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Text: I'm Steve Rolfs Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Sensient Technologies Corporation.
During our call today, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide investors with additional information to evaluate the company's performance and improve the comparability of results between reporting periods.
These non-GAAP financial results should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information calculated in accordance with GAAP.
Our actual results may differ materially, particularly in view of the uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic, governmental attempts at remedial action, and the timing of a return of more normal economic activity.
We urge you to read Sensient's previous SEC filings and our forthcoming 10-Q for a description of additional factors that could potentially impact our financial results.
Please bear these factors in mind when you analyze our comments today.
Now, we'll hear from Paul Manning.
I'm pleased to report 4% consolidated adjusted local currency revenue growth.
Our Flavors & Extracts Group reported 9% adjusted local currency revenue growth, more than 20% adjusted local currency operating profit growth, and 130 basis points adjusted operating profit margin improvement in the quarter.
Our Asia Pacific Group reported 5% adjusted local currency revenue growth and over 30% adjusted local currency operating profit growth.
Our balance sheet is strong, and our debt-to-EBITDA is now at 2.4, down from 2.9 a year ago.
In April, we completed the sale of our Fragrances business, and we are currently assessing various acquisition opportunities.
Overall, I'm pleased with our first quarter results and our start to the year.
We continue to see an increase in new sampling requests and strong activity in the sales pipeline, both of which are good indicators of future product development opportunities and product launches.
Our sales attrition rates continue to be at the low levels we achieved throughout 2020.
The impact of COVID-19 continues to vary depending on geographic region and product line.
Geographically, we are beginning to see positive trends in the U.S. and certain Asia Pacific countries.
However, Europe and Latin America continue to be impacted by government regulations, slower vaccine rollouts, and softer markets.
From a product line standpoint, we continue to see growth in a number of our sweet, savory, and natural ingredient product lines.
However, we continue to see headwinds in personal care, makeup, and QSR.
We expect much of the personal care headwind to subside later in the year.
During the first quarter, we experienced an increase in the number of supply chain challenges, from shipping container shortages to Brexit disruptions, Suez Canal backups, and unusual weather in Texas.
Despite these challenges, we continued to provide robust customer service, and we have mitigated raw material shortages and cost increases.
I'm very pleased to report that in early April Early April we closed on the sale of our Fragrance business.
This completes the third of our three divestitures identified in 2019, and positions the company to be strongly focused on our core product lines within food, pharma, and personal care.
We continue to look at sensible acquisition opportunities that support our strategic initiatives within these core product lines.
Turning to the Group results.
The Flavors & Extracts Group had another strong quarter with 9% adjusted local currency revenue growth and 21% adjusted local currency profit growth.
The group continues to benefit from a strong sales and customer service focus and a continued transition to more value-added product solutions.
The group's operating profit and profit margin improvement is a direct result of the strong sales growth, product mix shifts, and our ongoing fixed cost takeout initiatives.
Overall, the group's adjusted operating profit margin increased 130 basis points in the quarter compared to last year's first quarter.
We are well on track to achieve our 50 to 100 basis point operating profit margin improvement for the year and our mid-single digit revenue growth goal for the year.
Within the Flavors & Extracts Group, the savory business had another very strong quarter.
Our savory business supplies companies with flavors, flavor enhancers, and taste modulators that are found in a wide variety of products, including plant-based proteins, savory snacks, sauces, and prepared foods which are supplied to foodservice, CPG, and other innovative food companies.
This business continues to grow as a result of its strong flavor technologies and exceptional customer service.
Our savory business is well positioned for growth, and I'm optimistic about its future opportunities.
In the first quarter, we acquired a production facility for our natural ingredients business that will give us additional capacity to better service our customers and to support the increased demand we see within this business.
We look forward to bringing this facility online and anticipate it contributing to the group in the latter part of this year.
I continue to expect Flavors & Extracts Group to deliver mid-single digit revenue growth and continued operating profit margin improvement over the long term.
Within the Color Group, revenue for food and pharmaceutical colors was up low-single digits for the quarter.
The group continues to see demand for natural colors and functional extracts used in food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical OTC applications.
The group's focus on sales execution and customer service, as well as its strong technology platform and brand positions us to capitalize on the strong consumer demand for natural colors.
We believe our low-single-digit growth this quarter is a result of a slowdown in product launches that use natural colors.
However, we expect a much improved second quarter and back half of the year due to the increasing rise in new sample request and new customer project activity.
Also in the Color Group, revenue in our personal care business continues to be down as a result of the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the makeup industry.
During our last call, we communicated that the first half of 2021 would be challenging for this business.
As we enter the second quarter, we are already seeing signs of recovery.
The personal care business continues to make solid progress on our operational improvement plan, which is designed to consolidate some of our cosmetic manufacturing operations to better align our cost structure for the future.
The Color Group's adjusted operating profit was down approximately 13% in local currency in the first quarter.
