Essilor Luxottica

Good morning to everybody. Thanks for joining us today and thanks for the interest you continue to show in Essilor Luxottic. I'm happy to join you for my first earnings call as the Group CEO. We are pleased to present today strong results with the sharp acceleration of the Group performance in the second quarter of the year. leading to a nice growth of revenue and margins in the first half overall. The new governance, based on the high-profile board of directors and supported by the management team, is promoting a faster and better execution of our strategic vision and integration programs. This allows us to upgrade our outlook for the full year 2021. Now point to meet single-digit revenue growth and some margin expansion versus 2019 at constant currency. Backed by an improving business environment in most of the areas worldwide, starting from North America and leveraging its best-in-class proposition. Essilor Luxottica grew 9.2% in revenue in the second quarter versus the same period of 2019 at cost and currency, which is a substantial acceleration compared to plus 1.9% of the first quarter. Our business grew in all areas, in both optical and sun, as well as in wholesale and retail. Optical was driven by value-added lens brands and our optical retail banners, in particular in North America and Australia. Sunglasses strongly bounced back in the quarter, in Sunglass App Store and on e-commerce platforms. driven by Ray-Ban and Oakley as well as luxury brands. These prove once again the brands matter in our business and underpins the group's strategic focus and investment effort on branded top quality offerings. Both the new divisions we introduced today, professional solution and direct-to-consumer, representing the wholesale and retail business of the group, grew and accelerated. E-commerce continued to grow fast, up by 66% in the quarter and reaching 9% of the group's total business. Our balanced focus on both the wholesale and retail channels reflects the strategic idea of network company and open model presented at our first Capital Market Day with the goal to elevate the standards of the entire eye care and eyewear industry to the benefit of all its stakeholders. The acquisition of Grand Vision, closed one month ago, perfectly fits into such a strategic framework. Aimed at replicating in Europe the successful multi-channel model we have adopted in North America since the acquisition of Landscrafter in 1995. We are happy with the transaction and ready to make the most of it. like we have been pleased to see the merit of our position fully acknowledged by the arbitration court. Essilor Luxottica is rebuilding its foundations and reshaping the industry, going through such a transformational phase with energy and enthusiasm. Vertical integration, global footprint, clear leadership as well as strategic vision and execution capability are the key strengths of our group, which make us look at the future with great confidence. With that, I head over to our CFO, Stefano Grassi, for a quick review of the group revenue drivers and our Deputy CEO, Paul Dusayan, to talk about the key areas of mission and sustainability.

