Profit before tax in 1999 was £376 million, 17 per cent ahead of the previous year, and confirmed the benefits of the recent strategic shift in ICI's portfolio. The momentum quickened over the year as better trading conditions were underpinned by ICI's focus on performance improvement across all activities. Quest was the star performer. Sales and profits rose as the business focused on its key customers and made the most of the wider market now available because of ICI's ownership, in food and fragrances. National Starch passed a tremendous milestone by increasing its profits for the 30th consecutive year. Within National Starch there were notable performances from adhesives and food starch worldwide and all the businesses in Asia. In Industrial Specialties, Uniqema began 1999 slowly but picked up speed and produced a good performance for the year. Synetix profits were similar to the previous year while Crosfield's recovery plan got under way and was on course to meet its ambitious financial targets. Paints delivered a significant profit improvement in North America, an excellent performance in Europe and did well in Asia. Paints has committed itself to a 10 per cent return on sales, 20 per cent organic growth and 30 per cent return on net assets by the end of 2004. Industrial Chemicals remained in loss but its performance benefited from increased plant efficiencies and improving fundamentals in the Klea business. Overall sales in the core businesses were up 2.5 per cent to £5.6 billion with operating profits rising 8 per cent to £582 million. Earnings per share for the Group were 10 per cent higher at 37.0p.