Coca Cola Bottlers Japan

I am Masaomi Gomi, Investor Relations Department Manager for Coca-Cola Bottles Japan Holdings. Thank you for joining us today for our first quarter, 2022, Earnings Call for Analysts and Investors. I'm here with President Colleen Dragan, CFO, Beyond Organis. and Takashi Wassa from the Coca-Cola Japan Company. Following prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. This presentation is intended for analysts and investors, so we ask members of the media listening to today's call to please hold your questions for our media sessions scheduled separately. Simultaneous translation in both Japanese and English is being provided for today's call and during Q&A with separate telephone lines for Japanese and English. Before we begin, let me remind you that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements, including statements concerning annual and long-term earning objectives and should be considered together with quotientary statements contained in our supporting presentation Both are posted to the Investors section of our company website. Please look on our website for this information in both Japanese and English. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to President Karin Dragan. Karin-san.

Thank you, Gomi-san, and good morning, everyone. Karin Dragan here. I will begin by sharing the summary of our first quarter 2022 earnings And please turn to the slide five of the presentation. In the first quarter, sales volume increased by 4% exceeding the market growth. With the end of the quasi-state of emergency measures, traffic and economic activity gradually recovered. We captured returning demand with new product launches and promotions in each channel. However, sales revenue remained flat year on year, reflecting lower wholesale revenue per case and negative mix due to ongoing competition and changing consumer behavior. Total channel value share grew 0.7 points versus last year. This was supported by 36 months of value share growth in our important vending channel. It's no mean feat to continuously increase market share over a period of three years. We feel justifiably confident that our efforts to date have strengthened our foundation to capture demand. Compared to the previous year, business income declined. We did, however, see volume growth and cost savings efforts are progressing well. We face severe market competition, and this has led to increased promotional spending and a decline in wholesale revenue per case. Sharp raise in global commodity prices and the cycling of last year's one-time cost savings also had an impact. Transformation initiatives towards sustainable growth are progressing well. We delivered approximately 3 billion yen of recurring cost savings in the first quarter as planned, And as good stewards of capital, we have controlled investment expenditure and continued divesting idle assets. We are working towards building a stronger profit base. And in the first quarter, we successfully conducted the price revision negotiations with customers for large PET products. We took the leadership in the market and implemented the price revision from May 1st shipment as scheduled. From a profit standpoint, we are still in a difficult situation. However, we are capturing the recovery trend in traffic and in terms of volume, steadily returning to a growth trajectory. In April, we continue to achieve volume growth and are off to a good start for the second quarter. To strengthen our business foundation, we are making steady progress in transformation, price revisions, and other initiatives. Now, let me ask our CFO, Bjorn Ulganes, to take you through the details of the first quarter earnings.

