Coca-Cola HBC AG

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Coca-Cola HBC's first conference call for the 2026 First Quarter Trading Update. We have with us Zoran Bogdanovich, Chief Executive Officer, Anastasis Stamoulis, Chief Financial Officer, and Jemima Benstead, Head of Investor Relations. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. There will be some opening remarks followed by question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star and then one on your telephone keypad and wait until your name is announced. I must also advise that this conference is being recorded today, Thursday, May 7, 2026. I will now pass the floor to one of your speakers, Jemima Benstead, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the call. I'm here with our CEO, Zoran Bogdanovic, and our CFO, Anastasios Dimoulas. We'll start with some opening remarks from Zoran, and then open the floor to your questions. Please keep to one question and a follow-up, waiting for us to answer the first question before moving to your follow-up. We have about an hour for the call today, which should give plenty of time for good discussion. Finally, I must remind you that this conference call contains various forward-looking statements. These should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements in our trading update this morning. And with that, I will turn the call over to Zoran.

Thank you, Jemima. And good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining the call.

Q1 is typically our smallest quarter, but it has been a busy one for our people and our business. It was filled with many activations and focused execution of targeted initiatives, working in close partnership with our customers to deliver our strategy. Let me share three key highlights from these results. First, we've delivered a strong quarter of high-quality organic revenue growth led by volume growth across all three segments and revenue per case expansion. This is a good start to the year, in line with our expectations, even in challenging and unpredictable external environments. I'm proud that Q1 is the 12th consecutive quarter that we've delivered volume growth. Second, we gained a further 110 basis points of value share in non-alcoholic ready-to-drink year-to-date, building on strong gains in 2025 and continuous gains in the last six years. In sparkling, we also had a good start to the year, gaining 50 basis points of value share year-to-date. This is testament to our unique 24-7 portfolio, execution excellence, and focus on joint value creation with our customers. And thirdly, we are reiterating our 2026 guidance today for organic revenue and EBIT growth. Despite heightened geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, we remain confident that our portfolio, bespoke capabilities, people, and proven track record position us to continue to win in the markets. So, a good quarter, and I'd like to sincerely thank all our colleagues, customers, suppliers, and our partners for their ongoing efforts and support. I'll now share some details on the Q1 performance, and then Anastasis and I'll be happy to take your questions. Organic revenue grew 11.6%, with volumes up 9.6%, and revenue per unit case up 1.8%. Reported revenue grew 12%, driven by strong organic growth and a small benefit from FX translation. I'm really pleased with the level of volume growth we've delivered in a mixed environment. Innovation, localized activations, and strong partnerships contributed to a strong underlying volume performance. Excluding the benefit from four extra selling days, volumes grew about 3.5%, with growth across all three of our segments in the quarter. As well as this, our targeted actions to grow transactions are working with transactions growing ahead of volumes. We continue to leverage our revenue growth management toolkit to actively drive all three levers of volume, price, and mix. Our leading RGM capability enables us to navigate mixed consumer environments by offering a range of affordability and premiumization initiatives and tailor pricing in each market based on local inflation and currency dynamics. Affordability solutions and value offers continue to be relevant for many of our consumers, and these are embedded in our RGM plans and execution in the market. In the quarter, we maintained our focus on entry and smaller PECs to manage critical price points for example, by further expanding 200 ml cans in Poland and Austria. Promotions also remained an important part of our RGM strategy. In Q1, we leveraged Easter in relevant markets by increasing promotions on multi-serve packs, which play an important role in the at-home drinking occasion during this period. As you know, we always look to balance our affordability initiatives with premiumization opportunities leveraging our data-driven segmented execution approach to personalize portfolio assortments and meet specific consumer needs. This is driven both by our RGM initiatives around package mix and pricing, as well as our strong activations and innovations that create relevant consumer experiences and strengthen brand equity. For example, in Q1, we drove growth of our premium small glass bottle of Horeca channel. and we delivered mid-teens growth in Schweppes, supported by our locally tailored Flavor of the Quarter campaign. This good performance in adult sparkling contributed to improvements in category mix alongside continued strong growth of energy. We also continued with targeted actions to improve package mix, such as the launch of new 500 ml single-serve pack for trade Mark Coke in Egypt, Overall, I'm pleased we drove a further 140 basis points improvement in single-serve mix at the group level. Now turning to performance by category. Again here, the volume growth benefited by about 6 percentage points from the four extra selling days tailwind, but overall, we are pleased with the performance across our strategic priority categories. Sparkling volumes grew by 9.4% in the quarters. Trademark Coke grew high single digits and Coke Zero grew high teens. Coke Zero Sugar Zero Caffeine, or Zero Zero as we call it, continued to grow strong double digits, supported by integrated execution, including the launch of a new visual identity across packs in 16 markets. The new visual identity really stands out with the bold black and gold pack. we are excited about the opportunity for Zero Zero, an excellent proposition for adult drinkers wanting to monitor their caffeine intake, particularly in the evening occasion. We continue to activate Coke and Meals campaigns across our markets with a truly localized approach. By partnering with relevant food influencers and celebrating local food culture, we drove stronger