Colombia’s Top Firms Beat $5 Billion in Sales Despite Slow Growth

Colombia’s 2025 earnings season is underway, and the early returns show the country’s largest companies managed to grow revenue even as the broader economy expanded by a modest 2.6%. The headline numbers belong to two conglomerates from very different sectors — retail giant Grupo Éxito and food processor Nutresa — both of which crossed the COP 20 trillion threshold (~$5.5 billion) for the first time or near-first time in their histories.

The Revenue Leaders

Grupo Éxito, now part of El Salvador’s Grupo Calleja portfolio, posted COP 22 trillion (~$6 billion) in consolidated revenue, a 4% increase excluding currency effects. The retailer multiplied its net profit by ten times to COP 592 billion (~$160 million), driven by its Colombian and Uruguayan operations. Executive president Carlos Calleja described the year as one of stabilising operations after a deep transition in 2024, focused on commercial execution and efficiency.

Nutresa, Latin America’s largest packaged-food company, reported COP 20.6 trillion (~$5.6 billion) in sales, up 10.7%. International revenue rose 31.3% in dollar terms to reach $2.2 billion, now accounting for 40% of total sales. The Gilinski-led restructuring is bearing fruit: adjusted net income surged 126.6% and fourth-quarter EBITDA margins hit 19.3%, approaching levels seen at global peers like Nestlé.

Gold’s Outsized Winner

The standout growth story belongs to Mineros, the Medellín-based gold producer, whose revenue jumped 46% on the back of a record gold rally that pushed prices to $4,550 per ounce. With more than 221,000 ounces produced in 2025, the company was positioned to capture the full benefit of the commodity surge. No other firm in the early reporting group came close to that pace of expansion.

Energy’s Base-Year Problem

Not all sectors shared the growth. Enel Colombia, the third-largest company by revenue at COP 16 trillion (~$4.3 billion), saw sales fall nearly 6%. Celsia declined 20.7%. Both are power generators that benefited in 2024 from El Niño-driven electricity price spikes; as weather normalised in 2025, kilowatt-hour rates fell and the base-year comparison became punishing.

The Rest of the Rankings

Discount retailer Tiendas Ara reported €3.23 billion in sales (~COP 14.3 trillion / ~$3.9 billion), making it the second-fastest grower at 13% — a signal that Colombia’s hard-discount grocery format continues to take share from traditional supermarkets. Cementos Argos posted COP 5.1 trillion (~$1.4 billion), down 2.7%, while glassmaker Tecnoglass grew 10.5% to COP 3.9 trillion (~$1.1 billion).

Several major names have yet to report, including oil giant Ecopetrol, infrastructure firm ISA, and gas distributor Promigas. Bancolombia’s research arm has projected broadly neutral results for the remaining filers, though it flagged an unfavourable outlook for companies like Ecopetrol and ISA whose earnings cycles face headwinds heading into year-end.

For investors watching Colombia, the takeaway so far is resilience over exuberance: companies with international diversification or commodity tailwinds outperformed, while those tied to domestic energy pricing or construction are lagging. With the remaining reports due in coming weeks, the full picture of corporate Colombia’s 2025 will come into sharper focus.

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