Sweet as can be
Satisfying the world's chocolate cravings
Good morning, chocolate connoisseurs. This is your Stock Market Rundown for April 16th, 2024. Thanks for tuning in once again. Let’s get started:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: COCOA SECRETS
When you sink your teeth into a Mars bar or Cadbury Creme Egg, you probably assume the chocolate was made by the folks whose name you see on the packaging.
But the chocolate industry has a secret: unlike Willy Wonka, real-life candy-makers don’t manufacture their own chocolate. It’s mass-produced by a handful of big suppliers. And the biggest is Switzerland-based Barry Callebaut.
If you’ve never heard of them, well, that’s intentional. They stay behind the scenes, delivering sweet chocolatey goodness via major contracts with branded players like Nestle and Unilever.
Barry Callebaut has dozens of manufacturing facilities globally, including the world’s largest chocolate factory, which produces 1,000 tonnes a day. That’d make enough M&Ms to fill Dodger Stadium.
The ethics of the chocolate industry can be a bit sticky, and Barry Callebaut has been accused of tolerating forced labor and deforestation in its supply chain. But none of that has stopped them from swallowing up a 40% market share.
Right now, food companies are struggling with an unprecedented spike in cocoa prices. But when you’ve been in business for 175 years, you learn to weather ups and downs: Barry Callebaut’s most recent earnings report eked out a rise in sales volumes.
Management is betting that high cocoa prices will incent farmers to produce more, better balancing supply and demand. Sounds like free-market capitalism works… in the chocolate industry, anyway.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
The IMF says inflation is easing faster than expected. Jacking up interest rates defeated inflation as easily as Conor McGregor defeating Jose Aldo with a left hook thirteen seconds into the fight.
Don’t count on finding space in the overhead compartment if you’re flying this summer. Booming demand for travel is outpacing plane availability, with 4.7 billion people expected to take to the skies. Maybe try hitch-hiking instead?
Meta says they’ll blur nudes in Instagram messages to “protect teens”. I feel like teens have more to fear from the junk food in the school vending machines than they do from accidentally seeing a naked body.
Retail investors are crowding into speculative bets thanks to a big bounceback in stocks. Pro tip: never confuse brains with a bull market.
Time to call it a day, pals. See you for more action tomorrow morning. Yours in capitalism, The Axe
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