Letter to shareholders - Annual report 2025

The 2025 financial year presented multifaceted challenges, which we had largely anticipated. Accordingly, the annual financial results have once again been lower, despite stable production volumes. Net sales declined by 7.5 percent from CHF 842.1 million to CHF 778.9 million. Net profit for 2025 amounted to CHF 3.8 million after recognising one-off costs totalling CHF 15.9 million, compared with CHF 13.7 million in the previous year.

Future-oriented site development

The declining demand for glass beverage packaging in particular led to overcapacity in the markets we serve and significant pressure on prices and margins. In addition, the geopolitical environment remains challenging, with ongoing military actions in Europe. These developments directly and indirectly affected our employees and operations in Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova as well as having extraordinary economic impact.

In this challenging environment, we took further measures in 2025 to adjust our capacities and improve their utilisation. We made good progress. However, implementation is complex, and with a high proportion of fixed costs, a rapid and noticeable recovery in profitability cannot be expected despite continued cost discipline. This is particularly true as we expect the market situation to remain subdued in 2026.

In 2025, we remained close to our customers and consistently focused on their needs. We successfully advanced important innovation projects. A key milestone was the commissioning of a new production line for lightweight glass bottles, scheduled to go into operation in 2026 – marking a significant step towards serial production.

Outlook and dividend proposal

At the beginning of the financial year 2026, Lukas Burkhardt took over as new CEO of the Vetropack Group. In the course of the resulting transitional phase, we will review our current strategy, with a view to defining additional initiatives for profitable growth and further strengthening future-proof resilience. Subject to the specific outcomes, this includes optimising our product and service portfolio to maximise customer benefit.

Vetropack has a solid financial base and will continue to position itself as an industry leader in glass packaging through innovation and sustainability initiatives. Amidst sustained price pressure, we anticipate net sales below the previous year’s levels for 2026, despite stable sales volumes. Thanks to measures introduced to improve profitability, our operating result margin should increase slightly. The investments in tangible assets planned for 2026 will be on previous year’s level. However, the current developments in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East bring additional uncertainty, with higher price volatility in energy markets. The impact of these factors on Vetropack’s profitability can currently not be assessed and will require a high degree of adaptability.

Our 57th Annual General Meeting will be held on 22 April 2026. Based on the company’s earnings situation, our Board of Directors proposes to pay out a dividend of CHF 0.50 (2024: CHF 1.00) per class A registered share and CHF 0.10 (2024: CHF 0.20) per class B registered share.

Acknowledgement and thanks

In this challenging market situation, our employees and management teams demonstrated a high level of commitment and exceptional dedication. They deserve our recognition and special thanks for this. We also thank our customers and suppliers for their constructive cooperation and our shareholders for their continued trust in our company.