Anora Group CEO Jacek Pastuszka set to retire
FINLAND – Anora Group, the Nordic wine and spirits brand house, has announced the upcoming retirement of its chief executive officer, Jacek Pastuszka.
After informing the board of directors of his intention to step down, Pastuszka will remain in his role until a new CEO is appointed.
Pastuszka took over as CEO of Anora Group in October 2023, succeeding Pekka Tennilä.
Prior to joining Anora, he held executive roles at Carlsberg Group, where he served as executive vice-president for Western Europe and was a member of the company’s executive committee.
The announcement of Pastuszka’s retirement comes after a challenging period for Anora Group.
In August, Helsinki-headquartered Anora Group released its financial results for the first half of 2024. During this period, the company experienced a 5.3% drop in sales.
From January to June, Anora’s net sales totaled €324 million (US$359 million), down from €342.2 million (US$379.1 million) during the same period in 2023. The decline was largely attributed to difficulties in the Finnish market.
Pastuszka said when the results were announced: “During the second quarter, we stayed firmly on the course of improving our profitability and strengthening the balance sheet by increasing the share of margin accretive businesses, price increases, cost efficiencies and net working capital reduction. Also, lower raw material prices supported our performance.”
Following the decline in sales, the Nordic business lowered its forecast on a key profitability metric, with its comparable EBITDA for 2024 now expected to fall between €65 million (US$70.9 million) and €75 million (US$81.8 million), lower than the previous forecast of €75 million to €85 million.
The company said it had seen “lower volumes in beverage sales in wine and spirits segments in September than previously forecasted especially in the monopoly channels”.
In 2023, Anora made a number of revisions to its forecasts, issuing one profit warning in December and another in August.
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