Operating income at the speciality businesses of US compounder and distributor PolyOne (Cleveland, Ohio; www.polyone.com) has hit record levels in the second quarter of this year. The Specialty Engineered Materials business saw operating income climb by 27% year-on-year to USD 19m (EUR 14m), and by 15% to USD 18m at its Performance Products and Solutions business.

PolyOne’s president and CEO, Robert Patterson, said: “Mix improvement continues to be at the heart of our transformation as our specialty businesses reached record levels of operating income and profitability for the quarter. Driven by an expanding portfolio of specialty solutions, our underlying mix of earnings has never been stronger with specialty now contributing two-thirds of our segment income.”

The company reported revenues of USD 1.01 bn for the second quarter, compared with USD 1.04 bn in the corresponding quarter in 2013, as it continued to exit unprofitable products associated with the acquisition of US manufacturer Spartech (Clayton, Missouri; www.spartech.com) in March last year – see Plasteurope.com of 03.02.2014. In addition, a reorganisation of its assets in Brazil led to higher restructuring costs this quarter (see Plasteurope.com of 22.07.2014). As a result, operating income was USD 49.4m compared with USD 80.7m in the same period last year. Revenues for the first half of this year climbed by approximately 9% year-on-year to USD 2.01 bn.

The company concluded the quarter holding USD 261.5m in cash which it said gave significant capacity to invest in innovation and aggressively pursue acquisition opportunities.