engagement and transaction growth. In Egypt, The local team even achieved the Guinness World Record in serving the most community meals with Coca-Cola in one hour during a Ramadan meal festive event. Sprite continued to see strong momentum with volumes up mid-teens. We are excited to leverage the newly launched It's That Fresh global platform with basketball partnerships, the NBA and EuroLeague. We also launched the new flavor innovation Sprite Chill in eight markets during the quarter, and we'll be rolling it out further this year. We also delivered high single digit growth in adult sparkling, driven by Schweppes, as we continue to tap into both mixability and straight drinking occasions. Another element innovation in the quarter was a new flavor, Cherry Pepper, that we launched across both Schweppes and Kinley. Energy continued its strong growth trajectory with volumes up 27%, and strong double-digit growth across all three segments. In the quarter, we launched innovations of Monster, including Monster Viking Berry and Zero Sugar flavor with Valentino Rossi across many of our markets. Both launches have had a great start ahead of our expectations, and we are excited to see how the rest of the year goes. We also continue to leverage football activations in Nigeria and Egypt to drive strong growth in Predator and Fury, respectively. As you know, we are prioritizing the out-of-home channel in coffee, and I'm pleased that out-of-home volumes grew by 39% as we expanded Costa Coffee and Cafe Vergnano across existing outlets and recruited new ones. As we expected, total coffee volumes still declined in the quarter due to this deliberate shift in focus, but we expect the overall category to return to growth in the second half of the year. Moving to stills, where volumes grew 4.1%. Sports drinks continued its great performance, delivering strong double-digit growth across all segments. We launched Powerade innovations, such as Powerade Active Water, Powerade FIFA Limited Editions, and a new CanPack format. We also leveraged sports partnerships, such as the Olympic Winter Games, to drive transactions. Water grew high single digits, led primarily by the emerging segment, while juice declined in a challenging industry backdrop. Turning to sustainability, I am pleased that our performance continues to be recognized externally. Vankola HVC has been confirmed for the ninth time as the world's most sustainable beverage company in the 2025 Dow Jones Best-in-Class Indices. During the quarter, we also concluded Mission 2025 with strong progress and introduced Mission Refresh, our renewed set of long-term sustainability commitments. Building on our achievements, Mission Refresh is anchored in four flagship commitments. Reaching net zero emissions by 2040, achieving a net positive biodiversity impact by 2040, replenishing 100% of the water used in our beverages and in high-risk plants by 2035, and being a neighbor of choice for our communities. These commitments are underpinned by measurable targets across all seven pillars of our sustainability strategy, climate, packaging, water, agriculture, nutrition, biodiversity, and people and communities. We will continue to track and publish our performance annually to ensure transparency and consistent delivery. Now turning to performance by segment, in established Net sales revenue grew by 7.3%, with volumes up 6.7%. Volume grew slightly when excluding the benefit from the additional selling days. When it comes to categories, we achieved good performance from SparkLink, particularly Coke Zero and Sprite, as well as energy and sports drinks. Looking at countries, I'm very pleased with the continued good momentum in Ireland and the improved performance in Switzerland. Revenue per case increased by 0.6%, A positive category mix was partly offset by a negative package mix, impacted by the timing of Easter and associated promotions. In developing markets, net sales revenue grew by 10.3%. Volume grew by 7.4%, but still grew low single digits when excluding the additional selling days. When it comes to categories, we saw good performances from trademark Coke, Sprite, Energy, and sports drinks. Organic net sales revenue per case increased by 2.7%. This was driven by pricing actions, positive category mix, and improved package mix, as we drove 190 basis points improvement in single-serum mix. Finally, in our emerging markets, we delivered net sales revenue growth of 15%. Volume grew by 11.2%, or mid-single digits, excluding the additional selling days. By category, we saw strong performances in sparkling energy and water. Volumes in both Nigeria and Egypt were particularly strong as our execution focus helped us build on the momentum from 2025. Revenue per case grew 3.5% organically, benefiting from the impact of pricing throughout the last 12 months, partly offset by negative country mix. We also delivered improvements in package mix, with single-serve mix increasing by 160 basis points in the quarter. And now, looking ahead to the rest of 2026. With regards to CCBA acquisition, we continue to make good progress on the completion process with antitrust clearances in Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, and Comesa, as we continue with the merger clearance process in South Africa and Tanzania. We are also very pleased with our successful bond issuance in March, despite the volatile market backdrop, which secures the funding for the 1.4 billion cash consideration of the acquisition. Overall, we remain on track to complete during the second half of 2026. We are encouraged by the good start we've had to 2026, in line with our plans. 2026 marks 75 years since our business was founded in Nigeria, and we are all very proud of where we are today. 75 years of growth, of creating shared value, and of continuously raising the bar. 2026 is no exception, and I'm excited for the strong pipeline of initiatives, innovation, and partnerships ahead of us. Of course, we are very mindful of the heightened geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty and are monitoring it closely. But we remain confident in our 24-7 portfolio, our bespoke capabilities, our people, and the opportunities for growth in our diverse markets, which position us to continue winning in the market. We have significant experience in navigating periods of volatility. We are well hedged across our key commodities for 2026, and we are not seeing any material change in consumer behavior across our markets. With this in mind, we are therefore reiterating our guidance for 2026 for organic revenue growth of 6% to 7%, and organic EBIT growth of 7% to 10%. Thank you for your attention. And with that, let us now open the floor for your questions.

Thank you. We are now opening the floor for question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. That's star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Andrea Pistacci Oh, Bank of America, your line is now open.

Okay, thank you very much. Morning, Zoran, Anastasis, and Jemima. So my first question, please, is on revenue per case, which was a little softer this quarter. Now, you called out country mix. You called out the PAC mix in established markets driven by the Easter promo activity. So as these effects normalize, how do you see revenue per case playing out for the rest of the year? Does it improve from the Q1 level? And connected to this, when you leave aside the peculiarities of the Easter timing, how would you characterize the promo environment in your main established markets compared, say, to a year or two ago? This is my first question. Thanks.

Hi, Andrea. Good morning. Yeah, you mentioned very well a couple of factors that we highlighted, one of them being country mix that played a role. But I would here call out our intentional play as part of our RGM. As you know, every quarter has its own dynamic. And in Q1, we have deliberately focused on, put more emphasis on volume. because one thing was to deliver benefiting from four additional selling days, but also to achieve positive volume performance across all three segments when you look at it on a like-for-like basis. And also taking into account the Easter impact, where we naturally more activate multi-serve packages because of the in-home drinking moments that happen during this period. This was in line with our expectations, and we do see for the rest of the year that we will be delivering in line with our guidance, both with volume and price mix across all three segments. I really want to highlight this element on the volume, which is really, really important in Q1, but also that it's the 12th consecutive quarter of us growing volume. And also last couple of years, we had very, very healthy price mix performance. And we are just very mindful in our game plan how we play every quarter. For the rest of the year, we do see that we will have and we do expect some improvement in the price mix beyond Q1.

Okay, thank you. The second question, and I don't know to what degree you'll be able to talk about this for regulatory reasons. Just on CCBA, if you're able to provide a bit of an update on how CCBA has been performing since you announced the deal, maybe 2025 numbers that you will have, I imagine, seen at this point. If you could give any update there, what's positive, what's maybe less positive on CCBA performance?

Thanks, Andrea. And I think you already alluded that CCBA will not be able to say much, especially on numbers. However, the process is progressing really well with four of those regulatory approvals already happening and two more coming up. And we are very excited that everything is going as planned and that sometime during the second half of this year, we can get all the approvals so that we can really start with this really a phenomenal opportunity for Hellenic. In the meantime, our teams are working across all functions on integration planning, fully respecting all the rules that apply during such periods as we are now. But we are doing our homework on all the integration planning across all functions. to be really ready for day one, whenever that will be, sometimes later in the year.

Yeah, good morning, Andreas. As Zoran alluded to, There's not much we can comment at this stage on details on the performance of the business on 25 or 26, given the fact that the transaction has not been completed and we have not taken over that operation yet. But we still remain very excited about the opportunity and the growth that we expect to get out of this project. CCBA covers high growth markets and we are very excited about the opportunity that it brings both demographics and the overall setup that we see in the future.

Okay, I get it. Thanks very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Mitch Collette of Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Thank you. Morning, Zoran, Anastasis and Jemima. If we strip out the additional selling days, organic sales growth this quarter was slightly below your guidance and your algorithm. And there was also a benefit from Easter. So perhaps you gave us part of the answer with your comment a minute ago about price mix. But Can you just give us some color on what's going to close the gap for the balance of the year? I'm obviously conscious that Q1 is a relatively small quarter, but what do you expect to drive acceleration throughout the rest of 2026?

