“Food Union” Latvia: Consolidated Turnover Reaches EUR 152 Million in 2024

Latvia’s leading dairy processing and ice cream production company “Food Union”, which includes the production plants “Rīgas Piena Kombināts” and “Valmieras Piens”, closed 2024 with a consolidated turnover of EUR 151.9 million, which is 1.1% higher than the previous year (EUR 150.2 million). The company in Latvia ended 2024 with a gross profit of EUR 26.9 million, an increase of 2.4% compared to the previous period (EUR 26.3 million).

“The year 2024 was a significant turning point in “Food Union Latvia’s” development – it was marked by transformation, purposeful strategy implementation, and forward-looking growth. We started the year with a new sense of direction, influenced by changes in ownership and governance, reinforced by a new strategic framework, and successfully completed the group’s refinancing in cooperation with one of Europe’s leading banks, Deutsche Bank. Despite the transformation processes and market challenges with fluctuating raw material purchase prices, we consistently continued to create new products in our key categories. As a result, the year ended with growth in market shares across all of our focus areas – in product categories with high added value and with even stronger export performance. In this way, we demonstrated to ourselves and our partners our commitment to becoming more flexible, closer to the consumer, and operationally more efficient to ensure that future growth is sustainable and resilient,” said Artūrs Čirjevskis, CEO of Food Union Latvia and Europe.

New majority shareholder

The year 2024 began for “Food Union Latvia” with significant changes in the beneficial ownership structure. After 13 years of leading the company in Latvia and across the European group, founder Andrey Beskhmelnitsky and investment company Meridian Capital Ltd. exited the list of beneficiaries. In March 2024, after regulatory approval, the sole beneficiary became investment firm PAG Private Equity, which had already been an investor in the Food Union Group since 2016.

Ongoing market challenges

In 2024, food production in Latvia and across Europe was affected by high and rising raw material prices, particularly fresh milk and cocoa, which are widely used in dairy and ice cream production. In response, “Food Union Latvia” reviewed its procurement strategies and adjusted its pricing policy to cover rising costs, while keeping products accessible to consumers without significantly increasing retail prices.

Dairy product innovations focused on health

The main “Food Union Latvia” innovations in the dairy product category in 2024 were two new “Lakto ProBio” drinks – lactose-free and with no added sugar – as well as two existing “Lakto” drinking yogurts (plain natural and wild strawberry flavor) launched in lactose-free versions. The “Kārums” brand introduced three new curd snack flavors – banana, a Christmas special gingerbread-mandarin flavor, and a special blueberry flavor chosen by public vote in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Kārums Crow mascot.

The company also launched two new Kārums desserts – sweet cream creams with raspberry and lemon flavors. Yogurt brand Zilonītis introduced a new wild strawberry yogurt in 2024. Valmiera brand expanded its product offering with two new Shake Me Up yogurt smoothies – mango and banana-vanilla flavors – with around EUR 20,000 invested in their development. Meanwhile, Mājas pancake line launched a new product – pancakes with smoked ham and cheese, and the entire Mājas pancake production switched to using cage-free eggs, in line with Food Union Latvia’s Sustainability Strategy.

Ice cream innovations surprise every taste

In the ice cream category, “Food Union Latvia” created 12 new products in 2024 – three fresh and vegan-friendly ice creams under the renewed Vēsma brand, a new Tio classic plombir ice cream with raisins in a waffle cup, three new “Pols” ice cream flavors – two in mini waffle cups and one mango stick novelty, a new Ekselence waffle cone with the popular balsam & cherry flavor, a new Karlsons ice cream bar with cranberry jam, and a new Jungle Pop ice cream with bubble gum flavor.

For the winter season, Ekselence brand introduced two new 500 ml products – cream ice cream with egg liqueur flavor, egg liqueur sauce, and rum-soaked raisins, as well as cream ice cream with salted caramel sauce and caramelized pecans. In the annual NielsenIQ market and consumer study of the best new products of 2024, “Food Union Latvia” received four awards – 1st place overall among all new product categories in Latvia went to the legendary Karlsons ice cream with cranberry jam, which also won in the ice cream category, while 2nd place overall went to Kārums blueberry curd snack, which also won in the dairy product category.

Investments in automation will pay off soon

In 2024, “Food Union Latvia” completed one of the largest recent investment projects in increasing production automation. Investing over EUR 2.5 million, the company acquired automatic ice cream, curd snack, and cream cheese packaging systems (robots), which will increase production capacity by replacing manual or simplified mechanical work with modern, efficient solutions. The company plans to continue investing in automation in the coming years.