With year-to-date sales volume up 6.6 percent, Barry Callebaut AG outperformed the global chocolate market average this year. The company recorded $3.7 billion in sales for the nine months up to May 31, a 2.3 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
Barry Callebaut’s strongest sales growth was recorded in North and South America, with sales volumes up by 15 percent to 263,000 tons, despite a 4 percent chocolate volume decline in the general U.S. market. The company also recently added 60,000 tons of additional capacity to its operations in the Americas after acquiring a plant in Canada.
“We are very satisfied with the overall strong growth in all of our regions and across all of our product groups given the challenging market environment in Western Europe,” Juergen Steinemann, CEO of Barry Callebaut, said in a press release.
Europe, which accounts for 51 percent of the company’s volumes, yielded the lowest growth for the company, with 3.7 percent volume growth. Sales declined 3.4 percent, to $1.8 billion. Still, Barry Callebaut continued to achieve double-digit sales growth in Eastern Europe, allowing it to stay ahead of the overall market.
Barry Callebaut also performed strongly in the Asia-Pacific region, with 12.3 percent volume growth to 43,620 tons. The company also renewed and extended a long-term supply agreement with the Japanese company Morinaga. As part of the agreement, Barry Callebaut will build a new chocolate and compound factory near Tokyo.