The annual report is an opportunity for me, as the CEO of Saponia, to reflect on and summarize the activities of Saponia in the past year. It is a chance to, alongside the analysis of financial results, recall the successes that we sometimes do not have time to highlight in the fast pace of life. We can proudly look back at the year behind us and say – we have once again done an excellent job. Because that is indeed the case. With these words, the CEO of Saponia, Dajana Mrčela, reflected on a year that ended successfully for the company.
The year behind us was exceptionally complex according to geopolitical and macroeconomic indicators and required the implementation of a specially created business strategy to finish with the planned index of growth in business results. Throughout the year, Saponia faced the challenge of overcoming the adverse effects of unprecedentedly high energy prices, the negative impact of rising raw material and packaging prices, increased material rights of workers, and other costs that affect the company’s profitability. Thanks to a proactive approach, Saponia maintained its market position and continued to realize planned investment projects.
In 2022, Saponia achieved total revenue of 704.7 million kuna, which is a growth of 4.7% compared to the same period last year, of which business revenues amounted to 702.3 million kuna. EBITDA in 2022 was 44.0 million kuna, and profit before tax was 27.4 million kuna. Revenue from sales in Croatia amounted to 449.8 million kuna. In the sales structure, Saponia’s own brands generated 73% of total sales revenue, while 27% of sales revenue came from the sales of principal brands Kandit and Koestlin. Revenue from export markets amounted to 237.3 million kuna, an increase of 7.4% compared to last year’s sales revenue.
The business year was marked by cost pressure due to rising raw material and packaging prices, rising energy costs, and further increases in the average gross salary of employees. Thus, material costs for production increased by 18%, and energy and fuel costs have risen by 20.2% since the beginning of the year. To maintain employee standards, Saponia continued to implement a policy of increasing the average gross salary, which was 14.4% higher in the past year compared to the same period last year.
These adverse trends reflected a decline in product profitability, but Saponia believed that it was their responsibility to cover part of the increased production costs from their own sources. In line with the price movements of competitors in domestic and export markets, they partially adjusted the sales prices of Saponia brands and principal brands, thus compensating for the cost impact to a lesser extent.
