Damm foresees a year of growth thanks to good prospects in the tourism sector

Damm expects 2023 to be again a good year for the group in terms of growth. The company foresees a good year given the massive arrival of tourists expected to be received by the Spanish market and also due to its efforts to internationalize its beer brands, which already reach more than 130 countries.

This was announced this Tuesday by the president of Damm, Demetrio Carceller Arce, during the general shareholders' meeting held in Barcelona to approve the 2022 results, a year that was also favorable for the company, with a 26% increase in turnover, reaching 1,876 million euros.

"The robustness and growth capacity that the hospitality sector is showing during the first months of the year and the good prospects of the tourism sector for the summer season, make us confident that 2023 will be a year of growth for Damm," Carceller highlighted. According to the executive, "despite the difficulties that the global economy continues to face, "2023 has started very positively for the company."

Before the group's partners, Carceller explained that in 2022 Damm has been "the brewing group with the highest growth in production market share", with an increase of almost one percentage point compared to the previous year. By channels, sales in hospitality last year were already at values "very close" to those recorded before the pandemic, while in supermarkets the brand's sales remained stable, although they are already higher than those recorded in 2020.

"During the last year, we have been forced to work hard to manage the general inflationary trend and its consequences on consumption and monetary policy. Fortunately, 2022 also brought good news such as the positive data obtained by the tourism and restaurant sector, which allowed us to face the complex current context," he explained.

The president has also boasted about having boosted international growth thanks to the recent purchase of the Eagle Brewery, located in the English town of Bedford. This is Damm's second production center abroad ---the other is in Portugal--- and strengthens the group's presence in a key market such as the United Kingdom. Currently, more than 30% of the beverage business's activity already takes place in the foreign market, with 500 people working in the international area. In total, the company employs 5,577 people, up 9.3%.

Despite the 26% increase in sales, the rising cost of raw materials penalized the company's results in 2022, which saw its net profit reduce by 16.4%, with earnings of 101 million. Profitability on sales stood at 5%, compared to 8% in 2021. Damm's board has agreed to maintain stable shareholder profitability, which translates into the payment of a dividend at the same levels as the previous year. Specifically, 62.8 million will be distributed, which represents a pay out of over 60%.

A quarter of these dividends will be collected by the German family group Dr. Oetker, owner of 25% of Damm. The shareholders' meeting has, precisely, accepted today the resignation of the two veteran directors who represented Oetker in the Catalan brewery: August Oetker and Ernst Schröeder. To replace them, only one new director has been appointed, Rudolf Louis Schweizer, so Oetker will now have only one representative and Damm's board reduces its composition from eight to seven members.

Dr. August Oetker has been linked to Damm's highest decision-making body for more than 20 years. His resignation comes after he ceased to be the president of the Dr. Oetker Group in 2019 upon reaching 75 years of age, the age limit for holding the position. His successor in the presidency of the German company, Rudolf Louis Schweizer, who now joins Damm, is 55 years old and is the grandson of Rudolf-August Oetker, the patriarch of the saga who rebuilt and led the company after World War II. Schweizer is the fourth member of the founding family to consecutively hold the position after Rudolf Oetker, Rosely Schweizer and August Oetker.

In 2021, the Oetker family, made up of eight shareholder siblings, decided to split their business group into two. The five older siblings kept the Dr. Oetker group, from which some businesses were spun off and remained in the hands of the three younger siblings, who formed the new Geschwister Oetker holding company.

With more than 40,000 employees and annual revenues of more than 7.4 billion euros, the Dr. Oetker Group has three main business areas: food (which includes its famous frozen pizzas and ingredients for making cakes), beverages (it owns the Radeberger Group brewery and 25% of Damm) and other businesses, a division that brings together technology, logistics and luxury hotel companies.

In parallel, Geschwister Oetker controls the wine company Henkell ---owner of 50% of Freixenet---, a chemical company and a hotel chain, among other activities.