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Good morning and welcome to Unilever's second quarter trading statement for 2025. Thank you for joining us. I am joined today by Shini Patak, our Acting Chief Financial Officer. In a moment, Shini will take you through the detail of the second quarter and first half results. I will then come back to talk more broadly about the continuing transformation of the business and how we see the remainder of this year and beyond. First of all, let me set out what what I see to be the key elements of our solid performance in the first half, and importantly, why these give us real confidence when it comes to delivering the full year. There are five elements in particular that I would like to highlight. First, the balance of our growth. We deliver underlying sales growth for the half of 3.4%. and we did it with a good balance of volume and price. Volumes improved sequentially over the course of the half, despite subdued markets, with first-half market volume growth at around 1.3%. Importantly, volume growth was broad-based and positive across all business groups. Second, the continued structural strengthening of our gross margin that allowed furthering increase in the support of our brands. We plan to market the investment highly competitive in the first half at 15.5% of turnover. Third, we continue to outperform markets in the developed economies. In North America, we deliver underlying growth for the half of 5.4%, with volumes up 3.7%, while Europe remains strong, up 3.4% for the half. Fourth, at the same time as outperforming in developed markets, we are also seeing a steadily improving picture when it comes to performance in emerging markets. This has been driven by our largest region, Asia-Pacific Africa, which was up 3.5% in the first half and accelerated to over 5% growth in the second quarter. India, our second largest market, improved sequentially during the half. and as a direct consequence of the operational interventions made, we see improvements in both China and Indonesia, and confidently expect both markets to accelerate further in the second half of the year. Volume performance in Latin America was poor in the second quarter, with the slowing markets and the need to increase prices to cover currency depreciation. But we are confident in the strength of our portfolio and operations in the region, and we expect recovery later in the year. And fifth, we expect non-competitive performance, but also in terms of getting the business ready for the merger later in the year. Gini will cover the final stages towards the merger a little later. Our first half results with a sustained, strong developed market performance and emerging markets starting to improve give us real grounds for confidence for the second half of the year and beyond. With that, let me hand over to Srini to tell you through the detail of the results. Srini.

Thank you, Fernando. Underlying sales growth in the second quarter was 3.8%, a sequential improvement across volume and price, with volume growth contributing 1.8%, a 50 basis point step up versus quarter one, and price growth of 2%. As a result, underlying sales growth for the first half was 3.4, with volumes of 1.5 and price 1.9. Price growth continued to step up as we responded to ongoing input cost inflation and currency movements. We delivered our multi-year objective of volumes of at least 2%. percent our power brands which contribute over 75 percent of the group turnover grew 3.8 percent in the first half including 1.6 from volume growth in of two percent strong performances included Double digit growth from Vaseline, Liquid IV, Nutrafol and Magnum and high single digit growth from Dove and Comfort. Before turning to the business groups, let me first provide some color on our performance across different geographies. Developed market continued to perform strongly with first half USG of 4.3% driven by 3.4 volume and 0.9 price. We have now delivered four consecutive quarters of growth of above 4% in developed markets. North America underlying sales grew 5.4% with 3.7% from water. For multi-year portfolio transformation, with standout performances from our well-being brands and personal care, which is back to competitive growth. Share gains across key categories were supported by premium innovations, such as the ongoing success of sugar and Hellmann's-flavored mayonnaise, and underpinned by a continued step-up to brand investment. Europe grew underlying sales by 3.4%, with 2.8% from volume. Growth was broad-based across markets, and we are winning share across the geography, including in the U.S. Hellmann's was driven by home care, where the rollout of Wonder Wash and SIF Infinite Clean showcase the strength of our multi-year premium innovation strategy. And by ice cream, we saw standout results from the new Magnum Utopia range. Personal care delivered solid results with a successful launch of whole body deodorants. 3% group turnover delivered underlying first half sales growth of 3.5% with 1.9% from volume and 1.6% from price. Growth strengthened in the second quarter reflecting a step up in performance across key markets. India performed well with 5% growth in a gradually improving market. Growth was led by our premium portfolio in beauty and well-being and personal care, while home care continued to deliver strong volume growth. In Indonesia, which declined by around 5% and China, we saw a low single digit decline, we are seeing improvements to run rates as a result of our significant intervention in our key brand innovation plans in channel distribution and in pricing execution. We expect further acceleration in Asia Pacific. Latin America, which represent 13% of the group turnover, grew 0.5% with a 4.6% decline in volume. There are three important points to note here. First, pricing actions to offset currency movements weighed on volumes, while Argentina delivered growth and Mexico. Market growth across the region remained subdued significantly below the prior year levels, reflecting a challenging macroeconomic environment. We are also lapping a high base as Latin America delivered high single-digit growth However, it is important to highlight that our growth in Latin America remains competitive with continued share gains across the region. Let me now turn to our business groups. Beauty and well-being underlying sales growth was 3.7 in the first half. Volume growth remains resilient with a two-year CAGR of 3.2%. Sustained strong momentum in our well-being business led the growth. Core skincare delivered low single-digit growth and hair care and prestige beauty were flat. Beauty and well-being volumes were also impacted by our ongoing corrective actions in Indonesia and China. We remained confident in delivering sequential volume improvements in the second half. Well-being has now dead waters. Power Brands Liquid IV and Nutrafol continue to deliver exceptional performances fueled by a strong pipeline of innovations, high levels of brand investment, and expansion of their global presence. Haircare was a significant relaunch featuring cutting-edge fiber repair technology and a complete packaging redesign. This was partially offset by a decline in clear, which was impacted by market conditions in China, and by a volume decline in Tresemme, where pricing actions are being implemented to restore desired price relativity. Cold skincare delivered low single-digit growth. Dove and Vaseline grew double-digit, led by premium innovations and strong modern reach and persuasion programs, such as Vaseline's social-first verified campaign, where our scientists test The most premium brands, Hourglass and Kala Cosmetics, Tatcha, a luxury Japanese skincare brand, and K18, a biotech hair care brand, continue to grow double-digit. While the continued softness in the U.S. market weighed on the performance of brands like Thermologica and Polastro. 4% down 60 basis points versus the prior year as we increased our brand and marketing investment behind key innovations and market development. Personal care delivered a good first half with 4.8% underlying sales growth driven by 1.4 volume and 3.3 price. Our two-year volume CAGR was 2.3% despite a softening of volumes in the second quarter, which reflected subdued macro conditions in Latin America and recent pricing actions to offset currency movements. Dove, our largest brand, grew high single-digit. Deodorants grew low single-digit. Dove and Dove Men Plus Care grew double-digit, supported by the continued success of whole-body deodorants, while Rexona was impacted by a weaker Latin America market, despite skin cleansing grew low single-digit, with strong contributions from North America and India offsetting declines in Indonesia and China. Dove led our growth with a further rollout of its premium body wash, including new variants and new markets. The relaunch of Lipo in India has slowed its decline, though further work is required to be done to return the brand to growth. Oral Care delivered mid-single-digit growth. with growth in both CloseUp and Pepsodent, our two power brands, and the margin was 22.1%, down 90 basis points, as gross margin improvement was offset by a step-up in brand investment focused on the U.S. and in the premium segments. In the first half of the year, we announced a further strengthening of our personal care portfolio through Pulton's available deodorant brand, And we signed an agreement to acquire Dr. Squatch, a high-performing male grooming brand with a loyal following and a standout digital engagement, particularly in North America. Both brands are highly complimentary in the general space and in the super premium segments. Home care underlying sales grew 1.3% with 1.1% from volume and 0.2% from price. Underlying sales growth stepped up to 1.8% in Q2, driven by a sequential improvement in Asia and continued momentum of our premium innovation plan in Latin America. Fabric cleaning declined low single digit, with modest decreases in both volume and price. Performance was impacted by a high single digit decline in Brazil, home care's second largest market, where we suffered some competitive pressures in the laundry powders following pricing action. The situation continues to drive momentum. Our short cycle wonder wash laundry liquid continues to perform strongly and has now been rolled out to 22 markets and recently launched two new variants, sensitive and dazzling white. Home and hygiene performed well with SIF and Domestos both delivering strong growth Driven by continuous growth, fabric enhancers grew high single-digit, supported by the success of Comfort crystal-fresh technology, which contributed to the brand's high single-digit volume growth. Underlying operating margin was 15.5% at decline of 80 basis points due to a lower gross margin as we lapped a particularly steep growth. Foods delivered competitive sales of 2.2% with 0.3% from volume and 1.9% from price. in the second quarter led by continued momentum in Hellman's where the flavored mayonnaise ranges remain a key growth driver. Cooking aids grew low single digit driven by price. Volumes turned positive in the second quarter led by the largest brand Knorr which continues to lead in bouillon and seasonings. Unilever food solutions was flat with positive volume offset by negative price. Growth in North America was sparse China, out-of-home eating showed some improvement in the second quarter, but the overall market remained soft. Underlying operating margins improved by 100 basis points to 23.3%, reflecting disciplined execution of pricing, mix management, and productivity. Ice cream underlying sales grew 5.9%, driven by a 3.0% increase over the last 18 months to enhance our innovations of pricing and promotions and our operations. Both in-home and out-of-home ice cream segments grew mid- to single digits, with positive contributions from both volume and price. Double-digit growth in Magnum led to performance, supported by the successful launch of its Utopia range and the continued momentum of snacking format Bon Bons. Cornetto also performed well, growing high single digits. Underlying operating margin declined by 40 basis points due to a gross margin decline. However, our operational improvements and pricing have offset most of the continued cost inflation of key commodities, particularly cocoa. Over the past 18 months, we have been laying the company. The complex process of separation has progressed well, and today we are pleased to confirm that. As of the 1st of July, ice cream began operating as a standalone business. The demerger of the ice cream will take place in mid-November. Ahead of the demerger, on the 9th of September in London, the Magnum Ice Cream Company will be holding a capital market sale presenting the strategy and the value creation plan for the business. In October, shareholders can expect to receive Unilever Circular which will set out further information on the demerger. exciting future as a pure play global ice cream business and which brings me to the next steps by Unilever. We are announcing today our intention to retain a stake of just below 20% in the Magnum ice cream company for a period of up to five years subject to necessary regulatory approval. Over time, the retained stake will be sold in an orderly and considered manner to pay for the separation costs and maintain capital flexibility through a reduction in net debt. The retained stake demonstrates our support and belief in the future of the Magnum Ice Cream Company. As a part of the demerger process, we will be allocating debt between Unilever and the Magnum Ice Cream Company. This is expected to result in a net debt to EBITDA ratio of approximately 2x for Unilever and 2x for the Magnum Ice Cream Company. Subject to shareholder approval, Unilever intends to consolidate its share capital post the demerger of the ice cream company. This would be a technical adjustment and in line with market factors following similar situations to preserve the comparability of our share price to the demerger. We will share further details in early October. Let me now return to Unilever's performance at the group level. Turnover of the first half was 30.1 billion down 3.2 percent year on year underlying sales growth of 3.4 percent was more than offset currencies remain where they were on 28th of july the currency impact on full year turnover would be between five and six percent and around 20 basis points on underlying operating margin while several currencies contribute to this outlook it is worth noting that in quarter two the currency impact euro-dollar dynamic to remain the largest contributor in the second half. We will continue to update you on this as the year unfolds. Portfolio changes also reduced reported turnover with an impact of 2.5% from net disposals. Acquisitions contributed 0.2% led by strong double-digit growth from K18 and the addition of Wild. This was more than offset by a 2.7% impact from disposals, including the sale of Alida Beauty completed in June 2024 and the exits of Unilever Russia and a water purification business both completed in October 2024. In first half of 2025, we faced inflationary pressures from both commodities and currency, most notably in ice cream, where we experienced deflation and we benefited from carryover pricing. As indicated earlier, we have implemented calibrated price increases across our portfolio in response. Our continued margin progression reflects the impact of several levers. Volume leverage as we scale efficiently across categories. Superior mix driven by brand, portfolio, and channel optimization. Significant buying efficiencies unlocked through our advanced net productivity models and targeted value chain interventions across the supply chain. Cost to serve optimization underpinned by disciplined cost control and consistent execution across our supply chain and commercial operations. It's margin accretive initiatives and we are seeing the benefits in both production and logistics costs. Dispositions as well for continued margin resilience and supports our ambition to deliver quality growth over the medium term. Underlying operating margins was 19.3% down 30 basis points, reflecting a step up in brand and marketing investments. We have leveraged our strong gross margins and productivity gains to reinvest behind our brands. Brand and marketing investment increased by 40 basis points to 15.5% to competitive brand and innovation support. Notably, 100% of the incremental BMI as a percentage of turnover was directed towards our power brands, with over 80% of that increase focused on beauty and personal care. and tighter cost control, more than offset inflationary pressures, and the costs associated with setting up and running ice cream as a standalone business. Our productivity program is significantly ahead of expectations, and we now expect to realize approximately This is $100 million above the guidance we shared with our quarter one results. Underlying operating profit was 5.8 billion, a decline of 4.8% versus the prior year. Underlying earnings per share was 0.1% reduced cost of debt and increased pension income. Net finance cost as a percentage of average net debt was 2.5% and we continue to expect this to be around 3% for the full year. Tax contributed 1.4%. The underlying effective tax rate for the first half decreased to 25.2% from 26% in the prior year. This was primarily due to lower unrecognized losses and other one-off items. Our full year guidance remains unchanged at around 26%. We completed our latest round of share buyback of €1.5 billion at the end of May. Share buybacks contributed 1.5% to the earnings in the first half. Lower tax and finance costs and the benefit of share buyback was impact from currency movement. Free cash flow for the first half of 2025 was €1.1 billion compared to €2.2 billion in the prior year due to lower operating profit, ice cream separation costs and higher working capital to support supply chain resilience during the period of tariffs uncertainty. Capital expenditure and income tax remained broadly flat. We are confident in our full-year free cash flow delivery and continue to expect free cash flow conversion of around 100%. With more certainty about tariffs, the increases in the stock holdings will continue to pursue targeted acquisitions to sharpen our portfolio focus and capture growth opportunities in attractive segments. In April, we completed the acquisition of Minimalist, a premium actives-led beauty brand that supports the evolution of our beauty and well-being portfolio in India. As mentioned, and signed an agreement in June to acquire Dr. Squatch, both align with our strategy to strengthen our presence in high-growth premium segments and channels. In March, we also announced the sale of non-strategic asset, the vegetarian butcher, reflecting our focus on businesses with potential to be scaled. and finalized both through dividends and share buybacks. The quarterly dividend for second quarter is up 3% versus Q2 2024 and in line with Q1 2025 dividend. And as I mentioned earlier, we've completed our 1.5 billion share buyback program announced in February at the end of May. With that, over to you, Fernando.

Thank you, Srini. As I said at the outset, this result put us on track to deliver our full year outlook for 2025 on both the top and bottom line, within the range of 3% to 5%. Our growth in the second half will outpace the first, despite subdued market conditions, supported by continued outperformance in developed markets and already a stronger momentum in emerging markets, particularly in Asia. On the bottom line, we anticipate... an improvement in underlying operating margin for the full year, with second-half margins of at least 18.5%. A significant improvement versus the second half of 2024, which can be explained by volume growth leverage, higher productivity, and better materials. Of course, we remain agile as we expect that the macro and currency environment will remain uncertain. However, we are confident in the outlook we are sharing today. First, because our performance in the developed markets is built on increasingly strong foundations and is being sustained by an executive quota of underlying sales growth in excess of 4%. This means our performance is not happening by chance. It is a direct consequence of the focus in our power brands and the investments we have made. In North America, for example, we have seen the transformation of the portfolio, with beauty and well-being, and personal care, representing more than 75% of our U.S. business after the demersion of iSkin. The pruning of non-strategic brands or brands in the value segment of our portfolio has supported our growing presence in premium, high-growth spaces, with a strong vision for the benefits of our increased focus, with our performance laid by premium innovations, from Persil Wonder Wash to SIF Infinite Clean to whole-body deodorants. Second, at the same time as we have momentum in the developed markets, we see clear signs of pick-up in the emerging markets of Pacific Africa. The actions we have taken in both China and Indonesia are yielding improvements, which we expect to accelerate further in the second half. And momentum is building in India, where we have recently appointed a new head of the business, Riyan Air, who takes over on 1st of August. After having successfully led our global beauty and well-being business, Priya combines a deep understanding of our home and personal care business in India that she successfully ran for many years with the knowledge of our portfolio in tune with the significant consumer needs and channel shifts already visible in the market. Weakening economic conditions are impacting our business in Latin America and in particular in our two biggest markets, Brazil. Brazil and Mexico. While conditions will remain challenging, taking overall, however, the momentum in the developed markets and the improvement we are seeing in the emerging markets give us confidence that growth will accelerate in the second half of the year. This acceleration is part of the work we are doing for 2025, but also to set the foundations as we look for of the two overriding objectives. Namely, that we run the company for multi-year volume growth of at least 2%, and to consistently expand our growth margin. The delivery of these two objectives is a mindset growth and modest margin improvement that we believe will provide top-sec returns to our shareholders. And as we pursue these metrics, we will do so as a simpler model. More focused company. One with. Post the merger with Ice Cream. Unilever will be. A 52 billion euros business. With a structured. Higher margin profile. Improved returns. And strong cash generation. On 2024 financial. Our gross margin will be 46.7%. up 160 basis points, underlying operating margins of 19.4%, up 100 basis points, and return on invested capital 19.1%, up 100 basis points, with cash conversion of around 100%. In half-month 2025, Unilever, excluding ice cream, sustained this growth momentum with a two-year compound annual volume growth of over 2%, 3%. shifts that we are making position us very well to deliver consistent, high-quality growth with greater agility and sharper execution. Let me now share a bit about the transformation journey I am leading to turn Unilever into a consistently high-performing business. It is a transformation founded on a six-part portfolio towards beauty and well-being and personal care. And in that context, you heard Shini talk about the recent acquisitions of Minimalist, Wild and Dr. Squash. Second, we are increasingly set up for success in our two biggest markets, the United States and India. We will invest in these markets, delivering above group average volume growth. Third, we are shifting. resources decisively in the direction of premium science-based innovation, responding to the consumers' increasingly insatiable desire for brands that are premium, whether in the experience they provide, the indulgence they grant, or the convenience they offer. Fourth, the concept of desire at scale is so core now to the way we think about elevating our brands and innovations, to the service of making new markets, new segments, new benefits, new formats. Fifth, we are bringing operational excellence back to the heart of the business in our determination to make Unilever a marketing and sales machine, both online and offline. And sixth, under this transformation, we will play to win because winning is habit forming. We will invest in the development of our people to help compromising when it comes to appointing the best talent and ensuring accountability for performance. These are the principles that are guiding our transformation and the benefits are already evident in our first half performance. We look forward to sharing. Let me just set out briefly, today, how many of these principles come together in the features and performance of one particular brand, Vaseline, as it really does encapsulate how we see the future. No brand is more emblematic of our core than Vaseline, after all. Yet in recent years it has been on a remarkable journey, pioneering the kind of desire at scale thing thinking we want now to replicate across all our brands. And you see the results of this journey on the screen here. 11% compounded annual growth rate over the last four years. Growing volumes over 10%, both in 2024 and in the first half of 2025. Its biggest market, the U.S. Its biggest expansion plan, India. Global power brand. His journey has been highly instructive when we talk about desire at scale. First, he has put breakthrough science at the heart of his proposition, as for example with the use of cutting-edge serum technologies, an invisible sun protection factor in products like Lutahaya. Second, the aesthetics of the brand have been significantly improved from the packaging to the product formats to advertising, everything screams premium. and it scores equally high on another dimension that today's increasingly discerning consumers regard as key, sensorials, which are evident in the brand's light, instantly absorbable lotions. From a tired and fragmented design platform a few years back, the brand now has a cohesion across all platforms. And we are also using a modern approach to scale the brand with more focus on content at scale in what others say and in influencers. Whether it is the Vaseline verified social first hacks campaign, which won recently nine awards at Cannes, or culturally relevant IAPs such as with the hit series The White Lotus, Vaseline is leading the way when it comes to new models of reach and persuasion. More on this to come as we steadily bring desire at scale to every brand in every geography. But from what I have seen, our objectives are to deliver multi-year volume growth of at least 2% and consistent gross margin expansion. Our financial profile post-emergence is well placed to support this ambition, with improvements anticipated in profitability and returns. With that, let me briefly recap. Moreover, we are confident that growth will accelerate in the second half. The building blocks are in place to ensure this happens. As a result, we are on track for our full year outlook for 2025. We are confirming today that the demerger of ice cream will take place in the middle of November, as well as our intention to retain a stake of just below 20% in the business. And finally, the transformation of Unleaver is not just on track, it is accelerating. We are very clear on the desired at-scale principles that underpin this journey, and we are equally clear on what we must deliver, sustained volume growth and consistent gross margin expansion. The next phase is about execution in the front line, sharpening our focus on becoming a true marketing and sales machine. And with that, we look forward to taking your

Good morning. Many thanks for joining the call. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you no longer wish to ask a question, press star two to exit the queue. When it's your turn to ask a question, your name will be called out. And finally, please keep your questions to a maximum of two.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being with us today. I'm here with Shini. We have delivered a solid set of results in the first half and would like to reinforce our confidence in delivering our 3% to 5% top-line growth outlook for 2025, an operating margin for the second half of at least 18.5%, more than 100 basis points up versus the operating margin of second half last year. Just as a reminder, our full year outlook includes ice cream. However, I would like to highlight that the top line outlook and that both our gross margin and operating margin will be higher and will increase more in the remaining company when excluding ice cream. With that, Gemma, we can take questions.

