Galler Chocolatier has raised €12.6 million in capital and adopted a survival strategy for the cocoa crisis, L’Echo newspaper reports on Friday.
The Belgian chocolate maker has faced numerous challenges in recent years: from its factory flooding in 2021 to the pandemic and significant inflation. The latest hurdle has been a global surge in cocoa prices.
Since the start of 2024, the price of cocoa beans has soared by up to 500%. The spike in cocoa bean prices was the centre of discussion at an international cocoa summit held in Brussels in April (in which Belgium leaned on its international renown for chocolate production).
L'Echo reports that Galler, whose headquarters are in Liège, sought financial support from shareholders to restructure its business model as the company faces the latest in a string of challenges. According to the paper, the €12.6 million in capital will be raised in two stages – a €7.5 million conversion of debt into equity and a cash injection of €5.1 million.
The funds will go towards boosting efficiency, offsetting the rising cost of cocoa beans, financing ongoing international expansion, and bolstering working capital.
The conversion of debt to equity will also change Galler's shareholding structure: the majority stake held by Qatari shareholder Al-Afia has fallen from 70% to 50.4%. Meanwhile, Belgian ownership of the company rose from 30% to 49.6% after the Wallonia Region came on board as a shareholder.
