Coca-Cola HBC AG

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Coca-Cola HBC conference call for the 2026 half-year results. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by the question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone keypad at any time and wait until your name is announced. I must also advise that this conference is being recorded today, Wednesday, 5th of August, 2026. and I'll pass the floor to one of your speakers, Jemima Bernstad, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you.

Good morning and thank you all for joining the call. I'm here with our CEO, Zoran Bogdanovic, and our CFO, Anastasis Stamoulis. Zoran will begin with the strategic highlights from the first half. Anastasis will then take you through our financial performance and outlook in more detail. We will then open up the floor to questions. Please keep to one question and one 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 a good discussion. I will also remind you that this conference call contains various forward-looking statements. These should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements in our results press release this morning and at the end of our slide deck.

With that, I will turn the call over to Zoran. Thank you, Jemima. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. I'm very pleased with the progress we've made in the first half of 2026. We delivered broad-based, volume-led growth, continued to gain market share, and invested behind the opportunities that will support our future growth. Let me highlight three key takeaways from the period. First, we continued to deliver high-quality top-line growth. Organic revenue increased by 9.6%, with organic volume growth of 7.5%. Volume growth was led by sparkling and energy, two of our strategic priority categories, with marketing campaigns, innovation and execution all playing a key role. While Q1 benefited from four additional selling days, we saw an acceleration in our underlying performance in Q2 to 5.8% growth with all three segments contributing, making it the 13th consecutive quarter of volume growth. Second, we translated this top-line performance into strong profit delivery. Gross margins expanded strongly, which allowed us to step up marketing investments and still deliver strong organic comparable EBIT growth of 15.2%, with margins up 60 basis points. Comparable earnings per share also grew 15.2%. This strong performance has allowed us to upgrade our guidance for 2026, which Anastasis will share more on later. And finally, we continue to invest in our 24-7 portfolio and bespoke capabilities, which underpins our long-standing growth trajectory and enables us to win in the market and consistently gain share. Overall, a strong first half despite the challenging backdrop. I would like to sincerely thank All our teams, customers, suppliers and partners for their ongoing efforts and support. Let me start with a major highlight of the last few months. FIFA World Cup program delivered in partnership with a Coca-Cola company. From special edition Coca-Cola and Powerade packs to immersive pan experiences and market-specific activations, We brought the excitement of the tournament to millions of consumers across our footprint. Key highlights included our value-added promotion with Panini collectible stickers, which resonated strongly with consumers, and our AI-enabled penalty kick challenge, an innovative experience developed by our digital innovation hub that allowed consumers to test their skills by recreating famous football penalties. We also launched Powerade FIFA play styles, A special edition range with football-inspired flavors for the World Cup. Overall, the program has delivered strong results, supporting the positive trademark Coke and Powerade performance in the period and contributing to share gains for both brands. But the value of an activation like the FIFA World Cup extends beyond the immediate volume impact. It is also about strengthening the long-term relevance and equity of our brand by connecting with consumers and being present in moments that matter most to them. I'm very proud of the quality of execution in each of our markets and how our teams took this powerful global platform and translated it into locally relevant experiences, creating value for us and our customers. Let's move to category performance, starting with sparkling, which continues to be the core driver of our growth. Organic volumes grew 6.4% in the first half and 4% in the second quarter. Again, volumes accelerated on an underlying basis Q2 versus Q1. Throughout the period, we continued to bring excitement to the category, creating unique consumer experiences through focused execution of our campaigns and our innovation pipeline. Trademark Coke grew mid-single digits, with Coke Zero up mid-teens. And I'm pleased that Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Zero caffeine continued its momentum, achieving triple-digit growth and accelerating further in the second quarter. This reinforces the strength of the proposition and the positive consumer response to the new visual identity we rolled out across 18 markets. We remain very excited about the opportunities ahead for Coke Zero Zero including leveraging greater consumption in the evening occasion. Flavor innovation also continued to play an important role. Sprite's ongoing momentum with volumes up high single digits was supported by the launch of the new lemon mint chill flavor in 12 markets. Schweppes volumes grew high single digits supported by the launch of Schweppes cherry pepper supported by dedicated in-store displays and activation. Energy continued its exceptional growth trajectory with volumes up over 25% in the first half. Growth was strong across all three segments despite tough comparatives. Monster continued to benefit from a strong innovation pipeline with key launches in the period being Viking Berry, Ultra Fantasy Ruby Red, and the new Zero Sugar flavor with Valentino Rossi. We also continue to leverage MotoGP, Formula One, and football partnerships to deliver powerful activations. And our affordable offers in Africa also continue to perform well, particularly Fury in Egypt, supported by local marketing campaigns and the launch of a new 250 ml can. In coffee, our strategic focus remains The out-of-home channel. So I'm pleased that volumes increased 24.5% in this channel in the first half. Both Costa Coffee and Cafe Vergnano grew strongly, supported by growth in existing outlets and the addition of more than 1,300 new out-of-home outlets. In line with our deliberate shift in focus, total coffee volumes declined in the first half but grew in revenue. We expect the overall category to return to volume growth in the second half of the year. Still, volumes increased 5.2% in the first half with high single-digit growth in water lead led by emerging segments. Sports drinks continue to stand out with growth of around 25%. In the first half, we introduced Powerade active water in seven markets, a new range with a diversified proposition aimed at bringing new consumers to the category and as well as the FIFA World Cup, we continued to leverage other local sporting events. Premium Spirits volumes declined 1.5% in the first half on tough comparatives and impacted by retail challenges with Finlandia and Poland that have now been resolved. Excluding this impact, the overall category volume would have been in growth and Finlandia would have grown low double digits. As I have said before, investing in our BISPO capabilities is critical to sustaining our strong track record of volume, revenue and EBIT growth and continuing to gain share. I want to call out a few highlights from the first half. Through our leading RGM framework, we continue to drive improvements in mix through targeting in Each local market. An important part of this framework is to grow volumes and ensure profitability. Over the past few years, we have consistently enhanced our promotion capabilities and tools to create more value with our customers. At the end of last year, we began rolling out Promo360, a single end-to-end promotion management capability across pilot markets. This transformative approach brings together people, processes and technology into one integrated platform, leveraging advanced analytics and AI to help our teams improve promotional effectiveness and drive stronger return on investment. It is now live in seven markets and will be rolled out further this year. We also made continuous progress on packaging mix. with single-serve mix improving by 110 basis points in the first half. This was supported by the launch of new packs, including 500 ml PET bottle for trademark Coke in Egypt, a 500 ml super can in three markets, and the introduction of 250 ml pack of used tea across eight markets. Horeca remains a key channel for us and here as well, we are constantly evolving our approach to capture the most value. Our new end-to-end channel approach is data led and provides greater visibility of opportunities across the outlet universe, enabling us to focus on the highest value opportunities and tailor the right portfolio to the right outlet. Another highlight was the opening of our new digital hub in Cairo, marking another important milestone in our group digital transformation journey. This strategic hub reflects our commitment to developing digital talent and building leading expertise to further enable innovation, operational excellence, and support sustainable growth. All of our actions are driving clear results. As we continue to execute strongly and jointly, create value with our customers, We further increased our value share year to date, gaining 80 basis points in NARTD and 40 basis points in SPARTLINK. Moving on to CCBA, where we are carefully planning for integration so we can hit the ground running after we complete the acquisition. We continue to make good progress towards completion, working through the customer regulatory filings and antitrust approvals and preparations for the secondary listing of our shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. As I mentioned at Q1, we have obtained antitrust clearances in four of the six jurisdictions. The latest development is that in July, the South African Competition Commission recommended that the competition tribunal approve the transaction subject to conditions as expected. We welcome this latest milestone and we look forward to the Competition Tribunal's decision. Overall, we remain on track to complete the acquisition during the second half of 2026. Turning to sustainability, I am pleased that our performance continues to be recognized externally. In the first half, Coca-Cola HBC was confirmed for the ninth time as the world's most sustainable beverage company in the 2025 Dow Jones best-in-class indices. We also achieved the highest ESG score in the beverage industry in the FTSE Russell assessment, successfully maintaining inclusion in the FTSE for Good Index series. We continue to invest in local communities across our market. This included the completion of €4.1 million water infrastructure project in Bulgaria, helping support the long-term well-being of people and local businesses. In addition, the Coca-Cola HBC Foundation committed 1.5 million to support a fire protection program in Greece and the nature restoration project in Switzerland. Partnerships remain a key driver of our progress, creating both business and sustainability value. Following the successful launch last year of sustainable linked business plan together with Carrefour, and the Coca-Cola company in Romania, this year we have rolled it out to Poland. The plan focuses on emissions reduction, logistics optimization and packaging collection. Let me now hand over to Anastasis to take you through the financial results.