Callebaut ” growth in recession markets
Barry Callebaut has announced its key sales figures for the first nine months of fiscal year 2008/09 ended May 31, 2009. With sales volumes up 2.6% to 895,391 tonnes for the nine month period under review, growth has resumed after reaching a low in November 2008. In the third quarter, Barry Callebaut’s sales volumes significantly accelerated across all regions and businesses and showed an increase of 8.8% – in contrast to the contraction in the global chocolate market.
Victor Balli, chief financial officer of Barry Callebaut, says, “We are very satisfied that we managed to regain our growth momentum in the third quarter. The global chocolate market continues to decline in volume terms because consumer sentiment is still worsening in most economies. We attribute our own growth in the face of negative market trends to our geographic expansion, the implementation of outsourcing deals and market share gains. Our order portfolio for the next few months looks very promising and shows good margins. Together with ongoing tight cost control this will help offset the negative impact from declining cocoa butter prices.”
