Apetit Kasviöljy Oy

Apetit Kasviöljy Oy

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CEO's review H1/2025

“Apetit Group’s operating result for the first half of the year declined year-on-year due to a weaker result in Oilseed Products. The prolonged collective bargaining negotiations between the Finnish Food and Drink Industries' Federation and the Finnish Food Workers’ Union caused challenges to both of Apetit's businesses during the first two quarters of the year. The overtime and shift change bans during the negotiations affected delivery reliability in both businesses. The strike days related to the negotiations also affected operations in Food Solutions. Food Solutions improved its result in the first half of the year. Both sales volumes and net sales have increased slightly year-on-year. In Oilseed Products, the decline in result was attributable not only to the price of the raw material used, but also to the decrease in sales of refined oil and challenges in delivery reliability. Apetit’s operating result in the second quarter declined from the comparison period. The delivery reliability situation normalised in both businesses in June. Net sales increased in both businesses in the second quarter year-on-year. In Food Solutions, also sales volumes increased. Retail sales developed positively due to the cool early summer being favourable to the sale of frozen products. In July, we announced an investment of approximately EUR 2 million in the Kantvik vegetable oil milling plant. The strategic investment improves the production process of the raw material for the BlackGrain from Yellow Fields® rapeseed powder. The investment in late 2025 will strongly support the commercialisation of BlackGrain. The investment will multiply BlackGrain’s raw material production capacity and significantly improve the quality and efficiency of the process. The total investment includes replacement investments in the milling plant’s current processes. The availability of raw materials has been one of the bottlenecks for increasing actual production. We will continue the practical development of BlackGrain’s various product applications. Thanks to its versatility, BlackGrain is suitable for a wide range of products in the food industry. Customer-oriented product application work is carried out for both BlackGrain rapeseed powder and TVP plant protein made from BlackGrain, which contains pea protein in addition to BlackGrain. At the same time, we are investigating alternatives for producing the BlackGrain rapeseed powder. Apetit is assessing potential partnerships and starting production by making an investment in the Kantvik vegetable oil milling plant or with purchased services. The strategically important ERP project has progressed according to schedule. The new ERP system is scheduled to be implemented in Oilseed Products by the end of the year, after which all Group operations will be covered by the new system. The outlook for the harvest season is currently moderate. In early summer, even the cool weather offered a promising start to the growing season, which benefitted spinach and pea in particular. However, the hottest period in the history of measurements in July weakened the harvest for frozen peas due to the rapid ripening of the harvest. Regional heavy rains taxed frozen pea crops in some places. Frozen peas are harvested on a record-large area of 2,000 hectares. The success of the harvest season is ultimately determined by the weather in the autumn and the harvesting conditions. The growing season of onion, which is Apetit’s contract farming crop for the first time, has largely gone according to expectations. Onion is a significant crop in Apetit’s product range and a strategic addition to the list of contract farming crops. The cultivation areas for Finnish oilseed plants grew strongly from the previous year. The growth season of spring-sown oilseed plants has largely progressed according to expectations and the harvest outlook is at an average level. There are regional differences in weather conditions and pest situation. The weather conditions early in the growing season were favourable for autumn oilseed plants, so oilseed plant fields shone exceptionally yellow in the early summer. The harvest outlook for autumn oilseed plants is good. We will continue to invest in Finnish cultivation development. Several variety trials are underway in the RypsiRapsi forum. Trials are underway in autumn oilseed plants with regard to sowing technology, among other things, and fertiliser and sowing method trials are underway in spring oilseed plants, both on a square and farm scale. The Räpi experimental farm, on the other hand, is running two projects related to different new plant protection methods. Development projects in Finnish cultivation lay down the conditions for the continuum of cultivation of plants significant to Apetit, especially in adapting to the changes brought about by climate change. The new national nutrition recommendations published in late 2024 and the importance of well-being and sustainability in food trends are reflected in the increased consumption of frozen vegetables in Finland. This phenomenon can be seen in frozen peas, for example. The increased popularity of legumes and the ease of using frozen vegetables combined with the uniqueness of Finnish frozen peas have increased the sales of Finnish frozen peas by more than one-third over five years. This the right direction, because adding more vegetables onto the plate is a good choice in every way." Esa Mäki, CEO