Thank you, Francesco. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our first of 2021 earnings release. As we're starting now a new journey for Astro Luxottica, we decided to move away from the old heritage of Astro Luxottica, very much moving into a new structure that includes two divisions for the group. On one side, we have our professional solution division, that very much represent our wholesale business. On the other side, we have our direct-to-consumer division, that represents our brick-and-mortar division, as well as our e-commerce commercial proposition. I believe this structure truly enhances our vertically integrated business model and will allow you, all of you, to very much better understand our underlying business trends for the group. In the appendix, you will also find an extended disclosure of our revenue base by quarter for 2019 as well as for 2020. But now, let's start our journey around the different geographies as usual, using and leveraging very much the new structure that we just announced. Let's begin with the biggest geography, North America, that in the second quarter posted top line up 16% compared to 2019 levels. As you can see, this number is something that we haven't seen in the past. It's actually the best quarter that we recorded in North America for Asura Luxorica. The market in North America is pretty healthy. Our top-line performance was very much supported by a strong delivery from both the division, Professional Solutions, as well as direct-to-consumer. The Professional Solutions division was up on a high single-digit territory during the second quarter. The LEMS business in North America delivered a strong growth, well supported by ECPs as well as our strong branded portfolio. The EL360 program, a joint effort between the LEMS, the FRANCE and the insurance on retrolexotica in North America, is now rolling out on about 2100 as of the end of June. The frame business in North America posted top line up about 20% during the course of a second quarter, with independent, key account, e-commerce, sports account, all on the double-digit pace. From a brand standpoint, very happy, very pleased to report that Rabun and Oakley posted double-digit growth in prescription as well as on their sump part. In particular, our Oakley brand was very well supported by the launch of the Kato product, that thanks to his disruptive design and innovation, already represents an icon for our Oakley brand, that is gaining a lot of visibility during the Olympics Games that are in due course in Tokyo, Japan. Our direct-to-consumer division was up double digits during the course of the second quarter. LensCrafter was up double digits in April, double-digit in May, double-digit in June. And that happened despite our traffic material decline compared to the pre-covered level, and we're talking about a traffic decline that is in the 20% range during the course of the second quarter. But thanks to a strong retail execution, thanks to a strong length mix, we were able to deliver such a strong result. was double-digit, likewise, land scrapper in every single month of the second quarter, supported by a strong rebound of local demand. Last but not least, e-commerce. E-commerce was close to double the size of the business compared to 2019. With Oakley.com, Sanglota.com, Raven.com, and iBuyDirect.com, all of them on the triple digit territory. But now let's move ahead and let's go back into INEA. INEA just recorded a top line up approximately 4% during the course of the second quarter. It's a remarkable rebound of our performance in Europe, where you might remember, during the course of the first quarter, we recorded negative 7%. So we moved from negative 7 to plus 4% in the second quarter, with a stronger acceleration during the second part of the second quarter in Europe. Professional solution was solid positive in the second quarter. France, the largest country in the region, was up on the mid-single digit, but also Italy, Scandinavia, Russia, Eastern Europe, as well as South Africa, all posted solid growth during the course of Q2. On the frame side, we were very pleased to report that the Sun business was finally flat to 2019. That has been one of our challenging areas, if you remember, in Europe. And the month of June actually recorded a promising high single-digit growth in 2021 compared to 2019. but a solid response continues to come from the optical business that again was positive once again and posted top line up on the mid-single-digit territory for Q2. A brief touch on the direct-to-consumer side that was up mid-single-digit, very much driven by a strong e-commerce performance and that's not something new for us, we've already seen it in the past. While a brief touch on retail brick-and-mortar I think is important. Retail brick-and-mortar is still negative in Q2, Just to give you an idea, we're operating during the second quarter our retail brick-and-mortar with 10% to 20% less operating hours compared to pre-COVID level. But we see some encouraging signs of recovery during Q2. In particular, in Italy, we were solid positive in May as well as in June. In St. Glastat, recorded... flat sales in the UK in June and we were double digit up in Turkey again during the month of June. So some encouraging sign of recovery that we start seeing in Europe. But now let's move to the eastern part of the world and let's touch Asia-Pacific. As you can see in Asia-Pacific our revenue declined 3.5% under constant effects. The professional solution division was just slightly negative during the course of the second quarter, we were very pleased with the performance that we've seen in Greater China, with a top line that was close to 30% in Q2, and Australia, that did another solid quarter of double-digit growth. On the other side, we have to report that India, South Asia, Korea, Japan, continue to be on the negative trend, very much due to the product restriction that impacted this part of the world, In China, I will probably mention the performance, the remarkable performance, the impressive track record of the cellulose lenses. They continue to post solid increase week after week in lens delivery. And I gotta tell you, just to give you an idea of the importance that myopia management has in China, during the course of the second quarter in the lens business, about half of the growth was very much achieved through myopia solution. In the dollar-to-consumer side of Australixotica in Asia-Pacific, our sales were negative, but we see very different trends within the region. On one side, our optical Australia business posted calm sales on the high single-digit territory, despite several lockdowns that impacted the Australian country during the first half of the year. And just to give you an idea, we had approximately 560 stores that were impacted by local lockdown in Australia for a total of 40 days of closure in different time periods for different clusters of stores. But again, a massive impact on our business. And we continue to see that happening, unfortunately, in the month of July with the lockdown impacting the New South Wales region and Sydney in particular. In China, Our business direct-to-consumer was still on the double-digit negative in Hong Kong, while the mainland China showed encouraging sign of recovery in April as well as the month of May. But then the restriction that impacted the southern part of China in the month of June created a deceleration of our trend over there. For the rest of Southeast Asia, we continue to see negative trend here. very much due to the strong limitation that we see on the travel retail side. But now let's touch our last region, that is Latin America, where you do see top line up on a 2% base, on a constant effect basis. The professional solution delivered a low single-digit growth during the second quarter. We were positive on both length as well as frames. despite still a challenging situation for the vast majority of the Latin American countries during the course of the second quarter. In Brazil, April, and I would say the vast majority of the month of May, the population was impacted by severe restrictions, in particular in shopping malls, and we see that impact in our business. But then, in the month of June, we start seeing a good recovery, in particular on the ECP channel, as well as in our sport channel in Brazil. From a lance mix standpoint, we are very pleased to see favorable price mix, thanks and well supported by our Barlux and Aydan lances in Brazil. From another country mix standpoint, happy to report Mexico, as well as Argentina, both solid drawing during the course of the second quarter, while Colombia is still very much on the challenging territory due to the political turmoil and the impact of the COVID restrictions. So, on the larger consumer side, sales in the quarter landed just slightly negative. With April, there was double-digit negative, while May and June were both on the positive side, very much led to a strong recovery in our Chile operation. And this promise is trend, and that's good news. It's also continuing during the month of July. With that, let me hand it over to Paul that will give us more color around the great initiative that we're building up with respect to our mission and sustainability.