Thanks, Nando. Our first question comes from Celine at J.P. Morgan. Go ahead, Celine.

All right. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Well, Fernando, since you mentioned the X-ice cream performance, so X-ice cream H1 was growing at 3% with 1% volume. Do you expect to see the X-ice cream acceleration, the acceleration you mentioned in volume, showing into the X-ice cream portfolio in the second half of the year, i.e., could we be in the 4 to 6 range? And

acceleration that you are that you flagged in the presentation on both personal care and health and when being a division that would be my first question yes we run the business with the intention of delivering volume growth about two percent for the remaining company and you know we are very confident that we will achieve that in the second half our intention is to do that there are several factors that give us confidence to acceleration of growth in the second half The market volume growth has slightly improved from Q1 to Q2. It was at 1.2% in Q1, went to 1.4%. We don't expect a reversal of the trend. All the regions, with the exception of China and Latin America, show higher market volume growth in the Q2 versus Q1. I feel the second point is our UBS, our Amnesia or Grand Superiority Scores are improving. We have close to 60% of our portfolio strengthening brand power. We are outperforming in developed markets. You know, we see an acceleration of markets in India. We are also gaining shares and growing extremely fast in the fast-growing channels like quick commerce. We have increased investments in our brands and we will sustain highly competitive BMI levels, you know, between 15% and 16% of our revenue. At the time in which we have seen some of our competitors slashing investment down, as you could see in the quarter 2 SGA of many competitors. We have a strong progress in gross margin that allow us to increase the delivery, to increase fuel for increase the BMI. And finally, we have a very, very strong innovation plan, one of the best in many years. It's hitting markets between April and September in most of our regions. I can call whole-body deodorants, the geographical expansion of Wonder Wash in Laundry, SIF Infinite Clean, Dab Hair Relaunch, between many, many others. I would like to highlight also, you know, that our run rates today, our sales run rates, the current run rates, would allow us to deliver this acceleration of growth in the second half. We expect significant contributions to growth from Indonesia, China, that have been significant drags in the past. So we are confident in this higher volume growth in the second half. particularly in the remaining company. We are not complacent about it. We will remain agile. We will adjust our plans if necessary. But we believe really that we have the right place, the right tools in place to perform.

Thank you, Celine. Did you mention that you have another question? Thank you.

And if you allow me a second question. Yes, please go ahead. Yes. So I will leave. I just wanted to go on M&A. You did a few deals, including Duster Squatch. So if you could explain to us what you saw in that brand and what do you think is the resilience of that brand in the long run? And then, you know, whether now that you feel that you have enough on your plate in terms of the acquisition you've made, or you think that with the disposal of ice cream, you are willing to step up the M&A agenda?

We are convinced of our strategy of Voltron M&A. We continue piling assets in the beauty and personal care space and the well-being space, particularly in the U.S., with the intention of really building a portfolio of American brands with great potential to travel internationally. We have very clear criteria of what type of brands we look for. We look at digitally native brands, authentic brands with superior functionality, with strong clinicals, with a strong presence in digital commerce. And Dr. Squash fits all these kind of criteria. It's a brand that is growing fast. It will fill a gap that we had in our portfolio in the premium segment in the U.S. and in skin cleansing in the U.S. Despite the fact that we have made significant progress and we are back to share gain. in both skin cleansing and deodorant in the US and also in the premium segment, but we believe that this brand really provides us with a significant weapon in the male grooming space and we are very happy in the announcement of our decision that, as you know, is subject to regulatory approval. We have also acquired Wild in the natural space, a refillable deodorant, that brand based in UK but making a strong entry in US also and it's another way of really protecting our portfolio in categories in which we have global leadership and leadership in the US also.

Thanks. Our next question comes from Warren at Barclays. Go ahead, Warren.

Yeah, good morning, everybody. Good morning, Fernando, Srini, Gemma. So, yeah, two for me. First one is, Fernando, can you dive a bit more into emerging markets clearly what we've got here today in Latin America a bit worse Asia a bit better so on Latin America volumes down six percent what's happening in Mexico and Brazil it looks like you're taking pricing ahead of competition previously you talked about destocking in Brazil you know how should we think about the outlook for Latin America in the second half of the year what's happening on the whole powders, liquids transition, just to understand a bit on the ground what you're seeing. And then the second one is really on the Asia recovery. It's good to see India picking up in the second quarter versus the first quarter. Can you maybe do a little tour of India, Indonesia, and China? I mean, would you expect, for example, India to continue to step up growth in the second half compared to the second quarter, which was already a step up compared to the first quarter? So a little bit on the kind of EMP, Zlatan versus Asia. And then the second one, I guess, is just on the performance of the U.S. There's obviously a lot of moving pieces in the U.S. with ChannelShift. consumers, some destocking. I mean, I'm quite interested to know what you're seeing, particularly in personal care. You know, are we seeing – we're clearly seeing a slowdown in prestige in the U.S. Do you expect that to continue into the second half? You know, what's happening to kind of the market share competitiveness in the U.S.? Thank you.

Good. Let me start, Warren, with LATAM and then I will give the word to Srini that will cover Asia in detail. It has been a weak quarter in LATAM for us. We have been lapping very, very strong comparators and markets are under pressure at a time in which we had to increase prices to cope with sizable devaluation of currencies. Brazilian and Mexico economies are experiencing a significant slowdown, extremely high interest rates in Brazil, remittances into Mexico down after 11 years of growth, tariff uncertainty in both countries, all these have not been helping. As a result of all this, the market volume growth to which Unilever is exposed in the region, an overweighted market volume growth. moved from 7% growth in H1 2024, 3% in H2 2024, to flat in H1 2025 and negative in the Q2. I feel the important point to highlight that as our shares are strong in the region, we have had gains in shares in LATAM in the last six quarters at an aggregated level. There is only one significant exception in the short term. It's Laundry Brazil. I have to recognize that we have scored some own goals there. We went too far with our price in the powder format. We lost competitiveness. And this has led to some share loss and to some excess of stock in the trade. We have already corrected our pricing in powders. And in a market where there is a fast transition from powder to liquids, We are rolling out our very successful European Wonder Wash mix in quarter three. So we expect a quick return to competitiveness in laundry in Brazil and overall significant improvement in South America. I would like to highlight also probably the other two largest businesses in the region that are deodorants and foods. In deodorants and foods, our shares have been extremely strong in deals across the whole region. In foods, particularly in condiments, Brazil, where Hellmann's is going from strength to strength. But we have seen a sharp deceleration of the deals market growth. and we have seen also some slowdown of the cooking aids market in Mexico where as you know nor has close to 75 percent shares so in aggregate this is not something we have not seen in the time before you know markets in that time given the volatility of the economy there tend to operate outside the long-term potential growth range sometimes above sometimes below we will do what we have done always you know that is focus on protecting our leadership positions We will restore our strategy price and relativity where necessary, like the case of laundry powders. And we will keep innovating in our brands, you know. So then markets will tend. Our expectation is that markets will get better by the end of the year. But let's see.

