Callebaut Barry hires a new CFO
Schweiz, Zurich — The board of directors of the firm has appointed Ben De Schryver, who is presently president of Asia Pacific for the Barry Callebaut Group, as chief financial officer, beginning January 1. He will take over for Remco Steenbergen, who is departing to take a position as CFO at the European airline giant Lufthansa giant.
On November 11, Barry Callebaut, a chocolate manufacturer and processor based in Zurich, announced the leadership appointment. That same day, the company reported a 2% decrease in sales volume for the fiscal year that ended.
Since joining Barry Callebaut in 1999, Mr. DeSchryver has occupied a number of top finance and sales positions. On September 1, 2017, he was added to the executive committee of Barry Callebaut after being appointed president of Asia Pacific in September 2016. He graduated from University College in Ghent, Belgium, with a bachelor’s degree in accountancy.For three years, Mr. Steenbergen served as the CFO for Barry Callebaut.
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“Mr. Steenbergen will be departing from us, having fulfilled his job duties and contributing to the overall strengthening of our company,” stated Barry Callebaut CEO Antoine Bernard de Saint-Affrique during an earnings call on November 11. “So, Remco, thank you so much. Although you’ll be staying with us till the end of the year, I’m also happy to announce that Ben De Schryver will be joining us as our new CFO. Ben is well-known to many of you from our previous Investor Day. Ben has been leading our Asia Pacific division successfully for the past few years and has a solid background in business and finance.Barry Callebaut has not yet announced Mr. De Schryver’s replacement as Asia Pacific president.
Barry Callebaut’s sales volume of 2,095,982 tonnes in the 2019-20 fiscal year compared with 2,139,758 tonnes in the 2018-19 fiscal year. Volume declined 14% in the third quarter, which marked the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 4.3% in the fourth quarter.
“Gourmet & Specialties was particularly impacted by the closure of the majority of its outlets in quarter three when the entire world went into lockdown,” Mr. de Saint-Affrique said. “The speed of our recovery in quarter four was rather encouraging, knowing that some channels like our travels and hotels and some geographies were still closed.”Revenue in the fiscal year dropped 6% to 6.89 billion Swiss francs ($7.51 billion) from 7.41 billion Swiss francs. Net profit fell 15% to 311.5 million Swiss francs ($339.2 million) from 368.7 million Swiss francs.