As forecast, AGRANA, the food and industrial goods group, recorded a very significant deterioration in earnings for the first quarter of the 2025/26 financial year compared to the year-earlier quarter. Operating profit (EBIT) fell markedly to € 5.7 million. Revenue decreased moderately, by 6.8 %, to € 880.2 million.

“The overall weak operating performance in the sugar business and the announced one-time staff costs for restructuring measures in Austria and the Czech Republic were the major factors in the poor quarterly result,” explains AGRANA CEO Stephan Büttner. Despite economic uncertainty, AGRANA continued to pursue its goals under the new Group strategy, NEXT LEVEL, and made important progress. “Following the decision in March 2025 to end sugar production in Leopoldsdorf and Hrušovany in order to safeguard sustainable sugar production within the Group, AGRANA decided at the end of May to acquire all shares in AUSTRIA JUICE GmbH held by RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria AG. In our new strategic business area of Food & Beverage Solutions, we intend to more closely integrate the beverage bases and flavours businesses of AUSTRIA JUICE and to globally expand them. AUSTRIA JUICE’s product portfolio and capability to deliver solutions will help us to open up new markets, sales channels and customer groups. Despite the decline in business performance in the financial first quarter, we maintain our forecast for the full year 2025/26 of a Group EBIT in line with the previous year,” says Büttner.

New reporting structure

The new reporting structure in use from the first quarter of the 2025/26 financial year is aligned with the two strategic business areas Food & Beverage Solutions (FBS) and Agricultural Commodities & Specialities (ACS).

The Food & Beverage Solutions (FBS) segment replaces what was known as the Fruit segment and comprises products and formulations for the dairy, food service, ice cream, bakery and beverage industries.

The Starch and Sugar segments will continue to be reported separately, with the designation “ACS” added to both names to reflect these segments’ placement under the strategic umbrella of the Agricultural Commodities & Specialities business area.

Food & Beverage Solutions (FBS) segment

Revenue of the FBS segment in the first quarter of 2025/26, at € 444.1 million, was moderately above the year-earlier level, for price reasons.

The FBS segment’s EBIT improved to € 36.4 million in the first three months of the financial year (Q1 previous year: € 27.0 million). The earnings growth resulted from a positive business performance both in the formulations and beverage businesses.

ACS – Starch segment

Revenue in the “ACS – Starch” segment was € 257.8 million in the first three months of 2025/26, a slight decrease from the year-ago quarter. The decline was due primarily to lower sales prices for saccharification products and for by-products and ethanol.

EBIT in the ACS – Starch segment was down very significantly year-on-year to € 2.8 million. The main reason for this was the margin decline in the ethanol business and in starch products. The compensation from the business interruption insurance for the autumn 2024 flood damage at the Pischelsdorf, Austria, plant had a positive impact on earnings in the first quarter of 2025/26.

ACS – Sugar segment

Revenue of the “ACS – Sugar” segment in the first quarter of 2025/26, at € 170.1 million, represented a significant reduction from one year earlier, as moderately higher sugar volumes sold to industrial customers were more than offset by a significant drop in volumes with resellers. However, the main reason for the revenue decline was a significant fall in sugar sales prices, particularly in the industrial sector.

The ACS – Sugar EBIT result in the first quarter of 2025|26 was a deficit of € 29.5 million, representing a pronounced deterioration from the year-earlier quarter. Due to the significantly lower sugar sales prices, the earnings measure “operating profit before exceptional items and results of equity-accounted joint ventures” fell to a loss of € 10.7 million (Q1 previous year: profit of € 0.1 million). A redundancy benefit plan was drawn up in connection with the restructuring through the discontinuation of sugar production in Leopoldsdorf and Hrušovany; the staff costs associated with the plan were € 17.9 million in the first quarter of 2025/26. This exceptional item had an added negative impact on EBIT.

Outlook

At Group level for the full 2025/26 financial year, AGRANA expects operating profit (EBIT) to be steady compared to the year before. Group revenue is projected to show a slight reduction.

As part of the new AGRANA NEXT LEVEL strategy, measures with a sustained annual savings impact of up to € 50 million are to be implemented in the 2025/26 financial year. However, these savings cannot cancel out the effect of the negative market developments seen particularly in the ACS – Sugar segment.

Total investment across the Group in the new financial year, at approximately € 115 million, is to be slightly above the 2024/25 value and in line with budgeted depreciation.

