A tough week for Bonduelle! The stock price of the vegetable specialist has collapsed by 12.4% since Monday, including 7.8% on Friday, to return to 16.3 euros. Russia is a significant and profitable market for the Villeneuve-D’Ascq group, which produces and sells locally and already has to deal with the 2014 embargo.
Ensure continuity
In addition to its Bonduelle brand, it markets a Russian label, Globus. Russia and the peripheral countries represent 150 million euros in revenue, or 5% of the group’s turnover, of which less than 10 million in Ukraine, specifies, this Friday, Bonduelle. The French operates three vegetable processing plants in Russia, including one in Belgorod, near the Ukrainian border, and two in the Krasnodar region, near the Sea of Azov. ” They are active “, underlines Bonduelle, which has, on the other hand, interrupted its commercial activity in Ukraine. In this country, he employs 10 people, and nearly 900 in Russia. ” We are doing everything we can today to ensure the continuity of our business: supplying basic foodstuffs and continuing with our farming partners our sowing in the fields for tomorrow, in order to prevent the crisis we are experiencing from Added to this is a food crisis “, assures the general manager Guillaume Debrosse.
The geopolitical context adds to an environment that was already not very buoyant, between inflation in the prices of raw materials and foodstuffs and the delay in the recovery of the fresh prepared business in North America, expected to materialize in the second half only . Going forward, Bonduelle confirms its forecast of 3% growth in activity at constant exchange rates and perimeter for the 2021-2022 financial year, which will end on June 30, but it is revising its objective of margin at 3.6%, against 3.8% to 4%. Cautious, the group specifies that these objectives are likely to be revised according to the evolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the consequences of which are ” difficult to quantify at this stage. »
PC