Avient Corp. posted record financial results in the fourth quarter of 2021 and for the full year as well.
The Avon Lake, Ohio-based materials supplier recovered from a turbulent 2020 with full-year 2021 sales of a little more than $4.8 billion, up almost 49 percent vs. 2020. The firm's profit for the year was up almost 73 percent to $230.6 million.
For the fourth quarter, Avient's sales grew more than 20 percent to $1.2 billion, even as profit for the quarter dropped 60 percent to $28.8 million vs. the same quarter in 2020.
"We delivered record results this year against a backdrop of unprecedented challenges including the ongoing pandemic, substantial raw material inflation, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages," Chairman, President and CEO Robert Patterson said in a Feb. 8 news release. "Avient's performance in this environment has been differentiated as a result of our specialty focus, end market transformation and excellence in execution."
Chief Financial Officer Jamie Beggs added in the release that Avient "has momentum in growing sustainable solutions, solving health care challenges and broadening advanced composite applications."
Beggs also said that the firm's acquisition of Clariant's color business in 2020 "has been transformational to our portfolio and helped us become the specialty formulator we are today."
Avient's Color, Additives and Inks unit saw 2021 sales grow 20 percent to $2.4 billion, as its operating profit jumped 68 percent to $303.1 million. The firm's Specialty Engineered Materials unit posted 2021 sales of $919 million, up almost 30 percent, and operating profit of $132 million, up more than 40 percent.
At Avient's Distribution unit, sales for 2021 came in at $1.63 billion, up almost 47 percent, whole operating profit grew almost 35 percent to $93.2 million.
During 2021, Avient launched several sustainable products to meet growing requests from customers in that area. One of those products is Rejoin-brand post-consumer masterbatch colorants for polyolefin packaging. The colorants are made with post-consumer polyolefin as a carrier resin.
ColorMatrix Optica-brand toners and colors also were launched earlier this year. Officials said that when added to PET and recycled PET materials, the toners and colors correct and reduce color variations and yellowing that occur during recycling. Also added was ColorMatrix rePrize-brand IV Builder, a patented, liquid additive for recycled PET that increases the quality and performance of the material while reducing the energy needed to produce it.
At the Fakuma 2021 trade show in Germany, Avient promoted its supplying of a recycled-content thermoplastic elastomer to Société Bic SA for use in a women's razor. The material is formulated to achieve 62 percent recycled content, helping Clichy, France-based Bic live up to its sustainability promises.
Avient is one of the world's largest concentrate makers and one of North America's largest compounders and resin distributors. The firm employs more than 8,000 worldwide.