KRI-KRI Milk Industry has released its financial statements for the first quarter 2023. Its turnover amounted to €45.90m against €30.73m in 2022 (an increase of +49.3%). Basic profitability figures were as follows:

• EBITDA amounted to €9.71m compared to €1.75m in 2022,
• Profit before tax amounted to €8.46m compared to €0.55m in 2022,
• Net profit after tax amounted to €6.68m compared to €0.45m in 2022.

In the yogurt segment total sales increased by +48.6% in value and +18.5% in volume. Export yogurt sales show a strong growth of +52.9%, reaching €23m. This boost in sales is contributed from the major markets of Italy and UK as well as other countries such as Sweden, Austria and Belgium. As far as our profitability figures are concerned, they have recovered back to their normal levels. The EBIT margin, of course, improved significantly. This is a result of the economies of scale and the dilution of sales & admin costs, which are, for the most part, fixed or variable to sales volumes.

Yogurt sales show a strong growth in the domestic Greek market too. Specifically, our sales increased by +43.3%, exceeding €17.5m. The current inflationary environment has led the overall market to a decrease in consumption volume (-2.7%), while the value increased by +12.5% [IRI data, Jan.-Mar. 2023]. At the same time, there is a strong shift of consumers to private label yogurts, because of their choices for value-for-money products. As a result, private label yogurt market share increased by +5.6 p.p. in volume, applying strong pressure on branded yogurts. That pressure has led KRI-KRI branded yogurts to a small market share loss (-0.3 percentage points), which is however the smallest compared to our main competitors [IRI data in value, Jan.-Mar. 2023]. In general, KRI-KRI seems to benefit from those market developments, since it is the largest producer of private label yogurts in the domestic market. In terms of profitability, the gross profit margin reached 29.9%, which is 2 p.p. lower than in 2021. This is a result of the Company's decision to absorb part of the additional inputs cost. Of course, economies of scale in yogurt segment led to high double-digit EBIT margin.

KRI KRI's strategy is to maintain competitive pricing at a level that stands to consumers. In case the downtrend of inputs prices continues, further discounts and promotional activities are planned.

In the ice cream sector, where the first quarter is not representative of annual results due to the high seasonality, domestic sales reached €3.49m compared to €1.93m in 2022.

The Company's strong growth creates the need to increase production capacity. To this end, CAPEX in 2023 is planned to reach €20m, while the workforce has already increased with 100 new hires.