Last year we showed 'stagility'. Through close collaborations, we combined our long-term vision with the flexibility to quickly adapt. Our CFO Geert Peeters elaborates on how this translates in our solid financial performance for AY21/22.

Following a strong year in 20/21, demonstrated by solid sales growth, a strengthened balance sheet and the successful completion of its transformation for Greenyard, the world economy entered an extremely difficult and complex environment. The year 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 were marked by a longer-than-expected COVID-19 pandemic, an overheating of supply chains and a disrupted labour market, hyper-inflation popping up and recently of course the start of the war in Ukraine.

None of this was foreseen, by no one. With Greenyard we fortunately managed to identify these events in an early stage, which allowed us to swiftly take decisive actions. Being flexible and lean is part of our day-to-day business. It is an indispensable skill we have nurtured over decades of experience. And it proved essential last year, to handle and mitigate the challenges many industries were confronted with.

Last year, back in 2021, we refinanced our capital structure and raised € 50m. This was the final accomplishment of a two-year period, in which we fully focussed on strengthening the organisation and group, and reconnected with a profitable organic growth. The robust capital structure gave Greenyard the financial certainty and flexibility to fully engage in its further strategic development.

This ambition was culminated at the end of 2021 when we updated and refined our long-term strategic plans into Greenyard’s Vision on the Future of Food. It is the strategic outline for the coming decade, starting from macro-trends combined with our strengths, our assets and our competences.

Long-term relations with customers remain leading in our drive to increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables in healthy diets in a sustainable way. We believe in the bright future of plant-based food, a vastly growing market. As a company that has the unique ability to fully leverage the pure power of fruit and vegetables, we are right in the heart of close-to-crop, plant-based food solutions. We have a privileged position in today’s food market and will develop new products and offerings with amongst others a clear focus on health and convenience.

Next to this, we will engage in digitization. This will enable us to gain efficiencies, offer more added value to our customers and build worthwhile insights. The potential seems endless, and first examples of upcoming projects involve Artificial Intelligence in planning, shelf-life prediction, traceability through block-chain and robotics and automation. Like we did last years, we will continue simultaneously to deepen our customer relationships, reinforce our organisation, and realise efficiency gains across the entire food value chain.

We translated our strategy in renewed financial goals and are confident to realise them: in three years, by March 2025, we aim to reach sales of € 5bn, and an Adjusted EBITDA between € 200m and € 210m with a margin between 4,0% and 4,2%.

In the current tough economic context, Greenyard shows stagility. We proved to be stable and resilient, and we displayed our ability to act agile to the continuously changing and challenging circumstances. We managed to cope with the many uncertainties, the pressure and volatility. Through clear focus, we found fast, actionable and creative solutions. Obviously, this has been a collective effort. Transparent communication and regular, ongoing dialogue are essential to navigate uncertainty. We believe that the strength of Greenyard, as a global company, is defined by the connection of our employees, suppliers and our customers. A vision we certainly fully deployed last year, growing stronger together.

This combination of acting on a stable foundation with a clear vision on the one hand, and the agility to quickly shift gears when needed on the other hand, runs through Greenyard’s veins. It is what allowed us to reconfirm and to reach our Adjusted EBITDA guidance that was communicated already at the beginning of the financial year, not knowing which challenges would come. We realised an Adjusted EBITDA of € 166,5m for the full year 21/22, with an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 3,8%.

Although we were confronted with a steep rise of input prices, we secured our profitability. We achieved this thanks to a mindset of continuous improvement, further delivering efficiencies. Equally important are our signature close collaborations at both ends of the chain. These long-standing relations allow us to transparently align sales tariffs with ‘real’ higher cost levels, ensuring fair and true pricing all along. On top, our finance cost decreased significantly due to the refinancing. This led to the recovery of our net profit from € 1,2m to € 16,9m.

Further to improving profitability, we also further decreased our net financial debt from € 339,9m to € 303,6m, resulting in a pre-IFRS 16 leverage of 2,4x, realising the 2,0x to 2,5x leverage target that we promised two years ago.

Even though several of the above conditions remain uncertain for the upcoming period, Greenyard reconfirms its long-term financial ambitions. We will continue to seek further growth, both organically and through carefully selected and potential well-integrated M&A opportunities.

Geert Peeters, CFO Greenyard