Treatt has issued a brief trading update ahead of its AGM. Overall the Board remarks that it is looking forward to the remainder of this year (and beyond) with confidence. We are making no changes to forecasts at this early stage of the year. The company reports a good start to the period, with the order book up on the prior year. In November, however, the group did highlight that it expected to see a “more normal” seasonal split to the year. Q1 is typically the quietest quarter in the year, but the group had a particularly strong start to FY21 due to an acceleration in innovation following the easing of Covid restrictions. This resulted in an even split of profit between H1 and H2 in FY21, but this is not typical. This year, it anticipates returning to the more usual 40/60 split, and this would suggest that all of our forecast profit growth arises in 2H. All categories continue to perform well, although in Q1 the business was more dominated by the citrus and aroma categories, with the higher value added categories expected to start picking up in Q2 and Q3, in line with the seasonality of the north hemisphere beverage market. Whilst the wider market is struggling with inflationary pressures, this is not a significant factor for Treatt. It has seen some pockets of inflation, but it has a wide product range and each commodity has its own different pricing influence. It is used to dealing with volatility, whether it is caused by natural (weather) or other factors, and is well-versed in dealing with such issues. The group is carrying sufficient inventory to accommodate any supply chain issues. The transfer to the new site continues as planned and this will provide ample scope for expansion/ productivity improvements in the coming years.