Hi, good morning, Mitch.

As reiterating the obvious, Q1 smallest quarter and all the game plan really came as we were planning for that quarter. Now, This year is full of lots of exciting things and pipeline. We are in the year, as you know, of the World Cup, where this is going to be the biggest activation that we had so far. And that's going to be a great entry into the strong plans that we have for the summer. and for the rest of the year. So marketing calendar with our partners, Coca-Cola company and Monster primarily is very strong. And even in Q1, it was a good preview of the World Cup, Trophy Tour, Olympics, we had, as I said, Ramadan activation. And I think this is just a preview of the way we do the events. And we see very good receptiveness from consumers for these type of activations to bring excitement, which eventually are driving the product appeal and transactions. Then also there is a good pipeline of innovations in Sparklink. There are a number of things, and I'm very, very excited, as well as the whole team, about the Coke Zero and overall Zero proposition performance. You can read and hear from us about Zero Sugar, Zero Caffeine, which is having a very, very strong performance. And we can see that the rest of the year, this will be really ramping up. We had a good start with flavors. I particularly want to call out Sprite. because there is a whole toolbox of either new flavor, new campaign, phenomenal assets that we will be activating throughout the year. Adult sparkling had a very strong performance because we started already with the cherry pepper, but also there is more to come both with Schweppes and Kinley. Then with Monster, you see that innovation continues with a strong pipeline. Same thing with PowerAid. So I can say that calendar, very full, activations, innovations, continue our discipline focus on the execution, leveraging our capabilities, route to market, strong customer partnerships. So all that in short gives me confidence that in the remaining three quarters, we will be seeing a good performance.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Simon Hales of Citi. Your line is now open.

Thanks. Morning, Zoran. Morning, Anastasia. Morning, Jemima. So my first question was just around Nigeria, really, Zoran. I wonder if you could just provide a little bit more color around the volume strength we've continued to see in the first quarter there. Any real reason to believe that we should think about The momentum there, they're sort of starting to slow as we head into the next sort of few quarters and to the back end of the year, because it just looks quite impressive performance. So a bit more color there to start with, please.

Yeah, thank you, Simon. Good morning. Look, very, very pleased with the performance of Nigeria in Q1 with this volume of 14%. which actually is a great continuation of performance over the last couple of years. And we really contribute that to a number of things that come well together. So strong marketing plans that we have with the Coca-Cola company, excellent capabilities that we have in the country, where particularly we are leveraging the data that is serving us in the way how we not only segment, but micro-segment the market, both on the consumer and customer front, which is helping us to drive more informed and deliberate approach to every single outlet. And Nigeria is leading the way in this initiative, which we call Ignite Niger. And Naya and the Nigerian team also addressed this in the last year's Bite Size event. So that is truly giving results. We've been also investing in supply chain, really helping that we have sufficient capacity to deliver on all our plans continuously. There is a strong program of RGM between both affordability, which you can imagine is very important in Nigeria, but also on the premiumization front, because you see that Monster and Predator in the country are performing really well, as well as Schweppes, which is on a fantastic trajectory of growth. And I also need to underline the quality of the teams that we have in the country, which are really driving the business in a very positive way. optimistic, bullish, competent way. So in closure, I'm also excited by the prospect and very, very sure that Nigeria is going to have a strong year this year.

Great. And then my second question was just around the commodities hedging for 2026. Obviously, you mentioned you were well hedged. Can you remind us where you are on your key inputs now for this year and provide any early thoughts on how you're thinking about and how you're making sure that you can ensure, you know, sort of a consistency of supply of those key inputs.

Yeah, good morning, Simon. Yeah, so first of all, just to give a little bit more color behind COGS, and as you mentioned, the key commodities for 2026, as you hear from Zoran, we are strongly heads, covering about 75% on average, which means that we don't expect any material direct impact for the rest of the year. Now, there is an element of energy cost, of course, that would be part of production over here in haulage because of electricity and what we have seen with the volatility around us. And even in this case, in those markets where it's possible, we are also heads against electricity and utilities, which means the remaining have a very small portion of our overall COGS. So, again, nothing material from that perspective. Now, in terms of other indirect impact when it comes to transportation cost or conversion from suppliers, our existing contracts and long-term relationships partially mitigate the impact. And as you would expect, we have a list of mitigation actions and productivity initiatives in place to navigate through that. So, in summary, what I want to highlight is that for 2026, we still see, we expect our Cox per case to increase in the low single digit levels for the year. Now, I believe you also asked for 2027. I think it's a little bit too early to comment about 2027, especially considering volatile unpredictability around us with the situation in the Middle East, which will actually define the level of the duration and the evolution of the situation will define how things will evolve for 27. What I can reiterate is that we'll continue on our discipline hedging strategy and our supply chain efficiency productivity plan to ensure that we continue to deliver on our commitments.

Very clear. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Matt, board of BNP. Your line is now open.

Hi, all. Thanks for the question. Just two from me. The first one's just on Russia. The performance in the quarter, I think you grew low single digit, so kind of excluding the selling days, really down low to mid single digit there. So any comment on that? on what you're seeing in the Russian market? Have you seen any deterioration there within that performance? Or is it just comps related? And would you expect that performance to kind of sequentially improve as we move through the year? So that's the first one on Russia. And then secondly, just a follow up, I suppose, on the previous question. Obviously, you're talking to some mitigation to potential COGS inflation and energy cost pressure. Does that include incremental pricing for you, and would that be something you're kind of thinking about as we move through to the second half of the year? Are you in a position where you would look to take potentially incremental price in some of those markets as we move through the back half?

Thank you. Hi, Matt.

Look, on Russia, there is not much difference. The consumer backdrop remains fairly challenging. And no major changes in the first quarter and that business continues as you know, as a self-funded, self-managed. So really not much change. On the second one, look, we are really deploying our overall RGM framework, which is planned for the full year, observing and monitoring the situation. And so we are able to respond really in an agile way and dynamically with our pricing if and when needed. However, it's too early to tell, and with all initiatives that Anastasios was mentioning earlier of productivity and continuous work on that front, we are managing the whole P&L, which informs the guidance that we gave.

Yeah, I can be a little bit more detailed on the part. You know, I covered the hedging programs. What I want to highlight is around our resilient supply chain, where we have a list of productivity initiatives, not only as a result of the current situation, which is something that we have been delivering over the years, and we continue to do that in 2026 as well, with lightweighting initiatives, packaging optimization, energy saving efficiencies in the production lines with improvement on SLE and yields, and even on the OPEC side, revisiting the route to market optimization, warehouse efficiencies and capacity improvements, all these not only to secure profitability as expected, but as we have demonstrated last year, to create the space, which is also something we said this year, to continue to invest in marketing and digital. So that's something that will still remain high on our agenda. And we will continue to do so, and therefore driving such efficiencies. And we have proven in the past that we have navigated in such situations, which makes us very confident we will do the same again this year.

Great. Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Edward Mundy of Jefferies. Your line is now open.

Morning. So my first question is really around the heightened volatile environment. When you think about your scenario planning, clearly there's still a lot of unknowns, but I would love you to frame how you're thinking about the current consumer environment today, relative to where we were back in 2022, going into that last period of huge inflation. It feels like the consumer is probably a little bit more fatigued after pricing over the last couple of years in consumer goods. But at the same time, pricing is probably going to be a little bit less than what you saw back in 2022, 2023, given where spot prices are. And then how do you think about your capabilities and portfolio today to navigate through this volatile environment?

Thank you, Ed.

Yeah, look, there's a little bit of deja vu, which just reminds us that we've been already dealing with all kinds of situations and going through all kinds of challenges. crisis or whatever you call them but if anything we've learned a lot all that periods which we navigated and sailed through i believe really well just helped us that we know that this scenario planning risk planning which constantly keeps us on the toes so that we can quickly react really makes a difference now coming To consumer, we also see that consumers, maybe unlike last time, of course, people are observing and what's going on and following. But there is also desire from consumers that we see that they engage in the activations of the events. They are very receptive to innovations that we are introducing. So it's also visible that people really want to live and, to the extent possible, enjoy moments, and we have a portfolio that also helps that, whether that's out of home or in-home. So when I compare us, I think that every single year we've been able to challenge ourselves to become better, further strengthening capabilities that we are extremely focused in a disciplined way, continuous investments behind those and behind our people capabilities, Also, digital technology, AI, is part of the overall development so that we are becoming a faster and smarter enterprise because all this is equipping our people to react better and faster and in a more informed way. So I feel, and that gives me confidence, that whatever happens, we have tools and mechanisms and portfolio to react in an appropriate and adequate way. Portfolio, I think we are very lucky to have such a broad and flexible portfolio that gives us the chance to react across the markets in a way and give propositions to various price segments in various drinking moments, various occasions, and in line with the you know, involving preferences and consumer needs as we see in every single local market. So I think lots of learnings that we are applying and that you will see us executing.

