the Nordics which experienced decreased volumes
of low-end semi-speciality products. Special Nutrition
continued to grow organically and the positive trend
within Infant, Medical and Senior Nutrition continued.
Foodservice had a stable year.
Chocolate & Confectionery Fats reported an improvement
40
in operating profit of 2 percent to SEK 747 million
(735). Production capacity, compared to demand,
remains stretched for certain high-end products. We
continue to make investments to remove bottlenecks
and strengthen our supply chain in order to support
current and future volume growth of high-end products.
Volatility in raw material yields continue to give lower
output and higher production costs. This has, however,
to some extent been offset by the price development
on high-end products being slightly positive during the
second half of 2018. Volumes increased by 6 percent.
Operating profit per kilo decreased from SEK 1.82 to
SEK 1.74 as a consequence of the yield challenge.
Operating profit for AAK’s smallest business area,
Technical Products & Feed, increased by 85 percent
from SEK 84 million to SEK 155 million. This was due to
an improved and extraordinarily favorable product mix in
our fatty acids business, volume growth in both our feed
and fatty acids businesses, and a good performance in
our crushing operation.
Operations and significant events
Business areas
The Company’s business areas are Food Ingredients,
Chocolate & Confectionery Fats and Technical Products
& Feed. Group-wide functions are included in the Group
Functions segment.
Food Ingredients maintains its strong regional
positions, primarily in Europe, the USA and North Latin
America, but is gradually strengthening its positions in
other regions.
Chocolate & Confectionery Fats and Personal Care
have world-leading positions, and these will gradually
be expanded in an increasingly global arena.
Technical Products & Feed has a strong local position
in Northern Europe and will continue to focus its growth
efforts in these geographic areas through its close links
to the Karlshamn factory in Sweden, bringing significant
synergy effects.
The AAK Way, the company program
Our primary focus for our company program, The AAK
Way, is to enable the Company to further increase its
organic growth. This will be achieved by focusing on five
priority areas: “Go to Market”, “Operational Excellence”,
“Special Focus Areas”, “Innovation” and “People”. The
program is developing according to plan.
Company management
In November 2017, the Board of AAK AB appointed
Johan Westman as CEO and President of AAK AB.
He was previously Senior Vice President Europe and
Managing Director of the BlankLight division at Shiloh
Industries. Shiloh Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHLO) with
its headquarters in Valley City, Ohio, USA, is a global
supplier of innovative solutions to the mobility market
and has just over 3,600 employees and approximately
SEK 9 billion in revenues.
Johan has nearly 20 years of industrial experience in
management consulting and the automotive industry. He
was CEO and President of FinnvedenBulten AB (publ.)
between 2009 and 2014 and CEO of the Finnveden
Metal Structures AB division between 2008 and 2014.
Before that, he worked for eight years in management
consulting for Arthur D. Little.
Johan Westman began his role as CEO and President
on May 1, 2018.
Financial goals
AAK’s financial goals are to grow faster than the underlying
market and to generate strong cash flows. We also
intend to continually improve the return on operating
capital.
Planned dividend policy
The objective of the Board of Directors, taking into
account the development of Group earnings, its financial