Family-owned Irish agribusiness ClonBio posted a 143% jump in profit before tax in 2019, increasing from €39m in 2018 to €95m, while turnover for the year rose by 26% to €361m.
The group's main asset is a biorefinery, Pannonia Bio, in Hungary.
It makes sustainable bioproducts from grain, including ethanol, GMO-free high-protein and corn oil and also functions as an incubator for bioproducts.
ClonBio invested over €65m during the year, marking the first phase of a three-year, €150m investment programme up to 2021.
The company noted that reduced travel as a result of Covid-19 has resulted in a substantial reduction in demand for ethanol as a biofuel and increased demand as the vital alcohol constituent in hand sanitisers and other disinfectants.
It said that Pannonia Bio's recent designation by the Hungarian government as an "essential company" is consistent with the fact that it is diverting a significant proportion of its monthly ethanol output for use in the fight against Covid-19.
The group said it has already supplied the market with sufficient product to supply each of the EU's 460 million citizens with one 100ml bottle of disinfectant.
ClonBio's founder and executive chairman Mark Turley said that notwithstanding the successful diversion of much of Pannonia's ethanol output to support the fight against Covid-19, the pandemic's impact on transport driven demand is having a deflationary impact on ethanol pricing that will reduce profitability in 2020.
"Beyond Covid-19, ClonBio's outlook for our increasingly diverse business is positive, and we are currently progressing an investment programme of over €150m across a range of existing and new product areas, most notably in solar and in innovative products and materials that are entirely new to Europe's markets," Mr Turley said.
"ClonBio's continuing investment and diversification strategy means that our Group may be a very different business in five years' time, albeit one that will retain environmental sustainability at its core," he added.
