Result improvement in 2024

The operating result (EBIT) increased by €28 million to €43 million and profit rose from €6 million to €24 million. We succeeded in achieving a pleasing improvement in our result in a challenging market characterised by volume pressures and high cost inflation.

CEO Koen Slippens: 'At the start of the year, it was quickly apparent to us that market conditions would remain challenging, meaning that a strong focus on efficiency and cost reduction would be needed. Long-term high inflation led to restraint in consumer spending, which in turn put pressure on our customers’ volumes and, by extension, our volumes. Cost inflation was sharp, but through enhanced efficiency and focus, we were able to absorb the substantial increase in our procurement costs. 

Due to pressure on their revenue model, our customers understandably looked even more closely at our performance as a supplier. So a great deal of attention was focused this year on meeting the required standard in our basic operations and making improvements wherever possible. We executed this very successfully in the Netherlands, and we will continue to give full attention in the coming period to supporting our customers in the challenges they experience. The processes to integrate and optimise the logistics of our overall infrastructure in Belgium that we started in the autumn of 2023 continued into 2024, finally reaching completion at around the mid-year mark. Our operational performance suffered in this phase, costing us customers and revenue. Today, though, our operations, management, control and infrastructure in Belgium are now at the level we have successfully applied in the Netherlands for many years. Based on the feedback we received from customers after the summer, we can be confident about 2025. 

Through our vigilant focus on cost control in particular, we achieved a solid improvement in our operating result. The free cash flow was once again positive and the group’s financial position developed positively once again. Based on that result and our dividend policy, we propose a dividend for 2024 of €0.40 per share. Having already paid an interim dividend of €0.30 per share in 2024, a final dividend of €0.10 per share remains. 

For us, 2025 is all about healthy revenue growth, against the trend, because we want to outperform general market growth in both countries. Operations are firmly in place in both countries and we see plenty of opportunities but, at the end of the day, the financial result is what counts. This is appropriately reflected in our theme for this year: Results count!'
 
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Press conference / Analyst meeting

Comments on the annual figures at a press conference and an analyst meeting on 27 March 2025.
11:00 AM: Press conference
01:30 PM: Analyst meeting
Location: Sligro, Van der Madeweg 39, 1114 AM Amsterdam

Download the presentation:

In our trading update of 17 April 2025, we will go into developments in the first quarter of 2025 in greater detail, and we will publish our interim figures on 17 July 2025.

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