Chocolate maker Barry Callebaut has posted a 3.7% increase in revenue in local currencies in the first quarter of its financial year, of CHF 1.88 billion (€1.66 billion).
The group said that sales volumes for the quarter were up 1.7%, on the back of a very strong first quarter last year, when sales rose by 8.0%.
The group's sales volumes in the EMEA region were marginally down on the same quarter the previous year (-0.1%), with its Americas (+8.0%) and Asia Pacific (+3.8%) regions seeing volume growth.
Sales revenue in EMEA was CHF 803.7 million, down 0.1% in local currencies, while sales revenue was up 12.2% in Americas (to CHF 479.6 million) and 1.9% in Asia Pacific (to CHF 98.4 million).
Steady Start
"As anticipated in November, we had a steady start to the new fiscal year on top of a very strong prior-year base," commented Antoine de Saint-Affrique, chief executive, the Barry Callebaut Group
"We expect sales momentum to pick up in the back half of the fiscal year as additional volumes come on stream from new outsourcing contracts across all regions, as well as from recently launched innovations. Our good product mix and strong portfolio give us confidence that we are on track to deliver on our current mid-term guidance for the period ending with fiscal year 2018/19."
The group is anticipating strong growth from its recent acquisition of Burton’s Biscuit Company in the UK, which was completed in December 2018, as well as the extension of the group's partnership with Garudafood in Indonesia. It also recently signed a deal to acquire Inforum, a B2B producer of chocolate for the Russian market.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
