Source: Huhtamäki Oyj

Huhtamaki’s ambition is to be the first choice in sustainable food packaging

HUHTAMÄKI OYJ PRESS RELEASE 23.3.2020 AT 09:00

Huhtamaki’s ambition is to be the first choice in sustainable food packaging

With 100 years of history and a solid Nordic heritage, Huhtamaki is today a key global player in food-on-the-go and food-on-the-shelf packaging solutions. The company has delivered strong growth in recent years, building strong foundations for the future. Huhtamaki has recently conducted a thorough review and renewed its long-term 2030 strategy in order to maintain its growth trajectory and meet future transformative trends.

Going forward, Huhtamaki will focus on growth, competitiveness, talent and sustainability. The company’s ambition is to become the first choice in sustainable food packaging.

Huhtamaki will continue to be a growth company and will further focus on competitiveness. Sustainability also has a key role in Huhtamaki’s renewed strategy. The company is taking a leading role within the food packaging industry in addressing the global challenges of circularity and climate change. Acknowledging that packaging has a significant role to play, Huhtamaki is raising the bar across its activities and setting high sustainability ambitions.

Huhtamaki will boost growth by scaling up its operations and further investing in emerging markets as well as capturing the opportunities related to sustainable solutions and food delivery. To improve its competitiveness the company concentrates on world-class operational performance, process performance, and digitalization. The focus on talent will translate in a zero-accident safety culture, developing strategic capabilities and nurturing a high-performance culture globally. In line with its heritage, Huhtamaki’s 2030 strategy emphasizes strong core values: Care, Dare, Deliver, as paramount in driving this successful journey.

“We will continue to grow through a relentless focus on innovation, scaling up in growth markets and developing new businesses to meet changing consumer needs. We will become more competitive by digitalizing all operations, running our manufacturing more efficiently and simplifying the way we work globally. In addition, we will develop our talent by building strategic capabilities and a high-performance culture. We aim to become best-in-class in safety. We will embed sustainability in everything we do,” says Charles Héaulmé, President and CEO of Huhtamaki.

“We have set very high sustainability ambitions, amongst them a commitment to achieving carbon neutrality in our production and Science Based Targets by 2030. We want to become world-class in all three areas of sustainability: environmental, social and governance. We will also strengthen and focus our innovation, designing all our products to be recyclable, compostable or re-usable,” he concludes.

Huhtamaki’s new 2030 sustainability ambitions are:

  • Carbon neutral production and Science Based Targets
  • 100% of products designed to be recyclable, compostable or reusable
  • 100% of fiber from recycled or certified sources
  • More than 80% of raw materials either renewable or recycled
  • 100% of electricity from renewable sources
  • More than 90% of non-hazardous waste to be recycled or composted

Integration of Foodservice Europe-Asia-Oceania and Fiber Packaging business segments
In line with its renewed strategy, the company has decided to integrate its Foodservice Europe-Asia-Oceania and Fiber Packaging business segments. Integrating the two business segments allows the company to capture growth opportunities more efficiently by improving customers’ access to both molded fiber and paperboard forming technologies. The segments will continue to be reported separately, at least for the remainder of the financial year 2020. Eric Le Lay will continue as President for the combined Fiber and Foodservice EAO (Europe-Asia-Oceania) segment. This change will become effective as of June 1.

Long-term financial ambitions
As part of the renewed strategy, Huhtamaki has also outlined its long-term financial ambitions:

  • Comparable growth: 5+%
  • Adjusted EBIT margin: 10+%
  • Net debt / Adjusted EBITDA ratio: 2-3
  • Dividend payout ratio: 40-50%

COVID-19
The safety and health of its employees and stakeholders is the number one focus and priority for Huhtamaki during the global outbreak of the novel corona virus. The company has put additional measures in place to protect the health and safety of employees and to safeguard the continuity of all operations. In addition to tightened hygiene protocols at all units and strict adherence to instructions given by health authorities, the company is also taking steps to pro-actively maintain the continuity of supply and ensure the safety of its products. In the current circumstances, it is even more important to help produce products which can help people consume food and drink safely.

Strategy update for investors
On March 24, 2020, at 13.30 EET, Huhtamaki will host a virtual strategy update with the President and CEO Charles Héaulmé and CFO Thomas Geust presenting. The briefing will be recorded. The audio webcast and teleconference can be followed in real-time at:

https://huhtamaki.videosync.fi/investor-brief-03-2020/

If you wish to ask questions, please dial one of the following numbers 5-10 minutes prior to the start of the call:

Finland: +358 981 710 310
UK: +44 333 300 08 04
US: +1 855 857 0686

The confirmation code for the call is 78451321#

An on-demand replay of the audio webcast will be available shortly after the end of the call at www.huhtamaki.com/investors.

For further information, please contact:

Calle Loikkanen, Head of Investor Relations and Financial Communications, tel. +358 10 686 7125

HUHTAMÄKI OYJ
Global Communications

Huhtamaki is a key global player in sustainable food-on-the-go and food-on-the shelf packaging solutions. Our innovative products help billions of consumers around the world make responsible lifestyle choices every day. Today, packaging plays a significant role in food safety and convenience. We are committed to making packaging more circular and we embed sustainability in everything we do. We are focused on achieving carbon neutral production and having all our products designed to be recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2030.

With 100 years of history and a strong Nordic heritage we operate in 35 countries and 81 sites around the world. Our 18,600 employees are working to deliver smart next generation packaging. Our 2019 net sales totaled EUR 3.4 billion. Huhtamaki Group has its head office in Espoo, Finland and the parent company Huhtamäki Oyj is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. Find out more about our Sustainability Action Plan and our ambition at www.huhtamaki.com.