The economic activities of the Melitta Group will continue to focus on countries in the EU, Asia, Brazil, and the USA/Canada. In its January 2022 outlook, the International Monetary Fund forecast consistently strong economic growth of 3.9% for the eurozone and 4.0% for the USA in 2022. The growth forecast for Brazil (0.3%) takes into account effects of monetary policy on high levels of inflation. According to Euromonitor, volume growth of 2.0% (Western Europe), 3.9% (Brazil), and 1.7% (North America) is expected for the major coffee markets.

For 2022, we anticipate general global economic and geopolitical challenges that will have an impact on our business development. The structural problems on the procurement markets are continuing and the sourcing of raw materials, components, and merchandise will be impacted by supply chains that are still not free of disruption, as well as by significantly higher transportation costs. This is compounded by the ongoing rise in material and energy costs, with the result that our cost of materials ratio is likely to be higher than in 2021. This trend will be exacerbated by the crisis in Ukraine. We are addressing these challenges with careful management of our contribution margins and a risk-conscious approach to capital expenditures. At the same time, however, we will continue to pursue our strategy of internationalization, innovation, sustainability, and digitalization in order to make greater use of the many opportunities we see for the further development of our Group.

The general infection risk of the pandemic, with the increased risk of being infected by the omicron variant, will continue to affect us – at least in the first half of 2022. However, it is currently difficult to estimate when the pandemic will be completely over and to what extent it will impact our business development this year.

Based on these assumptions, we expect a significant increase in sales, a stable consolidated EBIT result on a par with the previous year, and a slightly lower return on net capital employed for the full year 2022. Net financial debt is expected to be in the range of € 275-285 million with a generally solid balance sheet structure and stable financial position once again. With a similar level of cash flow in 2022 as in the previous year and its available credit lines, the Group’s financing of capital expenditures and business activities, as well as its formation of working capital, is secured.

Minden, April 2022