Croda International Plc

Hello and welcome to the Crota International Q1 2026 sales update call. Please note, this call is being recorded and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listens only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star 0 and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Steve Woods, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. Many thanks for joining. So I'm here with Stephen and David, and together happy to take any questions. So first, just a few overview comments from me. Overall, quarter one sales were as we expected it, up 1% constant currency, and similar to a very strong quarter last year. And whilst we acknowledge the heightened uncertainty that the Middle East conflict has caused, it had no material effect on quarter one, and there is no change to guidance for full year 26. So breaking our quarter one sales performance down by business, your sales were up 4% in consumer care, driven by beauty actives and F&F. Life sciences saw sales dip 3%, largely due to crop protection being 8% lower versus a strong prior year when we saw significant restocking. And industrial sales were down 2%, Again, against a strong prior period. So turning to performance on a regional basis, growth was strongest in Latin America and robust demand in agriculture and consumer care. EMEA and Asia sales were as we expected, and North America was weaker due to crop normalizing as expected and compounded by continued pressure on lower income consumers and the poor weather. Finally, coming to events in the Middle East in more detail, Our key priority has been the safety of our people and serving our customers. It's a small region for Kroda, representing around 5% of group sales, most of which are in F&F. And we saw no material impact on sales in the quarter, but with input costs increasing, we are raising prices to fully recover input cost inflation. And we're doing that transparently and in total collaboration with our customers. And as I said, whilst we recognise the elevated uncertainty the conflict has caused, and continue to monitor this evolving situation, our outlook for full year 26 remains unchanged. And we are confident of delivering an improving performance over the next three years, as outlined in February, combining innovation-led growth and our transformation program, which remains firmly on track. So it's all about growth and transformation, which is in our control. So let me stop there and hand over to you all for questions. So I'll now hand back to the operator for questions from covering analysts. Over to you, Adil.

If you would like to ask questions, please signal by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. We will take our first questions from Matthew Yates from Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.