Thank you, Kalin. Hello, everyone. This is Bjorn Ulganes. Please see slide six for the first quarter results. As Kalin explained earlier, although sales volume increased by 4%, sales revenues remained flat for the previous year. This was mainly due to a combination of factors, including the severe competitive environment. Business income decreased by 1.2 billion yen from the previous year, resulting in a loss of 12.7 billion yen. The factors behind the decrease will be explained on the next slide. Our operating loss improved by 5.5 billion yen from the previous year. This includes the effects of continued balance sheet improvements, such as the approximate 3.7 billion yen gain from the sale of fixed assets. Net income decreased by 7.9 billion yen. This was mainly due to the cycling impact of a 12.5 billion yen gain on the sale of shares of our subsidiary QSI being included for 2021. On slide seven, you can see our primary business income drivers. Starting on the left-hand side are volume, price, and mix, which show the year-on-year change in marginal profits from the commercial activities of our beverage business. Volume, price, and mix deteriorated 0.2 billion yen from the previous year. Although volume growth contributed, channel and package mix deteriorated. affected by changing consumer behavior and increased competition, causing wholesale revenue per case to decline. Rebates also increased as we responded to intensified competitor promotions. As volume grew, fixed marketing expense, or DME, increased by 0.8 billion yen from the previous year. As a pillar of our commercial strategy, this year we have implemented marketing investments focused on profitability. We believe that investments in growth channels and packages will lead to market share expansion and volume growth over the mid to long term. The impact of commodity prices resulted in a 2.9 billion yen deterioration versus the previous year. We have been affected by rising raw material prices driven by geopolitical risks and the general inflationary environment. To offset this, we have taken all possible mitigation measures, such as utilizing hedging. But we are still affected by the rising prices in aluminum, PET, and other materials. In addition, the sharp depreciation of the yen has also had an impact. Manufacturing costs improved by 0.8 billion yen from the previous year. We improved manufacturing efficiency, and that helps absorb the cost of higher energy costs due to the high crude oil prices. In other costs, we saw further savings of approximately 2 billion yen compared to the previous year. Labor costs increased due to the cycling of last year's temporary leave. But we achieved a net positive contribution thanks to lower logistics costs brought about by our new MegaDC. Controlled capex has also yielded a decrease in depreciation expense. This also includes lower depreciation expense due to the change in the useful life of sales equipment from nine years to 11 years. These are the main drivers of business profits. As a result of these factors, business profit for the first quarter decreased by 1.2 billion yen from the previous year, resulting in a loss of 12.7 billion yen. Please see slide eight for volume performance by major channels and categories. Sales volume increased by 4% despite the continued COVID impact. We captured demand as traffic returned with the lifting of the quasi-state of emergency meshes. New product launches contributed, as did meshes implemented to meet changing consumer purchasing behavior at each channel. By channel, supermarkets, drugstore and discounters and online grew by 3%, 5% and 39% respectively. We are capturing the continued at-home demand in the wake of the state of emergency. Vending channel grew by 3%, mainly by capturing demand with the recovery of traffic. We also saw the benefits of new vending machine installations, which have been reinforced in the second half of last year while monitoring market conditions. Strategic use of the Coke On application also contributed to this growth. For the wholesale revenue per case, the declining trend from the previous year continued with severe competition. The increased sales of large water packages on the back of rising at-home demand also contributed to such trends. However, we expect to see improvement from the second quarter onwards especially in supermarkets, drugstores, and discounters, as we have implemented price revisions starting from shipments on May 1st. By category, the coffee category, where growth has been challenging amid the intense competition, grew 4%. Coffee volume grew in all channels and was driven by new and renewed Costa flavors, as well as the positive impact of Georgia promotional activities. Slide 9 highlights market share trends. Our operating area's total channel value share for the first quarter grew by 0.7 points over last year. This was due to the contribution from the vending channel's value share growth. Vending value share has grown for 36 consecutive months and was up four percentage points in the first quarter from the previous year. We believe the steady increase in our market share in vending, an important channel for us, is the result of our digital strategy, building a solid foundation through transformation and leveraging CoCom. On the solid foundation we have built, we will continue to grow our market share and capture the expected traffic recovery. In OTC, we continue to face a severe competitive environment. We are implementing measures to protect market share. Convenience stores are especially challenging and we continue to strengthen customer management initiatives. Regarding OTC retail price, our products maintain a premium price to the market average, both for small and large PET. We continue efforts to supply attractive products and implement effective promotions. Now, I'd like to introduce the Chief Marketing Officer of Coca-Cola Japan, Takashi Wassa, to take you through a marketing initiatives update. Wassa-san, please.

