The chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli closed last year with more profits. After deducting taxes and duties, profits rose by almost 18 percent to over 671 million francs. Shareholders will now receive a 100 franc higher dividend.
Lindt posted an operating profit (EBIT) of 813.1 million francs in the 2023 financial year. This corresponds to an increase of 9.2 percent compared to the previous year, as the company announced.
Legend: The net profit of the chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli rose by almost 18 percent in 2023. Keystone/WALTER BIERI
Sales, which the company had already reported in January, grew comparatively less strongly at 4.6 percent in Swiss francs. Accordingly, the EBIT margin rose to 15.6 percent after 15.0 percent in the previous year.
Higher payout
The net profit of 671.4 million francs is 17.9 percent more than in the previous year. A tax reduction that Lindt had already announced was noticeable here. Due to the introduction of global minimum taxation and the tax reform and AHV financing (STAF) proposal in Switzerland, the tax rate was a unique low of 15 percent.
Normally, the company incurs 23 to 25 percent of sales as taxes. But according to the announcement, even without this one-off tax effect, net profit would have increased by 5.6 percent to 601.7 million francs.
Shareholders should now benefit from the higher profit in the form of a higher dividend. The holders of Lindt registered shares – one of which is one of the most expensive shares in the world with a market value of 107,000 francs – receive a 100 franc higher dividend of 1,400 francs per share. For the participation certificate (market value: 10,880 francs), the dividend increases by 10 francs to 140 francs.
With the results presented, Lindt & Sprüngli exceeds the analysts’ estimates according to the AWP consensus for EBIT, net profit and dividend. Regarding the margin, the analysts had expected the achieved 15.6 percent.
Medium-term and annual targets confirmed
The company has now confirmed its goals for the current year. As is well known, Lindt wants to achieve organic sales growth of 6 to 8 percent this year and improve the operating profit margin by 20 to 40 basis points, i.e. increase it to 15.8 to 16.0 percent. This is also within the company’s medium to long-term target range.
For 2024 and beyond, management expects there to be further price increases. The cocoa price was 62 percent higher in 2023 than in the previous year and will be more than 40 percent higher again in 2024. If cocoa prices remain at current levels, this will “result in further price increases in 2024 and 2025 despite the hedging strategy and higher inventories,” it says.