Drinks firm Anora, formed out of the merger of merger of Altia and Arcus, has reported net sales of €133.4 million in the first quarter of its financial year, on a par (-0.6%) with its prior-year performance.
The group reported comparable EBITDA of €13 million in the period, it said, adding that it anticipates EBITDA of between €75 million and €85 million for the full year.
'In Line With Expectations'
"Anora’s first year as a combined company started off with underlying business developing largely in line with our expectations, despite the turbulence in our operating environment," commented CEO Pekka Tennilä.
"For wine and spirits, we saw markets returning to normal during the first quarter, as expected. Volumes in the monopolies have declined, as restrictions were lifted in all markets. Consumption has shifted back to on-trade, travel retail and border trade, and the recovery of these sales channels has been good or even strong."
Post-merger integration work has 'progressed as planned', the company said, with the consolidation of logistics volumes achieved in the first quarter.
The run-rate of annualised net synergies at the end of Q1 22 was €1.9 million, including the annual impact of €4.6 million from the divestment of brands, it said.
Increased Costs
Like many businesses, Anora has faced increased input costs, which have been accelerated by the war in Ukraine, Tennilä added. Earlier this year, the group announced the suspension of sales in Russia.
"To mitigate this cost inflation, we have increased prices in all sales channels and across both beverage and industrial products," he said.
"Price increases were implemented already at the end of last year and continued in the first quarter, but in the current inflationary environment, we will need to continue with further price increases throughout the rest of the year."
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Drinks news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