My follow-up, if I may, is around the energy category, where there's still incredibly strong growth, and it's clear you're both taking share, but the category itself is quite buoyant. I'd just love a little bit of color as to what's behind it. Is it distribution-led? Is it broadening the consumer base? Is it broadening the consumption occasions? What is it that's really underpinning that growth?

There are a number of factors that really come here together. The overall category is clearly developing, and we do see that more people, more consumers are entering the category. When we see that in the last 12 months, 26% of the energy drinkers have entered the category, then you see now that the profile of consumers gender-wise has equalized. So pretty much it's also 50-50 split of between male and female consumption. Then you see also that energy is entering into more occasions. So beyond active leisure, if you can call it like that, you see now energy being at work studying, learning, relaxing, routine moments. So simply there is expansion even with food. You see Monster as well as competitors being more in that occasion. And then connection with relevant passion points of consumers, with gaming, with football, with music. And then almost to forget the most important thing, There is a continuously strong pipeline of innovation that is coming up. I mentioned these two that we are just introducing, which, again, are performing really well. And then you add a strong execution, adding more coolers, relevant promotions where consumers can go into GP motocross, Formula One racing that our partners are providing. And in short, it's many things coming together, which simply continue benefiting from the category growth. But I'm very happy that we are growing faster than category as we are gaining share across all markets. And we are now have overtaken key competitor in 11 of our markets. And we continue in that direction.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Sanjit Aulia of UBS. Your line is now open.

Hi. Good morning, Zoran, Anastasis, Jemima. A couple from me, please. I'd like to dig into a couple of markets, mostly Poland. Can you talk through how the market and yourselves have performed during the DRS implementation? um uh how how destructive uh has that been uh if at all um that's my first question hi sanjit i heard first one on drs and what was the second one Sorry, second one is on Italy, Zoran. I think the underlying performance seems to be still weighed by some discontinuation, I think, of some of the water portfolio. But how are you seeing the underlying momentum in Italy build versus your expectations? And how would you characterize the consumer environment there, please? Thank you.

Yeah. Look, on DRS, First of all, this is a solution that together with industry, we are advocating for, and when it's also industry-led, as a good systematic solution for the packaging waste solution. So that comes as a part of also our joint efforts. And we've seen last year in Austria, start in Poland, We get prepared for these things really well. We know that temporarily this does have an impact because introduction of the deposit impacts the price that consumers initially need to pay until they learn that they can get that deposit back, but it is an out-of-pocket spend. That's why this can have initially a a bit of a slowdown like we have seen in Austria, or we have also seen that this is one of the drivers in Poland. But this is none of our concern, and we know that that temporary slowdown is for the good reason. So we are fully ready wherever these new systems will come up. The soon is coming up in Greece. sometime later this year. So we are ready for that. And also knowing that there is a better and bigger purpose for this for the wider industry. On Italy, Sajid, I really want to call out that we are really pleased with that performance. Now, overall market is a bit softer. We would wish that market is... is a bit stronger and we do believe that as we enter into the pre-season and season, we will see more of market. But in that market, we are now for 10 consecutive months are gaining share. So I'm very pleased that our winning performance is there and seeing that our strategically important zero sugar portfolio is performing really well. of which zero zero is doing really well. Then you see also on Sprite performance that I talked earlier about. Then you see excellent energy performance. Then you see also power rate performance. So, but what's below the hood is development of our RGM and route to market in the country. that's year on year very systematic, which makes our organization really strong there. So that gives me confidence that Italy is going to have a good year this year.

Great, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Lawrence Wyatt of Workplace. Your line is now open.

Morning, Zoran, Anastasios, and Jemima. A couple from me. The first one just on general consumers. Of course, you mentioned the geopolitical uncertainties at the moment. I was wondering if there's any markets where you're seeing that direct impact on consumers at the moment, whether that's the exit rate or otherwise any sort of impact from the inflationary environment or uncertainty on consumer spend. That's my first question.

Hi, Lawrence. Look, one thing that we also said in the introductory remarks is that we don't see any significant change what we've been seeing last year. And that also relates to dynamics in a few markets. We said last year that Austria did have overall market head challenges, and we've seen also softer Austria in Q1. We said that last few years, because of a number of regulatory taxation, VRS, VAT, in Romania, and this is a market where we do see, we have a watch out, even though Romania and Q1 had a really solid performance. But it is one of those markets where we are a bit more cautious on the other side, we see very good continuous performance of Ireland. Greece had a good performance. Very pleased about Switzerland bounce back. Then Czech and Hungary continue really well. Serbia as well. So, and needless to say, that Nigeria and Egypt have been absolutely fantastic with performance. So all in all, to cut the long story short, no material change. And pretty much what we've been seeing last year, this is what we are experiencing also so far this year.

