GF Permatech, 1Q Turnaround Success: "Capturing Both Growth and Profit"

Genofocus subsidiary GF Permantec announced on the 3rd that it achieved a significant turnaround in its first-quarter performance, driven by steady sales of its major products. Genofocus holds an 82.8% stake in GF Permantec.

GF Permantec recorded sales of 4.5 billion KRW and an operating profit of 1.1 billion KRW in the first quarter. Compared to the same period last year, sales increased by 49.4%, and operating profit turned positive. Notably, the operating profit margin reached 24.4%, indicating successful high-profit generation.

The strong performance this quarter was led by robust sales of key products such as nattokinase, phytosphingosine (NPY), and vitamin K2. In particular, sales of nattokinase, a high-value health functional food (HFF) ingredient, more than doubled compared to the same period last year. Nattokinase is an individually recognized HFF ingredient that helps improve blood circulation by dissolving blood clots.

Sales of other high-value bio healthcare materials, including NPY, the main raw material for ceramide used in premium cosmetics, and vitamin K2, which supports bone and cardiovascular health, also showed strong growth. NPY is produced globally only by GF Permantec and the German global chemical company Evonik Industries. Vitamin K2, which has focused on overseas sales until now, was recognized as an HFF raw material domestically this year, and high external growth is expected going forward.

GF Permantec is a specialized company in high-value bio healthcare materials, equipped with advanced technology and the latest large-scale fermentation facilities. In particular, it has secured large-scale supercritical fluid equipment that can minimize physical property changes due to temperature or pressure in an eco-friendly way when extracting high-value raw materials related to food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Currently, GF Permantec is the only company in Korea producing vitamin K2 in an eco-friendly manner using supercritical equipment.

A Genofocus official stated, "Thanks to strong sales of high-value bio healthcare materials such as nattokinase and vitamin K2, GF Permantec recorded its highest-ever quarterly sales and profitability. We expect the strong performance trend of our key subsidiary GF Permantec to continue beyond the second quarter, accelerating the overall consolidated turnaround."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.