H1 2024 financial information – Revenue & Results

Solid performance driven by volume growth of our popular core brands and continued improvement in our margins

The Board of Directors of the Bel Group, a major player committed to promoting healthier and more sustainable food for all, met today under the chairmanship of Antoine Fiévet, Chairman of the Bel Group, to review the consolidated financial statements for the first half of 2024.

Antoine Fiévet, Chairman of the Bel Group, declared: “This first half of the year has marked a historic milestone for Bel. As a family-owned company with over 150 years of history, and a major player in the food industry, we’re proud to adopt the status of mission-led company by law. This status reinforces our corporate purpose and testifies to our enduring commitment to a healthier and more sustainable food model for all. At the same time, the launch of our ‘’We Share’’ employee shareholding plan places a large proportion of our employees at the heart of value creation, with a program designed to share profits with them on a long-term, sustainable basis.”

Cécile Béliot, Chief Executive Officer of the Bel Group, declared: “The Group’s robust performance in the first half of 2024 reflects the resilience of Bel’s brands and the relevance of our diversification strategy, both in terms of product portfolio and geographic presence. In the first half, Bel achieved a solid organic growth, driven by the excellent performance of our core dairy brands in Europe and the United States and the positive momentum of our fruit segment. In the second half of the year, Bel will continue to invest in its brands to support their development. Thanks to our unique business model combining profitability and responsibility, Bel is well positioned to face the challenges of a complex economic and geopolitical environment.”

Financial performance shaped by solid sales growth and continued improvement in margins

Key figures

Sales

The Bel Group recorded consolidated sales of €1.8 billion in the first six months of 2024, representing organic growth of 2.5% over the first half of 2023. On a reported basis, growth came to 2.3%, taking account of a negative currency effect limited to -0.2%.

The increase in sales is due to the solid performance by core brands such as Kiri®, Babybel® and Boursin®, driven in particular by a positive volume effect in North America and Europe, and the continued strong performance of the fruit segment. Distribution channels, especially e-commerce and out-of-home (OOH), maintained a positive trend in almost all geographies.

Analysis by segment is as follows:

Mature categories:

 The mature categories segment posted positive organic growth of 2.4%, driven by sustained sales in North America, where the Boursin® and Babybel® dairy brands achieved excellent performance. Canada posted positive growth, with a notable rebound in Babybel® sales.

Business in Europe was buoyed by the strong performance of Babybel® in Germany and the Kiri® and The Laughing Cow® brands in France, in an environment still marked by consumer price sensitivity.

The North Africa and Middle East region posted a mixed performance, with a positive trend in the Middle East, especially in Egypt and the Gulf countries, following a successful activation of our brands during Ramadan, a period conducive to home consumption, and a more complex market in North Africa.

 New categories:

The new categories segment continued its solid upward trend, with positive organic growth of 2.6%. This performance was supported by growth in the fruit segment, which recorded a positive dynamic in all geographies. China reported excellent performance across its historic scope of business, especially Kiri®, despite a slower market.

 Sales by geographic region:

Results

Group operating income for the first six months of 2024 was €122 million, up 13.4% from the first half of 2023.

Operating income by segment is as follows:

In the first half of 2024, the Group’s operating income stood at €122 million, underpinned by improved sales performance and a continued improvement in margins. This was against a backdrop of stabilizing inflation, which had been offset in the first half of 2023 by a responsible policy of price increases and further efforts to improve productivity. The Group will pursue its investments to accelerate the development of our new categories in order to support their growth through promotional campaigns.

After taking account of net financial result and income tax expense, consolidated net profit, Group share totaled €51 million, compared with €55 million for the first half of 2023.

Financial position

The Bel Group’s balance sheet remains solid, with net financial debt of €859 million on June 30, 2024, compared with €839 million on December 31, 2023. Total equity now stands at €1,505 million, compared with €1,526 million on December 31, 2023.

