Food Empire has reported higher revenue of 14.5% y-o-y in its 1QFY2024 business update. For the three months ended March, the company recorded a total turnover of US$117.5 million, up from US$102.6 million.
Sales booked in Russia, its single largest market, was weighed down by unfavourable forex movements, as the ruble depreciated against the reporting currency US dollar. However, in constant local currency terms, revenue increased by 27.4% in this market instead.
Food Empire enjoyed strong growth too in other key markets such as southeast Asia and South Asia, up 35.3% and 33% respectively.
“We will continue to capitalise on our strong brand equity and market leadership position to fine-tune our sales strategy across our markets so as to achieve our ultimate goal to balance topline growth with sustainable margins," says group CEO Sudeep Nair.
"With our healthy balance sheet and the lessons and experience gained over the years, we believe Food Empire is well-placed to ride out any market uncertainties and to capture opportunities along the way.
“The capacity expansion in our ingredient business is integral to our overall longer-term organic growth strategy as we seek to reinforce our leading position in existing markets, while exploring potential new geographical regions," he adds.
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While keeping an eye on the potential impact from geopolitics, Food Empire is cautiously optimistic about the outlook of its core markets as consumer response to marketing and promotional activities continues to be encouraging and sales remain robust.
It will conduct periodic reviews and adjust its sales and pricing strategies to mitigate rising raw materials costs.
Food Empire says it is constantly exploring acquisitions that are "complementary and synergistic" to its growth strategy.
