Germany's Symrise Q1 sales jump on high demand, price hikes

(Reuters) -German flavour and fragrance maker Symrise on Wednesday posted a jump in first-quarter sales broadly in line with forecasts, citing robust demand across the board as it continued to offset inflation with increased prices.

Symrise, whose fragrances go into the perfumes of French luxury giants LVMH and Kering, has continued to raise selling prices this year to offset energy and raw material inflation, as it bets on the high-margin pet food ingredients business to drive growth.

Its January-March revenue rose 12.8% in reporting currency to 1.23 billion euros ($1.35 billion), a touch above analysts' average forecast of 1.22 billion in a company-provided poll.

"Despite high inflation and continued volatility in our markets, we are optimistic about the rest of the year and expect robust demand," CEO Heinz-Juergen Bertram said in a statement.

Sales in the Taste, Nutrition & Health business, which includes pet food ingredients, rose 15.6% to 776.1 million euros in the first quarter.

The pet food sub-division continued to record high double-digit growth rates, the group said.

Symrise also confirmed its 2023 targets for organic sales growth of between 5% and 7% and an EBITDA margin of around 20%.

Its shares were indicated up 1.5% in premarket trade.

($1 = 0.9107 euros)

(Reporting by Jagoda Darlak and Anastasiia Kozlova in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi)