Good morning. I'm Gloria Martín, Logista's Director of Investor Relations. Welcome to this audio webcast to discuss the results for the 2022 fiscal year. I remind you that you will find more details of these results on our website. Íñigo Meirás, Logista's CEO, and Pedro Losada, our CFO, will lead today's presentation. After the presentation, there will be a Q&A session in which we will read and answer every question received in the webcast forum between the publication of these results and the end of the webcast. The document which accompanies this presentation and the observations that will be made as it progresses include forward-looking statements and projections concerning future results. I invite you to read the disclaimer which accompanies the document, and which mentions the various factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the projections or forward-looking statements.
Now I'm handing over to Íñigo Meirás. Íñigo.
Thank you, Gloria, and welcome ladies and gentlemen. During this audio webcast, we are going to deal with the highlights of the results, a review of the businesses and financial review, and followed by the outlook for the forthcoming fiscal year. To finish, we will open a session of Q&A. Our results were positive in 2022, once again confirming the strength of our business model and our ability to adapt to difficult market circumstances. Although the pandemic has become virtually normalized thanks to vaccination and other measures, several factors combined to complicate the international macroeconomic scenario. Inflationary trends, particularly marked in the case of fuel and electricity prices, heightened due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, causing interest rates to be raised by the central banks, which deepened the uncertainties surrounding the rate of economic recovery in the following months.
In this context, through good business management, we managed to increase economic sales by 4.7%, adjusted EBIT by 5% and net profit by 14.3%. Net profit from continuing operations have been rising by 9%. Our efforts during the fiscal year continued to be focused on adapting our operation, businesses to the environment, reorienting the business towards the areas with greatest capacity for growth through organic and inorganic development. Continue to support our customers through added value services which satisfy their needs, and especially important this year, controlling costs while seeking maximum operational efficiency. Our successful business model, whose essential characteristics are flexibility and a customer-oriented approach, enable us to maintain a good financial performance, even in adverse circumstances. As I anticipated during last year presentation, our strategic focus in 2022 has been on growth.
Setting aside the dynamics that can occasionally impact volumes distributed in a particular country, such as a changing cross-border flows on tourists, total volumes of traditional tobacco distributed in our main countries fell in 2022 against 2021 by more than 1%, and this trend is likely to continue going forward. This mainly explains why we are exploring growth alternatives to complement traditional tobacco distribution. This does not mean that we are going to abandon the distribution of tobacco. This line of business, as well as being profitable, enable us to provide our customer with undoubted added value as a result of a deep understanding of the sector of the efficiency that our operations have acquired over the years. To achieve a successful transition and increase growth, we need to expand our business through synergistic activities by providing new services and promoting other complementary vertical services.
For example, the distribution on next-generation products, which in the specific case of distributed volumes of heated tobacco, show a growth of over 40%, or business development in both pharmaceutical distributions, in which economic sales growth by 9%, and in transport, where economic sales climbed at 10%. We also focused on increasing the speed at which organically we achieve this objective of growth. To help us to do that, we have announced the acquisition of three companies. These are small and medium-sized companies, non-tobacco related, operating mainly in the value-added transport that provide complementary capacities and synergies with our businesses. As we integrate these companies, we will continue exploring other potential acquisitions in line with the strategy.
In February 2022, we announced the acquisition of 70% of the Dutch company Speedlink Worldwide Express, a specialist in time-critical express deliveries with origin and/or destination in Belgium and the Netherlands, which serves the healthcare, high-tech, and automotive sectors, among others. This acquisition favors the international expansion of NACEX services in Benelux, while strengthening Logista's position in medical healthcare distribution by expanding our portfolio of services outside the Iberian Peninsula. Speedlink recorded sales of EUR 13 million in 2021, has 30 employees, and has been NACEX's exclusive agent for the Benelux since 2006, making him a known partner and easing his integration with Logista. The transaction was paid in cash for an amount of around EUR 90 million for a 70% stake. The agreement invites the acquisition of the remaining 30% of the business in the next three years.
This acquisition allows us to advance in the internationalization of NACEX in the Benelux, a country that has the largest number of European distribution centers, while at the same time providing the group with potential growth in pharmaceutical distribution and carrier activities in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. It also provides a platform from which to undertake a potential geographical expansion through other activities carried by the group. In September 2022, we announced the acquisition of 100% of the refrigerated and frozen food transport and logistic activity spun off from the Spanish company, Grupo Carbó Collbatallé. Carbó has a network of 14 logistic platforms, operates a fleet of 57 tractor units, and employs around 360 direct workers. It recorded consolidated sales of approximately EUR 47 million and adjusted EBITDA under IFRS 16 of EUR 11 million in 2021.
With this acquisition, we have boosted our customer services offering by incorporating complementary controlled temperature activities, fundamentally in the frozen range. This will allow Logista, which already has frozen range Logista logistical capabilities for pharmaceuticals distribution, to build a strong footing in food distribution by offering a three-temperature service to customers that need it. The acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Carbó for EUR 51 million was closed in October 2022, so it will be consolidated in our accounts in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, and it's not consolidated in the figures discussed today. In June 2022, we announced the acquisition of 60% of Transportes El Mosca, a Spanish company specializing in refrigerated national and international transport for the food sector.