H1 2025 FINANCIAL INFORMATION 31/07/2025

The Board of Directors of Bel Group — a major player committed to promoting healthier, more sustainable food for all — met today under the chairmanship of Antoine Fiévet to approve the consolidated financial statements for the first semester of 2025.

Cécile Béliot, Chief Executive Officer of  Bel Group, commented: “In the first half of this year, we’ve again demonstrated the relevance and robustness of our strategy. Despite an unstable geopolitical environment, our resilient sales volumes reflect the strong value our brands deliver to consumers worldwide. The growth we’ve achieved across our geographies and categories, combined with our ongoing digital transformation, is reinforcing both our agility and operational efficiency going forward. We remain focused  on accelerating the Group’s performance by investing in our brands, industrial facilities and sustainability ambitions.”

Resilient performance in an environment marked by contrasting dynamics, underpinned by sales growth and the Group’s ongoing transformation

Sales

In the first half of 2025, Bel Group recorded consolidated net sales of €1.867 billion, up +3.2% on an organic basis compared with the same period last year.

Overall sales growth was driven by higher volumes and price increases to offset persistent inflation in raw materials in several markets. This dynamic performance helped absorbing  a slight decline in dairy product volumes, which were affected by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and heightened consumer sensitivity to price pressure.

Sales growth was driven by the robust performance of Bel’s core brands, especially Kiri® (+8.2%), Mini Babybel® (+6.1%) and Boursin® (+7.3%). The Group also recorded strong momentum in the fruit snack segment, especially with Pom’Potes® in France. The e-commerce and out-of-home (OOH) distribution channels continued to record strong growth, up 8% and 15% respectively across most geographies, confirming their strategic role in delivering Bel’s portfolio of products.

Mature categories:

Mature categories delivered organic growth of +3.0%, underpinned by the solid momentum of the Kiri®, Mini Babybel® and Boursin® brands. Demand for Mini Babybel® remains strong, confirming the underlying trend toward healthier, more sustainable snacking favoured by consumers.

North America recorded strong momentum, with growth of almost 6%. Europe maintained a positive trajectory (+2.3%) despite a slight dip in volumes.

The North Africa and Middle East region, affected by macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties weighing on the Group’s performance, also posted very slight growth of 0.2%.

New categories:

New categories continued to grow (+3.8%), driven by the strong performance of the fruit snack segment in France and the United States and a marked acceleration of the cheese business in China, which posted excellent performance (+23%), especially for Kiri®, thanks to dairy product innovations.

Results

Recurring operating income amounted to €125 million, or 6.7% of sales, down €30 million on 2024. In the context of a resurgence in raw material inflation since the second half of 2024, this decline again reflects the temporary lag between the impact of the additional costs borne by the group due to inflationary pressures and the effect of passing these costs onto retailers through sales prices. This lag amounts to €23 million as of June 30, 2025.

The evolution of exchange rates during the semester also weighed on the group’s performance.

Financial position

Free cashflow (excluding securitization and calendar effects) amounts to –€6 million for the period, compared with €58 million in the first half of 2024. This significantly lower figure is due to a decrease in EBITDA (–€38 million) and a €37 million increase in working capital requirement. After several consecutive half years of improved operational performance — reflected in reduced inventory levels and better collection of trade receivables — the first half of 2025 was impacted by the effects of industrial reorganization coupled with geopolitical tensions, leading the Group to implement alternative supply chain routes.

Outlook for 2025

Bel has again demonstrated the strength of its international growth strategy and the relevance of its positioning in offering healthier, more sustainable portion-sized products to consumers, in an environment still marked by geopolitical tensions, rising raw material costs and heightened consumer price sensitivity.

In the second half of the year, Bel will continue to pursue its strategy of investing in its core brands to support their development, accessibility and performance in its strategic markets.

The faster pace of its digital transformation, through partnerships with Accenture and Dassault Systèmes, is a key lever to drive the competitiveness and sustainability of Bel’s business model. The Group will continue to strengthen its market-leading 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. Iran is considered a hyperinflation economy since 2021, and Turkey since 2022. Accordingly, inflation impacts in these countries — based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — have been excluded when determining organic growth. The organic growth rate is calculated by applying the exchange rates for the prior-year period to the current-year period.

Operating margin corresponds to operating income.

Free cashflow consists of:

– (i) Cashflow from operations, corresponding to profit before tax adjusted for the following items: depreciation and provision, depreciation of rights of use, capital gains and losses on disposals, financial income and expenses, financial income and expenses on rights of use, share of profit of companies accounted for by the equity method and other nonmonetary items of income,

– (ii) Plus changes in inventories, current receivables and payables, income taxes paid, acquisitions of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, disposals of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, investment grants received, interest paid, share of debt repayments under finance leases 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 long and 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

Havas Paris 

Mael Evin – [email protected]  – +33 (0)6 44 12 14 91

Alice Bastard – [email protected] – +33 (0)7 72 10 95 14