Mondelēz hails annual growth, with European and US operations performing strongly
Mondelez at Sweets & Snacks. Pic: Neill Barston
The European and US operations of Mondelēz International helped secure improved annual net revenues up 9.7% to $31.49 billion, as the business also delivered encouraging results for its fourth quarter, reports Neill Barston.
According to the company’s CEO Dirk Van de Put, the business had progressed its core strategies as revealed in its recent State of Snacking Report, which has seen notable product development across its portfolio.
For the final quarter of 2022, the company’s European interests delivered $3.2 billion in net earnings, up 2.9% year-on-year, closely followed by the US, which delivered $2.8bn in revenues, up 23.3%, while business in Asia was also solid, registering $1.6bn for the period. The company’s Latin American interests also delivered a pronounced growth pattern, and produced figures of $1.01bn for final few months the year, up 43%.
In its assessment of its full year – Europe delivered $11.4bn (up 2.4%), the US $9.68bn (up 16.6%), Asia $6.76bn (up 4.7%), and $3.6bn Latin America, up 29.7%, underlining the company’s seeming resilience despite wider supply chain challenges impacting on availability and pricing across the industry.
“Our 2022 results demonstrate the strength and diversification of our portfolio as we delivered broad-based growth in terms of regions, categories, and brands. We delivered strong gross profit dollar growth, driven by double-digit top-line growth supported by both pricing and volume, enabling robust cash flow generation and significant return of capital to shareholders. These results were underscored by continued strength in emerging and developed markets as well as solid contributions from our recently acquired businesses,” said Dirk van de Put, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
“We made significant progress against our strategy of accelerating growth and focusing our portfolio in the attractive, resilient categories of chocolate, biscuits and baked snacks, while continuing to invest in our brands and capabilities. We also continued to deliver strong marketplace execution amid challenging operating conditions and continued macroeconomic volatility.”
The company’s increased 9.7 percent performance increase was reportedly driven by Organic Net Revenue growth of 12.3 percent, and incremental sales from the company’s acquisitions, primarily Chipita, Clif Bar and Ricolino, partially offset by unfavourable currency exchanges.
Notably, for 2023, the company expects Organic Net Revenue growth of between five to seven percent, though it noted in its outlook that its projections were also in light of ‘greater than unusual volatility’ linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as ongoing geopolitical uncertainty – which includes war in Ukraine, which is now nearing a year of the conflict, which has had a notable impact on many companies supply chains within the sector.
