Barry Callebaut: start well ahead of global market growth

 

The Barry Callebaut Group, Zürich, grew its sales volume by 0.2% to 465,046 tonnes during the first 3 months of fiscal year 2014/15 (ended on November 30, 2014). Sales revenue increased by 15.1% to CHF 1.74 bn, driven by higher cocoa bean prices combined with a more favorable product mix. Top-line growth was driven by key region Western Europe, the Gourmet & Specialties Products business (+3.8%) as well as Region Asia Pacific (+9.3%). The positive growth was achieved in an overall challenging market environment: In the period under review, the global chocolate confectionery market continued to slow down and volumes decreased by 1.8%.

 

Juergen Steinemann, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group, said, “As anticipated, we saw a slow start in our new fiscal year, yet we grew well above the market. 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.”

 

 

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