Avolta has announced a robust first-quarter performance for 2026, demonstrating resilience despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The travel retail and food & beverage giant attributed its strong results to disciplined execution across its operations, a diversified global platform, and a flexible cost base.
The company reported a turnover of CHF2.96 billion (US$3.79 billion) for the three months ending March 31, 2026. CORE turnover reached CHF2.91 billion, marking an organic growth of +4.7% year-on-year. Excluding the impact of the Middle East conflict, organic growth would have been even higher at +5.9%.
CORE EBITDA saw an impressive rise to CHF190 million, an increase of +8.4% year-on-year at constant exchange rates. This led to an improvement in the EBITDA margin by 0.2 percentage points, reaching 6.6%.
The Middle East conflict was identified as the primary headwind during the quarter, affecting air traffic and consumer spending patterns across the region. Preliminary data for March and April indicated a combined organic growth of approximately +3.0%, which includes an estimated -3% impact stemming from the situation in the Middle East.
Free cash flow for the quarter stood at CHF-164 million. Avolta attributed this to typical first-quarter seasonality, strategic working capital investments in new operations such as Shanghai Pudong Airport, and the continued impact of the Middle East conflict.
Regionally, Asia Pacific led the organic growth performance with a significant +17.0%. Latin America followed with +6.9% organic growth, while North America increased by +3.9%. Europe, Middle East, and Africa collectively reported organic growth of +2.5%.
During the quarter, Avolta secured several significant contract wins across both its travel retail and F&B segments. These include key agreements at Zurich Airport, Toronto Pearson Airport, and Shanghai Pudong Airport, notably marking the company’s strategic entry into mainland China’s duty-free market.
CEO Xavier Rossinyol commented on the results, stating, “Avolta delivered a resilient first quarter, despite the Middle East conflict, underpinned by disciplined execution across the business, its diversified global platform and flexible cost base, allowing Avolta to protect its profitability and cash flow.” He extended special thanks to the teams in and supporting operations in the Middle East for their professionalism and dedication.
Avolta reaffirmed its medium-term outlook, maintaining targets of 5%-7% annual organic growth, a CORE EBITDA margin improvement of 20-40 basis points, and an EFCF conversion improvement of 100-150 basis points per year on average. While acknowledging limited visibility due to geopolitical uncertainty, the company expects current external pressures to be temporary and remains prepared to adapt its cost base to protect profitability and cash flow if necessary.
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