CEO's Review Q1/2025

"Apetit Group’s operating result for the first quarter declined from the comparison period. The result of Food Solutions improved, but the operating result of Oilseed Products decreased from the strong result of the comparison period. In Food Solutions, both net sales and sales volumes were on a par with the comparison period. Retail sales increased slightly year-on-year. The result of Food Solutions was boosted by the harvest season production that continued until 2025 and was record-long. The weak performance of Oilseed Products was particularly attributable to anticipated expensive raw material items timed during the reporting period. The prolonged collective bargaining negotiations between the Finnish Food and Drink Industries' Federation and the Finnish Food Workers’ Union had a negative impact on Apetit’s operations during the first quarter. The ban on overtime and shift changes weakened Apetit’s delivery reliability in both businesses. The volatile global political and economic situation causes uncertainty for Apetit’s operations and reduces predictability. The effects may be reflected in the market prices of oilseed plants in particular. No short-term impact is expected due to frontloaded raw material purchases. Work on strategically important projects has continued as planned. The ERP system upgrade is progressing according to schedule. The new ERP system for Oilseed Products is scheduled to be deployed towards the end of the year. Work with rapeseed powder BlackGrain From Yellow Fields and Finnish pea protein also continues. In the autumn, we will launch a product based on textured plant protein (TVP) processed from BlackGrain in the Food service channel. The patty with BlackGrain TVP and pea protein has an excellent taste and texture – and it is a great example of the synergies between Apetit’s two businesses. The sowing season for field vegetables is expected to begin earlier than usual as fields are quickly becoming ready for sowing. During the coming harvest season, we will further increase the area used for contract farming of frozen peas. Harvesting and the from field to freezer chain ran smoothly in last year's record-large area. As a new crop, we will contract grow Finnish onions for the first time. There has been commendable willingness to grow onions. Onion is an important crop in our products: both Finnish onion cubes and the potato-onion mix are important products in the frozen vegetable and frozen potato product categories. The domestic spring rapeseed cultivation area is expected to increase by 37 per cent in the Finnish Cereal Committee VYR’s* planting intention survey. The milder and less snowy winter than usual was favourable for autumn oilseed crops in large parts of the country. There may be regional differences in the success of the wintering of autumn rapeseed, but little winter damage has been reported and autumn rapeseed in particular looks good. We will continue to invest in promoting Finnish agricultural research in both of our businesses. Diverse experimental activities of the RypsiRapsi forum and the VARPS project aimed at increasing the cultivation reliability and volume of rapeseed continued. Variety tests of autumn and spring oilseed plants will be further established in different parts of Finland, and cultivation method experiments will be continued, for example, with plant protection alternatives and new establishment methods. Among other things, the Räpi experimental farm is participating in a project to investigate the use of side streams from the food industry as soil improvement products or recycled fertilisers. Early this year, we launched new products that fit perfectly with the food trends. A new flavour was made available for the Crispy Chick patty, which has become a favourite in Apetit’s Kasvisjauhis vegan mince product range. The sales of Apetit’s plant-based patties and balls as well as the Kasvisjauhis Crispy Chick patty have developed steadily. Crispy Chick in particular has established a solid position in shop freezers: the sales of the Crispy Chick patty have been increasing for five years and more than doubled over that time. Other new products early in the year included a new flavour in the Uuni- ja grillikasvikset frozen vegetable mix and Finnish potato slices to complement Apetit’s product range of frozen potatoes. Apetit celebrated its 75th anniversary in March. Operations began as Länsi-Suomen Sokeritehdas in 1950. Today, Apetit is at the heart of food trends and nutrition recommendations: its range of plant based frozen vegetables and foods and vegetable oils is aligned with prevailing food trends, responsible eating and nutrition recommendations.” Esa Mäki, CEO