The profit decrease is primarily result of the ongoing lower volumes in personal care.
Many of our personal care customers experienced growth in the first quarter.
As our business lags their results, we are optimistic that our second quarter results and back half of this year should be much improved.
Turning to our food and pharmaceutical business.
We were up in many of our markets.
However, we experienced unfavorable product mix due to a soft market in Europe and lower new product launches in the U.S. Looking ahead to the second quarter of this year and beyond, we expect profit to improve in the Color Group in both personal care and the food and pharmaceutical business.
Over the long term, I continue to expect mid-single digit revenue growth from food and pharmaceutical and mid-single digit revenue growth from our personal care business once the impact of COVID 19 subsides.
Our Asia Pacific Group had another strong quarter with 5% adjusted local currency revenue growth and over 30% adjusted local currency profit growth.
The group had solid revenue growth in almost all regions driven by strong new sales wins, a strong focus on customer service, and solid utilization of our technology platforms.
Over the last year, the group has reduced its cost structure, which along with the volume growth is contributing to the group's operating profit and margin improvement.
Based upon current trends, I expect the Asia Pacific Group to continue to deliver mid-single digit sales growth throughout the year.
We've had a good start to 2021, and we are on track with our guidance, we outlined for the year.
Despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19, we continue to see an increase in customer sample requests, which is an excellent bellwether of new product innovation.
As always, I'm very excited about our new sales wins.
I remain optimistic about the year and the future of our business.
Steve will now provide you with additional details on the first quarter results.
The adjusted results for 2021 and 2020 remove the impact of the divestiture-related costs, the operations divested or to be divested, and the impact of the costs related to our operational improvement plan.
We believe that the removal of these items provides a more clear picture to investors of the company's performance.
This also reflects how management reviews the company's operations and performance.
Our first quarter GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.75.
Included in these results are $3.1 million, or $0.07 per share, of costs related to the divestitures and the cost of the operational improvement plan.
In addition, our GAAP earnings per share this quarter include approximately $0.05 of earnings related to the results of the operations targeted for divestiture, which represents approximately $25.6 million of revenue in the quarter.
Last year's first quarter GAAP results include $10.9 million, or approximately $0.26 per share, of costs related to the divestitures.
In addition, our GAAP earnings per share in the first quarter of 2020 include $0.03 of earnings per share from the operations to be divested and approximately $36.6 million of revenue.
Excluding these items, consolidated adjusted revenue was $334.1 million, an increase of 4% in local currency compared to the first quarter of 2020.
This revenue growth was primarily a result of the Flavors & Extracts Group, which was up 8.9% in adjusted local currency, and the Asia Pacific Group, which was up 4.7% in adjusted local currency.
The Flavors & Extracts Group reported 21.2% adjusted local currency operating income growth, and the Asia Pacific Group reported 31.4% adjusted local currency operating income growth.
Adjusted local currency operating income in the Color Group was down 13.3%, primarily as a result of the personal care performance.
Our adjusted local currency EBITDA was up approximately 2% for the quarter.
Our cash flow from operations was down in the first quarter, primarily due to higher cash incentive payments in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of 2020.
We continue to focus on our working capital levels and expect continued improvement throughout the rest of the year.
We are executing on our capital expenditure plan and have identified a number of attractive investment opportunity projects, which will bring us to the top end of our previously stated capital range of $55 million to $65 million for the year.
During the first quarter, we bought back approximately $12 million of company stock.
Absent an acquisition, we expect to continue to pay down debt and buy back stock on an opportunistic basis.
Based on current trends and the current tax law, we are reconfirming our previously issued GAAP EPS, adjusted EPS, and adjusted local currency EBITDA guidance.
Our GAAP earnings per share guidance calls for mid-to-high single-digit growth compared to our 2020 reported GAAP earnings per share of $2.59.
Our full-year guidance for 2021 includes approximately $0.30 of divestiture-related costs, operational improvement plan costs, and the impact of the businesses to be divested.
On an adjusted basis, our earnings per share guidance for the year calls for mid-single-digit local currency growth compared to our 2020 adjusted earnings per share of $2.79.
Our adjusted local currency EBITDA to grow at a mid-single digit rate.
Given current proposals related to changes in the corporate tax law, we continue to believe that our adjusted local currency EBITDA metric provides a reliable measure for our underlying business growth.
Our reported results include the impact of currency.
And based on current exchange rates, we expect our earnings to benefit by approximately $0.10 due to currency for the year.

user
q1 earnings per share $0.75.
sensient technologies - reconfirming previously issued 2021 guidance for gaap diluted earnings per share to grow at a mid to high single digit growth rate.
full year 2021 guidance includes approximately 30 cents per share of estimated divestiture & other related costs.
continues to expect, on local currency basis, 2021 adjusted diluted earnings per share to grow at mid-single digit growth rate.
expects earnings per share reported on a u.s. dollar basis to benefit by about ten cents based on current exchange rates.

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