Bid Corporation увеличила выручку на 5% и объявила дивиденды на фоне сложной глобальной конъюнктуры

International food-service group Bid Corporation has delivered a steady performance despite a challenging trading environment. The group on Wednesday reported a 5% increase in revenue in constant currency to R242.2bn for the year to end-June, with trading profit up 8.2% to R13.8bn. As an international business with 95% of activities outside South Africa, Bidcorp considers constant currency reporting as a truer measure of actual performance. It is valued at R145bn on the JSE. Cash generated by operations after working capital increased 17.7% to R18.6bn. HEPS increased 6.8% to 2,701.4c and a final dividend of 625c per share was declared, taking the total payout for the year to 1,240c, up 6.9% “Our global trading environment has been characterised by softer consumer spending, higher yet stable core inflation and generally subdued economic activity, and since March, significant geopolitical disruption,” said CEO Bernard Berson. “Encouragingly, we have again demonstrated the resilience of our diversified portfolio, decentralised operating model and disciplined execution.” The group’s European businesses delivered a strong performance with double-digit growth in revenues and trading profits in home currencies despite difficult macro conditions, it said. The UK delivered a solid performance, particularly in its core food-service operations, with the fresh business benefiting from a small acquisition to bolster its independent activities. The group’s fresh business, Bidfresh, is a specialist fresh food supply division that sources and distributes fresh produce, meat, seafood and dairy to chefs and the catering industry. Australasia experienced modest growth, impacted by broadly weaker consumer demand, but the emerging markets business overall was flat. Berson said the first quarter of the year had been affected by unseasonally cold and wet weather in the northern hemisphere summer and some flooding in Eastern Europe. There was an improvement into the second quarter and 2025 festive season, but the third quarter was again impacted by very cold weather in Europe and the timing of the Easter holidays. Activity rebounded well into the final quarter despite the Middle East conflict. During the year the group concluded five bolt-on acquisitions. These included Hodgson & Sailbrand, a seafood wholesaler based in the northeast of England, and Baltimer, a fish processing business based in Poland. It acquired three food-service distributors — Gruppo Alimentare Sardo based in Sardinia, Italy, Chuan Yee in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Fridge Foods, which is based in the Eastern and Western Cape. These acquisitions contributed R2.7bn to revenue and R142m to trading profit. The group took advantage of excellent free cash flow generation and a weak Bidcorp share price to repurchase 2.6-million shares worth R1.1bn. “The benefits of the share buybacks will be reflected in the F2027 results,” the group said. Looking ahead, Berson said activity levels in the first two months of the 2027 financial year are a continuation of the positive momentum experienced in the last quarter. “The summer weather in Europe, which plays an important part of driving consumer spending and activity levels, has been good. UK economic activity in July showed modest growth with consumer spending bolstered by the Fifa World Cup and warm weather,” he said. Australia is expecting improvements and New Zealand has had a solid start to the new financial year. The emerging markets business is budgeting for growth, despite the ongoing geopolitical volatility affecting several markets. “Bidcorp continues to invest in strategic distribution facilities to provide for future capacity and value-add manufacturing opportunities, however, the rate of spend is expected to fall within the normalised range of 1.5%-2% of revenue. “Investments in renewable energy, refrigeration, energy efficiency and logistics optimisation remain a strategic imperative to reducing our environmental footprint.” Berson said while the pipeline of in-country acquisitions are active, Bidcorp remains focused on converting the ones most likely to fit its strategic focus. Four bolt-on acquisitions have been concluded in the new financial year, the most significant of which is the Pacific Islands business, which has a Fijian distribution arm and a New Zealand-based export business. “Several more opportunities are under consideration. The group remains alert to opportunities in new geographies. However, these remain scarce, and participation therein is opportunistic,” said Berson. Notwithstanding the current geopolitical volatility and uncertainty, Bidcorp is confident the growth fundamentals of the food-service industry remain positive, he said. Update: August 26 2026 This article has been updated with more detail. Business Day