Key profits of compounder Hexpol (Malmö / Sweden; www.hexpol.com) rose in the third quarter despite a sales decline, helped this time around by the absence of non-recurring items. While Q3 witnessed a recovery in demand from the lows in Q2, the company said the uncertainty going forward “remains high, due to the Covid-19 pandemic”, but added that opportunities do exist to further build its market position.

Post-tax profit in the quarter rose 20% year-on-year to SEK 426m (EUR 41.23m), while operating profit, excluding one-offs, increased slightly to SEK 593m, a rise of SEK 10m. Sales fell 22% to SEK 3.328 bn. In the nine months to September, sales dropped at an annual rate of 15%, to SEK 10.02 bn, due to the impact of Covid-19 and lower selling prices.

Hexpol has also announced the appointment of Georg Brunstam as president and CEO, effective 20 November 2020, which is when he ends his role as board chairman; he was the president and CEO of the company from 2007 to 2017. Brunstam said that in the next spring he will significantly cut down the number of external board assignments.

Peter Rosén, currently the CFO, was named as deputy CEO. He was the interim CEO, following the departure of Mikael Fryklund in February 2020 (see Plasteurope.com of 09.04.2020).