Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bakery products supplier, remains in the market for M&A after snapping up three businesses so far in 2023.
Speaking to analysts after the Mexico-based group reported its second-quarter financial results, CFO Diego Gaxiola said the company had targets on its radar.
“In order to continue to advance with our strategic plan and with the opportunities that we see in many different markets, we will continue to look and to be able to conclude inorganic growth, some M&A projects, say,” the Grupo Bimbo finance chief said.
“None of them are going to be transformational. It’s not that the projects are going to move the needle in terms of leverage of the company.”
Bimbo used its results statement to confirm the acquisition of a bagel business in the US.
A brief line in the statement noted the company had “acquired National Choice Bakery, a US-based high-quality co-manufacturer of bagels”.
Bimbo declined to comment further when approached by Just Food. Natural Choice Bakery had not returned a request for comment at the time if publication.
In May, Bimbo expanded its North America presence with the purchase of rye bread producer Natural Bakery in Canada.
In January, Grupo Bimbo entered Romania with a deal for Vel Pitar.
Gaxiola added: “As you know, we already concluded three acquisitions during the year and I can tell you that we have a very robust pipeline of potential targets across the different geographies, either if it’s a market in which we are already present or even new markets.”
Earlier this month, it also emerged Bimbo had become a shareholder in the Netherlands gluten-free bread start-up Zero Carb Company.
Bimbo’s second-quarter results included a 4.1% rise in net sales to a “record” 100.37bn pesos ($5.96bn) “primarily due to a favourable price/mix effect”.
Excluding the impact of exchange rates, net sales were up 13.9%.
Adjusted EBITDA rose 7.8% to 14bn pesos, with the margin at 14%, which Bimbo said was another record.
“We saw strong sales growth and EBITDA margin expansion in all four regions, even considering the continued high inflation, specifically in commodities and labour. This is a result of the strength of our brands and the hard work of our associates who have done an outstanding job at the execution at the point of sale,” president and CEO Daniel Servitje said.
However, the company’s net majority income dropped 35.1% to 3.95bn pesos, as the group lapped a pension benefit recorded in the second quarter of 2022.
Bimbo is forecasting a “low- to mid-single-digit” rise in its annual net sales and a “mid- to high-single-digit” increase in its adjusted EBITDA. In 2022, those metrics grew by 17.7% and 12.8%, respectively.
The new outlook was a slight downgrade to the earlier forecasts Bimbo gave after it presented its first-quarter results.
Gaxiola pointed to the impact of exchange rates. “Whereas in local currency, we are performing above our initial expectations, we are adjusting our sales guidance from mid- to high-single-digit to low to mid-single-digit rates. This new FX adjustment in EBITDA represent close to five percentage points of negative impact on our growth.
“But also because of our performance being better than expected, we are now adjusting the [EBITDA] guidance to a range of mid- to high single-digit growth from the previous high-single-digit expectation. So, as you can see, we are still expecting a margin expansion, trends continue to be strong, and we remain confident we will reach our expectations and surpass it in local currencies.”