This is Wassa from Coca-Cola Japan. Let me take you through 2022 quarter one review and quarter two marketing highlights. To begin with, 2022 quarter one in review. Under the Coca-Cola new global campaign, Real Magic launched last year. This January, we executed a fortune bottle campaign. We successfully recruited new users through 2.6 million promotion participants, one of the largest ever for Coca-Cola brand package promotion. In March, we launched a new Coca-Cola Zero campaign. The campaign conveys that Coca-Cola Zero, with its refreshing aftertaste, communicates positive energy. Coca-Cola Zero, drunk when you want to refresh throughout your daily life, has been described as a taste that can be expressed in words or zero words. In addition, we conducted a must-win promotion with line points and successfully recruited new users. Next, I'll talk about Georgia and Costa. This January, Georgia launched a renewed brand campaign, The Coffee That Makes You Grow. Georgia believes in the power of coffee. Drinking a delicious quality coffee gives us me time to realize our true feelings and thoughts, to go forward positively and glow. In February, three Georgia Black coffee products were upgraded with a unique aroma technology under the theme of as deliciousness as if it was freshly brewed to embody the new brand campaign. In March, we renewed Georgia-Japan Classman by combining drip coffee and cold brew coffee to create a lasting flavor of PET coffee, a taste you will never tire of drinking. A campaign was launched to convey a taste that lasts for the beginning to the end of the drink. In March, Costa Coffee launched a new campaign, Do You Like Good Coffee?, to further establish the brand. The campaign features Ryoko Yonekura as a new brand ambassador and communicated the Costa Coffee's commitment to delivering a taste as great as if it has been carefully hand-pulled by barista. Leveraging our strong dual brands, Georgia and Costa Coffee, effectively, we have successfully expanded our market share in the coffee category. Next is Ayataka. In February, Ayataka launched Ayataka Sakura Design Bottle based on the concept of cherry blossoms and great taste in bloom. In February, Ayataka Cafe Matcha Latte, which gained great popularity last year, was launched under the theme of cherry blossoms to convey the relaxing cafe experience that only Ayataka Cafe can offer. Through these activities, Ayataka brand successfully achieved sales growth and recruited more users. In March, Lemon Dough, a brand specializing in lemon sour, launched Lemon Dough Muto, or low-sugar lemon, and Lemon Dough Umashio Lemon, new lineups that will satisfy alcohol lovers. Along with the new products launched, a new TV commercial campaign starring actor Hiroshi Abe and comedian Kendo Kobayashi was launched. The commercial depicts the characteristics of the new products for alcohol lovers in an easy-to-understand and comical manner. In addition to strengthening the core of lemon dough, in March we launched a new product, Lemon Dough Uchiwari Lemon, tapping into the growing lemon sour concentrate market amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In February, we successfully tapped into the non-alcoholic beverage market with Yowanai Lemon Dough, the system's first non-alcoholic blend with an alcohol content of 0.00%, offering an authentic lemon sour taste. By strengthening the core and launching new innovations, we successfully grew ourselves and expanded users. Please turn to slide 12. Next, I'm going to walk you through on quarter two highlights. Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero 100% recycled PET bottles of 350 milliliters were launched in April as a new level-less bottle available only through the online channel. Coca-Cola's Spencer logo is debossed, which is the opposite of embossed. With a concave shading process, enable us to deliver a branding as well as reduced plastic usage. Next is Georgia. Under the new brand campaign, the coffee that makes you grow. Georgia has started campaign because if you break, make it the best with Georgia in April for all SLT canned coffees, including Emerald Mountain Blend, and Georgia Schott and Blake. The communication aimed to inspire people to take a few minutes out of the daily workday in order to refresh with a cup of coffee and return to work with a good feeling. At the same time, a variety of promotions will be implemented to encourage people to enjoy a change of pace. In April, Ayataka, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, renewed its package graphic design. The new package design expresses the unique taste of Ayataka, which allows consumers to enjoy the original aromatic flavor of green tea by slowly and carefully opening the tea leaves, just like a tea made in Kyusu. The new TV commercial describes how the aromatic flavor of Ayataka can be enjoyed in a peaceful and relaxing manner. Based on the concept of aromatic umami made with the tea leaves brewed until it's fully opened, through this big campaign, Ayataka will deliver a relaxing taste that is close to people's daily lives. In April, Ayataka Cafe Hojicha Latte, the second flavor from Ayataka Cafe series of authentic lattes, was launched. The product is made with carefully selected quality ingredients and proprietary manufacturing process that uses a luxurious 100% domestic powdered hojicha to provide an elegant milk flavor that complements the taste of hojicha. Furthermore, in April, a next-generation relaxation drink, Chill Out, was renewed. Together, the renewal launched a new campaign, Want to Chill or Push Too Hard? campaign was launched. The campaign aims to expand a new category through enhancing product awareness and product understanding and expanding trials. And in May, we will launch a new energy drink in collaboration with Yoshiki of X-Japan, Real Gold X is inspired by uplifting rock music, and Real Gold Y is inspired by concentration of classic music. Through the message, Nothing is Impossible, and music asset marketing, we will inspire our next generation to take on various challenges. With this new energy drink, we will aim to top into a profitable energy drink category. This is a summary of my presentation today. Our marketing strategy for this year continues to have three main pillars, pivot to core, fewer bigger innovations, and capture stay-at-home demand. We will continue to respond flexibly and quickly to change in the environment and further grow sales and revenue by strengthening our core plans and strongly accelerating the growth of second-year innovation launch last year and new innovations in this year. That's it for my presentation today. Our marketing plan is underlying our company purpose, refresh the world, make a difference. We will continuously strive to deliver refreshing moments and positive feelings through our beverages. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Wasa-san. Colleen here again. Please turn to slide 15. We will now explain our previously undisclosed full year earnings guidance for 2022. In 2022, we anticipate a certain level of recovery in traffic. At the same time, we expect the business environment to remain challenging due to the increased raw material costs, as well as factors such as a severely competitive environment. The cycling impact from temporary cost savings implemented last year will also pressure profits. Even under these circumstances, as traffic recovers, we will target a 2% volume growth by executing commercial strategies to capture growth opportunities. We will continue to reduce costs through transformation and improve our earnings foundation. We aim to maintain business income at the same level as the previous year. We are currently off to a good start in the second quarter with preliminary 4% increase in April sales volume. We are confident that our actions leading up to the first quarter have allowed us to capture demand. And as part of our efforts to improve our earnings base, we implemented price revision for large PET as scheduled starting from May 1st shipments with the agreement of our customers. We believe that efforts to improve our earnings base are important and urgent tasks in operating our business during this severe environment. We are currently considering additional pricing measures as well. In addition, we will continue to focus on efforts to lower our cost base. Transformation is expected to deliver cost savings of 5 billion yen, as explained in our previous earnings call. Please see slide 16. This is the P&L for the full year 2022 financial outlook. Sales revenue is forecasted to increase by 4.3% year-on-year. This is based on a volume growth of 2% driven by demand growth on the back of traffic recovery and market share growth. The benefit of the large PET price revision implemented on May 1st is included in this The guidance calls for revenue growth to outpace volume growth. This growth will be given by vending, which has a higher wholesale revenue per case as well as improvements in price and mix. The cost of sales is expected to increase from the previous year due to the impact of increased volume as well as raw material prices. SG&A expenses will be controlled and it's expected to increase by only 1.2% compared to a revenue growth of 4.3%. The improvement in the SG&A to sales ratio is the result of the cost-based transformation we have been working on. We predict a decrease in business income due to the factors such as the continuing severe competitive environment, the cycling of one-time cost savings implemented in the previous year, the recent rapid raise in raw material prices, and the ongoing depreciation of the yen. Despite this, business income is expected to remain flat year on year, supported by the measures to mitigate the short-term impact on business performance and savings through ongoing transformations. In the following slide 17, I will explain the factors behind the changes. In 2022, although we expect a recovery in traffic, we anticipate the difficult business environment to continue creating headwinds for profitability. This includes raising commodity prices, continued intense competition, and the cycling of temporary cost savings of about 18 billion yen achieved last year. By continuing to work on volume growth and improving the earning base, we plan to target business income to achieve a level similar to the previous year. From the left side of the slide, you will see price, volume, and mix impacts. We plan to increase of 11.4 billion yen from the previous year through volume growth as traffic recovers and an improved price mix, including the effects of the price revisions for large PET. With the recovery in traffic, DME will be controlled and used at appropriate levels so that it will lead to mid- to long-term growth. Through such strategy, we expect the DME to remain flat versus the previous year. The commodity burden is expected to have an impact of 11.3 billion yen from the previous year. This is due to raising raw material prices, reflecting external factors such as geopolitical risks. The sharp depreciation of the yen will also have a negative effect. In manufacturing, although efficiencies from increased production volumes are expected, we anticipate a deterioration of 2.7 billion yen due to increases in energy costs caused by higher crude oil prices. Other costs are expected to improve by 2.7 billion yen from the previous year. The main factors contributing to profit are a decrease in depreciation expenses due to extension in the useful life of sales equipment, and the decrease in logistic