BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Due to unexpected problems in its most important single market, the US, the mail order company Hellofresh has slashed its annual targets. Both turnover and operating profit are likely to be lower than previously expected, the MDax-listed company surprisingly announced in Berlin on Wednesday evening. However, the team around CEO Dominik Richter is optimistic: the problems should only be of a temporary nature and not last into the new year. Shareholders were nevertheless dissatisfied: On the trading platform Tradegate, Hellofresh shares slumped by 7.7 percent compared to the Xetra closing price and thus to their lowest level in five months.

Hellofresh also announced that consolidated sales would only increase by two to five percent in constant currency instead of up to eight percent. Based on the previous year's figure, this would originally have been around 8.2 billion euros. Following the capping of the forecast, the management is now only looking at around 7.8 to just under 8.0 billion euros. This means that the lower end of the forecast is only slightly above analysts' expectations.

Adjusted for special effects, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) should now only reach 430 to 470 million euros. The company is thus below even the lowest analyst forecast. Previously, the management had forecast 470 to 540 million.

The Group explained the development on the one hand with surprisingly low new customer figures in important weeks of the current quarter. After the start of the new year, this includes the days around Thanksgiving. Hellofresh usually spends a lot of money in late summer and at the beginning of the fall months to attract new customers to its products. "The number of active customers in the quarter will therefore also be somewhat lower than originally expected," warned the Management Board.

But CEO Richter also has other problems to deal with: In Arizona, the ramp-up of the new production facility is dragging on. Hellofresh wants to produce ready meals for its Factor brand there and has high hopes for the so-called Ready-To-Eat product line, which is set to become the company's largest by 2025. Water scarcity in the desert state and a lack of staff are also making the production processes more difficult. And in Illinois, the planned maintenance of a production facility took longer than expected.

Together with Canada, the USA forms the North America segment, which accounted for two thirds of total sales in the third quarter. The remainder is spread across the many smaller markets in the rest of the world, which Hellofresh combines in the International segment. The business performance of the smaller segment has been in line with plans "to date", it said./ngu/bek/he