ewsba.se
(RTTNews) - HelloFresh SE (HFG.DE, HLFFF), a German meal-kit company, announced that it expects third-quarter adjusted EBITDA and revenue below market expectations amid weak performance in the back-to-school period. Citing the issue, the company trimmed its outlook for the financial year 2026.
According to the firm, the back-to-school period, which is a key season for new customer acquisition and particularly important to the business results, did not deliver the volume of new customer acquisitions required to meet the latest outlook and the current market expectations.
The company said the underperformance in new customer acquisitions mainly reflects the year-on-year reduction of the third-quarter marketing spend.
For the third quarter, the company expects adjusted EBITDA between around 45 million euros and 55 million euros, compared to analyst consensus of 57.2 million euros, both in constant currency. On a reported basis, the prior year's adjusted EBITDA was 40 million euros.
Revenue for the quarter are projected to decline between 11 percent and 12 percent year-on-year in constant currency, falling short of the latest market expectations of around 6.8 percent decline year-on-year in constant currency.
For the full financial year 2026, the company now expects adjusted EBITDA in constant currency between 350 million euros and 370 million euros, lower than previous outlook between 375 million euros and 425 million euros. The latest outlook is also below analyst consensus of 375.6 million euros in constant currency.
The Company now expects revenue on a constant currency basis to decline by between 9 percent and 11 percent, compared to previous outlook of a decline at the bottom end of the range of 3 percent and 6 percent in constant currency.
Analyst consensus is a decline of 6.9 percent, within a range of a decline of 5.9 percent to 9.0 percent.
The Company plans to publish its third-quarter results as scheduled on November 5.
On the XETRA in Germany, the shares traded 6.15% lower on Thursday and closed at 2.5340 euros.