A-ware trades part of its profit for extra growth

Seeing turnover rise by a sixth and making less net profit than in the previous year. It seems a sign that something is not quite right. Especially if profit had also fallen the previous year. At Royal A-ware that is the case, but in this instance it still says little about difficult trading conditions or stagnating activities.Anyone studying Royal A-ware’s annual report for 2025 and also looking at earlier reports should mainly conclude that the company is sacrificing profit for growth. A-ware has also made various acquisitions again in the current year 2026. As of 1 January, the former PLUS distribution centre near Deventer was acquired and has now been converted into a large cheese storage centre, which also offers space to third parties. The company then acquired Global Dairy Ventures in Barcelona, a few months later, it completed an acquisition and share swap with cheese maker and distributor Grupo TGT in Spain, it bought a stake in Amalthea from Ausnutria and the acquisition of Laban Foods was announced. The acquisition machine is working at full speed.Last year was not as hectic, but then a lot was invested in a mozzarella factory in Salas in the Spanish Basque Country and the Belgian Dairy Food Group was acquired. In 2025, a total of €135 million was invested, which was substantially more than in 2024. The figure was €108 million, which in turn was more than in the previous year.The rising turnover figures give a broad picture of growth, although a substantial part of the 16% turnover growth in 2025 reflects higher milk and dairy prices. Still, Dairy Food Group also added more than €200 million in additional turnover.Not everything A-ware touches turns to gold. The Estonian cheese company E-Piim, in which A-ware had invested together with Interfood, went bankrupt last year and that resulted in a significant write-down.The dairy market is also a dynamic sector, as is already clear from the strong influence of price changes on business results, but companies increasingly have to take political developments into account. A-ware says nothing about that in its annual report, but the increasing geographical diversification of its activities undoubtedly has something to do with it. It is also simply a sound way of spreading risk. After the Netherlands and Belgium, and certainly with this year’s acquisitions, Spain is rapidly becoming a third home market.With a growth and acquisition pace as high as the one A-ware has achieved in recent years, it is actually quite impressive that it still reports a solid profit year after year. Moreover, last year operating profit and also earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) were higher than in 2024. In addition, cash flow last year was more than €217 million, twice as high as in the previous year. Solvency is not very high at 23%, but given the other figures that does not seem to be something to worry about too much.