Danone: Strong FY 2024 results; Entering the next chapter of Renew with confidence

2024 Full-Year Results
Press release – Paris, February 26, 2025

Strong FY 2024 results
Entering the next chapter of Renew with confidence

¹

Antoine de Saint-Affrique: CEO statement

We close the first chapter of Renew Danone with a strong set of results, fully delivering on our 2022 mid-term guidance. In 2024, the quality of our growth has further improved, reaching +4.3% like-for-like sales growth driven by +3% volume/mix.

This allowed us to drive operating leverage, enabling us to further reinvest in our brands and capabilities, and support the growth of our categories while maintaining a strong financial discipline. Our focus on value creation and return-oriented capital allocation led to a significant improvement of our ROIC, now back into double-digit territory.

We believe that the food industry is at a tipping point. Our unique, health-driven portfolio, our renewed focus on science to the service of consumers and patients, our strong brand portfolio and a continuous improvement mindset give us the confidence that we can seize this long-term market opportunity. We enter the next chapter as a stronger company, ready for more.

I. FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL-YEAR RESULTS

Fourth quarter and full-year sales

In Q4 2024, sales stood at €6,716m, up +4.7% on a like-for-like basis, led by an increase of +4.2% from volume/mix and +0.6% from price. On a reported basis, sales increased by +0.9%, notably due to the negative impact from scope (-3.8%), resulting predominantly from the sale of Horizon Organic and Wallaby. Reported sales were also negatively impacted by forex (-2.3%), reflecting the depreciation of several currencies against the euro, notably the Argentine Peso, the Mexican Peso, the Brazilian Real and the Turkish Lira. In addition, hyperinflation contributed positively to reported sales (+1.8%).

In 2024, sales stood at €27,376m, up +4.3% on a like-for-like basis, led by an increase of +3.0% from volume/mix and +1.3% from price. On a reported basis, sales decreased by -0.9%, notably due to the negative impact from scope (-4.8%), resulting predominantly from the exit of EDP Russia and Horizon Organic and Wallaby. Reported sales were also negatively impacted by forex (-2.8%), while hyperinflation contributed positively (+1.6%).

Sales by operating segment

In Q4 2024, Europe sales were up +1.8% on a like-for-like basis, with volume/mix at +3.0% and price at -1.2%. The zone registered its fifth consecutive quarter of positive volume/mix, making step-by-step progress in EDP competitiveness. Specialized Nutrition posted solid performance, while Waters delivered strong growth, driven by evian, Volvic and Zywiec Zdroj brands.

In North America, sales were up +7.7% on a like-for-like basis, led by strong volume/mix, up +5.9%, and resilient price, up +1.9%. This performance was driven by the continued strong momentum in High Protein, Coffee Creations and Waters, as well as solid growth in Specialized Nutrition, led by Medical.

In China, North Asia & Oceania sales were up +6.8% on a like-for-like basis, with strong volume/mix at +9.8% and price at -3.0%. In Specialized Nutrition, Infant Milk Formula continued to gain further market share, in an improving category, while Medical Nutrition maintained its strong momentum. In Waters, Mizone delivered another quarter of strong growth, while EDP sustained its strong performance in Japan.

In Latin America, sales were up +4.7% on a like-for-like basis, with volume/mix up +1.2% and price up +3.5%. In EDP, the growth was still impacted by the licensing out of milk business in Brazil, while Danone, Danette and YoPro brands delivered a robust performance. Specialized Nutrition delivered strong growth, led by Aptamil, while Waters benefited from normalized weather conditions.

In the Rest of the World, sales increased by +5.4% on a like-for-like basis, with volume/mix up +1.7% and price up +3.7%, notably led by the solid performance of Specialized Nutrition and Waters across the region. In EDP, Dairy Africa showed further progress, with another quarter of strong growth in Morocco.

Sales by geography by category

Recurring Operating Margin

Danone’s recurring operating income reached €3,558m in 2024. Recurring operating margin stood at 13.0%, up +39 basis points (bps) compared to last year. This increase was mainly led by the strong improvement in margin from operations (+242 bps), notably driven by record productivity levels. Danone continued to step-up its reinvestments in A&P, product superiority and capabilities, which accounted for -173 bps. Finally, Overheads before reinvestments had a negative effect of -18 bps, while other effects had a combined impact of -12 bps, mainly due to a negative impact from Forex.

Net income and Earnings per share

Recurring EPS increased by +2.5% to €3.63, driven by higher recurring operating income and a good management of financial costs.

Non-recurring operating income and expense reached -€179 million in 2024, including one-off costs related to transformation projects, mainly in Europe and the United States. This compares to -€1,438 million in 2023, which reflected the deconsolidation of EDP Russia and the impairment resulting from the disposal of Horizon Organic and Wallaby in the US. As a result, Reported EPS stood at €3.13, up +130.2%.

Cash flow and Debt

Free cash flow reached €3,003 million in 2024, up from €2,633 million in 2023, reflecting the increase in recurring operating income, as well as a strong improvement in working capital, now reaching -8.5% of sales. Capex stood at -€923 million.

As of December 31, 2024, Danone’s net debt stood at €8.6 billion, decreasing significantly from €10.2 billion last year, reflecting mainly the strong free cash flow generation.

Dividend

At the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on April 24, 2025, Danone’s Board of Directors will propose a dividend of €2.15 per share in respect of the 2024 fiscal year, up +2.4% compared to previous year. Assuming this proposal is approved, the ex-dividend date will be May 3, 2025, and the dividend will be payable on May 7, 2025.

II. 2025 GUIDANCE

2025 guidance in line with mid-term ambition: like-for-like sales growth expected between +3% and +5%, with recurring operating income growing faster than sales.

III. SHARE BUYBACK

Danone intends to buy back 2.7 million of shares, in one or more tranches in 2025, in order to offset the dilutive impacts resulting from the capital increases reserved to employees and the long-term incentive plans to be implemented in 2025. The repurchased shares will be allocated to employee shareholding plans. Details of the share buyback program are available in section 7.2 of Danone’s 2023 Universal Registration Document, available on Danone’s website.

IV. RECENT MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS

• November 8, 2024: Danone has been awarded #1 position in the 2024 Global Access To Nutrition index (ATNi), which assesses the world’s 30 largest food and beverage manufacturers. This award highlights Danone’s dedication to promoting health and nutrition for consumers and patients.
• February 21, 2025: Following the mediation process ordered by the Judicial Court of Paris before which three NGOs had brought legal proceedings against Danone on January 9, 2023, an agreement between the parties has been reached to end the proceedings concerning Danone’s vigilance plan. This agreement involves reinforcing the vigilance plan, which now gives a more detailed description of the consequences of the use of plastic packaging and sets out in detail all the actions that Danone is implementing in this respect.

V. SHAREHOLDERS’ MEETING AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

At its meeting on February 25, 2025, the Board of Directors approved the draft resolutions that will be submitted to the approval of the Shareholders’ Meeting on April 24, 2025. In particular, the Board proposes that shareholders renew the term of office of Antoine de Saint-Affrique, Patrice Louvet, Géraldine Picaud and Susan Roberts as Directors, whose current term of office will expire on the next Shareholders’ Meeting. It will also submit to the Shareholder’s Meeting resolutions notably on the compensation of corporate officers, and on the renewal of the existing financial authorizations.

At its meeting on February 25, 2025, the Board of Directors approved the statutory and consolidated financial statements for the 2024 fiscal year. Regarding the audit process, as of today, the statutory auditors have substantially completed their examination of financial statements and verification of the sustainability information.

