Financial results
Barry Callebaut continues post-pandemic upswing with strong volume growth
In its latest Q1 Fiscal Year 2021-22 figures, the Group also confirmed its mid-term forecasts of 5%-7% average volume growth and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) above volume growth over the three years to its fiscal 2022-23.
As the global demand for chocolate confectionery recovered last year, Barry Callebaut said restaurants and bakeries are ordering more chocolate supplies with larger food groups outsourcing chocolate production.
Volumes in the Group’s chocolate business grew 9.6%, while its gourmet unit saw a stronger recovery from the pandemic, with volumes rising 33.8%, the chocolate maker said.
“I am pleased to present strong volume growth for the first three months of the new fiscal year. Chocolate volume growth was particularly strong, outperforming the underlying global chocolate confectionery market. At the same time, Global Cocoa returned to positive growth in a still challenging market environment,” said Peter Boone, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group.
Sales volumes rose 8.9% to 610,048 tonnes in the first quarter, ahead of underlying chocolate market growth of around 3.1%, the Group confirmed.
The increase in sales revenue by 14% to CHF2.032bn was a result of raised prices passed on to its customers due to the inflationary environment in the supply chain.
Global Cocoa
On the back of the low prior-year comparator, sales volume in its Global Cocoa was back to positive growth at +6.0% to 119,386 tonnes. Sales revenue increased by +7.2% in local currencies (+7.8% in CHF) to CHF 456.9 million. The Zurich-based Group said the COVID-19 ripple effects of an imbalanced cocoa market and supply chain bottlenecks continued to create a challenging environment.
Sustainability
The Zurich-based Group published its fifth Forever Chocolate progress report in December 2021, marking the half-way point of its plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025. Since 2016 the Group has reduced its carbon intensity per tonne of product by slightly more than –17%. Its child labour monitoring and remediation systems now cover 237 farmer groups (+110%), including 220,878 farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Cameroon. In addition, 43% of the products Barry Callebaut sold in 2020/21 contained 100% sustainable cocoa or chocolate.
