Annual Report 2017/18

Annual Report 2017/18

Patrick De Maeseneire, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO.
Letter to Shareholders
Strategy delivering strong results across all regions
Twenty years ago, Barry Callebaut was listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Since then, our company has developed into the world’s leading chocolate and cocoa company and the growth champion in the food industry. Our proven long-term strategy and its smart execution form the basis for our consistent value creation for our shareholders and all other stakeholders.

Key Figures

Fiscal year 2017/18 in brief
- Sales volume up +6.3%, well above the market growth1, first time over 2 million tonnes
- Operating profit (EBIT, recurring) up +21.2% in local currencies (+25.3% in CHF) to CHF 554.0 million
- Net profit (recurring) up +31.0% in local currencies (+35.9% in CHF) to CHF 357.4 million
- Free cash flow of CHF 311.9 million
- On track to deliver on mid-term guidance2
- Board member James (Jim) Donald will not stand for reelection. Suja Chandrasekaran, Angela Wei Dong and Markus Neuhaus proposed as new Board members
- Proposed payout to shareholders of CHF 24.00 per share, up +20.0%
1 Source: Nielsen, +1.8% in volume for the period August 2017 to August 2018 – 25 countries.
2 On average for the 4-year period 2015/16 to 2018/19: 4–6% volume growth
and EBIT above volume growth in local currencies, barring any major unforeseen events.

Business Review

Region EMEA
Strong growth continued
Region EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) delivered a volume growth well above the market, and a double-digit EBIT increase.

Region Americas
Solid top- and bottom-line performance, investing for growth
Region Americas delivered a solid year. A strong EBIT reflects a favorable product mix and strong operational performance. Investments in capacity expansions will allow for future growth.

Region Asia Pacific
Continued strong double-digit growth
Region Asia Pacific had another very strong year with double-digit growth, both top- and bottom-line, and a particularly strong performance in China, Japan and Indonesia.

Global Cocoa
Healthy growth continued
Operating profit further improved in local currencies, benefiting from the completed Cocoa Leadership project.
What we do
We are the world’s leading manufacturer of chocolate and cocoa products, mastering every step in the value chain from the sourcing of raw materials to the production of the finest chocolates.

Our strategy
Barry Callebaut aims to consistently outperform the global chocolate and cocoa market. This ambitious long-term strategy is based on four pillars:


Our Success Stories
The highlights in fiscal year 2017/18

CHOCOLATE ACADEMY goes Africa
Barry Callebaut opened a CHOCOLATE ACADEMY™ Center in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is our 21st CHOCOLATE ACADEMY™ Center worldwide, and the first on the African continent. The new academy will host master classes with a strong focus on chocolate fundamentals. Talented chefs and industry experts from around the world will share their passion, innovative ideas and expertise around chocolate and cocoa products.

Leading through innovation: Ruby chocolate
A great example of our innovation capability is the launch of the fourth type of chocolate, ruby. The ruby bean is unique because the fresh berry-fruitiness and color precursors are naturally present. After taking more than ten years to develop ruby chocolate, it took barely six months after the formal launch in September 2017 for the fourth type of chocolate to conquer the world.

Putting some ‘Poka’ in productivity
At our factories, ensuring the highest quality of our products is key, as well as the flawless, cost-efficient functioning of the manufacturing process. And that's where the ‘Poka-app’ comes in to support. In this user-friendly, versatile, cloud-based app all necessary information on machines and processes can be captured and updated via a tablet and shared in real time with the team members.

Piloting for progress
Our plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025, Forever Chocolate, is all about tackling the structural issues in the cocoa supply chain head-on. To learn how we can accelerate impact on the ground, we are launching various pilot projects. The purpose of these pilots is to test innovative approaches to sustainable cocoa farming, and to learn if these approaches are replicable, scalable and lead to farmers’ self-sustainance.

True leaders never stop learning
True leaders never stop learning, that is our CEO’s, Antoine de Saint-Affrique, conviction: “Our employees should constantly develop themselves, explore new frontiers, feed their curiosity and encourage the same with their teams.” In 2004, the Marbach Development Program was created, named after the training and conference center in Marbach Castle, Germany. More than 3,500 employees have so far participated in these programs.

