Heineken Holding

Good morning all and welcome to today's Heineken half-year 2026 results call. My name is Seb and I'll be the operator for your call today. If you would like to ask a question during the Q&A session, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star 2. In the interest of time and fairness, we ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up each. I will now hand you over to Tristan Van Strien, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Seb. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everyone from Amsterdam. Thank you for joining us for today's live webcast on our 2026 half-year results. Your host will be our CFO and member of the Executive Board, Harold van den Broek. Following the presentation, we will be happy to take your questions, as Seb mentioned. The presentation includes expectations based on management's current views and of all known and unknown risks and uncertainties. And it is possible that the actual results may differ materially. For more information, please refer to the disclaimer on the first page of this presentation. I will now turn over the call to Harold.

Thank you, Tristan, and good day to you all. Let me take you through the results for the first half of 2026. First, a brief reminder of our Evergreen 2030 strategy. To create sustainable value, we focus on three strategic priorities, growth, productivity, and future-fitting Heineken. Growth is our number one priority, and we build balanced, sustainable growth through our global and local power brands and prioritize markets where we see the greatest long-term potential. Productivity and capital efficiency are important enablers to fund the right growth investment, strengthen profitability, and improve shareholder returns. and we continue to future-proof the business through digital and AI enablement, sustainability and responsibility, and creating the right organization and talent base. We measure our progress along the four dimensions on our green diamond in pursuit of attractive shareholder returns. The first half results show ample proof points of how execution of our strategy are delivering quality results. And let me therefore start with the highlights. We delivered quality growth with volume momentum improving through the half, driven by strong performances in the APEC and Africa Middle East regions, and recovery in Europe. Let me say upfront, we are not satisfied with our America results and the necessary actions are taken to improve that. Our total volume growth was driven by our five global brands and top 25 local power brands, with our focus markets delivering more than double the Heineken average growth rate. Cash conversion was strong, helping fund attractive acquisitions such as FIVCO, an increase in interim dividend and a continuation of our share buyback program. And we progressed with pace on the Evergreen 2030 change priorities, innovation, digital and AI enablement, operating model simplification and Heineken Business Services. Profitability was robust, supported by broad-based productivity and leading to a margin expansion. We reduced around 3,000 FTEs in the first half, materially advancing our planned organizational changes. We are confident in our strategy and progress. yet remain prudent given ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty and therefore reiterate our full-year operating profit growth guidance of between 2 and 6%. Let's now turn to some numbers with the financial highlights. We delivered total volume growth of 1.6% led by Heineken and with strong profitable contribution from licensed partners in China and India. Net revenue grew 2.7% on a consolidated volume basis, with net revenue per hectolitre up 2.3%. Operating profit increased 6.7%, with operating profit margin expanding by 55 basis points. Net profit was up 10.2% and deleted EPS came in at €2.29, an 11.6% increase on a constant currency basis. The first half, therefore, shows balanced delivery. Volume growth, value growth, profit expansion and stronger cash flow generation. The quality of our growth is visible across the portfolio. Whereas total mainstream volume declined slightly with more work to do on that, and as an aside, mainstream grew in our focus markets, Total consolidated volume grew 0.4%, total volume by 1.6%, global brands by 5.3%, and premium volume by 5.8%. A strong result also from Heineken 00, up 7.2% and Beyond Beer by 7.7%. And this is the balance we want. Growing volume, improving value, and allocating resources where we see the strongest long-term growth opportunities. The right side of the chart shows the operating leverage coming through with 6.7% operating profit growth and net profit growing double digit and EPS as Jens mentioned ahead of that. Let's turn to our flagship brand Heineken, which again led the premium growth of this half year with 5.3% of total volume growth and 18 markets in double digit growth momentum. Heineken 00, as mentioned, grew 7.2%, showing