After a successful and historic 2019, Royal Swinkels Family Brewers foresees a low point in 2020 due to the corona crisis

04-23-2020

For Royal Swinkels Family Brewers Holding N.V., 2019 was a year to remember, with many highlights, such as receiving the Royal designation, the 300-year anniversary of brewery Bavaria, a new CEO at the helm, several strategic acquisitions and new steps in the sustainability ambition.

As is the case for the rest of society, Swinkels Family Brewers is currently facing an unprecedented challenge due to the COVID-19 crisis. The total impact of the virus is still incalculable, but it is clear that the focus in 2020 will be on the health of employees, customers and business partners throughout the world and on the financial health of the family business.

Peer Swinkels, CEO of Swinkels Family Brewers: 'We are in the throes of a profound crisis that directly affects our industry. Together with our employees, customers and business partners it is our priority to emerge from this crisis healthy and stronger. In the midst of the current uncertainty, we are publishing our 2019 Annual Report. We look back on a historic year for our family business in which we "became royal" and welcomed Queen Máxima to our breweries in Lieshout and Ethiopia.'

Financial results
In 2019, Swinkels Family Brewers Group achieved a total turnover of EUR 892.1 million, an increase of 3.4 percent compared to 2018. EBITDA fell from EUR 99.7 million in 2018 to EUR 94.2 million in 2019, mainly due to non-recurring expenses, such as the celebration of the 300-year anniversary of brewery Bavaria. Adjusted for non-recurring income and expenses, normalised EBITDA in 2019 was 4.5 percent higher than the previous year. Net profit was lower as a result of the decision to impair the intangible assets of the Belgian breweries. 

Collaborations and acquisitions
In 2019, as in previous years, various collaborations were entered into and expanded. For example, Swinkels Family Brewers acquired a minority interest in Georgian brewery Argo, further strengthening its position in the Georgian market. The minority interest in brewery De Molen was increased to 100 percent. This allows the brewery in Bodegraven to focus entirely on brewing special craft beers, while making use of the distribution power and technical knowledge of Swinkels Family Brewers.

Results of the divisions
The Holland Malt division, a producer of malt, ran a full year on the extended capacity in Eemshaven for the very first time and performed well, in spite of falling barley prices.

In Ethiopia, the Habesha Breweries division was able to continue its impressive volume and profit growth notwithstanding the challenging market conditions. A new non-alcoholic dark malt beverage, Negus, was introduced, tapping into a new segment.

In the Swinkels Family Brewers N.V. division, turnover grew as a result of the implemented portfolio strategy. The brands La Trappe, Cornet, Brugge Tripel, Rodenbach, Steenbrugge and 8.6 showed good growth figures. The new brand image and the successful innovation of Bavaria 0.0% IPA strengthened the position of the Bavaria brand. Bavaria 0.0% IPA won one award after another in 2019, but also in 2020, including Product of the Year 2019-2020.

Swinkels Circularity Index
As a family business, Swinkels Family Brewers is focused on the long term and on passing on an even more beautiful business to future generations. An important pillar in the strategy is circular entrepreneurship, where the ambition is to become 100 percent circular in the future. The objective for 2020 is to achieve a circularity score of 50 percent, in spite of the COVID-19 crisis. In 2019, the company had already achieved 40 percent.

'At Swinkels Family Brewers we developed an integral approach with our own circularity index. We refer to it as the Swinkels Circularity Index, where we focus on three core processes: circular procurement, circular production and high-quality reuse. We worked on the reliability of this model and we are very proud that we were able to develop a methodology that looks at circularity throughout the entire chain,' says Swinkels. For the Swinkels Circularity Index press release go to our website.

Forecast 2020
'It is clear that 2020 is going to be a very challenging year because of the COVID-19 crisis and for this reason we had to seriously adjust our expectations regarding the result. Nevertheless, for the long term, we will continue to focus on strengthening the company's foundation and on growth for the future. In doing so, we opted for three strategic pillars, namely: creating a winning family culture, the digital transformation of the company and circular entrepreneurship. To successfully help our company through this period of uncertainty, we will need to work together as one family more than ever before and the same applies to our customers and suppliers. As a family business we are strong and we are convinced that our winning family culture will help us in this respect', concludes Swinkels. 

View the 2019 annual report 'Here's to the next generations!' here.