costs. Labor costs are expected to increase as we cycle the last year temporary leave. Now please look at the slide 18. These are target metrics for 2022, which we explained during the February earnings presentation. As part of our full year guidance, We remain committed to improving shareholder value, and we will continue to work towards achieving these targets. We have made steady progress so far. Depreciation expenses have been updated from the initial 55 billion yen to 47 billion yen, accounting for approximately 8 billion yen impact due to the change in useful life of sales equipment. Please look at the slide 19 of our commercial strategies. This year, we have set four major pillars of commercial strategy to expand portfolio age, margin focus pricing, growth through vending channels, and customer management and execution excellence. And we are making steady progress on each of these initiatives. On the next slide, I will explain our efforts in one of the pillars, margin forced pricing. Please look at the slide 20. This year, we will work to achieve rational pricing and implement promotions at appropriate levels to strengthen our revenue base. As part of this effort, with the understanding of our customers, we took industry leadership and revised prices even while obtaining a premium to average market retail prices. The price revision for large PET products is effective from the May 1st shipment as scheduled, and we will continue to monitor the impact on sales. On the other hand, the current business environment continues to be challenging, and as raising prices of raw materials and crude oil prices, as well as yen depreciation have become major factors impacting the earnings. Although we are taking company-wide cost-saving initiatives to mitigate these effects, it has become difficult to absorb these effects through our efforts alone. We believe that efforts to improve our earnings base is an important and urgent task to operate our business in such a challenging environment. We are currently seriously considering price revision for small packages by the end of this year. Details are to be determined, but at this point, we are evaluating the revision mainly for small PET packages in all sales channels in the second half of this year. While considering future price revisions, we will strive to communicate carefully with customers and consumers to ensure that we gain their understanding. By rebuilding our revenue base, we will continue to provide high value added products and attractive promotions in the future. Now, please look at the slide 21. I would like to explain our growth through our vending channel. Vending is a particularly important channel for us in terms of profitability. The entire vending market has been severely affected by traffic decline from COVID. However, we have continuously grown our monthly value share for 36 months. This gives us confidence to say that we have built a solid foundation for growth. This year, we will firmly capture the traffic recovery momentum and aim for future growth based on such a foundation. And as explained during the last earnings calls, our activities in 2022 are focused on growth measures, such as increasing sales per machine, installed base growth, leveraging Qualcomm, and operational efficiencies. As for growth initiatives, we will expand sales per vending machine by offering attractive product lineups and implementing a pricing strategy that balances profitability with capturing demand during the recovery in customer traffic. We have recently seen a noticeable increase in the number of visitors at tourist spots, and we expect this trend to continue. We will strengthen our activities while carefully analyzing such traffic trends. We will conduct targeting on location-specific bases. In addition, since the second half of last year, we have been working to strengthen our efforts, including the placement of new vending machines in anticipation of a recovery in traffic while keeping a close eye on the market environment. This year, we will further strengthen such activities, targeting a net increase of over 10,000 vending machines. Cocoon downloads have steadily increased to over 35 million, and sales from vending machines that supports Cocoon are higher than those that do not support it. To maximize the use of such an asset, we will take measures to increase the quantity of active users. And such measures include increasing the number of COCON compatible vending machines and implementing COCON promotions. And in the first quarter, we achieved record heights in new and returning users, as well as the number of users of COCON paid. And from operation perspectives, we will work to increase the number of online vending machines to further improve efficiency while ensuring stable operations of the fundamentally devised operating model. By utilizing data from online vending machines, we will analyze data in real time and utilize it for sales forecasting, sales activities, inventory control, and other operational elements. Now, please look at page 22. Let me explain our efforts in the supply chain, which is the foundation for growth. This year, we will work on optimizing our logistic network through leveraging the mega DCs and on synchronizing sales and supply chain activities. For the mega DCs, the aim going to ensure stable operation of the Saitama mega DC and the smooth rollout of the Akashi MegaDC. Akashi is scheduled to start operations in July this year. We will aim to a smooth startup by taking the learnings of the Saitama MegaDC, which has operated since February 2021. Regarding the logistic network, we are conducting in-depth improvement activities to optimize all areas. We are focused on network reorganization centered around this mega DCs. And by leveraging mega DCs, we have been able to reduce the number of touches from factory production to customer delivery, leading to a reduction in logistic costs. Mega DCs also play a major role in inventory storage and shipping functions. And by consolidating product inventories that we have previously had at various cell centers quality and inventory levels have been improved. In addition, we are swiftly consolidating and closing cell centers in conjunction with these initiatives and have already completed the closure of five locations this year, realizing asset compression and cost reduction. In terms of agility against demand fluctuations, we are working towards deeper collaboration between commercial, and supply chain, taking advantage of lessons learned last year. To supply products in a timely manner and at low cost in response to changes in the environment, we are working to improve coordination, upgrade simulations, and leverage digital technology. Although the market environment is expected to remain uncertain, we hope to improve the forecast accuracy while minimize the loss of sales opportunities through such initiatives. Slide 23 is an update on our ESG initiatives. With creating shared value as the foundation of our management, we have positioned inclusion, communities, and resources as three platforms of our sustainability framework. Our ESG initiatives have been highly evaluated, and in addition to the DJI SI, we have recently been selected as the member of the FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index, an ESG investment index. With regards to climate change initiatives, we endorse the TCFD recommendations. We will work to further enhance our analysis of the financial impact of risks and opportunities related to climate change and our disclosure of measures to address them. Please turn to page 24 for today's summary. Over the past several years, we have been forced to navigate a challenging business environment under the influence of COVID. Despite such conditions, we have pushed forward without slowing our transformation to build a solid foundation for sustainable growth. Our efforts are showing results But as evident in our first quarter results, COVID continues to impact our business at the high cost of raw material prices has had a negative impact. In 2022, we will continue to capture the demand recovery, minimize commodity impact, and continue transformation. At the same time, we expect the business environment to remain challenging. That said, in April volume continue to grow following the first quarter. We feel that we have built a foundation to capture the demand recovery. On May 1st, we have implemented price revisions for large PETS plants, and we will continue to push forward with measures that will lead to improved profitability for the future. In a business environment that has changed dramatically during COVID, we're focused on protecting our business. However, Looking ahead to the post-COVID world, we believe it is necessary to grow our business again to maximize shareholder value based on the solid foundation we have built. We are currently developing a midterm business plan for sustainable future growth. Since our integration, we have responded to changes in the market environment, such as the rapid increase in aseptic products, restore the plant that had to shut down due to a natural disaster, And since 2020, we have further promoted transformation. While we have worked to build a solid foundation for growth and transformation, we faced business headwinds. For instance, we faced a revenue decline of approximately 100 billion yen in a single year in 2020 due to COVID. In spite of this, we are focused on what we can control, implemented activities to protect our business and market share based on swift decision making and pushed forward with key measures of transformation. This has resulted in recurring cost savings of more than 20 billion yen over the past two years, with the total savings amounting to approximately 27 billion yen, including the forecast for 2022. In addition, We have implemented price revisions for large PET with a strong will to build a revenue base. Furthermore, we have communicated that we are seriously considering a price revision for small packages as a further measure to improve profitability as we expect the severe business environment to continue. As for the next step, we explained earlier that we need to move from protecting our business to growing our business. After 2023, we will focus on achieving growth based on the foundation that we have built. And in achieving sustainable growth over the medium to long term, and in the course of developing our mid-term business plan, placing importance on shareholder value creation, growth, and sustainability. In particular, I intend to focus more than ever on shareholder value creation. We will target a healthy market share growth based on the business foundation we have built to date and generate solid profits. In addition, we have been working to be good stewards of capital by focusing on our core beverage business and selling all idle assets. We will further promote these efforts to maximize cash flow, which will be the source of returns to shareholders. While maintaining stable dividends, we intend to take opportunities to increase returns and to consider measures that will increase shareholder values. We will also strengthen our efforts on ESG to promote sustainability, important for sustainable business growth. And as for details for the initiatives for achieving sustainable future growth, we are developing a medium-term business plan and will announce at the soonest. That concludes my presentation today, and now let me ask Gomisan to come back and take us through the question and answer session.

