November 11, 2014

Barry Callebaut has been working to position the company to take advantage of growth opportunities in Asia, marking it as the key market for the future. Last year Barry Callebaut, which is the leader in sourcing cocoa from Africa, acquired Petra Foods Ltd., the leader in sourcing from Asia, turning the operation from a loss to a profit within one year, and has recently also elected Wai Ling, chief executive of Enzo Jewelry with 230 retail outlets in China, to its board giving the company insight into the Chinese market and consumer. Within the past six years Barry Callebaut has gone from having one factory in Asia to having nine today, with one tenth of the company’s workforce in Malaysia, one tenth in Indonesia, and 500 employees in China. Overall, the company’s Asia-Pacific region saw its sales volumes increase 9.3% to 64,322 tons for the fiscal year ending August 31^st, while sales revenues increased 12.2% to 249.1 million Swiss francs (US$258.4 million). In the Americas region, the company saw sales volumes jump 5.4% to 445,150 tons with sales revenues increasing 8.8% to US$1.33 billion as operating profits rose 18% to US$131 million. With regard to the global Ebola situation, the company states that quality cocoa is arriving at ports in good quantity, and that the company has contingency plans in place to utilize its global sourcing footprint and reserve cocoa in the case of any changes.

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