Shini, India, Indonesia and China. Look, Juan, thanks, Warren. I think we have been calling about our emerging markets being a strength for us, notably the Asia pack. And we also told you earlier that we will see positive growth coming up in in half to actually quarter two is a good proof point of it where our growth rates are actually in excess of 5% in the Asia Pac region. And that starts to give us a good flavor in terms of the trajectory that we are on. If I pick up India, In our last call, we had told you that, look, we don't see any more additional headwinds. There is stalemates coming through given the macros, disposable income, various measures taken by the government. That is where we started to play. On a match basis, we see volume stability. And if you actually seen the market growth in the last 12 weeks, we see an improvement. There has also been a big work which has happened in terms of the portfolio transformation, where we are actually investing behind the market makers beyond the core portfolio. When we add up all of this, we've started to see a step up in volume. We're also investing behind both core and in the future formats. And then now you start to see that India has actually got into volumes of upwards of four. It's broad based. The important element is that we see good performance in home care. Then we see high single digit volumes. We have seen the headline growth rates pick up both in beauty and in personal care. And some of the drag in foods is sequentially actually getting better. From a channel perspective, very strong plans, not just on the general trade, but on quick commerce and e-commerce. In e-commerce, our sales are growing in double digit. In quick commerce, we have actually doubled our business and that's becoming a larger contribution. That again starts to become a tailwind for us as we look at this growth opportunity. So at an aggregate, we feel quite confident and comfortable with the India growth trajectory. And we will expect this to do well. So we will gain shares. We are gaining shares. So there's a lot of confidence in India. If I come to Indonesia, you have also seen that today they published their results. Again, this is where we said we are making good progress on fundamentals as well as on the brand measures. On the fundamentals, if you really see, we made all the stock corrections. Our service levels are up by about 26%. We have price stability, which is enabling us to increase actually direct coverage in general trade and improving assortment. We also reset our cost base through multiple programs, which is actually giving us the fuel to start to invest behind these businesses. You start to see that the sequential trajectory of volumes is getting better. Our volumes are slightly negative in quarter two, better than quarter one. And we are confident that in half two, we will come into positive trajectory just by holding our run rates. But more important, there is reason for us to be excited. When you look at some of the future formats, such as beauty and well-being, there is 11% of that business, which is all about future formats, skins, serums. That business is actually going 36%. So this is just not a fundamental reset. of the operational metrics but we have now started to see some green shoots in terms of real brand measures coming through and brand growths coming through and a quick one on china we always said that in the sequence we will start to see indonesia go much faster and better than china we are comfortable with how china is progressing on a remain co basis we are close to flat volumes in quarter two a lot of fundamental work in terms of go to market has already been done And we are getting good confidence in terms of run rates and therefore growth in China. We have to admit that the China market is slightly challenging and I think Fernando will touch upon it. If there are two places where the market growths are a little under pressure, it is Latin America and China. Notwithstanding that, given the fundamentals and given the run rates, we are confident of China also returning to growth in half-tooth.

Regarding U.S., Warren, I feel the performance we have been having in North America, we have already four consecutive quarters of volume growth of about 4% at a time in which markets have been visibly tougher. I believe it's a reflection of the profound transformation we have done in our portfolio. The setup of what we call a U.S. for U.S. innovation model, and a huge focus in strengthening relations with the retailers, showing them our ability to grow markets. You know, after the separation of ice cream, our beauty, well-being, and personal care business will represent more than 75% of our revenue in the U.S. It is an advantage growth footprint, and as I mentioned to Celine before, we will keep investing organically and through M&A to go deeper in that direction. In the first half of the year, you know, beauty and well-being, we have had some exceptional performance in well-being, double digital growth in both liquid IV and Nutrafol. Both brands are approaching the $1 billion revenue mark for the year. In personal care, as I mentioned before. We have regained market share. We are gaining share again in skin cleansing deals. And very importantly, we have had a significant improvement in our position in the super premium segment that, as you know, has been a longstanding issue. There are issues also in the U.S. We have a weak quarter in care care. We made an unsuccessful attempt to reposition pricing 3CM shampoos in the US. This has already been corrected. And we also take the decision, a conscious decision, to focus our portfolio behind our power brands, DAP, 3CM, Nexus, and Shea Moisture. And this has basically triggered the delisting, the initiation of the delisting of some unprofitable tail hair care brands in the US, like Axe Hair or Lab Beauty and Planet. I would like to highlight also the impact of our focus in partnership with customers. You know, we have just received the results of the most popular annual retailer survey. It's called Advantage Survey. We are ranked number one supplier in personal care, number one in foods, number three in beauty. We have never achieved that before. This is a very different U.S. business to the one we used to have years ago, and we are very confident in our prospects there.

Our next question comes from Calum Bernstein. Go ahead, Calum.

Perfect. Thank you very much for the questions. Firstly, I wanted to talk to you about the organisational kind of redesign that you announced last November with the sort of segmentation of the business into top 24 markets and one-year liver markets. I don't think you spoke about that at all today on the presentation. So my question is, how is that process progressing? Is the new structure now fully in place or are you still implementing that and have you started to see any of the benefits yet? Just hoping you can give us a little bit of an update there. And then my second question, if that's okay, I just wanted to build on Celine's question about M&A and I guess more broadly my question, rather than being specific to Dr. Squatch or Wild, et cetera, is there's obviously a huge amount going on in the business today from new leadership, organizational redesign, the ice cream spin, food divestitures, and now these new acquisitions as well. So my question here is, What would you say, Fernando, to investors who are concerned that there's a risk of too many plates spinning, I guess, in the business today? Thank you.

