The Kremlin-owned manufacturer of packaged nuts and mixes Alika closed the fiscal year 2023/2024, ending March 31, with a record result. The company produced 22 million packages of nuts for 508.6 million crowns. EBITDA, i.e. profit before depreciation, interest and amortization, reached 43 million crowns and net profit 28 million crowns.
It is a record in the more than thirty-year history of the company. Usually the company achieved a profit of between five and ten million crowns. But the Czech labor market is a problem for her, as she finds it difficult to find employees.
The record-breaking results helped the nut roaster to pay off the debt it had been borrowing from its beginnings more quickly.
“I ordered champagne to be bought, we will be debt free for the first time in 32 years, if I don’t count the investment loan. It pays off well,” said co-founder Jana Kremlová. She founded the company with her husband in 1992, today it is managed by her children, but the entrepreneur chairs the supervisory board, and because she likes numbers, she advises on the economy.
The company had an open loan with the bank with a ceiling of 69 million crowns. It also increased its debt during the covid era. “We used credit lines a lot during the pandemic because we were afraid that logistics routes would stop. That’s why we bought raw materials for stock. It was at the worst possible time when interest rates were skyrocketing.”
Alika produces roasted nuts, nut creams or flours. It sells them, for example, under the brands ArRashid or KK. Its main competitor on the market is Intersnack, the producer of the well-known Bohemia Chips.
However, the situation on the labor market has been a challenge for the company in recent years. There has been almost zero employment in Olomouc for a long time, and last June, in addition, in Kojetín, which is located ten kilometers from the production headquarters in Čelčice, the American Amazon opened its new warehouse. In the already tight labor market, the company has grown into strong competition.
“We constantly compare and optimize salaries. We don’t do anything else in March and April to be competitive,” says Kremlová. And in this case, he means optimization in the sense of increasing wages. Otherwise, the company would simply not be able to find employees. “Fortunately, we are managing to systematically reduce the number of employees. Ten years ago there were 120, today there are 70. Thanks to more advanced technologies and automation, we are increasing productivity. Some activities combine.’
Alika can’t compete with the American logistics company in terms of the salary that its people will see on tape, so it tries to offer something else. For example, a more flexible working regime that enables the connection of family and work life.
Alika’s activity, i.e. the processing of nuts, consumes an enormous amount of energy. In 2022, it therefore developed a crisis scenario in case gas runs out in the winter. She also thought about heating it with burnt frying oil and, in the worst case, not roasting the nuts at all, but just wrapping them. Fortunately, this plan was not fulfilled. Last year, according to the Kremlin, in addition to the situation in the energy sector, inflation in the area of raw materials also calmed down. The company imports a number of nuts, raisins and other items from Turkey and Asia.
Now the company is building another warehouse and is considering the construction of photovoltaic panels on the factory premises. She already had a project for a photovoltaic power plant on the roofs of the production halls, but it did not pass the statics. Alika is now buying new packaging lines for five-kilogram packages of nuts and plans to restore some of the outdated roasting technology.
The company sells three quarters of its production on the Czech market. Nuts go to chains, distributors and gastronomy. A quarter of the production was then sold in other European countries, mainly in Slovakia, Holland, Sweden and Germany. The plan is to strengthen exports outside of Europe.
