18. Trade and other payables

Trade and other payables mainly comprise trade payables, accruals for various customer incentives and other accrued expenses.

Composition of trade and other payables

The increase in current trade and other payables since 31 December 2021 is impacted by the acquisitions of Scholle IPN and Evergreen Asia in 2022.

Liabilities with an impact on the Group’s revenue

The Group has refund and contract liabilities in respect of liabilities relating to contracts with customers accounted for under the revenue standard.

The Group’s incentive programmes relate to trade discounts, volume rebates and other customer incentives linked primarily to aseptic carton sleeves volumes (see also note 6). These programmes generally run over a calendar year, resulting in a gradual build-up over the year of an accrual liability against revenue from the sale of aseptic carton sleeves. As of 31 December 2022 and 31 December 2021, the liabilities for customer incentive programmes mainly represent incentives earned by customers under programmes running over a calendar year that have not yet been settled by the Group. The remaining part represents accruals built up for incentive programmes running over periods other than a calendar year (ie. refund liabilities). The Group has recognised an insignificant amount as revenue in the current period that was included in the balance of liabilities for customer incentive programmes at the beginning of the period but was never paid out as the conditions for the incentive payments were not met (also applicable to the comparative period).

The Group’s contract liabilities mainly comprise advance payments received from customers in relation to the sale of aseptic carton sleeves and the sale of aseptic carton filling lines under contracts accounted for under the revenue standard, but also to advance payments in relation to the bag-in-box and spouted pouch business. These advance payments are recognised as revenue within a short time frame from their initial recognition in the statement of financial position. As of 31 December 2022, the Group had contract liabilities of €58.0 million (€24.9 million as of 31 December 2021). These advance payments are presented in the table above as part of other current payables and accrued expenses. The amount of advance payments recognised as of 31 December 2021 relating to the sale of sleeves and the sale of filling lines under contracts accounted for under the revenue standard has been recognised as revenue in 2022.

The Group also has advance payments received from customers relating to aseptic carton filling lines that will be deployed under contracts that qualify to be accounted for as operating leases. If payments are received from customers before the filling line deployment date, they are initially presented as part of “Trade and other payables” and included in other current payables and accrued expenses in the table above (€78.8 million as of 31 December 2022 and €39.7 million as of 31 December 2021). Upon deployment of the filling lines, the advance payments are reclassified to “Other liabilities” and presented as deferred revenue liabilities. These deferred revenue liabilities are then released and recognised as revenue over a certain period (see further note 20).