TOMRA Food Revenue Rises 13% as Sorting Backlog Falls 20%
TOMRA Food's third-quarter results present two different pictures of the market for sensor-based food sorting. The division delivered more equipment and stronger profit, but the forward order book became smaller. According to TOMRA Systems' report released on October 23, 2026, Food revenue rose 13% year on year to €86 million, while the backlog fell 20% to €110 million.
A stronger quarter built on earlier orders
Food revenue increased from €76 million in the third quarter of 2025 to €86 million in the latest period. TOMRA attributed the gain to deliveries across citrus, blueberries and vegetables, which outweighed an anticipated downcycle in potato equipment. Because large sorting and grading systems are ordered, manufactured, installed and recognized as revenue over time, quarterly sales can reflect bookings made months earlier rather than demand created during the same three-month period.
That timing is why the other two commercial measures matter. New Food orders were €75 million, 2% below the €77 million recorded a year earlier. The order backlog ended September at €110 million, down from €138 million. Calculated from the disclosed figures, the backlog contraction was 20.3%, and quarterly revenue exceeded new orders by €11 million. Neither calculation proves a downturn, but together they show that deliveries ran ahead of fresh bookings during the quarter.
TOMRA Food | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Change |
Revenue | €86m | €76m | +13.2% |
Order intake | €75m | €77m | -2.6% |
Order backlog | €110m | €138m | -20.3% |
Gross margin | 45.0% | 45.1% | -0.1 percentage point |
Adjusted EBITA | €11m | €8m | +37.5% |
Adjusted EBITA margin | 13.0% | 10.2% | +2.8 percentage points |
Source: TOMRA Q3 2026 report. Percentage changes shown to one decimal are AgriLinkage calculations from the company's rounded euro figures.
The demand signal is mixed, not uniformly weak
TOMRA described the pipeline as healthy and said investment timing affected order conversion. That is a management assessment, not an independently verified demand forecast. It is nevertheless consistent with the economics of capital equipment: food processors can defer a sorting-line decision when financing costs, tariff uncertainty or crop profitability make the payback period harder to judge, even if labor shortages and food-quality requirements continue to support automation over a longer horizon.
The regional delivery pattern was uneven. Revenue increased to €30 million in Europe from €28 million, to €27 million in North America from €25 million, to €10 million in South America from €7 million and to €10 million in Oceania from €2 million. Asia moved in the opposite direction, falling to €5 million from €11 million, while Africa remained at €3 million. Those numbers describe where systems were recognized as revenue; they should not be read as a direct map of current order demand in each region.
Category mix also matters. Citrus, blueberry and vegetable lines are used by growers, packhouses and processors to grade produce by size, color, internal or external defects and other specifications. Potato equipment includes sorting, grading and peeling systems, and its downcycle can weigh on a supplier even when other produce categories are active. A diversified category base helped TOMRA offset that weakness in Q3, but it does not remove the risk that large projects move between quarters.
Profitability improved despite stable gross margin
The division converted the higher volume into stronger operating profit. Adjusted EBITA increased from €8 million to €11 million, a 37.5% rise based on the rounded figures, while the adjusted EBITA margin improved from 10.2% to 13.0%. Gross margin was almost unchanged at 45.0%, compared with 45.1% a year earlier. That combination indicates that the main quarterly operating leverage came below gross profit: operating expenses rose only 4% to €28 million while revenue grew 13%.
For food processors considering new sorting capacity, the result does not imply that equipment prices or project economics suddenly improved. TOMRA's financial margin includes product mix, installation volume, service activity and its own cost base. Buyers still need plant-specific throughput, yield recovery, false-reject rates, labor savings, sanitation requirements, maintenance support and financing costs to calculate a credible return.
What the fourth quarter will test
TOMRA maintained a full-year 2026 Food revenue expectation of €347 million to €357 million. It estimates that 80% of the September backlog will be recognized as revenue in the fourth quarter, with a gross margin between 43% and 47% and quarterly operating expenses around €28 million. Applying that stated conversion rate to the €110 million backlog would imply about €88 million of revenue from existing orders, before any other timing effects. The figure is a simple calculation, not company guidance beyond the disclosed conversion assumption.
The more important indicator for the next report will be whether order intake and backlog begin to recover. If new orders remain below revenue for several quarters, the current delivery strength would become progressively harder to sustain without faster booking conversion. If orders improve, the third-quarter backlog decline may prove mainly to be a timing effect after a busy delivery period. Category detail will also matter: a recovery in potatoes would broaden the growth base, while continued citrus, blueberry and vegetable demand would test whether those gains can persist.
Why this matters beyond one equipment supplier
TOMRA says it has about 16,100 Food units installed at growers, packers and processors worldwide. Its results therefore offer a useful, though incomplete, view of capital spending in produce handling. Sorting investment sits where several pressures meet: labor availability, crop quality, retailer specifications, food loss, export-grade consistency and the cost of capital. Strong deliveries alongside a thinner backlog suggest that processors are still taking automation projects into operation, but are not yet replenishing the future pipeline at the same pace.
For related context, AgriLinkage has also examined Cibus Capital's agreement to acquire produce sorting and packing equipment maker Aweta, another transaction that shows why produce automation has strategic value even when quarterly equipment demand is uneven.
Sources and methodology
This analysis uses TOMRA Systems' Q3 2026 interim report, the company's October 23 results release, and the filing record published through Oslo Børs NewsWeb. AgriLinkage calculated percentage changes from the rounded figures presented by the company. No interviews or equipment tests were conducted.
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