Elopak ASA reports all-time high quarterly revenues in Q3-2024 with EBITDA margin at 15.5 %. The revenue growth comes from Pure-Pak® carton and closure volume growth in Europe and Americas, both through new business and increased market share, as well as strong filling machine sales. Revenue for the full year is expected to be in line with the current run rate, with an EBITDA margin above 15 %.

Q3 2024 highlights:

All-time-high quarterly revenues of EUR 292.8 million (EUR 283.5 million) with an organic revenue growth of 3.6 %

Continued strong profitability with EBITDA of EUR 45.4 million and margin of 15.5 %

“Repackaging tomorrow” strategy and new mid-term targets presented at Elopak’s first Capital Markets Day in September

Decision to invest additional USD 25 million in second production line in the new US plant

Commenting on Elopak’s performance, CEO Thomas Körmendi said: “I am pleased to see that we continue to deliver profitable growth through new business and increased market share across our core markets, as well as strong filling machine sales. Recording all-time high quarterly revenue in a quarter with challenging market conditions where consumer spending is strained in many markets and capacity constraints and supply chain challenges in the Americas, demonstrates the resilience of our revenue run rate. Also in the quarter, we have decided to double the production capacity in the US already now, prior to starting production during the first half of next year. The investment in a second line in the production plant is a direct response to the continued strong demand for our solutions”.

Elopak ASA has maintained its momentum from the first quarter of 2024 to deliver yet another strong quarter, with organic revenue growth of 3.8 % in the quarter and continued strong development in the company’s EBITDA margin. Elopak’s strong financial performance in the first half of 2024 reaffirms the company’s higher run rates.

Q2 2024 highlights:

• Quarterly revenue of EUR 288.4 million (Q2 2023: EUR 278.1 million) with an organic revenue growth of 3.8 %
• Pure-Pak^® volumes grew in both Europe and Americas
• Adjusted EBITDA of EUR 43.8 million with a margin of 15.2 % (Q2 2023: 14.9 %): Capital structure remains strong with leverage ratio of 1.9x – Record high dividend payment of EUR 34.4 million in May for FY2023 – Refinanced debt capital structure: triple-tranche inaugural green bonds successfully issued and new revolving credit facility signed

Commenting on Elopak’s performance, CEO Thomas Körmendi said: “I am happy to report yet another strong quarter with continued strong performance across all our markets. Our strong balance sheet and refinanced debt capital structure ensure that we remain in a solid position, enabling further investments in various growth initiatives going forward. We expect the strong financial performance to continue in the second half of the year in line with our reaffirmed run rates”.

Elopak reported revenue growth of 7 % in Q2 supported by price increases and successful onboarding of Naturepak. This was achieved despite the discontinued operations in Russia.

Highlights from Q2 2022:

• Revenue increased by 7 %, to EUR 259 million, driven by growth in EMEA and Americas
• New revenue from acquired businesses in MENA and India was EUR 12 million in the quarter
• Continued high raw material prices impacted the Q2 results negatively by approximately EUR 14 million
• Adjusted EBITDA was EUR 25.3 million, reflecting an adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.8 %
• The leverage ratio increased to 3.4x as of second quarter 2022, primarily driven by dividend payment in May and lower Last Twelve Months EBITDA compared to last year
• Elopak completed the acquisition of GLS Elopak to supply Roll Fed and Pure-Pak^® cartons to the Indian market

Commenting on Elopak’s performance in the quarter, CEO Thomas Körmendi said:

“I am pleased to announce strong revenue growth and profitability for Elopak in the second quarter. We are actively mitigating the unprecedented raw material prices and the challenging business environment. We expect margins to improve in the second half of 2022.

At Elopak, we are committed to delivering on our sustainability-driven growth strategy. We are very excited about entering India in a partnership with leading Indian packaging provider GLS, positioning Elopak in one of the world’s biggest and fast-growing markets. Further, the second quarter saw the post-merger integration and full first quarter of Naturepak operations as part of the Elopak Group. We continue to implement different value enhancing initiatives across all markets, aimed at improving both our top- and bottom-line.

I also want to praise our colleagues in Ukraine for their impressive resilience, managing to ramp up production despite all the challenges. Our Russian operation was sold to the local management this summer, following our earlier announcement that we were suspending our operations in the country in Q1.”

As of 30 June 2022, Year to date revenue increased by 8 %, to EUR 502.5 million. Year to date adjusted EBITDA was EUR 52.3 million, reflecting a 10.4 % margin.