PureCircle, which produces sweetener products derived from stevia, has said that sales during the first half are expected to be 80 per cent higher than those seen in the same period of the previous year.

The firm has put forward a figure of $27.3m, $26m of which are expected to be high purity stevia sweeteners and natural flavors, a 120% improvement on the first half of 2012.

Growth was seen across all of its high purity ingredients, which it said was primarily driven by new innovations in our Stevia PureCircle proprietary portfolio of all-natural, no-calorie sweeteners and natural flavor systems.

Regionally, EMEA, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the US, all recorded sales growth.

The group also revealed that at the end of the period, it had gross cash of $45m, net debt of $67m, and cash and facility headroom of $70m.

Group Chief Executive Officer Magomet Malsagov said: "Our strategy of having a fully controlled, vertically integrated supply chain from leaf to finished products, of successfully developing and introducing to the market new proprietary natural sweeteners and flavors, of investing in applications and formulations as well as in global marketing and customer service capabilities, is beginning to yield results as can be seen by our performance in the first half of this fiscal year.

"New long term supply and joint development agreements with major global food and beverage (F&B) companies have been signed adding to our already strong portfolio of Global Key Accounts. Across the world, large F&B brands began to adopt our ingredients, most notably carbonated soft drinks (CSD's) including the important Cola category.

"We generate revenues from a wide range of natural sweeteners and flavors and we service globally hundreds of customers directly and through our business partners."


Soft drinks maker Nichols, which owns the Vimto brand, said its full year figures would beat expectations, pushing its shares up in morning trading.

The firm said total sales for the year ended 31st December had increased by 9% to £108m, with export sales increasing by 8%.

It expects group profit and earnings per share to be significantly ahead of 2011 and ahead of market expectations.

"Despite another year of significant cost inflation and high levels of promotional activity, we expect, as a minimum, to maintain our operating margins," said Chairman John Nichols.

"This has been achieved by a combination of good cost control and ongoing productivity improvements."

It highlighted that the UK market, as measured by A.C. Nielsen, increased in value by 3.2% for the year to 8th December 2012 with underlying volume down 0.6%.


Interactive gaming company NetPlay said its full year results are expected to be ahead of market expectations following a robust final quarter.

The group reported a 51% increase in new depositing casino players to 13,974 from the same quarter a year earlier and up 17% on the previous quarter.

Mobile and tablets, which account for 31% of all new depositing players, rose 8% from the final quarter in 2011 and 25% in the third quarter of 2012.

NetPlay also posted a 43% increase in active depositing casino players to 25,376 and a 13% increase on the third quarter of 2012.

"Mobile and tablet growth has continued to excel and the addition of a suite of mobile slot games in September has significantly improved the customer experience," the group said in a company statement.

"The latest TV adverts for both our Supercasino.com and Jackpot247.com brands focus on the ability to play via mobile and tablets and the effect is clearly visible with 31% of all new depositing players now signing up via mobile and tablets and 205% growth in mobile and tablet revenue versus Q4 2011," it added.

"The directors are pleased with this continued strong performance and are confident of exceeding full year market expectations."

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