Food Empire Holdings has reported its strongest ever first quarter with revenue up 16.9% y-o-y to US$159.7 million, potentially extending five consecutive years of record sales.
Revenue from Central Asia was up the most at 36.4% to US$30.7 million while Russia was next with a 29.4% gain to US$51 million.
"We are cautiously optimistic that the growth momentum will carry through the rest of the year barring unforeseen circumstances," says group CEO and executive director Sudeep Nair.
"Today, the combined revenue from Asia has surpassed our traditional markets and this is the result of our strategic geographical diversification and continuous investments in brand building and capacity expansion projects since FY2013," he adds.
The company expects its new Kazakhstan coffee-mix manufacturing facility to contribute positively in FY2026.
Further down the road, Food Empire expects to complete a spray-dried soluble coffee manufacturing facility in South India by next year, and another one in Vietnam a year later.
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Food Empire warns that while Middle East is not a "core" market, it might suffer indirect impact such as higher costs of various kinds.
Meanwhile, to improve liquidity, the company is introducing a one-for-five bonus issue.
According to Food Empire, it has been included to a growing list of indices such as the MSCI SMID Cap Index, FTSE ST All-Share Consumer Staples Index, and iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index.
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Index funds managed by many institutional investors tend to mirror the holdings of some of these indices. However, some of them have minimum liquidity thresholds.
Food Empire shares closed at $3.08, up 0.98% for the day and up 25.71% year to date.
