Verallia Reports a 3.6% Decline in Revenue in 2025, Impacted by Negative Pricing Effects
On Tuesday, the glass manufacturing group Verallia released its annual 2025 results, showing a contraction in revenue to 3,331 million euros despite a return to volume growth. Profitability also declined, with an adjusted EBITDA of 692 million euros.
Revenue Details and Factors Influencing the Decline
In 2025, Verallia recorded a revenue of 3,331 million euros, down by 3.6% compared to 3,456 million euros in 2024. This decrease occurred even as the group achieved organic volume growth of 2.8%, driven particularly by food jars and non-alcoholic beverages. However, this positive volume momentum was completely offset by negative pricing effects and an unfavorable product mix, together accounting for an impact of 167 million euros. Additionally, exchange rate fluctuations negatively impacted the revenue by 78 million euros, primarily reflecting the depreciation of the Argentine peso and the Brazilian real. The acquisition of Vidrala Italia's glass activities, finalized in July 2024, positively contributed 49 million euros in the first half. In the fourth quarter, revenue stood at 763 million euros, marking a decline of 7.1% in reported figures, affected by a slowdown in volume growth during the period.
Adjusted EBITDA and Profitability Analysis
The group's adjusted EBITDA for 2025 was 692 million euros, down from 842 million euros in 2024, with the margin decreasing from 24.4% to 20.8%. In the fourth quarter, the adjusted EBITDA was 161 million euros with a margin of 21.1%, compared to 201 million euros and 24.5% in the same quarter of 2024. This contraction primarily reflects the unfavorable spread between price-mix and costs, which impacted the EBITDA by minus 241 million euros over the year. Concurrently, volume growth had a positive effect of 58 million euros, while the industrial performance improvement plan generated cost reductions of 48 million euros. Geographically, Southern and Western Europe reported an adjusted EBITDA of 461 million euros (margin of 20.7%), Northern and Eastern Europe 104 million euros (margin of 14.5%), and Latin America 127 million euros (margin of 33.1%). Net income fell to 93 million euros from 239 million euros in 2024, impacted by exceptional asset impairments of 27 million euros net of taxes in Germany and England.
Free Cash Flow and Financial Position
The group's free cash flow doubled to 166 million euros in 2025, up from 83 million euros in 2024, thus exceeding the revised target of about 150 million euros. This improvement resulted from strict control over capital expenditures and a more moderate increase in working capital requirements. Total investment expenditures amounted to 259 million euros (7.8% of revenue), down from 323 million euros in 2024, including 162 million euros in recurring investments and 97 million euros in strategic investments. Net financial debt reached 1,861 million euros at the end of December 2025, up by 63 million euros, bringing the net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio to 2.7x, compared to 2.1x at the end of 2024. The Board of Directors proposes a dividend of 1.00 euro per share for 2025, with an option for each shareholder to receive this dividend in cash or in shares. BWGI and BPI France have already communicated their intention to opt for a payment in shares, limiting the impact on cash flow to a maximum of 20 million euros. This proposal will be submitted for approval at the annual general meeting of shareholders on April 24, 2026.