Thank you, Gomisan. Let me remind you this Q&A session is intended for analysts and investors, so we ask members of the media on the call to please hold your questions until our media session scheduled separately today. We're using simultaneous interpretation so please make sure to ask your questions in the language you are joining, Japanese on the Japanese phone line and English on the English phone line. Please try to ask one question at a time as we are translating your question. Please state your name and company. Now, I would like to begin the Q&A. Operator, please put through the first question.

If you have a question, press 01. We are accepting questions from both Japanese and English lines. The first question is from Credit Suisse Ihara-san. Ihara-san, please. Hello from Credit Suisse. This is Ihada speaking. And I have two questions. My first question is about the price revision. So to be more specific, what is your image? What kind of plan do you have for this price revision? So, for example, what is the commodity cost you're trying to absorb? Or how about the canned package? What is the strategy? You mentioned that this is going to be for all the channels, but between channels, is the price revision, the price range going to be different? So whatever you can say will be appreciated. What is your detailed plan behind the price revision? And this is, again, related to the price revision. But looking at the first quarter, your volume is up, but the revenue per case is down. Not just you. This is the same for Century 2. So I know that this recent situation, there is the intensified competition. And talking about you and Suntory, we see a gap between the two companies on the price revision. I'm just wondering if all the companies are able to revise the price so that they can secure such a level of profit. That's my second question.

