Bonduelle has booked an impairment charge in its North American business, contributing to an annual loss from the French group's continuing operations.
The canned, frozen and fresh-veg business said the €35m ($39.2m) impairment reflected “challenges” in the region’s fresh ready-to-eat business.
Bonduelle reported a €16.9m group-wide loss from continuing operations for the 12 months to the end of June, compared to a €19.7m profit a year earlier.
Reported operating income at the Cassegrain and Globus brand owner fell to €32.3m from €73m.
Alongside the North American impairment, Bonduelle incurred US logistics optimisation costs and restructuring and reorganisation expenses, bringing total non-recurring charges to €47.3m.
The current operating margin slipped to 3.6% from 3.8% in the 2024-25 financial year.
Bonduelle CEO Xavier Unkovic said: “The past fiscal year unfolded in a particularly challenging environment, marked by the accumulation of major external shocks.”
He said the group “faced the impact of unregulated imports of Chinese sweet corn, which put pressure on both volumes and selling prices, rising energy costs driven by international geopolitical tensions, and an exceptional heatwave that significantly affected agricultural yields for the 2026 harvest”.
While the “adverse factors slowed the improvement of our profitability trajectory and temporarily weighed the delivery of our roadmap”, “they do not call into question the fundamentals of our strategy”, Unkovic said.
Group sales edged down 0.8% to €2.18bn, although revenue rose 0.4% on a like-for-like basis.
In Europe, which generated 62.8% of group revenue, sales rose 1.3% to €1.37bn.
Across the wider non-Europe division (37.2% of sales), revenue fell 4.1% to €814m.
Sales in North America, “where market conditions remained challenging”, dropped 5.6% on a like-for-like basis and 12.4% in reported terms.
Bonduelle, which also sells under its namesake brand, cited inflation and agricultural "crises" that hit raw-material availability, although foodservice sales in the region grew 9.4%.
Elsewhere in the non-Europe unit, sales across Eurasia, export markets and Mercosur grew 8.7% on a like-for-like basis.
By segment, canned-food sales increased 3.5% on a like-for-like basis across the group, while frozen-food sales rose 2%. Fresh processed sales fell 4.1%.
In November, Bonduelle agreed a deal to sell a factory in Brazil to local group Stella d’Oro Alimentos.
In July 2025, Bonduelle finalised the sale of its packaged-salad business in France to French food-and-beverage company LSDH Group.
