News

Barry Callebaut reports "strong start" to year

26 Jan 2018

Barry Callebaut has announced sales growth up 8% for its first quarter, although sales revenues declined slightly to CHF 1,872.2 million.

Barry Callebaut reports strong start to year

Barry Callebaut has announced sales growth up 8% for its first quarter, although sales revenues declined slightly to CHF 1,872.2 million as a result, the company said, of lower cocoa prices and other lower raw material prices. During the same period, the global chocolate confectionery market grew +3.1%, the company noted.

Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group, said: “We had a strong start to the new fiscal year, with significantly above market growth. I am pleased to see that our increase in volume is broad-based, with positive contributions across all regions and good momentum amongst all key growth drivers.”

All the key growth drivers contributed to the market outperformance, Callebaut said, with Gourmet & Specialties (+8.9%), Emerging Markets (+11.1%) and Outsourcing (+8.1%) all performing well.

Looking ahead, CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique said: “We have good visibility on our sales portfolio and expect the market recovery to continue. This, along with the diligent execution of our ‘smart growth’ strategy, gives us the confidence that we are on track to deliver on our 2018/19 mid-term guidance.”