Thank you, Stefano. Good morning to you all. It's great to be here and together with Francesco to be able to share such great results and momentum. Now, I would like to focus on a topic that is very important to Essilor Luxottica and to us all, mission and sustainability. Sustainability is deeply rooted in Essilor Luxottica DNA, and both companies have a long history of corporate responsibility. It is very much part of who we are. Today, we are proud to announce that building on our past momentum, our teams have defined a single company-wide sustainability approach that ties into our mission. It is a wonderful milestone for us, and I would like to thank our team for their outstanding effort in combining their expertise and delivering a clear and unified roadmap. This is a great example of the progress we have made in our integration. Another proof point on how we are working as one company. The approach, named Eyes on the Planet, structures our new sustainability roadmap around five pillars. Carbon, circularity, website, inclusion, and ethics. Each of these topics are deeply rooted in our organizations. You can find more information on the new sustainability section on the company website. I would like to touch on three of these pillars today. Starting with carbon, our contribution to fighting climate change. Together with Francesco, I am pleased to announce that Exibir Lusotica has set a target for itself to achieve carbon neutrality at its facilities by 2025, starting in Europe by 2023 for Scope 1 and 2. A lot of progress has already been made in reducing our carbon footprint in recent years. And with this pillar, we will continue to do so by focusing on key areas such as producing and procuring renewable energy wherever we can. We will invest in new processes that reflect our commitment and continue to update our equipment and technologies with energy usage in mind, in addition to investing in initiatives to protect and restore natural ecosystems, to name a few examples. The second pillar I would like to highlight is circularity. With our strong intention to improve product design and functions, waste management and materials we use. We will continue to make bold moves across the entire production cycle, including a shift from fossil-based materials to bio-based materials, which produce fewer emissions and are easier to recycle. This is also reflected in the recent investment in Mazzucchelli to develop and produce a highly sustainable type of acetate. And I would like to conclude with our world site pillar, which, in line with our mission, aims to bring good vision to everyone, everywhere. We remain committed to our goal of eliminating uncorrected provision by 2050. It is frankly an anchor for the industry, and we have some of the best philanthropic partners and NGOs around the world partnering with us to achieve this goal. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the news announced last Friday. All 193 member states of the United Nations have unanimously passed a resolution committing to making eye care accessible for the billions of people living with preventable vision impairment by 2030. The inclusion of eye care in the Sustainable Development Goals supports Ethylor Lucetica's own ambition and roadmap launched during the UN General Assembly in 2019 to eliminate uncorrected vision in a generation. As we celebrate this milestone, I would like to thank all our teams for their contribution over the past decade in elevating good vision onto the world health agenda. So as you can see, Estirolusotica today not only has a fantastic and clear mission, which is now officially supported by the UN, we also have a clear sustainability approach through which we plan to contribute to some of the key societal issues of our time and continue to make a positive impact for everyone around us. From all you have heard us share this morning, I'm confident you can see the momentum which we have been able to create for us and for the industry. And with that, I would like to hand over to the operator for the Q&A. Thank you.

