Belgium's famous spiced caramelised speculoos biscuit – marketed globally as Biscoff – has made it into the top five most popular biscuits worldwide, the producer Lotus Bakeries announced.
Lotus Bakeries, which has for nearly a century made the 'Biscoff' biscuits that have won over Belgium and then the world, published its annual results for 2023 on Monday. Its revenue grew by €185 million to reach a total turnover of more than €1 billion for the first time. Sales of both the biscuits and other products such as caramelised biscuit paste and caramelised biscuit ice cream contributed to half of the total turnover.
The strong performance places the biscuits from Lembeke (Flanders) in the top five consumed around the world. "Driven by this strong and international growth, Lotus Biscoff cookies moved up another place in the global Cookie Brands ranking."
The ranking is based on global supermarket sales figures and is led by the Oreo biscuit, part of US multinational Mondelez.
Breaking the US
The company's CEO Jan Boone sparked outrage in October 2020 when he announced plans to replace the "Speculoos" with the anglicised "Biscoff" (a contraction of biscuit and coffee) to appeal to a broader crowd. In a statement Boone set out his ambition to make it into the top three with Biscoff.
"This will take some time. Just to jump to fourth place, we will have to double our sales."
Lotus sells most of its biscuits, which taste of brown sugar and cinnamon, and the derived products in the US, which accounts for 25% of Biscoff sales. 5% of US households usually have a packet of Lotus speculoos biscuits in their cupboard.
The other half of the turnover comes from healthy snacks, such as Peter's Yard biscuits, Trek and Nakd bars, and "local heroes". These are well-known brands such as the Dinosaur biscuits popular among children in Belgium.
As a result of the strong results for 2023, Lotus Bakeries rushed 19.24% higher to €9.360 on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
