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Callebaut sees sales rise in shrinking market

Barry Callebaut has announced sales volume up 0.2% for the 3-month period, achieved against what the company believes was a market that declined by 1.8%. Sales revenue was up 15.1%. The increase was driven by resumed growth in Western Europe, the gourmet and specialities products business (3.8% growth) and Asia Pacific (9.3%). “As anticipated, we […]

Barry Callebaut has announced sales volume up 0.2% for the 3-month period, achieved against what the company believes was a market that declined by 1.8%. Sales revenue was up 15.1%. The increase was driven by resumed growth in Western Europe, the gourmet and specialities products business (3.8% growth) and Asia Pacific (9.3%).

“As anticipated, we saw a slow start in our new fiscal year, yet we grew well above the market,” said Juergen Steinemann, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group. “I am satisfied that our largest region, Western Europe, resumed growth, capitalizing on last year’s capacity investments. We continue to focus on margin improvements. We have completed the integration of the acquired cocoa business and are now working on strengthening our position as the global leader in cocoa processing and origination enhancing our integrated service and product offering to our customers.”

The company noted that it conducts 99% of its business outside of Switzerland and therefore has limited operational exposure to the Swiss franc. Furthermore, the Group hedges all relevant exposure arising from operational and financing transactions. However, the company’s reporting currency is the Swiss franc, thus there could be a currency translation impact on the reported figures.

“We have a robust portfolio of new volumes coming on stream in the second semester across all our three growth drivers, emerging markets, outsourcing and Gourmet,” sais Steinemann. “Also, we are on track to achieve further improvement in our chocolate product margins. Despite the current volatile currency environment, the fundamentals of our company are not affected. Subject to currency translation impacts, we confirm our mid-term targets.”