B&S Group S.A.: HY 2023 Financial Results

Organic growth pushes turnover beyond € 1 billion in first half year of 2023.

Mensdorf, Luxembourg - August 21, 2023 (07:00 CET)

B&S Group S.A. ("B&S") tech company in the branded consumer goods industry, today publishes its half year 2023 results ("HY 2023").

Highlights HY 2023 as reported (compared to HY 2022)

- Overall turnover increased by 7.6% to € 1,057.5 M (6.9% on a constant currency basis);
- Organically, turnover increased by 6.1% mainly driven by Personal Care, Beauty, Health and Retail segments;
- Gross profit increased by 13.5% to € 157.7 M in HY 2023, with a gross profit margin of 14.9% (HY 2022: 14.1%);
- EBITDA increased to € 42.2 M (HY 2022: € 40.8 M). EBITDA margin declined to 4.0%
- (HY 2022: 4.1%) mainly due to increased staff costs and operating expenses;

- Net cash from operations amounted to € -0.3 M (HY 2022: € -23.8 M);
- Net debt / EBITDA at June 30, 2023 stood at 3.8 (3.7 at June 30, 2022);
- Net profit amounted to € 12.2 M (HY 2022: € 16.7 M).

Highlights Q2 2023 (compared to Q2 2022)

- Overall turnover increased slightly by 0.3% from € 530.0 M to € 531.6 M (1.1% on a constant currency basis).

Peter van Mierlo, CEO: "Inflation continues to impact both our cost base as well as consumer behavior, nonetheless, based on a strong first quarter of the year and a flat second quarter, we realized a turnover increase of 7.6% over the first half year. All segments showed growth in turnover compared to the second quarter last year, except for Liquors and Food. In the Liquors segment, the market was very challenging, while in Food we choose margin over turnover. Personal Care significantly outperformed last year, while also Beauty, Health and Retail continued its strong performance.

We continued to grow our workforce. Within Beauty, the larger workforce comes from the acquisition of Europe Beauty Group last year, as well as the temporary increase as we anticipate efficiency increases in the newly opened FragranceNet warehouse. In Personal Care, we continue to see strong market demand while in the Retail segment, we continued to open new airport shops. The spending on all cost categories was higher than last year, which was partly due to the continued growth. Our working capital is now below last year. We have developed action plans to further improve focus on aged inventory.

We expect the challenging market conditions in several of our markets to continue, while we remain confident about the underlying trends and longer-term outlook. B&S has six strong segments in branded consumer goods in different markets, realizing synergies in IT and Warehousing, next to Talent management, Finance and Legal. All segments have strong and experienced leaders with very close ties in the markets they operate. During the year under review, we have strengthened our leadership team and further improved our governance. The new Executive Team is defining focus points for the coming years. Our main focus will be on operational excellence, and we will address working capital and cost management, while we will also develop plans for further organic and acquisitive growth opportunities. We plan to communicate an updated strategy in November of this year."

For additional information please contact

Uneke Dekkers / CFF Communications
M: [phone]
E: [e-mail] / [e-mail]

About B&S
B&S (EURONEXT:BSGR) exists to make premium consumer goods available to everyone, anywhere. We believe that getting access to consumer products that bring joy and comfort into everyday lives, should be easy around the globe.

With our ever-growing international network and physical local presence, we bring suppliers, brand owners, logistics partners, wholesalers, retailers and consumers all over the world together that are in many ways difficult to connect.

We work with the world's premium consumer brands in beauty, liquors, personal care, food, health and consumer electronics to serve millions of consumers daily - either directly or through our wholesaler and reseller partners.

Powered by our high-tech platform and arising from supply chain expertise, we provide sourcing, warehousing, distribution, digital commerce, marketing and brand development solutions that enhance choice, speed up delivery, drive conversion and increase reach.