Ansell reports higher sales, profits for 6 months

ERJ staff report (DS)

Richmond, Victoria, Australia - Ansell Ltd has reported sales up by 9 percent and profits up by 6 percent for the six months to 31 December 2010.

The company said sales rose to US$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.

Ansell's Chairman, Mr Peter Barnes commented, "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 reorganisation.”

In the medical side, Ansell said, “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. NRL prices increased an unprecedented 75 percent on the prior period (in USD terms). 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 favourable product mix.”

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Press release from Ansell Ltd