Lotus Bakeries’ revenue grew by 17% in 2022, a record growth of EUR 127.2 million to a total of EUR 877.5 million in revenues. In the first half of the year, the group recorded a 14.1% revenue growth and almost 20% in the second half. Recurring EBITDA rose by EUR 18.9 million (a 12.5% growth), reaching EUR 169.9 million. Lotus Bakeries invested EUR 153 million, mainly for capacity expansion. Net profit increased by almost 14% or EUR 12.5 million and amounts to EUR 103.3 million or 11.8% of revenue.
Its brands Lotus Biscoff and Lotus Natural Foods grew by 25% and 24% respectively. Lotus Biscoff, the Group’s first and largest strategic pillar, reported a revenue of EUR 415 million in 2022. This segment achieved an accelerated growth rate of more than 30% in the second half of the year, ending the full year of 2022 with a revenue increase of 25%.
The company recorded double-digit growth across several markets worldwide, from North America (Us and Canada) to Europe (the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Austria and Sweden). This is also the case for several countries in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions, including China, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
“Good productivity and availability of personnel in the factories on the one hand, and a reliable and solid supply chain of raw materials on the other, have been crucial to achieving the 2022 growth. Moreover, all previously announced investments in Belgium and the US were delivered and installed on time and successfully commissioned by the beginning of 2023,” Lotus detailed its financial results.
The Lotus Natural Foods brands also reported strong growth in 2022, with a revenue of EUR 175 million, a year-on-year increase of 24% and a year-on-year growth of 16% since the acquisitions in 2015. The company aims at accelerating the international growth of these brands: Lotus Natural Foods’ international activities outside the UK grew by almost 40% this year and already represent more than 30% of total Lotus Natural Foods revenue. Also in the UK, the Lotus Natural Foods brands achieved double-digit growth. The success of BEAR in the US contributes to its international growth.
Revenues for the Local Heroes brand were flat in 2022. It represents the third pillar of Lotus Bakeries’ strategy, with a focus on its ‘home’ markets of Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Sweden.
Lotus Biscoff growth: faster than anticipated
In 2023, a new Lotus® Biscoff packaging design will be introduced, the company announced. “This is a further step in the journey to build a strong biscuit brand globally: since 2013 ‘Biscoff’ was introduced progressively as a product brand on all our packs globally. This has been a great success and has helped to build a consistent and internationally recognized brand across the 70 countries where the products are sold.”
On the new packs, Biscoff will become the most prominent logo, endorsed by the ‘Lotus’ brand logo. This new branding hierarchy is combined with a restyling of the Biscoff brand logo itself, for a contemporary look. This new branding will be applied across the entire global product portfolio (cookies, spread, ice cream, chocolate).
In 2022, the company invested in capacity expansion, mainly for Lotus Biscoff. In the dedicated plant in Belgium, a second dough preparation room became operational last year, an investment made to support the further growth of Lotus Biscoff cookies and Lotus Biscoff spread.
In addition, a new Lotus Biscoff sandwich cookie production line started up in January 2023. The new, second line in the plant in Lembeke allows the group to increase international distribution.
In the Lotus Biscoff plant in the US, a second production hall with two new Lotus Biscoff production lines became operational as of the start of 2023. The US plant has now four production lines in operation.
Lotus Bakeries also plans to start up a production facility for Lotus Biscoff in Thailand to support its growth plans in Asia. The land was formally purchased at the end of November 2022. According to the current timeline, the first line will be operational in 2026. The total budget for the first phase including a dough room, the first production hall and infrastructure, production lines and offices is estimated between EUR 125 and 150 million.
Outlook
Notwithstanding the challenges, Lotus Bakeries showed resilience in 2022 and reports a strong performance in terms of high-quality top-line growth, margin management, cash flow protection, and investment execution.
Lotus Biscoff and Lotus Natural Foods, the two strategic pillars focused on internationalization, have again been the key drivers to attaining this exceptional growth.
In 2022, the company invested a ‘record amount’ mainly in capacity expansion projects. Lotus sees these projects as crucial to supporting the short and medium-term growth of these brands. The capital expenditures for 2023 are estimated in the range of EUR 100 million unless the greenfield investment in Thailand is progressing faster than expected.
CEO Jan Boone: “We raised the bar for ourselves once again. EUR 127 million of organic growth is unprecedented. The 17% growth is almost evenly split between responsible price increases to reflect inflation and sold volume growth. The broad-based progression in the large majority of countries is important and crucial to maintain.” In the current circumstances, which impact purchasing power, he said, “The price increases need to be fair and responsible because, ultimately, we want to keep our products affordable. Affordability is key for all our products across the three pillars. Lotus Biscoff and Lotus Natural Foods are the strongholds in terms of growth but also our Local Heroes have been able to keep revenue stable, something which deserves a lot of credit in extremely difficult circumstances,” he added.
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Photo: Lotus Bakeries social media