We will now begin the Q&A for 30 minutes. Please limit your questions to a maximum of two. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. We take our first question from Graham Renwick from Ehrenberg. Graham, your line is now open.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Just firstly, on the first half margin, which was 130 bits ahead of the 2019 base, How much of that was boosted by the one-off cost measures, which you expect to roll off? And therefore, how much of that was a real underlying improvement in margin versus 2019? So in other words, what would a normalised margin would have looked like without those temporary measures? And then secondly, on grand vision, now that that's been successfully completed, are you able to expand a little bit more on the opportunities you're seeing there and Are you able to give us a sense of the size of the revenue and cost synergies you think you can derive from that deal? And also, are there any sort of upfront integration costs or any phasing of synergies we should be aware of there? Thank you.

Hello. Good morning, Grant. Let me take the first answer here. With respect to our first half margin, you remember last time that we spoke, we said that we were entering into 2021 with a very good control of our cost base. That control of our cost base has been very much put in place throughout the first half of the year. So we have that very much as a solid control. In the second quarter, We released certain investments, in particular to get ready for the summer season. And again, overall, I would say that this is a good underlying trend, not very much impacted by, you know, one-off activities in that respect. With respect to the GBI...

I would like just to tell something more general on GBI, maybe to prevent also some other questions. GBI, as you know, is a way we complete our footprint worldwide. It was something missed in our organization. Let me say maybe it was a mistake that we have done many years ago, and so now we have the opportunity to fix that mistake. Now we have a new footprint. It's almost the same around the world. We have something left on Asia that we are looking to fix also that part. And Grand Vision is mainly more than just improving for our revenues and margin and so on. It really is the opportunity to deploy the model that we have in mind, the omni-channel approach everywhere in the world and also in Europe. This is the main sense of our acquisition. That is the reason why the price was important, but not the only things that matter on that operation. So now I'll lead to our CFO answer on cost and synergy.

Yeah, I mean, it's early to very much have a comprehensive picture on revenue and cost synergies. Some of the war streams that we're going to undertake are the ones that, you know, we have been pretty disclosure and we've been pretty open to talk about. But, again, we will, in due course of our journey – of converging with Grand Vision, we might provide more color on that. But again, it's at this stage a bit early to say.

We take our next question from Elena Mariana from Morgan Stanley. Elena, please go ahead.

Hi, thank you very much. Good morning and congratulations on your results. So I will speak to the two questions. The first one is on your outlook. So your top-line guidance assumes a slight deceleration into the second half of the year versus the growth you've recorded in Q2. I just wanted to understand if this is a function of you being relatively cautious due to the uncertain macro picture, or do you actually expect the pace of top-line growth to sequentially decelerate? I'm asking this because you sounded in your presentation as if the exit rate was quite good given that June has seen a further acceleration in many areas. And still part of this discussion, just a clarification on the back of the previous question. So is it fair to assume that your EBIT margin in the second half should expand as much as in H1, given that you're expecting another half year with sales growing at a mid-single-digit pace? And then my second question is more a strategic one, probably for Francesco and Paul. You've talked about grand vision as being a key transformational deal that allows you to have a new footprint. And actually now, you know, you're slightly unbalanced if you compare Europe and U.S. versus Asia. I know it's very early and now you have a lot on your plate, but what would be your strategy to further expand your footprint in Asia? So do you potentially envision acquisitions there of retail chains? Do you expect to grow more organically? So if you could share your very long-term view on this part of the world, that would be great. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Elena. Good morning. I'll take the first question on the outlook. I would say there are top line assumptions here. It's pretty consistent with the trend that you've seen in the first half of the year. I mean, if you look at our top line, it's around 6%. We're landing on a full year guidance of mid-single digits. So we're there. With respect to the EBIT margin, let me put it in a kind of different angle. Our updated guidance, clearly indicate that we have a margin expansion for the full year. That guidance implies a margin expansion for the first half of the year as well as for the second half of the year. In particular, for the second half of the year, we wanted to keep the flexibility, I would say, to relieve investment that we believe are strategic for the company. when we do see that we have the proper market condition to do so. And that is the reason why we kind of, you know, release the guidance in that way. We have some important strategic investments, the Olympics again in Tokyo. We're going to have a major and important media boost plan on the land side. We have the back-to-school season. And obviously, in the fourth quarter, there's going to be the holiday season with the Black Friday. But again, we want to have the flexibility to release investments when we have the proper market conditions to do so. But again, it would be a margin expansion. It has been margin expansion H1, and it will be margin expansion for the second half of the year.

