Our net turnover grew 22.5%, to \u20ac845 million, boosted by the good performance of our brands, extension of our consolidated group to incorporate Tilda and increased demand as from mid-March. Tilda contributed \u20ac54 million to that figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The adjusted EBITDA totalled \u20ac106.4 million, up 26.4% year on year, with\na 16.6% increase in CAGR over the past 3 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Net\ndebt totalled \u20ac985.5 million, \u20ac14.3 million less than at year-end 2019. Working\ncapital was \u20ac43 million more than at year-end 2019, thanks to the positions\ntaken in raw materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CORE BUSINESSES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The principal commodity procurement agreements in\nEurope were negotiated at the beginning of the quarter, at a cost 6% higher\nthan in the previous campaign. In aromatic rice, we closed the purchase of Basmati\nat prices almost 10% lower than last year, while market prices have been rising\nin the USA, up almost 35% since September 2019, as a smaller area has been\nsown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Europe, the outbreak of COVID-19 in mid-March led\nto substantial sales growth in our branded products during the first week of\nself-isolation, with peaks of over 100%, although it levelled off over the\nfollowing weeks. These spikes were especially sharp in Spain, Italy and France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Demand also soared in North America with growth rates\nof around 90%. We found it difficult to meet that increased demand in some\nproducts, for which we were close to maximum capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rice Division was able to deal with this situation\nthanks to adequate stocks, the outstanding efforts made by our team and\noptimisation of our production capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from the effects of the coronavirus, the trends\nobserved in earlier quarters continued in the categories of Aromatic, Instant\nand Microwave rice in North America, and in the premium segment in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The division posted a turnover of \u20ac483.7 million and adjusted EBITDA of \u20ac61.3\nmillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pasta<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The raw materials market grew in Europe, especially in\nItaly where local producers are opting to use national Italian wheat regardless\nof the quality or price of wheat from other countries, in line with the latest\ntrends of \u201cbuy local and buy near\u201d. In North America, the market has remained\nvery stable and sowing forecasts are especially high in Canada, so prices are\nnot expected to rise. The Group has hedged its sourcing for the entire year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this Division, the outbreak of COVID-19 also\nbrought increased demand in March, with growth rates of almost 90% in Europe and\nCanada, and slightly lower growth in the USA because self-isolation began\nsomewhat later there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as in the rice division, with the aim of maximising\nsupplies, we have focused our production on our core products and have thus\nbeen able to meet the sharpest peaks. There has been less demand for fresh\npasta, especially in the HORECA channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The division posted a turnover of \u20ac380.8 million and\nadjusted EBITDA of \u20ac48 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A QUARTER MARKED BY THE STRENGTH AND STABILITY OF OUR BUSINESS AND OUR BUSINESS AND SOCIAL COMMITMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The consolidated results of the quarter largely\nreflect the success of our investment in 2019 in the acquisition of Tilda, which\ncontributed \u20ac7 million to our adjusted EBITDA, the positive effect expected on\nour CAPEX investments (\u20ac408 million) in the past three years and the increase\nin sales sparked by the self-isolation measures in the last two weeks of March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The outbreak of the coronavirus in March caused an\nunprecedented, very difficult situation worldwide. The Group is faring well in\nthis new scenario thanks to the strength of our business model, our\ngeographical diversification, our sound production capacity, our broad product\nportfolio, the high level of commitment of our team and our decision-making\nagility, which enables us to guarantee supplies of our products in all the\ncountries in which we operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n COVID-19 produced a positive impact on our sales in\nMarch, due to the strong demand for our products at the beginning of\nself-isolation. But we have also had increased operating costs, such as\nincreased expenditure in occupational hazard prevention and personal protection\nequipment to guarantee the health of our workers, higher costs of logistics and\nauxiliary raw materials, extra cleaning and disinfection services and extra\npayments to our factory workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sharp growth in demand eased off gradually as\nconsumers began to lose their fear of food shortages and we are now returning\nto the normal sales trends for this time of year. In the current scenario it is\ndifficult to foresee consumption trends. We are keeping an eye on any signs of\nchange in our market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Group has also been cooperating in the social and\nhealth emergency situation arising as a result of the pandemic, setting\ndifferent solidarity initiatives in motion in the different countries in which\nwe operate. The amount assigned to the Ebro Foundation for COVID-related aid\nwas thus raised by one million euros to \u20ac1.6 million in Spain and we have\nsupported different solidarity actions with financial and in-kind donations to\norganisations across Spain, France, Italy, USA, UK, India, Morocco, Netherlands,\netc. Overall, the Social Responsibility actions headed by the Foundation and\ncoordinated in the different countries in which we operate will amount to over\n\u20ac5 million in 2020.\n\nIt should also be noted\nthat the company maintains its proposal for the payment of dividends, has no\nfurlough plans and will contribute towards the creation of employment and\nrecovery of the economy by accelerating our CAPEX. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our net turnover grew 22.5%, to \u20ac845 million, boosted by the good performance of our brands, extension of our consolidated group to incorporate Tilda and increased demand as from mid-March. Tilda contributed \u20ac54 million to that figure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23471,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23469\/revisions\/23471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebrofoods.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}