the continued relevance and the long-term potential of the no alcohol category, which in aggregate in our portfolio was up 7.5% in volume. The ongoing success of Heineken Silver continues, growing 34.5%, particularly in APAC, led by Vietnam and China. You've perhaps noticed the beautiful picture on the left of the expanded Heineken product family, now including our recent innovations as we meet evolving consumer needs as the leading global premium beer brand. We launched Heineken 00 Ultimate in the US, zero alcohol, zero carbs, zero sugar, as well as flavored 00 propositions. and launched Heineken 3.5% Ultimate in Brazil, a lower alcohol, gluten-free proposition where our consumers can enjoy everything you want in a beer and nothing you don't. We are proud that Heineken was named Creative Brand of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, becoming the first beer brand to receive this distinction. The award recognized the strength of our campaigns which build on the brand's purpose of bringing people together. The long-term sustained success of Heineken brand is no coincidence. And that's why we are now having started to apply the Heineken brand model on our global brands to unlock their full consumer potential across our markets. Let's therefore turn now to our global brands for a minute. We are pleased with the performance all in growth this half year and in aggregate delivered 5.3% volume growth. And a few highlights outside of the Heineken brand that I just touched upon. Amstel growth continued strongly, led by China, Brazil and South Africa. And Amstel Ultra is now the leading Ultra brand in Brazil. Tiger returned to high single-digit growth, led by Tiger Crystal in Vietnam, as well as strong consumer activations in Myanmar. Biro Maretti did well in Europe, particularly in Switzerland and France. And Desperados continued to build relevance with Gen Z consumers. More and more we see the potential of this brand coming through in the markets. The consumer pool is obvious and the common thread to unlock the potential is sharper focus, clearer brand governance, more disciplined resource allocation and differentiated execution across markets. Let's for a moment double click on Desperados. Desperados is a good example of how we are recruiting consumers with our Beyond Beer portfolio. Desperados is our leading Gen Z brand in Beyond Beer. The proposition is built around flavor, variety and flexible social occasions, exactly the spaces where our consumers are looking for more choice and more excitement. There is an innovation model behind it. Beyond the core proposition, we are extending the brand into new consumer opportunities with Desperados Sunlight, which targets lighter alcohol daytime occasions, and introduce more experimental concepts from our consumer experience center, La Fabrica, such as Freeze and Pico, a Desperados essence shot for a different kind of vibe, which our consumers were able to enjoy across festivals in the summer. The early proof points are encouraging. In the first half, Desperados grew high single digit, driven by strong performances in France, the Netherlands and Spain. In Africa and Middle East, the brand also grew strongly, led by Nigeria and Ivory Coast and supported by the recent launch in Ethiopia. Desperados is establishing a following based on a repeatable platform, a distinctive brand, a clear Gen Z attraction, flexible flavor-led innovations relevant from Europe to Africa with more to come. Innovation is how we bring growth and excitement into the category. It is beyond introducing products to consumers. We are systematically changing our innovation approach. With consumer-relevant insights, we are developing, testing and executing faster with more discipline, focused pilots, speed learning and scaling what works. In the first half, we executed more than 40 pilots across global brands, local power brands and new growth phases. On global brands, examples include extensions on the Heineken, including Ultimate 00 and new Heineken 00 flavors such as Nectarine Juniper and Cold Pressed Lime. From Heineken Studio, we crafted Heineken Whip Pills in the Netherlands, named Heineken Blonde de Bleu in France. On local power brands, we scaled innovations such as Cruz Campo Sevilla Orange, Kingfisher Smooth and Takato Titanium. We innovate across channels and for new occasions. For instance, we introduced the old mild flavor wave draught system that offers exciting consumer flavor choices, yet does so efficiently for publicans in the on-trade. With Heineken Costa Rica, we acquired not only a great business, but also strong innovation capabilities, showcased by Vida, a functional sugar-free non-alcoholic drink that we launched in the market. In the UK, we are pioneering with outdoor brewing, zero-zero beer that hydrates with magnesium and vitamin C, low in calories and gluten-free. And we are innovating in the aperitivo occasion in, where else, Italy, with our beautiful Sicilian