Sustainability

Forever Chocolate
Our plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025
Forever Chocolate is our plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025 – to ensure that chocolate will be around forever. As the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products we have a moral obligation as well as a business interest to tackle the structural issues in the chocolate supply chain. Therefore, we have to lift cocoa farmers out of poverty, ensure children are not engaged in child labor, become carbon positive, eliminate deforestation from our supply chain as a step to becoming forest positive, and have 100% sustainable ingredients in all our products.
In fiscal year 2017/18 we made great progress to achieving the targets we set ourselves in 2016. Our quantified time-bound objectives enable us to engrain our sustainability agenda across all our business functions.
The progress data show how through our sourcing, processing and sales we are driving change, supporting cocoa farming communities, reducing resource consumption in our factories and driving the uptake of sustainably sourced chocolate.

Our People
Our People
Growing our talents by creating a unique employee experience and sustaining our culture and values
Our people are the foundation of our success. The strength of our organization comes from the contribution of each and every individual, with our passion and company values as common denominators. We strive to create a constructive environment with respect for the individual, where ongoing development, passion, integrity, entrepreneurship and customer focus are encouraged and stimulated. We therefore maintain a focus on fostering our unique culture, attracting, developing and retaining brilliant talents with diverse skills from all over the world, while we build a unique workplace that will enable the company to fulfill its purpose.
Chairman's & Value Awards 2018
The Chairman's Award recognizes employees who have been with Barry Callebaut for a number of years and have demonstrated outstanding performance at work, as well as a strong commitment to their local communities. They are individuals who embody our company values.
The Value Award recognizes managers and their teams who are willing to go the extra mile, who are putting all their passion into their work and, thus, have made a positive impact on the company in the past fiscal year. The awards were given for each of our five company values: customer focus, passion, entrepreneurship, team spirit and integrity.
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The Chairman's Award Winners 2018 – from left, front row: Kristien Vermoesen, Wieze/Belgium, Rosina Safoah, Tema/Ghana, Luis Lozano,Monterrey/Mexico, Giuseppina Stella, San Vito Chietino/Italy, Shirlene Pitta, Ilhéus/Brazil, Julie Sharp, Banbury/UK. Back row : Yi Ni Tan, Port Klang/Malaysia, Jaume Soldevila, Gurb/Spain, Sébastien Pichon, Louviers/France, Antoine de Saint-Affrique (CEO), Patrick De Maeseneire (Chairman), Erik Van Laethem, Halle/Belgium, Candice Davis, Chicago/USA.
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From left to right: Yeting Liu (Passion Award), Wieze/Belgium, Dominic De Coker, (Team Spirit Award, EMEA Pricing Team) Wieze/Belgium, Daniela Schmidt-Wegener (Integrity Award), Cologne/Germany, Massimo Selmo (Team Spirit Award, Non-cocoa Sourcing Team), Zurich/Switzerland, Paulo Simonetti (Entrepreneurship Award, OSCO Team Brazil), Sao Paulo/Brazil, Fumitaka Nakano (Customer Focus Award) Tokyo/Japan.
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Financial Report



*See page 48, Annual Report 2017/18, Summary of Accounting Policies – Restatement and reclassification of prior year comparatives.

*See page 48, Annual Report 2017/18, Summary of Accounting Policies – Restatement and reclassification of prior year comparatives.


Related Downloads

Corporate Governance
Corporate Governance
Board of Directors

From left to right: Jakob Baer, Vice Chairman, Tim Minges, James (Jim) Donald (until December 12, 2018), Fernando Aguirre, Patrick De Maeseneire, Chairman, Nicolas Jacobs, Juergen Steinemann, Elio Leoni Sceti. – The Board proposes Suja Chandrasekaran, Angela Wei Dong and Markus Neuhaus for election as new Board members. Status as of November 7, 2018.
Executive Committee

From left to right: From left to right: Peter Boone, President & CEO Americas, Pablo Perversi, Chief Innovation, Sustainability & Quality Officer; Global Head of Gourmet, Steven Retzlaff, President Global Cocoa, Remco Steenbergen, Chief Financial Officer, Antoine de Saint-Affrique, Chief Executive Officer, Ben De Schryver, President Asia Pacific, Massimo Garavaglia, President EMEA, Dirk Poelman, Chief Operations Officer.