RICHMOND, Victoria, Australia (Feb. 10, 2011)—Ansell Ltd. has reported sales up by 9 percent and profits up by 6 percent for the six months to Dec. 31.
The company said sales rose to $583.7 million in the six months, up by about 9 percent on the previous year's first-half figure of $533.3 million.
Profits (EBIT) increased to $69.3 million from $65.6 million a year earlier.
Chairman Peter Barnes said this was a challenging six month period, as Ansell faced substantial increases in key raw material costs and adverse foreign exchange movements, continued to invest significant resources in Fusion (the company's major ERP project) and implemented a major reorganization.
In the medical side, Ansell's sales were down 3 percent, with surgical gloves rising 5 percent and examination gloves falling 10 percent, as Ansell sought price increases on vinyl and NRL based products.
Natural rubber latex prices increased an unprecedented 75 percent on the prior period. Given the difficulty in fully recovering NRL cost increases and the drag of long term fixed price contracts, EBIT declined 20 percent despite a more favorable product mix, the company said.