Frozen foods giant Ardo gets through the Covid crisis by achieving good profit growth

The Belgian frozen vegetable giant Ardo is still sailing smoothly through the Covid storm. In the financial year that ended on 30 June last year (including the first lockdown), the net profit rose by 14 per cent to 16 million euros.

Hoarder’s product

That a food company survives the Covid crisis well may seem obvious. The lockdown does not mean we would suddenly eat less. But Ardo was also affected by the lockdown due to closures in the hospitality business. As a result, Ardo’s foodservice channel saw its sales fall by a quarter.

But fortunately, Ardo is also present in the frozen food aisles of supermarkets. And, Frozen food proved to be a popular hoarding product, “but that effect quickly ebbed away,” says chief executive Gabrielle Kalkwijk to Belgian newspaper De Tijd. Even so, the company found that many customers ‘rediscovered’ frozen vegetables because they had to cook more at home.

VLM Foods

Also, the takeover of the American industry colleague VLM Foods appears to be a great success. According to Kalkwijk, that division also saw an increase in sales and profit. She does not elaborate on the details of the figures.

Looking ahead, Kalkwijk sees plenty of opportunities to boost profitability further. To begin with, by making maximum use of the synergy benefits between Ardo and VLM Foods. But there are also various parts of the company waiting to be improved in terms of efficiency. Kalkwijk refers, among other things, to logistics and IT systems, which are not yet standardised across the various divisions.

Besides these figures, it also became known that Ardo is hoisting two new independent directors on board. These are Conny Vandendriessche (House of HR) and Jan Vander Stichele, the chairman of biscuit maker Lotus Bakeries.