Dive Brief:
- Syngenta reported a 14% drop in sales for the first quarter year over year, coming in at $4 billion, which fell below analysts' estimates of $4.3 billion. At constant exchange rates, sales remained flat.
- In North America, the company's third-largest market in 2014, sales fell 17%. Syngenta cited the long winter which set back the area's beginning of the season.
- Despite the sales setback, Syngenta confirmed its "full year targets of sales broadly unchanged at constant exchange rates and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), after the impact of currencies, around the 2014 level," Syngenta CEO Mike Mack said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
These numbers differ a bit from the more positive reaction surrounding the earnings report for full-year 2014, but if Syngenta can stick with its plan for the year, 2015 might see similar results, as Mack believes. Emerging markets were a key growth segment for Syngenta in the 2014 report, and it is likely that the company will have to depend on them now as well as North American sales have faltered so far this year.
On the earnings numbers, Mack said in a statement, "In an environment of currency and crop price volatility, we have demonstrated our ability to successfully manage risk, as evidenced by the substantial price increases achieved in the CIS. With the main North American season now underway, we are focused on maximizing the opportunity for our herbicide portfolio."