The Group continues to have a high level of liquidity. On June 30, 2024, it had €572 million in surplus cash and cash equivalents and €550 million in undrawn credit lines with maturities in 2028.

In April 2024, Bel successfully completed a €350 million bond issue over five years, with an annual coupon of 4.375%. The issue was nearly 7 times oversubscribed, with an orderbook in excess of €2.3 billion, reflecting investor confidence, the positive perception of Bel’s reputation and its financial resilience.

An innovative mission-led company by law with a global employee shareholding plan

On May 16, 2024, the Bel Group became a mission-led company by law, permanently anchoring its pioneering model of sustainable growth in favor of healthier and more sustainable food for all. This brand evolution is a significant milestone and testament to over 20 years of commitment and action.

The Bel Group also launched ‘’We Share’’, its first employee shareholding program. This major strategic decision reflects the determination of its family shareholders to share the value created with all employees. The program is currently available in France (where over 40% of employees have decided to invest), the United States and Canada. It will be rolled out in China in the next few months, then in the Group’s other countries of operation in 2026.

Bel is pursuing its strategy of innovation for healthier and more sustainable food and has partnered with Dassault Systèmes to accelerate the food industry’s transition to a more sustainable model. This unique long-term partnership is founded on a commitment to support the sector’s digital transformation and drive the development of pioneering innovations by leveraging artificial intelligence and digitizing the end-to-end value chain.

Outlook for 2024

Bel demonstrated its strength once again in the first half of the year, with robust organic growth, underpinned by an increase in sales volumes, especially for its core dairy brands, and an improvement in margins. This was achieved in an environment still shaped by consumer price sensitivity, significant pressures on supply chains, rising raw material prices and a volatile geopolitical and economic context.

The Group will continue to invest in its core brands to support their development to make these products accessible to as many consumers as possible and capture a greater share of its priority target markets.

With its new status as a mission-led company, Bel will leverage the proven appeal of its iconic brands, the solid growth of its fruit segment and the dynamism of its North American business to further strengthen its position in healthy dairy, fruit and plant-based snacks.

Bel’s financial performance indicators

The Group uses non-IFRS financial performance indicators internally and for its external communication. These

non-IFRS indicators are defined below:

 Organic growth corresponds to reported sales growth, excluding impacts from foreign exchange fluctuations and changes in the scope of consolidation, i.e. on a constant structure and exchange rate basis and excluding inflation in Iran and Turkey. Since 2020, Iran’s economy is deemed to be a hyperinflation economy, so as Turkey since 2022. Accordingly, inflation impacts, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), were excluded when determining organic growth. The organic growth rate is calculated by applying the exchange rate for the prior year period to the current year period.

 Operating margin corresponds to operating income.

 Operating cash flow is composed of:

– (i) cash flow from operations, corresponding to profit before tax adjusted for the following items: depreciation and provisions, depreciation on rights of use, capital gains and losses on disposals, financial income and expenses, financial income and expenses on rights of use, income from companies accounted for by the equity method and other non-monetary items of income,

– (ii) plus changes in inventories, current receivables and payables, income taxes paid, acquisitions of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, net investments in rights-of-use, disposals of property, disposals of plant and equipment and intangible assets, investment grants received, interest paid, and interest expense on rights-of-use.

 Net financial debt is described in note 5.4 to the summary consolidated financial statements. It consists of longand short-term borrowings, long- and short-term right-of-use liabilities, and current used banking facilities, less cash and cash equivalents.

 This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such trend and/or target information should in no way be regarded as earnings forecast data or performance indicators of any kind. This information is by nature subject to risks and uncertainties that may be beyond the Company’s control. A detailed description of these risks and uncertainties is provided in the Company’s Universal Registration Document, available at (www.groupe-bel.com).

More comprehensive information about the Bel Group can be found in the “Regulatory Information” section of the www.groupe-bel.com website

Press contacts

 Bel Group – Mélanie Rigaud – [email protected] / +33 (0)6 88 42 42 59