Barry Callebaut:Outperforming the market in a challenging environment

Barry Callebaut's 3-month key sales figures of fiscal year 2011/12

•  Sales volume up 2.6%; sales revenue up 5.0% in local currencies (-4.1% in CHF)
• Closing of various projects delivering on strategic direction, including new outsourcing agreement with Mexican Grupo Bimbo
• Growth targets confirmed^[1]

Group key sales figures for the first 3 months of fiscal year 2011/12 - from continuing operations

Zurich/Switzerland, January 17, 2012 - Barry Callebaut AG, the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate products, outperformed the global chocolate market^[3] with sales volume growth of 2.6% in the first three months of fiscal year 2011/12, ended November 30, 2011. Region Americas grew by double-digits whereas Region Asia-Pacific recorded slower growth and Region Europe slightly decreased. The Food Manufacturers Products business grew at +4.5% and the Gourmet & Specialties Products business increased volume by 3.4%. Quarterly sales revenue outpaced volume growth with a gain of +5.0% in local currencies, -4.1% after translation into Swiss francs.

Juergen Steinemann, CEO of Barry Callebaut, said: "After an expected soft start in the first two months of our fiscal year, we saw volume growth picking up in both our industrial as well as our Gourmet segment. Despite a challenging environment, we outperformed the market. We made excellent progress in our projects leading us further in the right strategic direction."

Region Europe - Difficult market environment in Western Europe, good growth in Eastern Europe
Sales volume in Region Europe decreased by 0.8% to 191,832 tonnes. The debt crisis in Europe negatively impacted consumer sentiment, especially in Southern Europe.
In Eastern Europe, sales volume continued to grow strongly - driven by Poland, Russia and the Baltic States. However, Eastern Europe could not fully compensate for the slight volume decrease in Western Europe. Overall, sales revenue in Region Europe increased by 1.2% in local currencies. In reporting currency, it declined by 8.2% due to negative currency impacts.

Region Americas - Strong growth across all regional markets and segments
Barry Callebaut achieved broad-based growth in all regional markets and across all segments. Overall, sales volumes in Region Americas grew strongly at +17.6% to 91,763 tonnes. The Food Manufacturers Products business volume rose double-digit, driven both by national and corporate accounts. Barry Callebaut's Gourmet business strongly increased sales volume thanks to market share gains with local and global brands. Sales revenue grew 18.0% in local currencies and 6.9% in the reporting currency.

Region Asia-Pacific - Industrial growth limited by available capacity, strong Gourmet performance
Barry Callebaut increased its sales volume in Region Asia-Pacific by 2.7% to 13,735 tonnes led by strong performances in India, Indonesia and Malaysia. Growth in the Food Manufacturers Products business was constrained by tight capacity. Production capacity is being expanded in Singapore to support the company's further growth in the Region. The temporary production downtimes caused by the installation of new capacity also restrained growth during the period under review. The Gourmet & Specialties Products business significantly increased its sales volume driven by the global Gourmet brands Callebaut^® and Cacao Barry^®, both of which grew at double-digit rates. Sales revenue grew 1.5% in local currencies and decreased by 4.6% in CHF.

Global Sourcing & Cocoa^[4] - Higher internal demand and capacity expansions
Cocoa terminal market prices continuously moved downward from levels slightly over GBP 1,900 to close at GBP 1,465 on November 30, 2011. This price decrease was due to the recent bumper crop in 2010/11 and the good start of the current cocoa campaign, as well as financial investors taking short positions and a generally well-stocked industry. A better-than-expected sugar crop in Brazil and a good start of the campaigns in Russia and India led to a downward correction of prices on the world sugar market. The sugar price in the regulated EU region for the 2011/12 campaign stayed on its historically high level as seen throughout most of the previous campaigns. Market prices for milk powder moved sideways at historically high average levels.

Sales volume of the segment Global Sourcing & Cocoa decreased by 4.5% to 65,307 tonnes. Both higher internal demand for cocoa powder and ongoing capacity expansions at existing factories - which caused some down-time - led to lower sales to third-party customers. Sales revenue went up 3.2% in local currencies driven by high cocoa powder prices at the moment when contracting the business, decreasing by 4.1% in reporting currency.