VI. ALTERNATIVE PERFORMANCE MEASURES NOT DEFINED BY IFRS

IAS 29: impact on reported data

Danone has applied IAS 29 in hyperinflationary countries, as defined in IFRS. Adoption of IAS 29 in hyperinflationary countries requires their non-monetary assets and liabilities and their income statement to be restated to reflect the changes in the general purchasing power of their functional currency, leading to a gain or loss on the net monetary position, included in the net income. Moreover, their financial statements are converted into euros using the closing exchange rate of the relevant period.

Breakdown by quarter of FY 2024 sales after application of IAS 29
FY 2024 sales correspond to the addition of:

• Q4 2024 reported sales;
• Q1, Q2 and Q3 2024 sales resulting from the application of IAS 29 until December 31, 2024, to sales of entities in hyperinflationary countries (application of the inflation rate until December 31, 2024, and translation into euros using the December 31, 2024, closing rate) and provided in the table below for information (unaudited data)

¹Results from the application of IAS 29 until December 31, 2024, to Q1 sales of entities of hyperinflationary countries.
²Results from the application of IAS 29 until December 31, 2024, to Q2 sales of entities of hyperinflationary countries.
³Results from the application of IAS 29 until December 31, 2024, to Q3 sales of entities of hyperinflationary countries.

Definitions of geographical zones

Europe refers to European countries.

North America refers to the United States and Canada.

China, North Asia & Oceania refers to China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Latin America refers to Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

Rest of the World refers to Asia, Middle East including Turkey, Africa and CIS.

Financial indicators not defined in IFRS

Due to rounding, the sum of values presented may differ from totals as reported. Such differences are not material.

Like-for-like changes in sales reflect Danone’s organic performance and essentially exclude the impact of:

• changes in consolidation scope, with indicators related to a given fiscal year calculated on the basis of the previous year’s scope;
• changes in applicable accounting principles;
• changes in exchange rates, with both previous-year and current-year indicators calculated using the same exchange rate (the exchange rate used is a projected annual rate determined by Danone for the current year and applied to both previous and current years).

Since January 1, 2023, all countries with hyperinflationary economies are taken into account in like-for-like changes as follows: sales growth in excess of around 26% per year (a three-year average at 26% would generally trigger the application of hyperinflationary accounting as defined in IFRS) is now excluded from the like-for-like sales growth calculation.

Bridge from like-for-like data to reported data

Margin from operations is defined as the Gross margin over Sales ratio, where Gross margin corresponds to the difference between Sales and Industrial costs excluding reengineering initiatives and Logistics / Transportation costs.

Recurring operating income is defined as Danone’s operating income excluding Other operating income and expenses. Other operating income and expenses comprise items that, because of their significant or unusual nature, cannot be viewed as inherent to Danone’s recurring activity and have limited predictive value, thus distorting the assessment of its recurring operating performance and its evolution. These mainly include:

• capital gains and losses on disposals of businesses and fully consolidated companies;
• impairment charges on intangible assets with indefinite useful lives;
• costs related to strategic restructuring operations or transformation plans;
• costs related to major external growth transactions;
• costs related to crises and major disputes;
• in connection with IFRS 3 and IFRS 10, (i) acquisition costs related to acquisitions of companies resulting in control, (ii) revaluation gains or losses accounted for following a loss of control, and (iii) changes in earn-outs subsequent to acquisitions resulting in control.

Recurring operating margin is defined as the Recurring operating income over Sales ratio.

Other non-recurring financial income and expense corresponds to financial income and expense items that, in view of their significant or unusual nature, cannot be considered as inherent to Danone’s recurring financial management. These notably include changes in the value of non-consolidated interests and profits or losses on the net monetary position.

Non-recurring income tax corresponds to income tax on non-recurring items as well as tax income and expense items that, in view of their significant or unusual nature, cannot be considered as inherent to Danone’s recurring performance.

Recurring effective tax rate measures the effective tax rate of Danone’s recurring performance and is computed as the ratio of income tax related to recurring items over recurring net income before tax.

