DGAP-News: Successful performance of Ekosem-Agrar AG's Milk Processing business area

Successful performance of Ekosem-Agrar AG's Milk Processing business area

• Sales volumes of dairy products climb 76% to more than 131,000 tons
• Revenues increased disproportionately by over 75% to close to EUR 80 million
• Presence in supermarkets, in the HoReCa segment and online shops expanded
• "Dürr" premium hard cheese available in stores since October 2021

Walldorf, 17 January 2022 - Ekosem-Agrar AG, the German holding company of Russian milk producer EkoNiva Group, continued to successfully develop its fledgling Milk Processing business area in the past financial year 2021. The volume of dairy products sold rose by 76% year on year to more than 131,000 tons, with revenues also picking up at a disproportionate rate of over 75% to just under EUR 80 million, according to the latest forecast.

The portfolio meanwhile comprises 71 products, including fresh milk with different fat contents, organic milk, long-life milk, drinking and organic yogurt, desserts, kefir, sour cream, curd, butter, ice-cream and cheese. They are sold under the EkoNiva umbrella brand or as private labels, mainly in the European part of Russia and in Siberia. Over the past years, the EkoNiva brand has accounted for a continuously growing share in revenues, which most recently reached 77%.

The Group almost doubled its sales of dairy products with Russia's largest federal retail chains. Sales to the Magnit chain, one of the country's leading retailers, increased sixfold thanks to the expansion of the product portfolio and increased geographical presence. Sales also developed positively in the Lenta, Perekrjostok (part of the X5 Retail Group) and Auchan supermarket chains. In addition, EkoNiva dairy products are available in 37 own brand stores.

In the HoReCa (Hotel/Restaurant/Café) segment, the Ekosem-Agrar Group doubled the total number of its partners in 2021, and sales increased significantly by around 330%. Since spring 2021, one of the most important HoReCa partners has been the fast-food chain McDonald's, the leading system catering chain in Russia. Other important partners are the catering facilities at Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports (both in Moscow) and Russia's largest airline, Aeroflot.

Online retailing is another important sales channel for the Group, where additional platforms have been successively acquired as customers over the past two years. EkoNiva brand products can now be ordered via the delivery services Sbermarket and Sbermegamarket, Samokat, Delivery Club, igooods.ru, the online supermarket Perekrestok vprok (vprok.ru), Ozon and Ozon Express, as well as Utkonos. Overall, sales through online channels more than tripled in 2021.

Stefan Dürr, Chairman of the Management Board of Ekosem-Agrar AG: "In milk processing we have now reached the point where, thanks to the high demand for our products, our production capacities are fully utilized and we can concentrate on further increasing profitability with our own brand and selected private labels."

Sales of "Dürr" premium hard cheese launched in fall

In the fourth quarter of 2021, two hard cheese varieties were added to the portfolio of the EkoNiva umbrella brand. The six month aged hard cheese, named after company founder Stefan Dürr, has been available on the market since October 2021. The high-quality premium cheese is produced in the company's own cheese dairy in the Voronezh region, which has a daily production capacity of 6 tons, including 2 tons of hard cheese.

About Ekosem-Agrar

Ekosem-Agrar AG, Walldorf, is the German holding company of the EkoNiva Group, one of the largest Russian agricultural companies. A herd of more than 216,000 cattle (thereof over 112,000 dairy cows) and a daily output of approx. 3,100 tons of raw milk make the company the largest milk producer in the country. The Group controls an agricultural land area of approx. 630,000 hectares and is also one of the leading Russian seed producers. The founder and CEO of the company is Stefan Dürr, who has been active in the Russian agricultural sector since the end of the 1980s and has been instrumental in modernizing the industry in the past three decades. In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his contributions to the German-Russian Dialogue on Agriculture. The Group employs some 12,000 people and has a presence in nine administrative areas in Russia. Ekosem-Agrar generated a total output of EUR 565 million and adjusted EBITDA of EUR 167 million in 2019.

Ekosem-Agrar has issued two corporate bonds in the German capital market: Bond 2012/2022 (ISIN: DE000A1R0RZ5) and Bond 2019/2024 (ISIN: DE000A2YNR08).

Further information is available at: www.ekosem-agrar.de

Ekosem-Agrar contact

Irina Makey // Ekosem-Agrar AG // Johann-Jakob-Astor-Str. 49 // 69190 Walldorf // T: +49 (0) 6227 3585 919 // E: [email protected]

Press / Investor Relations

Fabian Kirchmann, Anna-Lena Mayer // IR.on AG // T: +49 (0) 221 9140 970 // E: [email protected]