- Financial results negatively affected by external factors: Q2 2025 presented persistently challenging market conditions, characterized by a high degree of economic uncertainty, and unfavorable developments of EUR / USD exchange rates. In this environment, Brenntag achieved an operating gross profit* of EUR 974.3 million (-1.9%**). Operating EBITA*** came in at EUR 246.4 million (-13.9%).
- Divisions experienced overall demand slowdown and increased pricing pressure: In a challenging market environment, Brenntag Specialties reported an operating gross profit of EUR 278.2 million (-3.3%) and the operating gross profit of Brenntag Essentials stood at EUR 696.1 million (-1.3%). In both divisions, the focus on leveraging business opportunities, realizing cost savings and executing the strategic initiatives led to positive contributions.
- Cost containment program continues to show results: Brenntag continued to strictly execute its comprehensive cost containment program, supporting the company’s underlying cost development in the second quarter as planned.
- Adjusted FY 2025 guidance: In light of the Q2 results and the outlook for the remainder of the year, Brenntag adjusted its earnings guidance for the financial year 2025 with an announcement on July 11. The company expects its operating EBITA to be in the range of EUR 950 million to EUR 1,050 million.
Brenntag (ISIN DE000A1DAHH0), the global market leader in chemicals and ingredients distribution, today published its financial results for the second quarter 2025. The period was characterized by a high degree of economic uncertainty in light of ongoing geopolitical tensions and global tariff discussions. This led to noticeable slowdown in demand and increased pricing pressure across different end markets, impacting the business in both divisions to varying degrees. At the same time, the further depreciation of the US Dollar against the Euro since the beginning of the second quarter had a negative effect on the Group’s earnings development. As a result, on July 11, 2025, Brenntag communicated an adjusted earnings guidance for the full year 2025. The company now expects the operating EBITA to be in the range of 950 million EUR to 1,050 million EUR.
Christian Kohlpaintner, Chief Executive Officer of Brenntag SE: “Economic conditions for the chemical industry and our customer markets remain challenging across the globe. Over the past months, we have seen continued uncertainty, muted customer sentiment, a slowdown in demand and in addition unfavorable EUR/USD exchange rates. All of this impacted our performance and led to financial results below our expectations in the second quarter and an adjusted, lower earnings guidance for the financial year 2025. However, we continue to execute our comprehensive Group and divisional ‘Strategy to Win’ initiatives, leading to new business opportunities and structural performance improvements. Brenntag’s resilient business model, our talented and hardworking employees across the globe, and our consistent pursuit of excellence give me the conviction that our company is capable and well positioned to maneuver through the challenging markets.”
Financial performance
In the second quarter of 2025, Brenntag achieved sales of 3,869.4 million EUR, which is 4.1% below the previous year’s quarter. Operating gross profit reached 974.3 million EUR, a decrease of 1.9%. Brenntag’s operating EBITA in the second quarter was affected by a noticeable slowdown in demand and increased pricing pressures across various end markets, but especially in the Essentials business, and stood at 246.4 million EUR (-13.9%). Earnings per share stood at 0.30 EUR, compared to 1.03 EUR in the second quarter of 2024. The decline is largely driven by special items and impairments on goodwill and other intangible assets in the Essentials business, particularly in Latin America. Free cash flow amounted to 152.9 million EUR, marking a slight decline versus 157.5 million EUR in Q2 2024.
Cost containment program is effective
Brenntag is consistently implementing its comprehensive cost containment program along a defined roadmap to achieve the communicated target of 300 million EUR in annual cost savings by 2027, based on the 2023 baseline.
Thomas Reisten, Chief Financial Officer of Brenntag SE: “We continued and even accelerated the implementation of our cost containment measures across Brenntag. These initiatives generated 30 million EUR in savings in the second quarter of 2025. Although these contributions could not offset the business- and acquisition-related cost increases and negative operating performance development, they are supporting our underlying positive cost development and keeping us on track to achieve our cost saving targets.”
Divisions experienced an overall demand slowdown and increased pricing pressure
In the second quarter, the performance in both Brenntag divisions was impacted by muted customer sentiment, leading to an overall slowdown in demand across different end markets. Ongoing geopolitical tensions and further escalations in the Middle East as well as global tariff discussions created a high degree of economic uncertainty. Although the direct impact of tariffs on the Brenntag business is rather limited since the vast majority of the company’s products are sourced and sold within the same region, Brenntag is not immune to secondary or tertiary effects. These effects are significantly larger, and their impacts are already evident. In this challenging environment, both divisions continued to focus on leveraging business opportunities, realizing cost savings and executing their strategic initiatives.
Brenntag Specialties reported an operating gross profit of 278.2 million EUR, a decrease of 3.3% compared to Q2 2024. Although a significant improvement in gross profit per unit compared to the prior-year quarter was achieved due to ongoing price- and margin management initiatives, the increase was not sufficient to compensate for the overall slowdown in demand. Operating EBITA came in at 98.8 million EUR, which is 11.2% below the previous year’s quarter. In the Life Science Segment, the business unit Pharma delivered a positive performance compared to the prior-year period whereas Nutrition and Beauty & Care were down year-on-year, both with a good EMEA business but the Americas region under pressure. The Material Science performance was below the prior-year period and continued to be impacted by the higher interest rate environment, which keeps housing construction and public investments at lower levels.
Brenntag Essentials once again demonstrated its ability to effectively manage margins in a challenging business environment, achieving a slightly improved gross profit margin relative to sales compared to Q2 2024. A positive volume development could be seen in EMEA, Latin America and APAC, whereas the North America region was challenging. However, this volume development was not able to offset a lower gross profit per unit, which was impacted by increased pricing pressure in the second quarter of 2025, leading to a decline in operating gross profit of 1.3% to 696.1 million EUR. Operating EBITA of the division reached 177.1 million EUR, which is 13.1% below Q2 2024.
Successful execution of sustainability and M&A strategy
Continuing its strong ESG performance and leadership role in sustainability, Brenntag was awarded the “Gold” rating in the comprehensive 2025 EcoVadis sustainability assessment and was placed among the top 3% of all rated companies worldwide. In the CDP Climate change rating 2024 Brenntag was ranked among the top-rated companies globally, achieving a “Leadership” A- rating for the first time.
In the second quarter 2025, Brenntag continued to execute its M&A strategy and role as consolidator of the highly fragmented chemical distribution market. The company signed and closed the acquisition of mcePharma in the Czech Republic, setting the foundation for entering the rapidly growing Biopharma market in EMEA. With GSZ Kaiserslautern, Brenntag gained a state-of-the-art facility for hazardous substance storage in Germany for the Brenntag Essentials operations and service offerings in central Europe.
Outlook & Guidance 2025
The overall market environment, characterized by a high degree of economic uncertainty in light of ongoing geopolitical tensions and global tariff discussions, has already led to a noticeable slowdown in demand and increased pricing pressure across different end markets, which is expected to continue in the second half of 2025. In addition, unfavorable developments of EUR / USD exchange rates since the beginning of the year have had a significantly negative impact on Brenntag’s earnings and the current exchange rate levels are expected to continue throughout the remainder of the year.
In light of this environment and developments, Brenntag has adjusted its earnings guidance for the financial year 2025 as announced on July 11, 2025. Brenntag expects the operating EBITA to be in the range of 950 million EUR to 1,050 million EUR.
