Croda International Plc (CRDA) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning everyone. Many thanks for joining the call. I'm here with Stephen and David and once we've run through the formal presentation we will be very happy to take your questions. So, the usual agenda today. I will start with some overarching comments on performance and Stephen will go through the numbers in detail and I will then come back to show how we are executing our plan to grow earnings and returns. Then it's very much over to you for Q&A. Okay, so making a start and coming first to performance. The headline message is that the business has done what we expected it to do with results very much in line with our expectations for the first half. And our growth is classic Crota. Profits growing ahead of sales and sales growing ahead of volume. Exactly what we want to see for an innovation-led business. We are driving our transformation programme at pace and that is delivering results today as well as building an even stronger business for tomorrow. Growth increased in the second quarter, driven by consumer care and led by a standout performance in beauty actors. We've said for several quarters now that demand for innovation, particularly amongst the large multinationals, has been steadily increasing. and we have strengthened our portfolio and repositioned our approach to R&D to anticipate and take full advantage of that trend and we're now starting to see the benefits with NTP growing faster than total sales in the first half. Alongside this improved performance we've continued to deliver on our transformation plan to enhance growth and efficiency across all areas of the business. Kroda is becoming a stronger business not just to deliver in the short term but to drive long-term sustainable and consistent growth for many years to come. This progress underpin...