Thank you. Let me start by organization. You know, it's true, we have organized ourselves in top 24 markets and from market 25 onwards, we run it in a one-unit basis. We believe that the biggest markets deserve the focus and specialization of a category-led And from market 25 onwards, we don't have enough critical mass to make that happen. We have landed the divisionalization of our sales force in the top 24 markets. We have 63 different sales force now. This is a key, key priority in the business. We initiated that in January the 1st. It is completed. I cannot say that I am absolutely happy with that. There is significant progress that has to be made. I believe that in the last three years we have made significant, significant improvement in our product development and in the management of our category strategies and our brand's innovation plan. But execution has to improve in the markets and this is the reason that we have decided on this divisionalization. In the one-year lever markets, it's going very, very well. We have grown both in quarter two and in half one in this market close to 5%, more precisely 4.9%, with 1.6%. underlying volume growth and 3.2% pricing. We are running these markets now with an organization that is 35% smaller, so this business has become a creative in-profit to Unilever also, and it's a taker of innovation from the category-led organization that runs our top 24 markets. Regarding M&A, our responsibility is to keep doing a rotation in our portfolio that fundamentally exposes us to higher growth. I believe the most important metric of any business is a turnover-weighted market volume growth, the market volume growth at which a business is exposed. We want to consolidate our market volume growth exposure in the US. And also I believe that one of the fundamental strategic issues of Unilever is the fact that we are in a certain way a federation of local and regional brands. And building a strong portfolio in the US gives us the possibility of building a portfolio that is more cohesive and more consistent globally with American brands that travel internationally into the premium segment, into the digital commerce channel. So, in fast-moving consumer goods, you have to do many things and you have to do all of them fast. So, we are taking on that challenge and we are confident that we can manage that. Thank you, Karen.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Olivier at Goldman Sachs. Go ahead, Olivier.

Hi, good morning, Fernando, Sinevas and Gemma. Just two questions for us. First, going back to the Martin guidance. and the implied strong progression that you are going to have in H2. Is there any particular divisions or regions where it's going to be more pronounced? And then secondly, just going back on ice cream and on the merger, the fact that you will retain a 20% stake, which will sell over time, will the proceed be helping essentially to reduce you know the debt or is there any tax liabilities arising from the spin-off that you will have to pay?

Sriniv? I think first it's important to highlight the quality of margins and quality of profitability. I think that's the more important element for me. This is coming through from the right levers that we exercise which is really volume, superior mix, absolute world-class savings coming through from our procurement organization and a cost discipline end-to-end and cost to serve and really our repositioning of our capital expenditure which has happened towards savings. Along with that, there has been an enhanced focus on our own productivity. We are actually now cumulatively talking about our organization productivity savings at 650 million which is 100 million over and above what we achieved or what we told you earlier. This is actually giving us an most important element for us is that we are investing competitively behind our businesses between 15 and 16 percent. And we will keep this going into half two. What gives us confidence into half two to at least from the reason for us calling out an 18 and a half percent? The levers and drivers that I spoke about remain intact. Commodity outlook is relatively stable, notwithstanding some variations to Forex. We have good covers, physical as well as financial instruments. Having said that, there is a bit of an uptake when it comes to the costs in half two versus half one. So, when we take both of this and continue to invest behind our business, we will improve margins. It includes ice creams and therefore, there is a mix effect which has plays out slightly adverse. Coming back to your question, so therefore, there is enough ammunition for us to do the right things for the business. Invest behind the business, invest behind our growth and enhance margins. Will this play out very differently across the business groups? Nothing material that we would like to call because the profile of the margins is different in each of the business groups. There are some dynamics which are slightly different, investments levels which are different and we will do that with agility at this stage. I don't believe we need to make the distinction between business groups, but appropriate to say that we are adequately invested behind each of them and delivering the expansion. On the second part, there is a strategic element to the stake which Fernando can touch upon. As far as we are concerned on the stake, this will be a little below 20%. We will have to hold this at a maximum period of five years as per the US IRS guidelines and we will stick to that. We have said that we will look to reducing the stake in an orderly fashion. The purpose for the reduction of the stake is clear. The costs which are coming or the on costs which are coming from the demerger, that will be first element. There will be on costs which is separation, some tax costs. Or the second element would be really to pay down our debt. These are the two objectives and that is what we intend to do.

Just to say that the retention of an estate just below 20% shows the confidence we have in the potential of the ice cream company as an independent business. That was exactly what we said in March last year when we decided the immersion of the company, that we thought that the ice cream company could thrive as an independent company with tailor-made business model to develop and we believe that that will happen and the results that we are having in the first half of the year show that we are increasing competitiveness and that the business has made significant progress in terms of innovation and execution. Coming back to the margin, I would just like to highlight something. The times of Unilever trading off lower and competitive investment in our brands to deliver some more profit are gone. We will protect the investment behind our brands and we consider gross margin expansion, consistent gross margin expansion, the backbone of our financial plan to provide us with the fuel to allow us for that competitive investment. We will keep investing competitively. We believe that the levels that we have achieved now of around 15% to 16% are the right one, but we will not compromise on that.

Our next question comes from Guillaume at UBS. Go ahead, Guillaume.

Thank you very much, and good morning all. I mean, for my first question, maybe to follow up on what you've just said, Fernando, your BMI levels, because they increased again in the first half, 15.5%, you know, more than 200 basis points above the levels of 2022. Do you think you currently have the right share of voice and that the current level of BMI gives you a material competitive advantage? Or maybe given how competitive the environment is and also your ambition to drive desire at scale, should BMI continue to grow ahead of sales and continuing in the second half of 2025 in particular? And maybe related to that, I mean, we hear a lot of your competitors talk about an increase in the number of new product launches this year, particularly in the second half. Is it something that you will also do, or are you still more focused on fewer but bigger and better innovations? And then my second question is on the foods division, because of your five global business units in the first half, foods was the only one to achieve some improvement in underlying operating margin, and it was quite significant. I think it was around 100 basis points. So can you maybe touch on the main drivers behind this strong uptake, and maybe whether going forward we should view foods as a key margin improvement engine for Unilever because you've got strong productivity programs there trying to simplify the portfolio, and maybe less of a need of a step up in BMI in that business. Thank you very much.

Cool. Thank you, Guillaume. Let me start by the food question. It's true we have had a significant acceleration of volume growth and of margin in foods. And I believe when you look with the prints of most food companies, you know, I believe that it's a very, very competitive performance. I believe that our food business has an advantage growth footprint. It's a very concentrated business, you know. Hellmann's and Knorr represent 60% of our business in foods, two very big brands. And food service is a very strong business, even if this year we are having a more flattish performance in food service, particularly because it is a business that has close to 30% exposure to China, and the market there has been a bit softer. So it's a good performance in food. We are happy with that. Hellmann's is going from strength to strength. We mentioned significant, very significant chargés in Brazil and in the U.S., We have very, very strong leading positions there. These are the two biggest markets of Hellmann's. And in Norway, we have more work to do in Norway. I believe the brand doesn't have the level of coherence and consistency that we need. But we are making significant improvements there. So it's a business that provides consistency. accreted margin to deliver significant cash, has very, very high return on invested capital. So it's a business that, you know, we are very happy and we believe is one of the best food business in the world, even if it's not one of the largest. In the case of your first question regarding the BMI levels, the level of investment, we have really increased our investment levels significantly from 2022 onwards. There is an implicit recognition that the levels at which we were investing three years ago were absolutely uncompetitive. We feel much more comfortable now with the level of investment between 15% and 16%. Of course, So part of that increase is mix related. Our beauty and well-being and our personal care business has been growing faster than the rest of the portfolio and they are more demanding in terms of the level of investment behind the brands that you need. Measuring share of voice now is very difficult, particularly in the context of explosion of digital media. But I believe that the most important metric for us is the strengthening of our UBS, our admissible brand superiority scores. We have now 60% of our revenue improving UBS. In terms of product launches, we continue focusing doing stuff with impact. So we prefer to really focus in our power brands that you have seen grown above the average of the group in the quarter two. We are doing big, big initiatives and fundamentally we are rolling it out faster. The best example probably is Wonder Wash in home care, in which we will be in close to 50 countries by the end of this year, you know, after initiating the process in Europe with a lot of success. So that's basically what I can say about BMI levels. Good levels of support. We feel comfortable with that. Somewhere between 15% and 16%. As a result of that kind of increased investment and more quality in the innovation and in the brand management that we are having, we see our brands strengthening and we see our shares improving.