For your question, so your question was around pricing and if possible to elaborate more details regarding the price hike. Within your question, you also included parts about how much, sorry, as a part of your questions, you are seeing volume growth in the market but not feeding through the earnings. How do you actually intend to fix that through pricing measures? I will ask that question, I will have Kostin-san answer that question.

Good morning. This is Kostyl Mandrea. Thank you, Ihara-san, for your question. For us, pricing is a very important decision. And as we showed you, we are serious about it. For the last two years, we took price increases for large PET, although we have premium in the market. In the beginning of 22, We announced to you that we see inflation going up, and we see pressure from commodities, and we'll take price increase from large PET. This was a big decision, and we spent significant time with our partners, with customers, to make this price increase a reality. From 1st of May, we implemented this price increase, and Although it's very early, our main focus right now is to understand which are the implications to our business and to the overall industry of beverages. What we saw recently is that commodity pressure is accelerating. And that's why we came today and we said that we are seriously considering raising price for small PET. And what this means, it means that we are working on all the options, although we did not yet make a decision. But let me explain to you what kind of considerations, what kind of implications we are looking at. First of all, we need to evaluate the impact of the large PET increase. What's the impact in terms of revenue? What's the impact in terms of our consumer purchasing? And overall, what's the impact on the industry? Second, moving forward, we are very concerned about the competitive environment. So before we make a final decision to move with small PET, we need to consider what is happening in the market. We tell you many times, we are already premium in the market. And what we saw, it's an increasing pressure on price promotions, on buy one, get one free. On top of this, for the last month, we see our competition upsizing their small PET from mainly 500 ml to 600 ml. All of this. are creating pressure on us because we need to continue to stay affordable with our consumers. We need to make sure that our customers will partner with us in taking further price decisions. So in summary, taking price increase, it is a delicate decision for us. We showed in the last three years We took leadership and we implemented two price increases. And right now, we are working final details for small PET price increase. And we'll decide if we increase, when, and what's the exact mechanism. I hope this is answering your question about pricing. And if you allow me briefly to discuss about the second question, which has to do with Holster per case. As you saw in Q1, please continue. Sorry. So briefly, in Q1, we're growing volume with 4%, we're growing revenue with 2%. And we see here two significant changes in the market. The positive one is that we see recovery starting to appear in the market. Although in Q1 we are still under state of emergency, gradually we are getting out of this. It's very important for us that channel mix how fast vending and CVS, more channels with higher wholesale price per case, how soon they will grow. And also it's very important for us to monitor and to react to the competitive environment. I explained to you earlier, there is significant pressure in terms of competition. We stay very disciplined in our pricing promotions, but obviously, we have to maintain our competitiveness. I hope this answers your question. Thank you.

Ihara-san, we hope that answered your question.

Thank you very much. So for the IC package, the price revision, So I guess that you're going to have an aggressive, it's not that you're going to have an aggressive approach to make the first announcement. You're going to see how it goes in the market and then you're going to consider. So you're just in the process of considering at the moment.

Wait, the price revision, looking at what the competitors would do in the market.

Right now, like I said, we just implemented large P&T. We are monitoring and there is a complex process of assessing prices our next steps. We'll inform you if, when, and how much we'll take the next step. Thank you.

Mr. Ihara, we hope that answers your question. Due to time, we would like to go to the next question. Thank you very much. Please put through the next question.

The next question is Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, Tsunoyama-san. Tsunoyama-san, please go ahead. Hi, this is Tsunoyama speaking. Can you hear me? Thank you. I have a question about commodity price. This will be a detailed question. about the commodity, because in the current guidance, you have mentioned that you will have an impact from the commodity at about $11.3 billion. I would like to understand the breakdown of that. And also, in the first quarter, you have a $2.9 billion, and then you are saying that for the full year, it's like... 11.3 billion. So I think this is a lot of small. So what's your rationale behind this? Or is there any upward risk from 11.3 billion in the end? So can you share your view on this?

