Strategy delivering strong results across all regions

Twenty years ago, Barry Callebaut was listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Since then, our company has developed into the world’s leading chocolate and cocoa company and the growth champion in the food industry. Our proven long-term strategy and its smart execution form the basis for our consistent value creation for our shareholders and all other stakeholders.

• Sales volume up +6.3%, well above the market growth¹, first time over 2 million tonnes
• Operating profit (EBIT, recurring) up +21.2% in local currencies (+25.3% in CHF) to CHF 554.0 million
• Net profit (recurring) up +31.0% in local currencies (+35.9% in CHF) to CHF 357.4 million
• Free cash flow of CHF 311.9 million
• On track to deliver on mid-term guidance² 
• Board member James (Jim) Donald will not stand for reelection. Suja Chandrasekaran, Angela Wei Dong and Markus Neuhaus proposed as new Board members
• Proposed payout to shareholders of CHF 24.00 per share, up +20.0%

   

_{1 Source: Nielsen, +1.8% in volume for the period August 2017 to August 2018 – 25 countries.
2 On average for the 4-year period 2015/16 to 2018/19: 4–6% volume growth
and EBIT above volume growth in local currencies, barring any major unforeseen events.}

Strong growth continued

Region EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) delivered a volume growth well above the market, and a double-digit EBIT increase.

Solid top- and bottom-line performance, investing for growth

Region Americas delivered a solid year. A strong EBIT reflects a favorable product mix and strong operational performance. Investments in capacity expansions will allow for future growth.

Continued strong double-digit growth

Region Asia Pacific had another very strong year with double-digit growth, both top- and bottom-line, and a particularly strong performance in China, Japan and Indonesia.

Healthy growth continued

Operating profit further improved in local currencies, benefiting from the completed Cocoa Leadership project.

Our plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025

Forever Chocolate is our plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025 – to ensure that chocolate will be around forever. As the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products we have a moral obligation as well as a business interest to tackle the structural issues in the chocolate supply chain. Therefore, we have to lift cocoa farmers out of poverty, ensure children are not engaged in child labor, become carbon positive, eliminate deforestation from our supply chain as a step to becoming forest positive, and have 100% sustainable ingredients in all our products.

In fiscal year 2017/18 we made great progress to achieving the targets we set ourselves in 2016. Our quantified time-bound objectives enable us to engrain our sustainability agenda across all our business functions.

The progress data show how through our sourcing, processing and sales we are driving change, supporting cocoa farming communities, reducing resource consumption in our factories and driving the uptake of sustainably sourced chocolate.