Cloetta AB interim report January – March 2024: Profit protected despite historically high cocoa price

"In an operating environment still affected by food price inflation and continued macroeconomic uncertainty, I’m very happy to deliver another strong quarter. Inflationary pressure varies across industries, but the confectionary industry in particular continues to be affected by rising raw material costs with record high cocoa prices", comments President and CEO Henri de Sauvage-Nolting.

• Net sales for the quarter increased by 6.1 per cent to SEK 2,094m (1,973) including a positive impact from foreign exchange rates of 0.4 per cent
• Sales of Branded packaged products increased organically by 3.6 per cent during the quarter
• Sales of Pick & mix increased organically by 11.7 per cent during the quarter
• Operating profit adjusted for items affecting comparability, amounted to SEK 192m (200). Operating profit amounted to SEK 193m (178), impacted by items affecting comparability of SEK 1m (-22)
• Operating profit, adjusted, of Branded packaged products amounted to SEK 152m (184)
• Operating profit, adjusted, of Pick & mix amounted to SEK 40m (16)
• Profit for the period amounted to SEK 107m (65), which equates to basic and diluted earnings per share of SEK 0.37 (0.23)
• Cash flow from operating activities was SEK 149m (24)
• Net debt/EBITDA ratio was 1.6x (2.0)

Events during and after the end of the period

• The Board of Directors appointed Katarina Tell as incoming President and Chief Executive Officer on 4 April 2024
• Cloetta’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on 9 April 2024, in Stockholm, Sweden and approved a stable dividend of SEK 1.00 (1.00) per share

Please find enclosed the full report.
The interim report will be presented at a conference call with web presentation on Friday 26 April 2024 at 10.00 a.m. (CEST).

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US: +1 631 570 5613

We kindly ask those who wish to dial-in to make sure you are connected to the phone conference by calling in and register a few minutes before the conference begins.

Web presentation
The live broadcast will be available on: creo-live.creomediamanager.com/6822e4d0-5096-44ca-916c-f60fc53ebd12. The presentation and the report will be available on www.cloetta.com after publication.

This disclosure contains information that Cloetta AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 26-04-2024 07:30 CET.