Christmas sales make up for part of the spring slump. The bottom line is a decrease in sales of 6.1 percent.
The corona pandemic ruined the business of the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli in 2020. Organically, the company lost 6.1 percent of sales. However, it was able to catch up part of the slump from the spring during Christmas business. In the first half of the year it was down by 8.1 percent. Lindt is now more cautious than before for 2021, but in the medium term growth is expected to return to the pre-crisis pace.
In total, Lindt sold Lindor balls, chocolate bars and pralines for 4.02 billion francs (3.74 billion euros) in the Corona year 2020. That is 10.9 percent less than in the previous year. Excluding currency effects and acquisition effects, the (organic) minus amounted to 6.1 percent, as the chocolate manufacturer announced on Tuesday. The company, which also has a production site in Gloggnitz in Lower Austria, has disappointed the expectations of the financial community.
Lindt at least contained the slump in the first half of the year of 8.1 percent. At that time, the lockdown imposed in many countries hit the premium chocolate producer in the middle of the Easter business. Lindt had to close its 500 or so shops. Business at airports as well as with restaurants and business customers was also idle.
However, Lindt achieves the majority of its annual sales in the colder half of the year with the Christmas business. Even at that time, many restrictions and protective measures were still in force, albeit much less drastic than in spring. The air travel business and the catering business in North America as well as the traditional specialty businesses in Italy continued to suffer.
Lindt is confident about the future: The medium-term goals have been confirmed. The company, which is used to success, is aiming for annual sales growth of 5 to 7 percent and an increase in the EBIT margin by 20 to 40 basis points. In the first half of the year, Lindt had forecast that the increase in sales should be higher in 2021 thanks to a catch-up effect. Now it sounds much more cautious: For 2021, Lindt is convinced that it will emerge stronger from the challenging past year. The positive growth of the chocolate markets and especially the premium segment would continue in the future. The margin is expected to recover to around 15 percent in 2022/23, after it should be around 10 percent in 2020 as announced. Lindt will publish the winning numbers on March 2nd.
