Sept 23 - Malaysia-based sweetener group PureCircle Ltd reported a surge in full-year pretax profit as sales of its Reb-A products more than doubled, and said it was well placed for significant long-term growth.
The company, which supplies sweeteners to U.S. beverage giants PepsiCo Inc and Coca-Cola Co , said it was confident that the natural high intensity sweetener market would develop into a "truly mass market industry" over the medium term.
"We expect the world's food and beverages companies to increase the rate of launches using Reb A during calendar 2010 and 2011," Chairman Paul Selway-Swift said in a statement.
Rebaudioside A (Reb A) is made from certain compounds in the leaves of stevia, a shrub native to Paraguay, and is likely to compete with established artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and sucralose, which are sold under brand names Sweet'N Low, NutraSweet and Splenda.
For the year ended June 30, the company said its pretax profit soared to $11.4 million from $2.3 million last year.
Revenue almost doubled to $60.0 million as Reb A sales grew to 266 tonnes from 115 tonnes a year ago.
PureCircle shares closed at 281.5 pence on Tuesday on the London Stock Exchange.