IN Brief:
- Akola Group reported more than €1.5 billion revenue, €96 million EBITDA, and €43 million net profit for FY2025/26.
- Food Production revenue rose 7% to €482 million, while operating profit increased by almost half to €58 million.
- Poultry led the improvement as higher-value production, manufacturing investment, and stronger Baltic and Swedish demand supported the segment.
Akola Group has reported a sharp improvement in food-production profitability for its 2025/26 financial year, with the segment generating €482 million of revenue and €58 million of operating profit. Poultry provided the largest contribution to the increase as the Baltic agribusiness group continued to shift more of its earnings towards manufactured food.
Group revenue exceeded €1.5 billion, down 4% year on year, while EBITDA reached €96 million and net profit was €43 million. Food Production moved in the opposite direction to the wider revenue trend: segment sales increased 7%, gross profit reached €100 million, and operating profit rose by almost half.
Poultry was the principal driver. Revenue from the poultry business increased 9%, while gross profit rose 27%, supported by stable demand in the Baltic states and Sweden alongside what Akola described as strong production results.
The figures reinforce a trend visible earlier in the year. At the nine-month stage, Food Production had generated €361 million of revenue, up 10%, while operating profit had risen by more than half to €38 million. Poultry revenue had already passed €261 million, with gross profit approaching €62 million.
Akola has attributed that performance to a larger proportion of value-added products, better operating efficiency, and product mix. Those factors carry more weight than simple volume growth because further processing allows the group to capture value beyond agricultural commodity production.
The business operates an integrated chain that includes grain, feed, farming, poultry, prepared foods, flour, breadcrumbs, and other products. Commodity activities can expose earnings to movements in grain prices, crop quality, weather, and agricultural input costs, while food manufacturing introduces its own pressures around labour, energy, packaging, logistics, and plant utilisation.
The full-year results illustrate that difference. Akola’s instant-food and ready-to-eat activities increased revenue by 4% despite lower sales volumes, but gross profit fell 22%, largely because packaging, energy, and logistics costs increased. Higher selling value therefore did not translate automatically into stronger manufacturing margins across every category.
Flour and breadcrumbs delivered a more stable result. Lower flour volumes were partly offset by a 22% increase in breadcrumbs sales, leaving combined revenue 2% higher and gross profit broadly unchanged.
Poultry has consequently become the stronger part of the processing portfolio. The group operates Vilniaus Paukštynas and Kaišiadorių Paukštynas in Lithuania and Kekava Foods in Latvia, giving it an integrated manufacturing footprint across slaughtering, preparation, further processing, and distribution.
Capital investment is continuing across those operations. Akola previously announced a €13 million poultry programme covering production modernisation, incubation capacity, biosecurity, and environmental and energy improvements during the 2025/26 year.
At Vilniaus Paukštynas, the fresh-meat operation has been receiving AI-based carcass-preparation technology intended to improve production quality, safety, and animal-welfare traceability. Plans also include hatchery renovation designed to support annual production of up to 45 million day-old chicks.
The programme shows how the group is using higher food-production earnings to reinforce the assets that generate them. Modernisation can improve yield and labour efficiency, but poultry processing remains exposed to feed prices, disease risk, utilities, maintenance, and the need to keep high-throughput equipment running consistently.
Biosecurity is particularly significant within an integrated poultry business. Disruption upstream in breeding or growing operations can reduce factory utilisation downstream, while an interruption at the processing stage can rapidly affect live-bird logistics and customer supply. Capital spending on production cannot be separated completely from measures intended to protect the biological supply chain feeding the plant.
Akola is also investing around food-industry by-products and energy. Its first biomethane plant began operating during the financial year, adding another route for converting agricultural and production residues into commercial output. Further processing concepts remain under evaluation rather than forming part of the current-year result.
The group’s wider performance remains exposed to agricultural volatility. Farming generated an operating loss during the year as lower grain and raw-milk prices combined with higher production costs, while food manufacturing produced the strongest improvement inside the portfolio.
That contrast explains why Akola has repeatedly emphasised higher-margin, less cyclical food-production activities in its strategy. Manufactured products do not eliminate volatility — the rise in packaging, energy, and logistics costs in instant foods is evidence enough — but they allow the business to compete on processing efficiency, formulation, product mix, and customer specification rather than commodity price alone.
The next financial year will test whether the poultry improvement can be sustained while new equipment is commissioned and cost pressure remains uneven across the food portfolio. FY2025/26 has already established the direction of travel: group earnings remained below the previous year’s exceptional result, but food production strengthened, and poultry carried most of that operational improvement.
