Barry Callebaut Expects Chocolate Market To Remain Flat In 2010
Published:12-January-2010
By Staff Reporter
Chocolate maker Barry Callebaut believes that after a volume contraction of the global chocolate market by more than 2% in the past fiscal year, the decline has bottomed out and it expects the chocolate market to remain flat in volume terms in 2010.
The company has reported sales revenues of CHF1.45bn for the first three months of fiscal year 2009/10, ended November 30, 2009, an increase of 1.5% compared to CHF1.42bn for the corresponding quarter prior year.
Sales volume for the period was 362,973tonnes, an increase of 7.2% compared to 338,513tonnes for the corresponding period prior year.
The company said that the most significant volume increases were noted in region Asia (17.7%), region Americas (15.6%) and in global sourcing & cocoa (14%). Sales revenue increased by 6.3% in local currencies, but was impacted by adverse currency translation effects.
Juergen Steinemann, CEO of Barry Callebaut, said: "We are very pleased about our significant sales volume growth in the first three months of our current fiscal year. We attribute our own success in this tough economic environment to the ongoing implementation of previously signed outsourcing deals, the strong sales performance of our Gourmet & Specialties products as well as market share gains in all regions."