The next question comes from Jeremy at HSBC. Go ahead, Jeremy.

Hi, morning. Thanks for taking the question. So two from me. The first one is, could you just give us a bit more of a wrap-up of your market shares across the business and where you think you are relative to your end market, something on the percent gaining and then just where you are relative to end markets. And then the second one is, could you go into a bit more detail on the volume performance in personal cares? Obviously, it was quite robust growth. for division in the quarter, but pretty much all of that came from pricing. So what was it that led to the volume slowdown in PC, just sort of kind of all that time, or was there some slowdown in other elements of the business and what you'd expect for the second half there?

Thank you, Jeremy. Market shares, you know, the picture I can give you is that we are gaining... I feel you look at the same numbers I look at, you know, and I feel many of you publish Nielsen data, and I believe it's very clear that our performance in U.S. and Europe is significantly above the market. So we are gaining shares in U.S., we are gaining shares in Europe, and we are gaining shares in India. So these are three of our most important markets, and we are with a positive trajectory in share there. I would highlight again, you know, the fact that we came back to share gain in deals and skin cleansing in U.S. This has been a longstanding issue. We have put a lot of focus there in developing our presence in the premium segment, and we are very pleased. With the development that we are having with our business there. In Latin America, as I mentioned before, we have in the short term some decline in laundry powders. But in the rest of the categories, we are in a positive momentum. And in aggregated shares, it has been positive in Latin America for six quarters now. Of course, we have been losing share in Indonesia. We have been losing some share in China also. And Southeast Asia is relatively flat, slightly down in a category like Archaea, but nothing significant. Regarding the volume performance in personal care. Again, our shares in personal care are very, very strong. You know, we have significant grace across most markets. That performance that you know is close to 40% of our personal care business is very, very robust, 8% growth. I think we have now close to seven, eight quarters with more than 8% growth in that. However, I believe personal care is very exposed to Latin America and there was a sharp deceleration of the DEO market in the last few quarters. The last quarter was something like minus 5% in volume. That is completely an outlier. We expect that to recover. And also I would say that the price increases that we put both in Latin America and in skin cleanse in India, in the case of Latin America, to deal with significant depreciation of currency, and in the case of skin cleanse in India, to deal with a significant palm oil inflation, puts some kind of break in our volumes. But we believe this is a short-term thing. We are confident in the power of our portfolio in personal care, and we expect Latin America in personal care, the markets to really come back, if not in the quarter three, probably in the quarter four. So that's basically the picture we have in performance in personal care.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jeff at BNP. Go ahead, Jeff.

Hi. Thank you, Gemma. Just one question, if I may. On retaining the 20% stake, I'm just a little bit confused as to why you're doing this. You talk about costs, et cetera, but I can't see the remain cool with any great issues shouldering any costs. So could you just kind of flesh out a little bit why exactly you're going to retain this 20% stake? Thank you.

You know, Jeff, we are very, very confident in the trajectory of the ice cream business as an independent company. We wanted to provide some stability also for the business in the beginning. We have decided net debt levels for both ice cream and the remaining company, and this will be communicated in the Capital Markets Day later in the year. And the retention of the state, you know, is fundamentally related with that. And as Ginni said before, we will dispose that before five years. That is a regulatory constraint we have. And we will do it in an orderly manner. to fundamentally pay for some of the separation cost, some of the tax leakage, and of course to reduce debt also. So that's everything we can say. But as I mentioned before, very, very confident in the potential of the ice cream company. Significant growth opportunity and also a significant expansion of Evita possibly in the business. I will definitely keep my shares.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Sarah at Morgan Stanley.

Thanks for taking my question. I've got two. The first one was on tariffs. You highlighted some inventory bills for supply chain management and tariffs and so on at the half-year stage. Can you just give us an update on how you think you're going to be affected by tariffs and what impact that's having on your second half margin guide? And the second one, I'm kind of stuck by your comments about wanting to shift more into beauty and personal care and so on. And obviously, you've been doing M&A to sort of further that and the organic growth. But I guess the question would be, to what extent are you considering more disposals to kind of further accelerate that shift? Thanks.

So on the tariff spot, it's good to clarify that most of our supply chain is actually localized. But we did have items of packaging material and some critical raw material coming out of various markets which were subject to tariff. While at an overall aggregate level, tariffs was absolutely a manageable number for us and still is and therefore we don't have to specifically call it out. It's in the realms of what we manage is inflation. Important element for us was to really ensure supply resilience. When we had this lot of macroeconomic uncertainty coming from tariffs, where we wanted to protect ourselves was really supply security so that we could have enough stocks to produce and sell and distribute. So, our stocking up was predominantly led by having that stock flexibility and not so much from a cost angle. That is the reason we took up our inventory. Now, having experienced this volatile world for a few months, we are reasonably confident to really bring down and optimize the inventory and we will do that. But on the tariffs question, it is not something which is really material for us at an aggregate and well within our margin guidance for half tool.

Regarding M&A and disposals, I have been very clear about our priorities. I call it more beauty, more personal care, more US, more India, more premium, more e-commerce. That's the way we want to shift our portfolio. And disposals play a role in accelerating that shift. We have a plan of around 1.5 to 2 billion of disposers, you know, it's a combination of fundamentally local brands in Europe, foods, and around half a billion of laundry unsustainable competitive positions in one Unilever market, you know, small markets in which we don't have leading positions in laundry. We have already announced several disposals in the last year or so, Uno, Swan, Conimex, The Vegetarian Butcher, and we have many, many processes in play now. But we will dispose this business, protecting value for our shareholders, and they are not in a fire sale, and we will ensure that we get enough value for that.

Thank you. Our next question comes from David at Jefferies. Go ahead, David.

Thanks Gemma, good morning also. It's a two from us, one more broad and one more detail, I guess. The broad one, just on pricing levels, are there any categories or markets where you feel that prices are too high? And I'm just thinking that a lot of competitors in the US are talking about consumer revolt on pricing levels, given the rises the last couple of years. India, you seem to be taking pricing down a little bit to stimulate volumes. Indonesia, resetting as well. So with margin now looking like over 20% X on ice cream, that's pretty high level versus the past. Is there anywhere where you feel like there is a risk that that margin needs to come down and or pricing needs to come down to be more competitive and re-stimulate volumes? And then the more detailed question was just on the spin again. The tax leakage, I think you talked before about there is a tax leakage even with a spin set up. Can you quantify that today, what the actual tax payment will be? Thank you.