Non-recurring share of profit (loss) of equity-accounted companies includes items that, because of their significant or unusual nature, cannot be viewed as inherent to the companies’ recurring activity and thereby distort the assessment of their recurring performance and trends in that performance. These items mainly relate to:

• capital gains and losses on disposals of Investments in equity-accounted companies;
• impairment of investments in equity-accounted companies;
• non-recurring items, as defined by Danone, included in the share of profit (loss) of equity-accounted companies.

Recurring net income (or Recurring net income – Group Share) corresponds to the Group share of the consolidated Recurring net income. The Recurring net income excludes items that, because of their significant or unusual nature, cannot be viewed as inherent to Danone’s recurring activity and have limited predictive value, thus distorting the assessment of its recurring performance and its evolution. Such non-recurring income and expenses correspond to Other operating income and expenses, Other non-recurring financial income and expenses, Non-recurring income tax, and Non-recurring share of profit (loss) of equity-accounted companies. These items, excluded from Net income, represent Non-recurring net income.

Recurring EPS (or Recurring net income – Group Share, per share after dilution) is defined as the ratio of Recurring net income adjusted for hybrid financing over Diluted number of shares. In compliance with IFRS, income used to calculate EPS is adjusted for the coupon related to the hybrid financing accrued for the period and presented net of tax.

Free cash flow represents cash flows provided or used by operating activities less capital expenditure net of disposals and, in connection with IFRS 3, excluding (i) acquisition costs related to acquisitions of companies resulting in control, and (ii) earn-outs related to acquisitions of companies resulting in control and paid subsequently to acquisition date.

¹ Represents acquisition costs related to acquisitions of companies resulting in control that were paid during the period

Net financial debt represents the net debt portion bearing interest. It corresponds to current and non-current financial debt (i) excluding Liabilities related to put options granted to non-controlling interests and earn-outs on acquisitions resulting in control and (ii) net of Cash and cash equivalents, Short term investments and Derivatives – assets managing net debt.

¹ Managing net debt only

ROIC is the ratio of net operating income in the current year to average capital invested in the current and prior years).

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Danone. In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by forward-looking words, such as “estimate”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “project”, “plan”, “intend”, “objective”, “believe”, “forecast”, “guidance”, “foresee”, “likely”, “may”, “should”, “goal”, “target”, “might”, “will”, “could”, “predict”, “continue”, “convinced” and “confident,” the negative or plural of these words and other comparable terminology. Forward looking statements in this document include, but are not limited to, predictions of future activities, operations, direction, performance and results of Danone.

Although Danone believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. For a detailed description of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to the “Risk Factor” section of Danone’s Universal Registration Document (the current version of which is available at www.danone.com).

Subject to regulatory requirements, Danone does not undertake to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements. This document does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy Danone securities.

The presentation to analysts and investors will be broadcast live today from 8:00 a.m. (Paris time)
on Danone’s website (www.danone.com).
Related slides will also be available on the website in the Investors section.

APPENDIX – Sales by geographical zone and by category (in € million)

Disclaimer: This press release presents the results for the full year 2024 from the consolidated financial statements of Danone as of December 31, 2024 (unaudited). Regarding the audit process, as of today, the Statutory Auditors have substantially completed their examination of financial statements and verification of the sustainability information.

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

(UNAUDITED)

Consolidated income statement and earnings per share (unaudited)

Consolidated balance sheet (unaudited)

Consolidated statement of cash flows (unaudited)

All references in this document to Like-for-like (LFL) changes, Recurring operating income and margin, Margin from operations, Recurring net income, Recurring income tax rate, Recurring EPS, Free cash flow and Net financial debt, correspond to alternative performance measures not defined by IFRS. Their definitions, as well as their reconciliation with financial statements, are listed on pages 6 to 9.

Attachment

• PR_Danone_FY_2024