To Asia expansion. So the question is really complex because we divide Asia in different parts, and we have different strategies. Say that we are already the biggest operator in that area as retail and wholesale lenses and frame. So it's not big as we are in the other area of the planet, but at the same time we are still there and we know very well that market. Now we are approaching in a different way China, India, and the rest of Asia. And in China, you know, we have articulate footprint. We have plants. We have strong wholesale. We have retailers in the premium places. And now we are really focusing on the extension of our presence on the clinical hospital part with the stainless operation, the strong operation. relationship that we're having with the doctors there. And that will represent the main drivers for our growth in the next one or two years. And that means also a different approach to retail strategy. You know that one of the biggest retail organizations is really represented by stores that are inside hospitals. They are fully connected with the clinical part, with the site visit, the measure, and so on. So that is the part where we are focusing in China, and at the same time, we are integrating our strategy with e-commerce approach and new interaction with final consumer. For India, we are planning to have a really strong strategy to present there, you know that there are some constraints to run multi-brand retail in India, so we are talking with many partners and we are pretty sure to find the right one and start really to have a stronger strategy in India. For the rest of Asia, We have some good presence. We are looking at some really small mid-size acquisition to reinforce our footprint. And we are really to weigh the evolution of those countries. And we have to start when also the countries and the channels will be ready to manage our kind of product and lenses. That is the view that we have.

Our next question comes from Luca Solka from Bernstein. Luca, please go ahead.

Yes, and good morning. I would like to focus my questions on the directed-to-consumer portion of the business. I wonder how satisfied you are with space productivity, with sales per square meter in the retail chains, and if you could give us maybe some your perspective on the different parts of the retail business. I imagine that lenscasters in the U.S. might be benefiting from the very strong resurgence in demand, but I wonder about some of the other retail activities you have worldwide. Secondly, you have achieved virtually an almost 10% digital sales this year. What is your ambition and how do you see this business proceeding going forward? Is it fair to expect there could be significantly more material considering your activity in sunglasses? Thank you.

I'll take the first question and then Francesco will comment the question on the online business. We're quite happy in respect to the productivity that we're seeing in our stores. Silly is a journey. It's a journey of continuous improvement. It's a journey of continuous investment in our store footprint, which is not only, let me say, a matter of size of the store. With the material and important role that the online is playing, with the role of omni-channel that Francesco very much described before, it's going to be very important and in a way fascinating also to understand how our productivity of the stores, which now encompass the physical element as well as the digital element, the coming to play in an omni-channel relationship can be effectively measured. And this is something that we probably didn't face that strong a few years back. I think what is very important is that we continue to invest to make our store up to the latest and greatest technology. But more important, that we continue to invest to converge and create that omni-channel proposition that is very much the quintessence of our growth in physical as well as digital. That is very important. And I think this will imply also a different way of looking and measuring positivity within the physical retail environment. Francesco?