Thank you.

And just also in terms of pricing going into next year, next quarter, of course, the Easter period will be a bit later. And I'm just wondering to think about your promotional intentions going into next quarter. You're going to have the Easter a little bit in the quarter, but also the start of the World Cup. So I'm just wondering, should we be expecting a materially different pricing environment in this Q2 versus last year?

Look, our promotional plans directly connect with the assets that we will be leveraging, FIFA World Cup, where it's not only pricing promotions, but we have a number of value-added consumer promotions with which consumers can win tickets to the World Cup in a number of countries. And also in Monster, equally, there are other value-added promotions. So it's a whole variety of promotions that we are deploying in Q2. as part of our whole overall RGM plan. And as I called out in my introductory remarks, in a number of countries we have or are doing price changes and price increases, because we always said that's also part of the algorithm. and perfectly normal that we are doing that, depending on the local circumstances and our local plans. So, in short, promotions are remaining an important driver of our volume and revenue generation, and that's what we will be seeing in Q2.

Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Charlie Higgs of Rothschild & Co. Redburn. Your line is now open.

Cool. Hey, Zoran. Hey, Anastasis. Hope you're both well. My first one is just on sparkling flavors, so Sprite and Fanta, which picked up quite nicely, particularly around Sprite, where you mentioned some of the innovation coming and there's a new global campaign. I guess from Hellenic's point of view, where are the key markets for Sprite? And how do you think about activating it better throughout this year as new flavors and campaigns come online?

That's my first one. Hi, Charlie. Yeah, thanks a lot for this question.

So we had very good performance of both campaigns of both Fanta and Sprite. And for both of those, we have strong plans for the year. I particularly highlighted Sprite where there are so many things that I would say it's a part of the re-energizing and reviving Sprite with a great tasting proposition that we have in both sugar and zero sugar variants. Great innovation with Sprite Chill, which is a great tasting lemon mint flavor. Then also this really good new campaign and basketball assets with which Sprite will be connecting really well. So Sprite is a focus in all our markets. And it's very encouraging to see that it already reacted very well in the Q1. Now, Sprite is an important brand in many of our markets, but we see that in Nigeria, in Romania, in Poland, Ukraine. I mean, these are some of the very sizable markets that we have But also with Fanta, it's a huge brand in a number of countries. There are also exciting innovations that are ahead of us. Also gaming, connection with snacking and meals. So you will be seeing a lot on that front.

Thanks, Johan. And then my follow-up was on Nigeria, where you know, the last few years there's been some pretty nasty FX devaluation, but actually in 2026, it looks like you could see perhaps a bit of relief at last. How do you think about FX this year in Nigeria in terms of both revenue per case, but also potentially lifting local profitability?

Thanks. Yeah. Hi, Charlie.

Let me take that one. Yeah, you're right. Nigeria, we have seen some significant volatility in the past and we're very pleased to see that actually starting from 25, we have seen some stability around the currency, which actually makes us feel more confident about how we'll be able to execute the activities in the market. Look, we've been in Nigeria for 75 years now, so we have also learned that what is today may not be the same throughout the year. The volatility is still something, although, as I said, there is more stability from also the activities that take place from the government and the investments that we've seen coming in the market. Now, in terms of pricing, our pricing actions in Nigeria are set to address the current inflationary pressure. And they're adapted to, as you understand, the competitive environment, as well as the overall RGM equation, as Zona was highlighting, balancing both new packages, affordability and premiumization, as well as the volume driver, which is a key driver in the whole RGM equation of the country. So overall, we remain very confident on Nigeria and optimistic on the performance. Now, in terms of profitability margins, one would expect that Nigeria is probably on the lower part of the group average on profitability compared to the group average. But we do expect that that will continue to improve in the midterm, following the things I just mentioned, as well as our focus on efficiency productivity, which is already on a strong ground in Nigeria today.

Thanks, Anastasios.

Your next question comes from the line of Nadine Sarwat of Bernstein. Your line is now open.

Morning, guys. Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to ask on Egypt. I understand that there have been curfews implemented from about the very end of Q1 all the way through April on the back of energy constraints. Obviously, a big market for you guys with lots of volume drivers there. Can you comment on if you are seeing any outcome, any pressures from that in April on your performance and sort of how are you thinking about Egypt given what is going on with global energy for Q2 and onwards? Thank you.

Thanks, Nadine.

