Agthia Group PJSC (\u201cAgthia\u201d or \u201cthe Group\u201d), one of the region\u2019s leading regional food and beverage companies, today announced its final\u00a0results for the fiscal year ending 31 December 2023.\u00a0Agthia delivered strong performance during 2023, outperforming guidance ranges. The group\u2019s profitable growth across the Snacking, Water & Food, and Agri-Business segments, combined with leveraging group-wide efficiencies, resulted in both Group EBITDA and Group underlying net profit growing faster than revenue.
\nGroup net revenue increased 12.1%\u00a0year-on-year to AED 4.56 billion (8.1% growth from volume#\u00a0and 4.1% from pricing), with strong performance from the Snacking, Agri-Business, and Water & Food segments mitigating the adverse impact of continued currency devaluation in Egypt and increased competitiveness in the Jordan protein market. Adjusted revenue for the impact of currency devaluation in Egypt (AED -346.4 million), Group net revenue increased +20.7% year-on-year. LFL revenue, including Abu Auf in the prior comparable period, increased 5.7% year-on-year, or 13.8% excluding FX impact.
\nSnacking\u00a0revenue grew 38.0% year-on-year (+9.3% on a LFL basis) on strong revenue growth across the Group\u2019s snacking portfolio. This was led by dates strong innovations across mid and high value ranges, and expansion in date varieties, and strong value growth across retail channels in the UAE and internationally (e.g., India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brazil).
\nBesides dates, revenue contribution for FY\u201923 from BMB and Abu Auf collectively was AED 546.4 million, with the latter seeing stronger growth in core markets, and continued volume and value gain in premium-branded coffee at Abu Auf in Egypt resulting in a 72% increase in FY\u201923 local currency revenue.
\nWater & Food\u00a0revenue grew 6.0% year-on-year, reflecting significant growth in the UAE, driven by premiumization and innovation, with margins expanding on improved mix and productivity. The Group continued to retain its market leading position in the UAE bottled water segment, successfully launching value-added innovations such as Al Ain Plus (zinc fortified water), premium glass bottles, and a 100% rPET bottle (made of post-consumer recycled plastic which is infinitely recyclable). International business revenue also increased, with notable performances from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Turkey.
\nProtein & Frozen\u00a0showcased resilience despite a reported decline in AED terms, amid the challenging macro and consumer environment of 2023, which included the significant devaluation of EGP.\u00a0Excluding impact of currency devaluation,\u00a0revenue grew 19.3% year-on-year for the full-year period, with the segment proactively safeguarding and prioritizing its profitability and market leadership by implementing effective pricing strategies, portfolio tiering and optimizing costs.
\nAgri-Business\u00a0revenue grew 19.9% year-on-year, with strong volume growth across Flour and Feed. This was driven by consistency in quality and product performance and excellent in-market execution in our Flour business, while strong performance in Feed reflected good open market growth, participation in Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority\u2019s (ADAFSA) compound feed program and related new product development.
\nEBITDA growth was ahead of revenue, up 21.2%\u00a0year-on-year to AED 689.3 million (+30.5% excluding currency headwind), reflecting strong growth in Snacking, Water & Food and Agri-Business profitability, combined with a continuing focus on profit protection in Egypt and group-wide efficiency generation.
\nSnacking:\u00a0EBITDA growth of +62.0% (+47.2% in Q4) reflected positive price and mix effects in both domestic and international date markets, strong growth in Abu Auf\u2019s market-leading premium coffee, and a step up in profitability from BMB post cost reset in Saudi.\u00a0LFL EBITDA, including Abu Auf in the prior comparable period, increased +22.4% year-on-year, with +LFL EBITDA margin expanding +237bps year-on-year.
\nProtein and Frozen:\u00a0A combination of channel optimization, productivity enhancements and disciplined cost management resulted in EBITDA growth (excluding devaluation impact) of +11.6% year-on-year, notwithstanding the inflationary cost environment in Egypt and external challenges affecting Jordan. Reported EBITDA margin modestly declined for the full-year period year-on-year, largely driven by increased competitiveness in Jordanian market, localization drive in Saudi market and EGP currency headwind.
\nThe completion of our new Protein facility in Jeddah in Q2 2024 will provide localized production capacity at comparatively favorable economics and establish Agthia as a local protein producer in Saudi Market.
\nWater & Food:\u00a0A combination of positive volume growth, favorable mix toward high-margin premium products, further cost efficiencies in the UAE and Saudi, and a more benign commodity environment resulted in EBITDA growth of +21.8% year-on-year (<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Agthia Group PJSC (\u201cAgthia\u201d or \u201cthe Group\u201d), one of the region\u2019s leading regional food and beverage companies, today announced its final\u00a0results for the fiscal year ending 31 December 2023.\u00a0Agthia delivered strong performance during 2023, outperforming guidance ranges. The group\u2019s profitable growth across the Snacking, Water & Food, and Agri-Business segments, combined with leveraging group-wide efficiencies, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[127,39,130,15,103,3716],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-en","category-business-economy-en","category-featured-en","category-press-releases","category-reports-research","category-uae"],"yoast_head":"\n