Bankrupt Estonian cheese factory weighs on Interfood profit

Interfood increased its revenue in 2025 to €3.4 billion, thereby overtaking Hoogwegt as the largest dairy trader in the Netherlands. Yet it was a challenging year. Profit came under pressure, partly due to substantial write-downs on two participations that went bankrupt, including cheese factory E-Piim in Estonia. After the exceptional price year 2022, Interfood achieved last year the second highest revenue ever. The volume sold even reached a record level at 1.181 million tonnes. With the revenue growth, Interfood passes branch peer Hoogwegt for the first time, which reported revenue of €3.3 billion in the broken fiscal year 2024/25. A comparison on volumes is not possible, because Hoogwegt does not publish figures on that. Lower profit and negative cash flow At the bottom line, Interfood's net profit fell by 42% to €20.8 million. That results in a net profit margin of 0.59%, which is relatively limited even for a trading company. Operating cash flow also deteriorated sharply to negative €16.5 million, mainly due to higher inventories and rising short-term receivables. Solvency thereby fell by 6 percentage points to 24.5%. According to CEO Andries Groen, who took office last year, the dairy markets are characterized by increasing volatility as a result of geopolitical tensions. Despite this, the dividend rose slightly to €24.3 million. Setback at participations Profit was hit hard by a write-down of €14.3 million on the participation in E-Piim, an Estonian cheese factory that became operational in 2023. Interfood participated in this together with Royal A-ware for a quarter. This was done via Meierei B.V. in which both companies shared the interest equally. E-Piim was declared bankrupt last March. Local media say that Interfood and A-ware pushed for a restart, but without result. Dairy farmers who supplied the factory suddenly lost their outlet and no longer received milk money. In addition, Interfood had to write down its participation in Fermify, an Austrian start-up active in alternative dairy proteins through precision fermentation. This company also went bankrupt last year. The exact write-down amount was not mentioned in the annual report. Despite these setbacks, Interfood itself speaks of a robust financial performance in 2025.