Mattoni 1873 proved its resilience in 2020
Mattoni 1873, central European leader in non-alcoholic beverage market, maintained performance also during the exceptional year of 2020. Sales of the group decreased only by 2,7 % to 15 bn CZK and EBITDA grew by 12,2 %. The group continued to strive for long-term sustainability and lesser environmental impact even while facing anti-pandemic measures.
The central European group with headquarters in the Czech Republic produced last year more than 1,6 bn bottles. The production v. 2019 decreased only slightly in spite of the difficult circumstances. Strong results were achieved thanks to flexible reorganization of work and numerous innovations.
“Last year was exceptional and proved our strength and flexibility. It showed that we are not afraid to do new things and work with less resources. Very quickly, we had to manage many technological and organizational changes connected with home office and maintaining production, logistics and sales teams, who cannot work from home. Our employees worked hard, were courageous and did not lose hope and focus. And for that I am grateful and proud of them,” says Alessandro Pasquale, Mattoni 1873 CEO.
In 2020 Mattoni 1873 focused on three key areas:
1. consolidation of the group after two busy years, when the company finalized PepsiCo acquisition in CZ, SK and HU, as well as acquisition of the Serbian beverage leader, Knjaz Miloš. The group is now operating in 8 European countries, where it employs 3 200 employees.
2. coping with the Covid 19 pandemic. Mattoni 1873’s priority was to take care for health and safety of employees, ensure continued production and delivery to market and help those most affected by the pandemic. The company donated beverages to health care professionals in hospitals, rescue workers, policemen, firemen or to senior homes. Mattoni 1873 participated in Horeca assisting projects “Zahraň hospodu” as well as programs with RESTU and MAKRO. In autumn 2020 Mattoni 1873 launched “Rozbalte to” campaign, which motivates people to buy packed meal from restaurants. For this campaign, the company dedicated all reserved media space worth several millions of CZK.
Mattoni 1873 business was mostly hit by the measures limiting operation of hotels, restaurants and cafés. It was not possible to make up for it in retail entirely. Mattoni 1873 launched several innovations. In an extremely short time of three months introduced its own e-shop; innovatively supported customers, how to work better with less resources. Thanks to these activities, the impact was minimalized.
3. Sustainability. “Sustainable business is for Mattoni 1873 essential. The key lies in implementing principles of circular economy, which we strive for in all countries, where we operate as well as on European level. We actively advance centralized deposit system in Hungary and Serbia. In Slovakia we are already in process of setting up of the deposit system. Within the NMWE membership we strive for full circularity of the entire European beverage industry,” says Alessandro Pasquale.
Long-term sustainability strategy of Mattoni 1873’s business is complex and includes: care for resources and springs; rail transportation usage of products. Great focus on circular economy principles results in decreasing PET material usage in production, unification of colours for easier recycling and striving for DRS implementation and recycling “bottle to bottle”.
The first step towards recycling “bottle to bottle” is decreasing number of PET bottles’ colours. Mattoni 1873 leads by example and gradually unifies colours of its brands – at first with Mattoni and in 2020 with bottles of Hanácká Kyselka and Dobrá voda. In 2021 it will be Poděbradka’s turn. Less PET bottles’ colours would bring significant benefit once, thanks to deposit implementation, the “bottle to bottle” recycling is kick started.
The nation-wide deposit system is the aim of Zálohujme.cz initiative, whose Mattoni 1873 is founding member. Thanks to the initiative’s activity, discussions regarding deposit stepped up to serious level. Public support is still very high, around 80 % and more than 22 000 people signed the Zálohume.cz petition. Constructive discussions take place among beverage producers and many legislators take this topic up as well. However, the support of the Ministry of Environment is still lacking.
That was one of the reasons, why Mattoni 1873 launched in January 2020 pilot deposit for Mattoni PET bottles with 80 % or rPET sold exclusively at Košík.cz with a deposit of 3 Kč. In October 2020, a similar project with Košík.cz was initiated, this time comprising Mattoni can with deposit. Both projects prove that consumers are interested in deposited PET bottles and cans.
Mattoni 1873 intentions in 2021
„In 2021 we will focus on two priorities – growth and sustainability. We want to grow thanks to strong innovations and develop our portfolio across countries. Within the carbon neutrality efforts, we will continue to close the circular loop of our beverage packaging materials. That means especially implementation of centralized deposit system in Czechia and other countries. Currently, we intensively prepare for DRS of our PET bottles and cans in Slovakia, which will launch DRS in January 2022, thus getting nearer toward beverage packaging circularity,” closes Alessandro Pasquale.