Ladies and gentlemen,

The fiscal year 2023 was once again shaped by numerous geopolitical challenges. Moreover, the global economic uncertainty of recent years was compounded by high inflation rates, dramatic cost increases, and fragile supply chains.

As a company with international operations, the Melitta Group was also affected by these developments. We therefore undertook great efforts to ensure the smooth functioning of our supply chains, to tighten our cost management, and to adapt to the changes in consumer behavior. Despite these efforts, however, downbeat consumer and business sentiment in our markets had a significant impact on our business performance.

Satisfactory fiscal year

The Melitta Group generated sales of €2,149 million in the fiscal year 2023. This corresponds to a year-on-year decline of 6 percent. We therefore fell short of the expected slight increase in revenue for 2023.

Given the numerous challenges we faced, however, we are satisfied on the whole with our performance in 2023. We successfully defended and, in some cases, even expanded our market positions. Moreover, we continued to strengthen our financial stability.

Following a significant increase in the fiscal year 2022, sales in the Coffee business field fell by 7.2 percent. This is mainly due to the fall in green bean prices, which was also reflected in our sales prices. We achieved year-on-year sales growth in South America and in our B2B coffee business in North America.

Sales in our Coffee Preparation business field fell only slightly by 0.7 percent compared to the previous year. Whereas sales volumes in our filter paper business declined, we once again achieved revenue growth in the field of professional hot beverage preparation equipment for the system and non-system catering segments.

Sales in the Household Products business field fell by 7.6 percent. This is primarily due to our B2C business, which suffered from weak consumer demand in many of our relevant markets. By contrast, our B2B business made good progress and regained momentum after the coronavirus pandemic.

Sustainable transformation on track

We made great strides with regard to our sustainable transformation: firstly, we developed the “Transform to Flourish” vision for our future business activities. This includes a commitment to focusing more on the requirements of regenerative value creation in our business model and developing initiatives based on the social business principle. In addition, we attach great importance to developing our work culture in order to encourage more collaboration, co-creation, variety, and diversity.

Secondly, we have enhanced many of our processes and products and aligned them with our sustainability principles. In 2023, for example, we implemented numerous measures to safeguard human rights in our supply chains, made further significant increases in the proportion of recycled and renewable materials in our products, and improved our resource efficiency once again by investing in and modifying our production processes. The progress of our sustainability KPIs also provides solid proof that our sustainable transformation is firmly on track.

Foundations laid for the future

We continue to see numerous opportunities and growth potential in our business fields and markets. In the past fiscal year, we therefore laid the foundations for the further development of the Melitta Group’s strategic alignment. In the coming years, we will roll out a raft of innovative products, tap new target groups and regions, and align our structures and processes in such a way that they provide the best possible support for our growth plans.

This also applies to our corporate divisions, which we have restructured to make them even more effective. In addition, we have established a new corporate division, IDS (Innovation, Digitalization and Start-ups), to strengthen our innovative power and speed-to-market, and to help us develop new business models.

Optimistic outlook

With our strong brands, our keen awareness of customer needs, and our high level of financial stability, we are ideally positioned to successfully press ahead with our strategy of internationalization, innovation, sustainability, and digitalization. We are therefore eager to put our plans into action and optimistic about our future prospects.

This is due in no small part to our employees. Last year, they once again demonstrated their tremendous passion, expertise, and flexibility. Thanks to their outstanding commitment, we made further significant progress in the development of our Group. We would therefore like to express our sincere gratitude to them. At the same time, we would like to thank our customers and business partners for their loyalty and trust.