Amyris reports strong 2020 results amid multiple ingredient launches and partnerships
03 Mar 2021 --- Clean health and beauty player Amyris has released its full-year financial results for 2020. The company reports strong growth and expanding profit margins, driven by six ingredient launches and multiple partnerships and investments.
“2020 was a year of transformative execution for Amyris,” comments John Melo, president and CEO of Amyris. “We delivered the third consecutive quarter of record product sales revenue in Q4 while also expanding product gross margins.”
“We continued to see strong growth with our consumer brands and delivered Q4 consumer revenue equivalent to the entire year 2019. This revenue and margin growth combined with the completion of the strategic transaction resulted in positive adjusted EBITDA in the quarter,” he adds.
Melo explains that the Amyris team made important progress in 2020 on its strategic initiatives.
The company delivered six new ingredients at scale, completed a US$200 million equity financing and significantly reduced its total debt.
2020 highlights
The company reported record sales with a revenue of US$173 million – a 13 percent growth versus the prior year.
Moreover, product revenue of US$112 million increased 72 percent versus the prior year, driven by consumer revenue and ingredients growth, which rose 197 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
Amyris saw strong growth via its consumer brands and delivered Q4 consumer revenue equivalent to the entire year 2019.Cash operating expenses of US$181 million decreased by US$1 million or 1 percent compared to the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA of US$95 million improved by US$8 million compared to the prior year, primarily due to higher revenue and improved gross margins.
Other notable milestones include the first commercial production of cannabigerol (CBG) from fermentation, which is understood to be the largest fermentation-based CBG production in the sector to-date.
The company also acquired Terasana – a natural skincare brand – to launch a branded clean beauty product focused on sustainably sourced cannabinoids.
Moreover, Amryis closed a strategic US$50 million transaction with DSM Nutritional Products. Under the terms of the agreement, Amyris is licensing DSM rights to assume the supply of farnesene – a bio-based compound – to Givaudan for the production and sale of a single specialty ingredient.
In addition, the company released its Biossance Clean Beauty skincare brand into the Greater China market via a partnership with SuperOrdinary Group.
2021 outlook and goals
Two additional strategic transactions are expected to close and deliver an anticipated total value of US$500 million for all three transactions combined, the company supports.
“We expect 2021 to be another record year with underlying total revenue in the US$240 million range and reported total revenue of around US$400 million when including the potential impact of the strategic transactions. With our business momentum and these transactions, we expect to deliver full-year 2021 positive adjusted EBITDA,” Melo says.
Product revenue increased 72 percent versus the prior year, driven by consumer revenue and ingredients growth.Amyris started the year strong indeed with the launch of its Pipette clean baby care brand, which will expand its brick-and-mortar retail presence in more than 600 Target stores across North America beginning in March 2021.
Moreover, it will be launching a new clean hair care brand through a partnership with Jonathan Van Ness. The move will further expand Amyris’ presence in the clean beauty space.
Earlier this week, Amyris also entered into an agreement to acquire Costa Brazil. The company is accelerating its growth and market leadership in clean beauty with the addition of Costa Brazil to its family of consumer brands, including Biossance, Pipette, JVN and Terasana.
Lastly, backing its ingredients’ efficacy with science, Amyris released the results of an early clinical study of its clean topical formulation of fermentation-based ingredients for the treatment of acne.
In the study by Princeton Consumer Research Corp, Amyris’ acne formulation, consisting of two of its clean, fermentation-based ingredients, demonstrated superior efficacy compared to ten other standard acne treatments currently available in the US.
By Kristiana Lalou
