% to a quarterly record of US$7.3 million as compared to US$6.1 million in the prior year comparable quarter, largely due to improved volumes sold.

 

The ARC Specialty Products segment generated record quarterly sales of US$12.2 million, an increase of 12.8% from the comparable prior year quarter.

 

Sales of the Food, Pharma & Nutrition segment were US$11 million, which was a modest 2.8% improvement over the prior year comparable quarter.

 

Consolidated gross margin for the quarter ended September 30, 2011 improved to US$22.6 million, as compared to US$20.2 million for the prior year comparable period.

 

Gross margin percentage declined slightly to 30.4% of sales as compared to 31.7% in the prior year comparative period, principally due to raw material cost increases.

 

For the nine months ended September 30, 2011, consolidated net sales have increased 19.9% to US$222.1 million versus US$185.3 million in the comparable prior year period.

 

Net earnings have increased 22.7% to US$29.3 million, versus net earnings of US$23.9 million, in the prior year comparable period.

 

The company continues to maintain a healthy balance sheet with diligent working capital controls, particularly effective inventory and accounts receivable management.