Yeah, online is a big question, but I believe we have to better understand the strategy and understand how our strategy will impact on online business. So I don't care how big it will be, but how relevant it will be in our complete omni-channel strategy. Sales, online sales, of course, we are happy with the growth, we are happy with the productivity, and it's the way to push branded lenses and frame around the world. But it's not just the point of our online. Really, we are focusing more on full integration between online and physical footprint. And that is not just for our store, but for the store of our customers or sellers and small ECP or big retailers. So this is the view that we have. And now we are really focusing more on optical business than on end-sum business. Some business is already quite big. profitable is what we, as a Luxottica part, we know better, manage, and always we have a good result. But really the challenge now, and the only channel is there, is in the optical part. And when we see at the online and main banners that we have, and when we integrate fully and we already started, is the question of how big will be the number of customers that they will start their journey online and they will end on the physical store. And if that number will be big, that is why we are increasing the brick-and-mortar footprint, because at the end... to have an omnichannel approach that is effective, you need to be almost everywhere. And the challenge for the future for us is to use our network as one. So no matter the brand, no matter the assortment that you have in the store, what matters is that our customer will find there someone that can take care of him. And so we leverage this capability. And when we think of the future, the one that can take care physically of our online customer could be also an ECP or an wholesaler. and not just us to be our network. And this is also where our philosophy and strategy of to be more a network than just a producer is coming out. So I believe that in the future you will see big changes on the market and also segmentation. It will change completely the meanings. Because the segmentation starts online, and when you look at the store as a delivery, as a place where you have to deliver something or to fix or to assist, really, if you think deeply about that, you understand that the concept of the store and the assortment of the store, it changed completely its meaning. And that is the big news that will arrive on the market. It will change deeply. the way we look at the market and the way we take care of our consumers.

We take our next question from Susie Tivoldi from UBS. Susie, your line is open.

Thank you and good morning. My first question will be on the top line. We have been hearing on the various geographies how the trends were during the various months of the quarter. Could you just please clarify at a group level, when it comes to June, was the June exit rate actually improving compared to the overall quarter that you delivered? And also, are these trends continuing into July? Secondly, on the EBIT margin, which saw a significant improvement, It would be helpful to understand how much you think this is due to operating leverage, which is something that you clearly state in the release, and how much is this helped by the integrations, by the synergies. And related to this, do you see much risk of, when it comes to inflation in the market, especially in North America, could that be a risk for the second half of the year? Thanks a lot.

Good morning, Susie. I'll take your questions here. Let me say, tough line. Yes, the second part of Q2, we definitely seen an acceleration. Clearly, the acceleration of the vaccination campaign in North America as well as in Europe create, let me say, safer conditions for deconfining the population. We see that trend continuing in the month of July, in particular in North America, I would say. In Europe, we see progress of improvement, although the pace is lower than what we see in North America. With respect to Asia, it's still a very challenging environment. probably with the only exception of China, mainland China, if you're through the southern part of the region. Australia, it's in a very challenging situation at this stage with a lockdown that will impact the New South Wales region for the next four weeks. And then Latin America, we see some encouraging signs, which come at a good time because we know that second half of the year will imply the high season in Latin America. So, you know, we're looking at that second half, obviously, with careful attention. But we have some trends that we've seen, in particular, in the month of June that will continue in the month of July. With respect to the operating leverage, clearly, when you do have, you know, a solid top line, when you do have a good control of cost base, and you see synergies realization coming through, and you also make the proper investment, the result that you see is what we got. So that's something that obviously is continuing to see. But again, as I said before, we will continue to keep that flexibility, understanding when market condition will allow us to release strategic investment for the group. So, all in all, in North America, we have, you know, a pretty optimistic view. I think we see that some of our key channel, like the sport channel, the independent ECB, are very vibrant, I would say. But the overall market in North America is pretty healthy. So, so far, so good.

We take our next question from Cedric Lecassable from Spifle. Cedric, your line is open.

Yes, good morning and thank you for taking my questions. I have two actually. So first one linked to the change in governance since the AGM and the implementation of this new organization in terms of people, in terms of organization. Can you tell us what has changed internally and if you have seen any flexibility to improve the speed of integration and of synergies? And the second one is on the achievements. Could you maybe update us on your best integration achievements between, excluding Grand Vision for the time being, between SLO and Luxottica, both on the supply chain side and on the product side? And if you could also confirm your target of 300 million synergies by N21, and what kind of cost it implies if we should understand it as growth on that synergies. Thank you very much.

