Barry Callebaut hails pandemic recovery for chocolate with buoyant sales volumes
28 Jan 2022 --- The Barry Callebaut Group’s mid-term guidance highlights a robust upswing for chocolate as it recovers from the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company – supplies chocolate to Nestlé and Hershey – achieved a strong sales volume growth of 8.9% to 610,048 metric tons during the first three months of the fiscal year 2021/22, which ended November 30, last year.
While this was achieved against a weak comparison base, the chocolate and cocoa giant notes it was well ahead of the group’s pre-COVID-19 volume in 2019/20.
“I am pleased to present strong volume growth for the first three months of the new fiscal year,” remarks Peter Boone, CEO of Barry Callebaut Group.
“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.”
The chocolate business showed particularly strong volume growth of +9.6%, clearly outpacing the underlying global chocolate confectionery market (+3.1%).Volume growth outpaces global chocolate
Organic volume growth was +8.1% in the period under review, excluding the first-time consolidation of Europe Chocolate Company (ECC) as of September 2021.
The chocolate business showed particularly strong volume growth of +9.6%, clearly outpacing the underlying global chocolate confectionery market (+3.1%).
All regions and key growth drivers contributed to these strong results. The categories of Gourmet & Specialties +33.8%, Emerging Markets +11.0%, Outsourcing +4.5%. Global Cocoa reported positive volume growth of +6.0% in an ongoing challenging market environment.
Meanwhile, sales revenue amounted to CHF 2,032.2 million (US$2.1 million), up +14.0% in local currencies (+14.3% in CHF) in the first three months under review.
The increase was impacted by the overall inflationary environment, which Barry Callebaut manages through its cost-plus pricing model for the majority of its business.
Strategic milestones
In recent expansion developments, Barry Callebaut strengthened its position in Latin America. After the launch of its global decorations brand Mona Lisa in Brazil, the largest decorations market in Latin America, Mona Lisa continued its geographical expansion by entering Mexico, its 50th market worldwide, in November 2021.
Mona Lisa offers a full range of decorations made from sustainably sourced cocoa and is tapping into the growing demand for visually exciting indulgence.
In October 2021, Godiva Japan pioneered the launch of Wholefruit Chocolate at its Atelier de Godiva, introducing applications from tablets to hot chocolate. Japan is one of seven countries selected for the first launch of Cacao Barry Wholefruit Chocolate.
Innovation headlines
To further increase the visibility of its global gourmet brand Cacao Barry, Barry Callebaut broke new ground by sponsoring the Netflix series "School of Chocolate", which has been on air since November 2021.
In December 2021, Barry Callebaut’s cacao brand Bensdorp inaugurated the refurbished Masters of Cacao Excellence Center in Louviers, France. It welcomes customers from across the globe seeking to deepen their expertise in cocoa, to further explore the versatility of cocoa and to create new applications.
Strides in sustainability
Barry Callebaut published its fifth Forever Chocolate progress report last December, marking the halfway point of its plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025.
The report shows that the Group is scaling and partnering for change, executing innovative projects, supporting cocoa farming communities and driving measurable impact on the ground.
Since 2016 the Group has reduced its carbon intensity per metric ton of product by slightly more than -17%.
Furthermore, Barry Callebaut has mapped the geographical location and size of 394,305 (+42%) active cocoa farms, covering 66% of its direct supply chain.
Edited by Benjamin Ferrer
