Barry Callebaut reveals plans to sharpen foodservice focus, advance gourmet offerings and expand in Asia-Pacific

02 Nov 2023 --- Cocoa and chocolate giant Barry Callebaut has announced a strategy and investment program geared toward unlocking the company’s full growth potential, which will lead to a “step-change in profitability” and drive cash generation. This is the message from the company’s Capital Markets Day in London yesterday, where the full-year 2022/23 results were presented.

Strategic growth priorities to drive Barry Callebaut’s ambitions center on deepening outsourcing partnerships with companies in the FMCG sector looking for sustainable and innovative chocolate solutions. 

They include the unveiling of “Launch Gourmet 2.0”, an initiative to sharpen focus on the foodservice sector and artisanal customers and chains. Barry Callebaut plans to increase its value market share in the gourmet market globally.

Scaling up specialties
Another strategic priority is to double the size of the company’s core Specialties business by increasing the penetration of its highly differentiated specialty offerings in high-growth areas. These include gluten-free, vegan, single-origin and other specialty chocolates. 

Barry Callebaut will continue to innovate new products, especially in the most scalable market segments.

The final move is for the company to shift to “fair” market share in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, with plans to double the size of its APAC business to deliver value market share in line with the wider Group. 

Barry Callebaut will implement localized strategies built around the new country clusters to offer solutions tailored to local markets. 

Nutrition is increasingly used as a means of becoming or staying healthy, and food are preferred over supplements.The company also aims to inspire modern cocoa farming practices and create “the future of sustainability for the industry.”

Barry Callebaut expects a 24-month transition period as it undertakes the actions necessary to create a profitable growth platform that delivers long-term value.

Financial highlights
The Barry Callebaut Group saw a slight sales volume decline of 1.1% to 2,280,925 tons in fiscal year 2022/23. Volumes were negatively affected by the prior year’s salmonella incident in Wieze, which continued to impact results in Q1 2022/23, as well as by the weaker customer demand and increasing raw material prices. 

In July 2022, salmonella contamination was detected at the Belgium plant, which was forced to temporarily shut down while the company investigated. 

The chocolate business also reported a decline of 2.0%, with the global chocolate confectionery market declining 1.0%.

Meanwhile, sales revenue was CHF 8.5 billion (US$9.4 billion), up 9.7% and driven by high raw material price increases and the overall inflationary environment.

By Gaynor Selby