There were strong differences in progress between the various divisions and regions once again in 2010. Business with coffee machines and accessories for the food service sector was highly encouraging. There was also strong progress in sales of specialist papers, where the expansion of foreign business and a recovery of domestic demand led to a sharp rise in revenues.

The Group's national subsidiaries in the USA, Canada and Brazil once again made encouraging progress. Melitta is particularly optimistic about the future growth prospects for its coffee and filter paper business in Brazil.

In the strategic business field "Freshness and Flavour", pressure from private label suppliers and discounters, coupled with subdued consumer demand in western Europe, prevented any increase in sales of food wrappings products marketed under the Toppits®, Albal® and Glad® brands.

Sales of the strategic business field "Convenient Cleaning" and its brands Swirl® and handy bag® once again remained at the prior-year level. Dust filter bags made good progress, while sales of garbage bags fell slightly year on year. There was a boost to growth from the business field's introduction of products for cleanliness in pet households.

Compared to the previous year, sales of coffee made good progress in Germany. However, the development of business was also impacted by a strong increase in green bean prices.

Outlook 2011
Melitta got off to a successful start in 2011. In Germany in particular, the company expects the economic recovery to continue and positively impact consumer spending. The same applies to the Group's industrial and food service businesses. There are also attractive and sustainable growth opportunities in non-European regions, especially in Brazil.

In order to pave the way for further growth, Melitta decided in 2010 to make further investments. After already raising capital expenditure slightly in the past year, the company will invest more heavily in the quality of its products and in its production capacities in 2011.

The encouraging progress of the specialist paper business has led the company to begin modernization work on its Berlin-based paper plant during the current year. The investment project will be completed in 2012 and the paper plant in Berlin will then be integrated into a specially formed company, Neukölln Spezialpapier NK GmbH & Co. KG, a sister company of Neu Kaliss Spezialpapier GmbH.

Melitta sees attractive and sustainable business opportunities in the market for consumer industry films. Melitta intends to expand its activities in this field in 2011 with the aid of its subsidiary ACW-Film GmbH & Co. KG, which it acquired in 2010. ACW develops, produces and supplies packaging films for major consumer goods companies and adds a further dimension to the Melitta Group's industrial business.

All in all, Melitta expects sales revenues to grow by five percent in the current fiscal year.

Melitta wurde 1908 in Dresden gegründet und ist heute ein international tätiges Familienunternehmen mit Sitz in Minden. Die Unternehmen der Melitta-Gruppe entwickeln, produzieren und vermarkten Produkte für Haushalt und Gastronomie mit den Marken Melitta® (Kaffeegenuss) und Cilia® (Teegenuss), Toppits®, Albal®, Glad® (Frische und Geschmack) und Swirl® und handy bag® (Praktische Sauberkeit).