CEO’s review Q4/2024

Esa Mäki, CEO: “The full-year operating result from Apetit’s continuing operations improved from the comparison year. Food Solutions achieved a clear improvement in profit performance and Oilseed Products was slightly behind the comparison year’s result. The profit improvement in Food Solutions reflects the systematic work to improve profitability. Product portfolio management and product group-specific sales development have contributed to this profit improvement. The success of from field to freezer chain and harvest season production strengthened the result of Food Solutions. One factor behind the decline of the operating result in Oilseed Products was the decrease of market prices. The Group’s full-year net sales decreased clearly from the comparison year due to the decline in oilseed product market prices. In Food Solutions, net sales grew slightly from the comparison period. In both businesses, sales volumes declined mainly due to normal yearly fluctuations. Food Solutions performed more strongly than expected in the fourth quarter. Also Apetit’s operating result in the final quarter of the year improved from the comparison period. During the year under review, we promoted several strategically significant projects. The update of the Group’s ERP system progressed on schedule; deployment of the system in Food Solutions was carried out at the turn of September and October 2024. The project continues towards deployment of the ERP system in Oilseed Products during the second half of 2025. Deployment in Food Solutions was carried out successfully thanks to competent personnel and good planning. The bottling line at the Kantvik vegetable oil milling plant became operational as planned. With the new line, we are taking the supply chain of vegetable oils firmly into our own hands. In addition, the bottling line makes it possible to develop products with a higher degree of processing. The bottling line investment was realised as budgeted, amounting to approximately EUR 4.5 million. Thanks to the new bottling line, we have been able to reduce the amount of plastic we use in vegetable oil bottles by 41 per cent on average. One of Apetit’s strategic focus areas is More domestic plant proteins. We have taken steps in the commercialisation of our BlackGrain rapeseed powder. Development work has focused on improving the production process. We have started analysing different options for the production of BlackGrain plant protein. The analysis assesses potential partnerships and the organisation of production either through making an investment in the Kantvik vegetable oil milling plant or with purchased services. The analysis is expected to be completed in late 2025. The Finnish pea protein project is continuing as planned. In 2024, we conducted small-scale testing with Finnish raw materials to produce pea protein. Work carried out in the project has focused on trial runs and technology comparison to consolidate the competitive advantage. Increasing food exports and strengthening our position in Sweden is also one of our strategic focus areas. In order to achieve this goal, we established our own sales organisation in Sweden at the beginning of 2024. The strengthening of Apetit’s position in Sweden progressed. Besides retail, we have now expanded to Food service sector. We are pleased with the Finnish harvest season for both businesses. The frozen pea harvest from a record-large contract farming area was largely in line with expectations and the field-to-factory process ran smoothly. The root vegetable growing season was long, thanks to the warm autumn, and the quality and quantity of the harvest were mainly in line with the targets. According to the Natural Resources Institute Finland’s harvest forecasts, the total Finnish rapeseed harvest increased by more than a fifth. With regard to oilseed plants, things are developing in the right direction and we at Apetit are working to increase the cultivation of domestic oilseed plants. In both of our businesses, we want to use as much domestic raw materials as possible. Increasing the cultivation area of frozen peas and domestic oilseed plants is one of our strategic focus areas. The price increase of food stopped in 2024, but the higher price level is still reflected in consumer purchasing behavior. The new national nutritional recommendations published in the autumn recommend a varied diet with plenty of vegetables and adequate use of vegetable oils. Apetit focuses on domestic and plant-based raw materials as well as products that promote well-being and sustainable consumption. The cornerstones of Apetit’s product selection are relatively affordable and in many respects meet the requirements of consumers today: they are a responsible choice that supports people’s well-being and suit their budget in daily life. We expect demand to remain high in Apetit’s various product categories. At the beginning of the strategy period 2023–2025, we set the following financial objectives: operating result (EBIT) of more than EUR 9 million and return on capital employed (ROCE) of more than 8 per cent. By the end of 2024, we achieved the financial objectives set for the period. We will continue to develop Apetit in line with our vision: Growing and profitable market leader in plant-based products. I would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank all Apetit employees for the year 2024 and the owners, customers, contract growers and other partners for their cooperation.”