Cabka, a leader in the field of transport packaging made from recycled plastic, has been awarded the esteemed EcoVadis Gold rating. This distinction recognizes the company’s efforts in promoting circularity, sustainable practices, and social responsibility. The company also released its preliminary results for 2023.
Cabka Achieves Prestigious EcoVadis Gold Rating for Sustainability Efforts
As a key player in the circular plastics industry, Cabka’s initiatives in recycling plastics and creating reusable pallets and large containers for contemporary supply chains have placed it at the forefront of sustainable business practices. The company’s focus on converting end-of-life materials into products that can be reused or recycled is a testament to its dedication to environmental stewardship, as highlighted in its first sustainability report published in 2023. This report lays out Cabka’s ambitious ESG (environmental, social, governance) goals and how these objectives are integrated into its overall business strategy.
“Cabka is committed to making a positive impact with its own operations and ultimately with the product it supplies to the market. This award is a testament to this commitment and the active implementation of our ESG framework,” said Tim Litjens, CEO of Cabka. He proudly noted that within a year, Cabka has advanced from the top 25% to the top 6% of companies rated by EcoVadis, demonstrating significant progress and placing Cabka among the industry’s elite.
The EcoVadis Gold rating marks Cabka’s excellence in various aspects of sustainability, including environmental preservation, labor and human rights, ethics in business, and sustainable procurement practices. The company’s success in these areas is attributed to its effective implementation of sustainability guidelines and measures. “We see sustainability as a journey, not just a destination. The annual EcoVadis rating as an external third-party review helps us to regularly assess our ESG framework and provides guidance on where we should focus,” remarked Geert de Wilde, Chief Operations Officer at Cabka.
EcoVadis, a global rating agency, evaluates over 90,000 organizations across 160 countries and 200 industries. The agency aims to encourage companies to actively participate in improving their practices in environment, ethics, labor, human rights, and sustainable procurement. Cabka’s achievement of the Gold rating not only highlights its exemplary commitment to sustainability but also positions the company as a leader in the industry, ready to inspire others towards greater sustainable development.
2023 Preliminary Financial Results
On February 1, 2024, Cabka, a pioneer and market leader in converting hard-to-recycle plastic waste into Reusable Transport Packaging (RTP, shared its preliminary financial performance for the year 2023. The company is listed on Euronext Amsterdam.
The company witnessed a robust 35% increase in sales for the fourth quarter of 2023, reaching €53 million, up from €40 million in the third quarter. Despite this strong quarter-on-quarter recovery, the total sales for 2023 were €197 million, marking a 6% decrease from the record sales of €209 million in 2022. The slight shortfall of €3 million from the projected sales was attributed to the postponement of a new customer project launch, which also had a minor 0.8% adverse effect on the operational EBITDA margin for the year.
Cabka anticipates an operational EBITDA of €24.2 million for 2023, which reflects an improvement in the operational EBITDA margin by 1.5 percentage points to 12.3%, compared to 10.8% in the previous year.
The company’s Customized Solutions segment continued its strong performance, recording a 20% growth in 2023. This growth was further boosted in the fourth quarter by the launch of new products in collaboration with major partners such as CHEP, Continental, and BMW. Additionally, Cabka’s Eco business saw a 7% increase following an expansion of its capacity earlier in the year.
The sales figures for 2023 were impacted by the broader market challenges, including rising interest rates that led to significant destocking activities and restricted capital investments by customers across most of Cabka’s end markets. These conditions contributed to a decrease in market demand and pricing pressures industry-wide.
The decline in total sales was primarily due to the divestiture of the PVC business and a drop in sales in the non-strategic contract manufacturing segment. Despite these market headwinds, Cabka’s continued focus on product innovation allowed it to maintain stable sales in its strategic segments.
Cabka is set to release its complete preliminary results for 2023 on March 20, 2024, providing a more detailed insight into the company’s financial performance and strategic direction amidst challenging market conditions.
Source: Cabka
Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.