David, thank you. Good morning. On pricing, you know, I have mentioned before there are a couple of, I would say, category country sales in which we probably have gone too far. In the case of Laundry Brazil, you know, we increase pricing. We have close to 65% share there in laundry powders, you know. When there is significant cost and significant currency devaluation, we usually lead with pricing in the market. It usually takes 8-12 weeks for competition to follow. You know, that's a kind of historic norm. It has not been the case. And, you know, when competitions don't follow, we reset strategy pricing to the desired level because, you know, we will never allow people to take volume on pricing from us. In the case of U.S., we have two different situations. One, we try to reposition pricing in DAPGEAR and in 3CMA with significant relaunches. in the case of up here has been very very successful you know a significant uplift in our pricing elevation of the quality of our brand in the case of 3me where we have done that with success in styling In the case of shampoo and conditioner, we have not been so successful, and we have rolled back our pricing to ensure competitiveness and protect our volume. So these are the places in which I would say there has been correction in pricing down. In the case of India also, not triggered by us, but triggered by a competitor, there was a decrease of liquids of around 17%. that we already commented in the quarter one. Volume reaction to that has been very, very significant. We landed that pricing even before our competition and we have seen a significant increase in our volumes in home care in India. Regarding the SPIN and the tax leakage, we will not give details at this stage. I feel we have given all the information that is necessary and of course there will be more information coming along the year, particularly in the capital market day of ice cream in September 9th.

Our next question comes from Vika at Bank of America. Go ahead, Vika.

Thank you very much. I'll be quick. First of all, are you still targeting hard currency EPS growth in 2025? And could you help us think about your return on invested capital improvement? You are talking about 100 basis points coming from ice cream. At the same time, in ice cream presentation, if I recall correctly, management was talking about 23% return on invested capital for ice cream itself. How should we add up these two numbers, please? Thank you so much.

Thank you for that. Listen, the commitment to hard currency earnings for us is a multi-year priority. It's a strategic priority and we are absolutely committed to that. There should be no debate on that. From a 2025 perspective, Look, we said in quarter two, 60% of the impact of currency is coming from a translation effect. It's really how euro dollars is playing out. If we were a dollar reporting company, it wouldn't have been there. But we do know that that will get also higher into half two. Having said that, you've heard us talk about our margins. You've talked about the gross margins, the investments, the overheads. We've also spoken about growth and growth is actually a big leverage to really drive the right financial shape. When we look at all of these elements, if we don't see a further deterioration in the translation effects of euro dollar, our intention is to aim and deliver positive hard currency earnings even in 2025. But we will not do anything which is going to jeopardize our business model. We will not under invest just to hit a number, but we will do the right things. But our intention and aim will be to really look at hard currency earnings. On the return on invested capital, this is what I will call it's either an accountant's delight or a nightmare. It really comes down to how we are really looking at some of the intangibles treatment when it comes to Unilever and when it comes to the ice cream company. The accounting standards dictate for us to have goodwill or intangibles looked at between ice creams and foods because that was a combined segment for us. So when we did that, the ROIC, you see what you see. Therefore, when we carve out ice creams, our ROIC improves. Ice cream has the flexibility to go back historically and actually start to look at only those acquisitions which were pure play. They have taken that flexibility forward. And as a consequence of that, they are reporting a higher number. If you see in net addition, and this is the accounting work, both views are right. But from an economic perspective, if we look forward, I don't think it really materially makes a difference. Unilever ROIC goes up by about 100 basis points. Ice creams will start their story with a revised asset base, and they have therefore indicated somewhere around 21 and 22. We're very happy to do a follow-up because it's slightly technical, but we rest assured economically it's absolutely fine.

Our next question comes from Tom at Deutsche. Go ahead, Tom.

Yes, thanks. Morning, everybody. And Fernando, I hope the knee's feeling better. Just on the channel shifts in the U.S., I mean, Amazon's by far and away the fastest growing channel for you and for most people. How are you allocating A&P differently to grow on Amazon versus Amazon? growing on Walmart? What's the sort of lineage or linkage between your A&P and growing on Amazon? And then just on the productivity side, sorry if I missed it earlier, but are you in a position now that you are actually getting the 100 basis points productivity benefit over COGS this year and going forward? Is that something to rely on now? Please, thank you.

Clear. Thank you, Tom. Regarding channel ships, there is a big evolution in how to reach consumers. I talk a lot about the new models of reach and persuasion. And retail media plays a very important role. Amazon today is not only an important channel of sale for us, but it's also an important channel of discovery for our brands. The same with Walmart. And the same with other retailers in the US. We are having a good run in Amazon, in Walmart. We are investing heavily in key retailers in the US. And our performance in the US is showing that also the model of deploying our investment is really working well. Our exposure to e-commerce in the US is very high. Because close to 50% of our prestige and well-being business in the US is e-commerce. A combination of direct-to-consumer, like Nutrafol, and a significant presence in Amazon or in Walmart.com or in the other sites of the retailer. We see the platforms of the retailer a significant source of awareness, a significant source of recommendation in which your exposure to ratings and reviews has to be very, very strong. And that requires a good exposure of your brands. And when we talk about perfect execution, we talk about perfect execution online and offline. Regarding productivity, Sini, you want to cover that?

So there are two elements, Tom, if you understood the question correctly. In one way, we had always said that from a buying and a procurement perspective, our intention and our teams are really trying to beat the market by at least 100 basis points when it comes to buying efficiencies. That is something which is absolutely going on track and we are delivering to that. And that's also therefore becoming a good source of cross margin expansion for us. When you look at it from an angle of some of our fixed costs in the supply chain, There we have a mindset of really having an absolute cost budget, volume leverage, and we aim and intend to really drive 2% to 3% reduction in absolute cost that gives us leverage. When you talked about overheads line, because productivity is an end-to-end phenomenon, there we have already spoken to you about how we are increasing our savings from about 550 to 650. Suffice to say, between all the three levers, progressing very well, and that actually is giving us the right margin structures and therefore our financial shape.

I would like to add, Gini, on this. I believe that the improvement we are having, a structured improvement in gross margin with a significant focus in our what we call supply chain, control cost, manufacturing and logistics, and the progress we have done in delivering our productivity savings at overheads level after announcing the separation of ISKIN is fundamentally showing a different culture in the campaign. So this is a new Unilever when it comes to cost discipline. We have real, real discipline in place and we are very pleased with the development of our cost control, both at product level and overheads level. Gemma, I probably can wrap with a few messages. We deliver a solid first half, good levels of growth, balance between volume and price, all of which is in positive volume growth. Our gross margin is structurally improving. It gives us fuel to keep increasing investment in our brands. And as a result of that, our power brands are strengthening and we are outperforming markets in regions like US and Europe with the most demanding retailers and the most demanding consumers. We see an acceleration of growth in the second half with sustained performance in developed markets and improvement in emerging markets, particularly in Indonesia and China. And I want to highlight again what Shini mentioned. We will not take operational decisions in a rush based on big currency swings, but if the euro-dollar exchange rate remains at current levels, our intention is to deliver earning growth in hard currency for the year. With that, thank you very much. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon. Thank you.