What can we learn from 2023?
For us, 2023 was a year of resilience. Despite the difficulties we faced, we were able to grow our revenue by approximately 5% and achieve a historic performance in our profitability before R&D.
How do you explain these results?
First and foremost, this is the result of the commitment of our teams in all our subsidiaries. They did a fantastic job in dealing with the unexpected and showed tremendous agility. Second, it is the result of the implementation of our 2030 plan and our focus on certain product ranges considered strategic, such as pet care and pet food. Finally, we also benefit from the positive effects of our business diversification.
In other words?
We now have 35 subsidiaries and if you look at the top five countries in terms of sales in 2023 (USA, France, India, Australia, Mexico), we have a representative on five different continents. We may have suffered in 2023 in China and Chile, but that was more than offset by strong performances in France, Australia and India, for example.
Any other highlights from this year?
We have further increased our R&D investments, which have reached almost 100 million euros by 2023, in order to develop a rich and promising project portfolio for the long term. This represents an increase in our R&D spending of more than 10% (around 0.5 points more as a percentage of sales). We have also continued to control our costs, which has allowed us to offset record inflation, particularly in salaries, and maintain an adjusted Ebit margin of around 15%. The acquisitions made in 2023 will also allow us to consolidate our presence in emerging markets. With a positive cash position, we still have plenty of room to grow our business and make future acquisitions.