Around commodity prices, more details around the 11.3 billion, the breakdown. And also the second part of your question was that the full year expectation of 11.3

looks a little bit conservative looking at the 9 2.9 billion incurred in the q1 i will have this answered by bjorn thank you for the question first of all i cannot give detailed breakdowns of our commodity buying but i will tell you that in 2021 the main drivers of the close to 3 billion commodity surge we had at that time came from sugar and then aluminum. But this year, as you noted, we have stated 11.3 billion as the incremental impact for this year. That is coming first and foremost from PET, again, driven by oil price surges, aluminum again, and now the depreciation of the yen, especially versus the dollar. When it comes to the full year impact, on your second question, if there's further risk, first of all, I just want to remind you that we, as Coca-Cola Bottles Japan, we predominantly buy PET, aluminum, and sugar. We do not buy coffee beans, et cetera. That is bought by the Coca-Cola Company. So therefore, the factors that influence us are baked into the 11 billion, nothing else. When it comes to further risk, we are using our global procurement system to help us forecast and anticipate the impact of the commodities. And we will always tend to look at this from a realistic base throughout the year. and again using the global procurement organization to help us hedge and forecast the impact of this. So at the moment, this is our best estimate of the impact for the year, 11.3 billion. Thank you.

Thank you very much. So one follow-up question. So you mentioned that you're thinking considering about the small pet price division. But in terms of the cost up, in order for you to absorb this negative impact of $113 billion, which kind of price strategy are you planning for? Or rather, are you thinking about the price hike so that you can actually absorb more than $11.3 billion or to say rather a couple years of cost up? So what is your main objective of your price revision?

A follow-up question. So your follow-up question was, how do you mitigate the commodity pricing, commodity rise, and what are the initiatives, including pricing, that we are taking, and what measure specifically is actually against the commodity pricing mitigation? Bjornson, I would like you to take this question, please.

Thank you again, Sunil Mathan. So, as we said in the prepared marks, we are seriously considering small P&T price hikes. And as you can have or have heard from Colleen's prepared marks, all of the different measures we are working on is, again, to return us to profitable growth. And the profitable growth will come from several measures, market recovery, for instance, in the different channels, impact of pricing on decisions we have already made, like large PET. And again, remind everybody, this is the second time in three years we're taking price. Commodities, of course, as you spoke about, the ongoing transformations. So all of these measures for us are important building blocks to return to profitability. So therefore, pricing, as I said, is one of the building blocks, but there are, of course, several Thank you for the question.

Thank you very much for the question. We hope that answered your question. Due to time constraints, we would like to move to the next question. And I understand that we have reached our originally planned time, but we will be extending this session for an additional 10 minutes. But we would like to ask the analysts to keep their questions to one question per person. Operator, please put through the next question.

The question is from Bank of America, Kaneko-san. Kaneko-san, please. This is Kaneko from BOA. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you, Kaneko-san.

Okay. And about the price revision, again, it might be a duplicated question, but I have the same kind of question. So you mentioned that you are considering a price revision for the small packages for all the channels. So for example, let's say, you know, vending machine, which is one of your core channels. So maybe you will rise the price of the small PET packages, but maybe you'll maintain the price for the canned products. Will that be a scenario? Do you have any directions that you can share at the moment?

For the question, so the question was around the SPET price hike in all channels. Within that question, What do we think about the vending as PET increases? Our prices may increase, but what happens to the other packages? I will have Kostin San answer this question.

Thank you, Kaneko-san. This is Kostin. Basically, this is what we describe right now about all the scenarios that we are working on. We took price increase for large PET. Now we are considering small PET, which is the most important part of our portfolio. It's 40% of our volume, and it's almost two-thirds of all the transactions. So you can imagine this is a significant decision. Right now, we are working on scenarios by channels. And like I said, we need to keep in mind how competitive we'll be in the market and what will be our position in a very competitive market. definitely inform you how, if, and how we'll transition to this small PET increase. Thank you.

Mr. Kaneko-san, we hope that answered your question. Operator, we would like to go to the next question, please.

The next question from Fujiwara-san from Nomura Securities. Fujiwara-san, please go ahead. Hi, good afternoon. This is Fujiwara speaking. With regards to the competitive environment in mid to long term is my question. It's about if you are going to revise the price for the small pet, probably the others will follow. But after that, in mid to long term, I'm just worrying that we might be seeing yet another price bubble. So in normally in current you see a price competition for the small pet in the market. And just before, you just announced about the large pet price hike. But along with this kind of price hike and the price competition, which kind of plan or perspective you have for the beverage industry as a whole?

Pet of landscape. So your view is that if we raise our S-Pet prices, others may follow. But would that be sustainable, and would this be positive for the industry health in the long term?

