Germany’s Berentzen-Gruppe issues profit warning

Germany-based distiller Berentzen-Gruppe has chopped its forecasts for yearly income and profits aft a challenging archetypal half.

CEO Oliver Schwegmann pointed to "the ongoing weakness successful the marketplace and user spending successful Germany".

In a trading update connected Friday (17 July), the Frankfurt-listed radical said it present expects its gross successful 2026 to scope betwixt €151m ($172.7m) and €156m, down from its erstwhile guidance of €163m to €173m.

Berentzen besides lowered its EBIT forecast to €3.5m-€5m from €7m-€9m. The institution present sees its yearly EBITDA landing betwixt €12.4m and €13.9m versus an earlier forecast of €16.1m-€18.1m.

The revised targets would besides permission Berentzen beneath its 2025 performance, erstwhile gross came successful astatine €162.9m, EBIT astatine €8.5m and EBITDA astatine €17.1m.

In February, Berentzen said 2025 gross had missed its October forecast, blaming challenging marketplace conditions, shifting user behaviour and the earlier disposal of its mineral h2o installation successful Grüneberg.

The proprietor of the Berentzen, Puschkin and Mio Mio brands said connected Friday that preliminary gross for the archetypal fractional of this twelvemonth fell 11.1% to €71m. EBIT dropped 81.2% to €0.6m and EBITDA declined 33.8% to €4.9m.

Chief enforcement Oliver Schwegmann said: "The developments successful our cardinal show indicators, which were already evident successful the archetypal quarter, person unluckily continued implicit the past 3 months.

"Essentially, this is inactive attributable to the ongoing weakness successful the marketplace and user spending successful Germany. We person already taken this into relationship to a definite grade successful our readying for the 2026 fiscal twelvemonth but the gait of marketplace developments is importantly faster than expected."

Berentzen added it has already introduced countermeasures. Schwegmann pointed to the motorboat of the Juma brand, which helium said had truthful acold been "very successful" and to a relaunch of the Puschkin marque that includes caller packaging, caller recipes and 3 RTD variants.

The radical said Juma, aft an exclusive listing with a German drugstore chain, is owed to beryllium rolled retired nationally successful the nutrient retail transmission from September.

Schwegmann said the institution expects the archetypal affirmative effects connected income and net successful the 2nd half, with a bigger publication from adjacent year.

However, helium warned that "planned regulations specified arsenic the sweetener levy oregon the summation successful intoxicant work could beryllium counterproductive for our full sector".

Industry associations successful Germany person criticised the national government's plans to instrumentality higher taxes connected alcoholic drinks. A media study has suggested determination could beryllium a 20% hike, though the German authorities has refused to beryllium drawn connected the details of its plans.