• In a year of outstanding results, Ebro distributes a historic dividend of €386 million to support its shareholders in the present complicated economic situation
Madrid, 25 February 2021. Net turnover grew by 15.1% in 2020 to €3,237 million, pushed up by the positive evolution of our businesses during the pandemic and efficient organisation of production to meet demand peaks.
Our EBITDA-A reached €435 million, 27% more than in 2019, while net profit rose by 35.7% year on year to €192.4 million.
After distributing abundant dividends (an ordinary dividend of €87 million and an extraordinary dividend of €298.5 million) we reduced our net debt by €49 million to €951 million. This included CAPEX investments of €119 million and shedding part of our dry pasta business in the USA, bringing in €195 million.
After year-end, in January 2021, we sold our dry pasta business in Canada for CAD 160m.
Core businesses
Rice
In raw materials, we incurred additional costs of €30 million due to the effects of hurricane Laura in the North American market and forecasts of a smaller harvest in Europe owing to the storms and flooding in Italy and salinity issues in Spain.
Lockdowns and fears of shortages in the successive waves of COVID have had a positive effects on the performance of our brands, which increased sales by almost 18%.
Tilda especially, in its first full year in the Group, surpassed all expectations.
Division sales totalled €1,817.6 million, with an EBITDA-A of €235.8 million.
Pasta
This division also suffered raw material price rises of around €29 million, mainly affecting our European business.
Just as in rice, sales reflected the increased demand deriving from the pandemic, which we were able to meet comfortably by optimising our production capacity to focus on the products in greatest demand, at the expense of those with a higher value added. The present price war scenario in Europe is forcing us to step up investment to restore these niche categories to their place on the shelves.
Division sales totalled €1,502 million, with an EBITDA-A of €213.5 million.
Extraordinary results shared with our stakeholders
Although last year was extremely complicated owing to the appearance of COVID-19, our Group can take a clearly positive reading of it, having proved able to react immediately to the impact of the pandemic and continue developing our business strategy, obtaining excellent results that we have been able to share with our stakeholders.
We highlight the following achievements during the year:
- Preservation of all jobs without requesting any governmental aid.
- Large outlay in social responsibility, investing €21 million in protection measures against COVID and compensation for our employees’ efforts and to mitigate the health and social emergency situations in all the countries in which we operate.
- A historic distribution of dividends, between ordinary and extraordinary, in a sum of €386 million, with a view to supporting our shareholders in an extremely difficult economic context.
- The excellent revenue levels in spite of a €60 million increase in raw material costs.
- Keeping shelves fully stocked to guarantee consumers’ peace of mind at the times of greatest uncertainty.
- The strong positioning of our brands, which managed to increase their market shares.
- Ratification of our venture in Tilda, which has proved to be an important strategic investment with excellent returns.
- Progress in the development of our strategic lines, culminating in the successful divestment of our dry pasta businesses in the USA and Canada to continue concentrating our resources and efforts in businesses with high value added.
We are braced for a foreseeably complicated 2021, owing to uncertainty regarding the evolution of the pandemic, high inflation in freight and commodities, impoverished consumers fatigued by the seemingly unending health crisis, pressure from distribution, the return of promotions and reactivation of competition. In the face of this complex scenario, we place our trust in the strength and soundness that our business model has already shown in other adverse circumstances.