Thank you, Fujiwara-san. First of all, I will state I cannot comment on other people's moves, but I will share with you what we know for sure. What we know for sure is that in the last three years, we took two price increases. in large PET. And we saw in the industry a mixed movement. So nothing significantly better in terms of improving the health of the industry. On contrary, like I shared, we see during pandemic and recently a very intense competition. We see continuation of buy one, get one free, of the price promotions, and also a move that it's in the, again, it's making the market even more competitive. It's upsizing. All of these are obviously creating pressure on us in terms of affordability and in terms of our ability to capture demand. In CCBGI, we are disciplined about everything, meaning price promotion, and like we showed, we are disciplined in implementing the two large PET increases. Right now, we are seriously considering the small PET, and we'll decide if, when, and how much we'll do this, because we believe in Japanese market, obviously there is a necessity to improve the health of this industry with the significant competitive environment and also with the significant pressure that the industry is having on commodities. I hope this answers your question. Thank you.

We hope that answers your question. Due to time constraints, I would like to move to the next question, please. Operator, please put through the next question.

The question is from Morita-san, Daiwa Securities. Morita-san, please. This is Morita from Daiwa Securities. I have one simple question. So the business income is minus, again, in your guidance, but when is it going to be on the profit side? I know that you're going to consider the price revision. You are reducing costs, but when is the timing that you're going to be profitable? Thank you.

Your question was, four-year guidance is loss-making when they expect to turn to profitability. I will have Bjornsson answer this question.

Thank you, Morito-san. A simple question with a difficult answer. First of all, I will not be able today to give you an exact date or time when we will return to profitability. As you have seen, we have issued the folio guidance for 2022 today. And as Colleen said in the prepared remarks, our focus is, of course, a return to profitability. Again, I want to remind you of the key drivers of that return to profitability. First of all, market recovery. coming in the key channels for us, developing price increases. And as we have said, we have already taken two price increases in this market over the last three years, and we are now considering the third. We will continue the transformation efforts and really push to become much more efficient in how we operate our business. remains an uncertainty, I think, for everybody, almost independent of industry. But in the end, all of these are building blocks that will help us get back to profits. As I said, I will not be able to give you a date and time today, but I hope these drivers will help clarify what we are working on and what we can control to get on that path back to profitability. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Question, please.

The question from Morgan Stanley, MFG, Miyake-san. Miyake-san, please go ahead. Hi, this is Miyake from Morgan Stanley. With regard to the price revision, which kind of volume environment will be the best? Because if you have a strong volume demand, are you thinking of a more stronger and aggressive price hike will be possible? suitable? Let's say if you have a very hot summer and if you have a strong demand, do you think that it's rather difficult for you to do the price hike because of the strong demand? So I just wanted to understand what will be the relationship between the volume demand and the price hike strategy?

The price revisions and what will be the best volume conditions, including the likes of summer weathers other factors that would have impact on the volume of the overall market as well.

Thank you, Miakesan. This is Costin. Two folds to your question. First of all, we slowly start to see recovery of the market with traffic coming back and we are able to capture demand. You see we are continuing to grow market share. And obviously, we are hoping a normal summer after two very challenging summers during COVID, we are hoping a normal summer will help improve the overall results for CCBGI. But in the same time, we are dealing here with a significant inflationary environment with pressure on commodities, And we are dealing with a significant competition pressure in this market. So we took the decision to take the price for large PET. We are now seriously considering the small PET. And obviously, we believe this is a step that should definitely work together with the recovery of the market. both for the health of CCBGI business, but also for the health of the entire beverage industry. Thank you.

I hope we hope that answers your question. With that, we would like to close it with one final comment from .

First, on the mic right now, I just wanted to say again, a big thank you to all present on this call for the interest shown in our business. And I hope that through today's presentation, we have reinforced your trust in our initiatives and our actions. On one hand, to return to profitability and the most important things probably is to build value for our shareholders. I saw throughout the day a huge interest expressed around our pricing initiatives. And I hope that through the answers that were provided, you got a picture about where we are in our initiatives. And I would say as well, you get a sense about how determined and how seriously we are considering all these initiatives as a base for our return to profitability. Well, We are always reminding you, and this is something that I feel the need to stress, the fact that as a bottler of Coca-Cola products in Japan, we have shown high determination on driving the business, but as well the entire industry towards healthier grounds, to call it like that. We have always promoted healthy mixes in our portfolio. We try to promote a healthy promotional activity in the market. And more recently, in the last three years, we have put the prices up twice in probably after three decades of stagnation. And the fact is that right now we are announcing that we're seriously considering the small packages price increases I think it endorsed that determination towards a healthy industry and implicitly a healthy business for ourselves. Having said that, I just want to say a big, big thank you again and looking forward to see you to our further encounters in the next period. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Collinson. That will conclude our presentation for today. Thank you again for your interest in our business. The replay webcast of this call will be available on our investor relations website soon after finishing the call. We invite you to reach out to our investor relations teams with questions or feedback. Thank you very much.