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Bimbo group reported an annual drop of 7.8 percent in its operating flow (EBITDA, for its acronym in English), with a value of 11,845 million pesos during the first quarter of 2024.
What were the reasons? The company was affected by the strength of the Mexican ‘superweight’ and a ‘declined’ consumer profile in its operations in the United States.
“Being a diversified global company has its advantages and disadvantages: North America had a weak start to the year due to a complicated environment, as we expected, while Mexico was strong, allowing Grupo Bimbo to continue in line with our expectations,” explained Diego Gaxiola, global director of Administration and Finance of the bakery company.
‘The Bear Company’ accumulated between January and March income of 93 thousand 221 million pesosthis was a reduction of 6 percent compared to the 99,181 million pesos of the same period, but in 2023.
“The first quarter results were good and, for the most part, resilient, considering the impact of the Mexican peso and the difficult basis of comparison that we have for the first quarter of 2023, where we report record results in several metrics”Gaxiola added.
Bimbo sales: In which regions and countries did they decrease?
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Sales in North America fell 13.2 percent, in Europe, Asia and Africa, 4.5 percent, and in Latin America 3.1 percent. In fact, only Mexico saw growth with 3.2 percent.
“With the calendar effect of the Holy Week, net sales in Mexico increased 3.2 percent; Excluding this effect, sales grew more than 7 percent, attributable to the favorable price mix. All channels and almost all categories grew, highlighting pastries, tortillas, cookies, bread and sweet breadas well as self-service and convenience channels,” the company explained.
The net profit for the first quarter fell 41.8 percent annually, with a value of 2.37 billion pesos, related to negative effects of the exchange rate; higher administration and distribution expenses, as well as investments in restructuring and transformation in some regions.
During the first quarter of 2024, Grupo Bimbo carried out four large operations, among which the purchase of the market leader in packaged sweet bread in Tunisia stands out.
Bimbo highlighted that in the first of 2024 they carried out four operations:
- The purchase of Moulin d’Orthe market leader in packaged sweet bread in Tunisia, expanding Grupo Bimbo’s presence to 35 countries.
- The acquisition of La Zarcereña, the leader in sweet bread and a player in the cookie and snack industry in Costa Rica.
- The purchase of Trei Brutaria bread and biscuit producer in Romania, and three franchises.
- The acquisition of a 30 percent stake in UNO, the leader in packaged bread in Türkiye
“After a record year in 2023, we are starting 2024, a year of investment and transformation of our business, with a first quarter in which we saw the benefits of geographical, category and channel diversification, which allowed us to invest in a business unit for future growth, as is the case of North America,” he concluded. Daniel ServitjeChairman of the Board and CEO of the company.
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