Governance. It seems to be back two years ago, but it's fine. Integration. We don't have to change the speed of integration. Integration is already done. We decide who's leading the group. I'm here with Paul on my side, and we really integrate all the fundamental decisions that have to be taken in the future. Now there is a little bit of execution. That is the part left. We are really in a good position. We believe that before the end of the year, we will unify many managerial positions in the country. we really moved to the new idea of complete, also in the sales organization. That means to have all sales lenses and frame under the same responsibilities. Then we already started with all the technical integration, all the IT systems are really integrated. In the execution part, we believe to have one common system before the end of the next year, and many countries, the most relevant, will be ready at the end of this year. So this is the view that we have on integration and governance. We know that the governance now is totally fixed. We are a normal company with a normal management team, and I believe the parts of results that we had are coming from that decision. The board is voting any time, mostly at unanimity, and this shows that really we are just one company. Grand Vision is the next step. It's much more easy. It's not a merge of equal. It's an acquisition, so it will go through the normal process of acquisition and integration at really maximum speed, and it will be realized, I hope, in the middle of the next year since we have to wait the end of the year for the MQ. That is what I can exchange on that.

Yeah, and with respect to the synergy and integration activities, the pace is pretty good, I would say, fully aligned with our expectations. With respect to some of the major achievements, one of them is very much what Francesco just described on the IT infrastructure system. I mean, we are progressing... at a very high pace with a progressive rollout of one ERP platform around the group. From a front-end perspective, the experiences that we're getting with the Ray-Ban authentic lenses that very much complement our frame assortment is a successful rollout story in the U.S., in Europe, and some of the relationship that now we have been able to establish on a joint effort basis in North America. We're now planning to roll them out also in other regions. Some of the learnings from the EL360, for example, in North America is something that, with adjustment, we might think about leveraging in other parts of the world, especially in some of the developing countries. This is something very important for us, but I think even more important for us is the fact that we're very much on track with our synergy delivery.

Our next question comes from James Gryzinek from Jefferies. James, please go ahead.

Yes, good morning, Francesco, Paul, and Stefano. Two very quick ones. I guess the first one for Francesco. Can you perhaps clarify... Is the SAP rollout in the U.S. already in place? Is that something that you see before the end of this year? Is that one of the key markets you were talking to? I'd be curious to see if you've got any insights to share in that process. And to Stefano, that half-to-swing factor from a margin perspective, is that entirely coming from your options on reinvestments into the business? Is there anything else going on perhaps in terms of what you see on supply chain costs, raw material costs or wage costs or is that, given what you stand on top line, not much of a consideration for you?

So, S&P rollout in North America is proceeding quite well. We believe that the financial part will be in place for the end of the year. And then we move to logistics. That is the one that is more relevant for our business. full functioning in the market, but at that time, financial numbers and sales will be already unified, and so we will have a faster understanding of the market, and we will align also the SELOR side at the same model of control that we have already in Luxottica part. So it's not just North America. We are trying to integrate some big business that now are a little bit more isolated in the SELOR side, and we are trying to integrate the big market. in Europe, like France and Italy, and those projects are the most difficult because we are building a prototype. Then, after that, it will really improve the pace, and we believe next year we will close all the integration. And in the meantime, we are already planning how to integrate the 7,000th door of Grand Vigil.

And with respect to the second question, good morning, James. I'm not sure I would talk about margin swings between H2 and H1. If anything, I would say margin expansion in H1, margin expansion in H2. If we're going to have a difference, I'm going to see a difference between the first half and the second half margin expansion. The reason for that difference could be some of that flexibility that I was describing before. With respect to the cost-inflation pressure on our margin, no, we don't see it. I mean, that's very marginal, and it's very well managed by the business. So no impact in that standpoint.

So this does conclude the end of our Q&A session, so I will hand it back to our speaker team to close.

Okay, so thanks very much to everybody. I understood that you are more than 100, and that is amazing, at the end of July and on Friday. So we appreciate a lot the patience that you put in your job and how you are interested in our company. Thanks a lot, and happy holidays to everybody.