ASEAN Focus: Yeo's Singapore, Nestle Malaysia, Coca-Cola in South East Asia and more feature in our round-up
Beverage barriers: Yeo’s predicts challenging year ahead after mixed 2023 financial results
Singapore-based beverage heavyweight Yeo Hiap Seng (Yeo’s) has predicted a challenging year ahead after reporting a near doubling in profits but a significant overall drop in revenue, citing ongoing inflation and soft consumer spending as key factors.
Yeo’s recently announced its FY2023 full year financial results, reporting a -7.1% decrease in total revenue to S$332.7mn (US$247.7mn) from S$358.1mn (US$266.6mn) in FY2022, but a 179.2% increase in net profits to S$6.7mn (US$4.99mn) from S$2.4mn (US$1.79mn) the year before.
Much of this was contributed to the firm’s performance in the second half of 2023, where it reported a -14.2% dip in total revenue to S$151.6mn (US$112.9mn) from S$176.8mn (US$131.6mn) in the previous year, but a 183.3% increase in net profits to S$3.4mn (US$2.5mn) from S$1.2mn (US$893,400).
“The decrease in revenue for FY2023 was mainly due to the movements in foreign exchange rates, which more than offset sales growth in markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia,” Yeo’s stated.
Dual strategies: Nestle Malaysia hopes ‘core brand strength’ and local production can beat ‘subdued’ consumer sentiment
Nestle Malaysia believes that the strength of its core brands such as KitKat and Maggi, as well as the advantages of its large local production operations, will serve it well in overcoming current ‘subdued’ consumer sentiment in the country.
Nestle Malaysia recently announced its FY2023 full-year financial results, reporting a 5.8% year-on-year increase in turnover to RM7.05bn (US$) from RM6.66bn (US$) in FY2022; as well as increased Profits After Tax (PAT) to RM659.9mn (US$) with the latter mostly attributed to lower taxes after Malaysia removed the COVID-19-related Prosperity Tax in 2023.
According to the firm’s announcement on the Bursa Malaysia share market index, this was a 6.37% year-on-year increase in PAT from RM620.3mn (US$) the year before.
That said, Nestle Malaysia CEO Juan Aranols described current consumer sentiment in Malaysia to be ‘subdued’ given ongoing economic challenges as well as the country’s poor exchange rate.
APAC adjustments: Coca-Cola Europacific bets on Philippines acquisition and Indonesia realignment to boost growth
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) believes that a recent Philippines acquisition and portfolio realignment in Indonesia stand it in good stead to capitalise on future growth in Asia Pacific.
CCEP is one of the largest Coca-Cola bottling companies in the world, which also has the major function in terms of producing, marketing and distributing various Coca-Cola-owned products and brands across Europe and several APAC markets.
The firm recently announced its FY2023 full-year financial results, announcing an 8% year-on-year increase in revenue to EUR18.3bn (US$19.9bn) and 11.5% year-on-year increase in profit after taxes to EUR1.7bn (US$1.84bn).
Within this, the Australia, Pacific and Indonesia (API) region saw a 5% year-on-year increase in revenue to EUR3.75bn (US$4.07bn) and 10.5% year-on-year increase in operating profits to EUR497mn (US$539.3mn), citing strong growth despite having performed a large-scale portfolio realignment in Indonesia and completed a major purchase in the Philippines.
Rice revolution: Vietnam looks to upgrade role in global food supply chain with new digital project
Vietnam is hopeful of seeing long-term improvement in its position within the global rice supply chain with the support of a new government digital project.
Securing global rice supplies is a major challenge, especially with India maintaining its foreign rice exports ban this year.
Vietnam has long been a major rice producing market but has always had trouble moving past third place in terms of global rice exports, usually falling behind India and Thailand.
TikTok Shop reopens in Indonesia but supplement sales yet to return to pre-closure volumes
Dietary supplements sales on the re-opened TikTok shop in Indonesia are struggling to get back to previous heights, despite other categories such as FMCG and beauty products soaring.
Sales of FMCG and beauty products, however, have seen their sales surpassing pre-closure levels, according to Indonesia e-commerce market research firm Compas.co.id.
It noticed that while TikTok Shop has reopened, the dietary supplement category experienced a notable decrease in sales quantity, down by 38% as compared to the period before closure.
TikTok Shop Indonesia stopped facilitating e-commerce transactions on October 4 last year but has since reopened through a joint venture with GoTo to “support Indonesian MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises)”.