So we, on this curfew, just to say it's correct, this has been implemented in the country. And then subsequently, the time extension has happened for the outlets and customers to operate. However, we did not feel the impact of that. Egypt had absolutely great Q1. with strong volume and revenue performance and continued share gains, both in NARTD and Sparkling. And I use the opportunity to also say how over the course of two years, we have been continuously narrowing the share gap versus the leader in the country. And overall, that is a reflection of our strong commitment and investments that we are doing in the country with a very intentional portfolio development and also our capabilities development that we are doing in the country. That's why you see that Spartan is performing really well, where Coca-Cola brand is leading the growth. I just talked earlier. about Sprite that Charlie asked, and Egypt is the second most important country for Sprite. Schweppes is the largest global business, and that's in Egypt. And that's really, really strong business. And then the moment we came in, we introduced energy brands with Monster and Fury, which are performing really well. And to remind you, one of the things was correction on economics or behind water, where we took a little slowdown to be able to then speed up that we are doing now. And that's why you see also water, which is important category in Egypt, is doing very well. So Egypt, as well as overall Hellenic, we have not been impacted by what's going on at the moment in the Middle East. but we remain focused in executing the plan. And I'm equally as for Nigeria, but also very optimistic and confident about our performance in Egypt for the full year.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Richard Withhagen of Kepler-Cherveau. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Zoran, Anastasios and Jemima. Back on Egypt, but perhaps a bit more longer term question. I mean, you mentioned your capabilities, execution in Nigeria and so on. Can you compare how that is in Egypt these days?

Obviously, a business you've had for a shorter period of time. Look, that's actually very good what you said, Richard, that

role model of how this development will continue is to go to follow that Nigeria path which was a journey and is a journey of consistency and discipline in terms of our development in the country irrespective of the fact that sometimes you are faced with some headwinds but we stay the course and this is what we will be doing in Egypt And I think that in a more compressed time, I think we've done really a lot. And even when there were all kinds of headbeats happening in the last two or three years, we really stayed committed to investing and developing the market. And we are very keen to share that also in our upcoming bite-sized live event that we will have on July 7 in Cairo. as we would like to demonstrate and share what we have been doing over there with our partners, Coca-Cola Company and Monster, and also what are we doing on the ground and also be able to show and walk the market together.

Right. And then my second question is really on the bond issue. You issued... just over 2 billion of bonds, I think, at the end of March for the cash outlay of about 1.4 billion for CCBA later in the year. And you're increasing the guidance a bit on finance costs. So, I mean, what are the, let's say, the shifting elements there? Is the bond issue a bit bigger than you originally anticipated or the cost a bit higher? So, some color on that, please.

Yeah, thank you for the question, Richard. Just to remind a little bit everybody that, because you also mentioned the guidance, just to remind everybody that at the beginning of the year, when we issued our finance guidance of 25 to 45 million euros cost for the year, we did not include any CCBA-related financing, with the exception of the bridge financing, which was already in place, as you understand. And as you correctly said, we raised a bond of 2.1 billion euros at the end of March, which I want to highlight here that I'm very pleased with the market reaction and the very strong investor demand, which also made the cost quite attractive, despite the current environment that we were also experiencing at that time. So as you understand, we had to move in time. I would like to call it just in time as the situation was evolving because we didn't know how the overall crisis would evolve in the future and capture the favorable liquid market conditions ahead of the completion of the CCBA transaction, which we see to be finishing during the second half of the year. Now, in terms of the value, 1.4 billion is the cash consideration for CCBA. And there's another 700 million euros, which is connected to our usual refinancing of the maturing bond that we have next year, which is a common practice that we do every year, capturing ahead of time the relevant refinancing. So as a result, that had an upgrade of our... finance guidance to the range of 45 to 65, which of course includes the cost of the CCBA financing, the cancellation of the current bridge financing facility, and of course the usual drivers of the finance cost deposit interest as well as the extra 700 million. Now, in terms of the ranges, I would highlight that this is connected to an extent with the timing of the completion of the CCBA transaction. So what do I mean by that? Obviously, the finance cost is given when it comes to the bond issuance. But in the meantime, there is an interest that we have as income until we wait for the final payout of the CCBA transaction. So as you understand, the sooner this is completed, the less this finance income will be. If it is completed later in the year, there will be more finance income which will balance to that extent.

Very clear. Thank you.

Thank you. I'd now like to hand the call back to Zoran for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. I just want to thank everyone for taking the part in today's call and looking forward to catching up with you again soon. wishing you all a good day. Thank you.

Thank you for attending today's call. You may now disconnect. Goodbye.