Big jump in Brenntag profits

Brenntag has announced a post-tax first quarter profit of €79.4m, up 18.7% on the €66.9m achieved this time last year. At the same time, sales rose 12.1% year-on-year from €2.1bn to just under €2.4bn. “We were again able to grow all our relevant earnings parameters,” says CEO Steven Holland. “As part of our strategy of sustainable and efficient growth we implemented an accelerated programme of efficiency gains in Europe to progressively increase our internal efficiency, measured by the conversion ratio of operating EBITDA to gross profit whilst retaining the capacity and capability to promote our growth strategies in a more challenging business environment.”