ZURICH (Reuters) -Barry Callebaut expects a “notable financial impact” in its fourth quarter from the ongoing shutdown of its Wieze factory after strong demand boosted sales at the world’s biggest chocolate maker in the nine months to May, it said on Wednesday.
Sales volumes grew 7.9% to 1,751 thousand tonnes in the first nine months of Barry Callebaut’s fiscal year 2021/22, while sales revenue increased 13.5% to 6.076 billion Swiss francs ($6.27 billion), the Zurich-based group said in a statement, also confirming its mid-term targets.
The global chocolate confectionery market grew only 1.4% during that period, Barry Callebaut said, but it managed to outpace the market thanks to strong chocolate demand across regions and a continued recovery in its gourmet business that caters to bakeries and chefs.
The company had to interrupt production at its Wieze factory in Belgium — the world’s biggest chocolate factory — after detecting salmonella in June, but said cleaning was progressing well and it expected to restart production as of early August with a gradual ramp-up to full capacity over the following weeks.
“Though the full financial impact of the incident is still being assessed, the Group expects it to be notable for the financial results in the fourth quarter 2021/22,” it said.
Barry Callebaut, which also supplies chocolate to big food groups like Nestle and Hershey and passes on higher raw material costs to customers, confirmed it expects average volume growth of 5-7% per year for the period ending on Aug. 31 next year.
($1 = 0.9683 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Michael Shields)
