Naturex, the French company which produces natural ingredients for the flavour, food and nutraceutical industries, has reported a strong rise in its first half sales helped by the acquisition last year of the US group Brucia Plant Extracts.

The Avignon-based firm said that its first half turnover had risen by 83 per cent to €15.3 million, while operating profits were nearly three times greater than in 2001 at €1.85 million. Net profits rose four-fold to €0.91 million.

The rise in sales was not entirely due to the Brucia acquisition - Naturex said that it had also posted a strong 32 per cent rise in organic sales.

The company said that the integration of Brucia Plant Extracts was progressing as planned, and that the benefits of the deal were as it had hoped for. In addition, the synergies of the deal at both the sales and production levels were greater than had been expected.

Naturex said that it expected to see further growth in the rest of the year, above and beyond that generated by the Brucia acquisition, as a result of increased profitability of its core operations.

For 2002 as a whole, the company is predicting an 80 per cent increase in turnover (or 20 per cent on a like-for-like basis), with net profits of between €1.5 and €2 million.