brand, Birra Messina. As you see, we systematically accelerate innovation to respond faster to evolving consumer needs, exciting consumers with new experiences, and scale what works with more discipline. On brewing a better world, we have sharpened the agenda around the areas where we can have the greatest positive impact and support long-term sustainable growth of Heineken. On responsibility, we are increasing choice through low and no alcohol and continuing to invest in responsible consumption campaigns. On social impact, we are strengthening our diverse talent base and focusing on community impact with practical support for hospitality workers and entrepreneurs. On environmental progress, we continue to decarbonize our operations and improve water resilience, including additional water balance sites and renewable energy milestones in Europe. In all of these priority areas, we are continuing to make substantial progress towards our longer term ambitions. If we now move to the regions, starting with Africa and Middle East, which delivered a strong first half, with net revenue up 8.2%, total volume up 2.9%, a price mix of 7%, and operating profit up 30.8% with hard currency profit, supported by a transformed cost base and stronger balance sheet positions. In Nigeria, we delivered growth-based growth, and strengthened category leadership in what still is a challenged consumer environment. Through portfolio mix and strong cost discipline, operating profit grew in both local and reported euro currency. Heineken, Desperados, our stout portfolio and Maltina all maintained or strengthened their leadership positions. Heineken beverages continue to show multi-category progress. In South Africa, beer performed well, led by Amstel, now proud of the partnership with the legendary Orlando Pirates, but also with Heineken, Windhoek and Sol contributing. Bernini remained strong and ready to drink, and the wine portfolio was stable. In Ethiopia, we continue to reinforce our leadership in one of Africa's fastest growing beer markets. Revenue grew in the 30s with strong volume expansion led by Harar, Bedella and Heineken. And at Heineken, we have extensive experience in Africa. We understand the region has ups and downs, yet believe in the long-term potential of the continent. I mention this to emphasize that the strong regional performance we have now consistently seen for some time is driven by good foundations. category leadership positions, a strong brand portfolio, disciplined execution, and the sustained benefit of productivity actions taken over the recent years. Then on to the Americas. As said, we are not satisfied with our performance. Let me state that upfront and clearly, but we are also not structurally concerned. According to our data, consumer offtake in our three big markets was negative. Thank you very much. Let me give a few market specifics. In Mexico, volume was down in a soft market, with our performance improving during quarter two, setting us up for a better second half of 2026. To gather, our largest local power brand remains the focus of commercial and marketing activity, supporting by innovations next to Indio, our local heritage brand. Within premium, Miller High Life grew in the ITs. In Brazil, the category remained under pressure, down 3.6% for the first half of 2026, but trends improving during the end of the second quarter. Revenue grew low single-digit, driven by price mix. Operating profit expanded strongly through productivity initiatives and supply chain optimization following the opening of the Passos brewery. We launched Heineken Ultimate 3.5%, a gluten-free lower alcohol proposition with promising early results, while Amstel delivered growth and its ultra-variant continuing to lead in the ultra-segment. Costa Rica made a strong first contribution following completion of the acquisition on the 30th of January. Integration is ahead of plan, including synergy capture, and the business brings a strong portfolio and innovation agenda, as can be seen on the slide, with the new Imperial Michelada. All in all, a mixed performance, yet one we are confident to improve upon. The long-term potential of this region is undisputed, and we will continue to strengthen our portfolio and execution with appropriate investment to capture it. Asia-Pacific delivered excellent results, with net revenue up 10.5%, total volume growing 11.6%, a price mix of 4.5%, and operating profit up 17.7%. A quick obvious reminder that our strong China growth is not captured in our consolidated net revenue. Vietnam delivered record share in both the on and the off premise, driven by portfolio strength. We saw mid-single-digit category growth and our business momentum reflected the strong festive season in which our premium portfolio outperformed. We expanded national coverage and Heineken Silver had another outstanding half year. The Tiger brand was back to volume growth, led by Tiger Crystal. We also introduced Tiger Smooth, a 3.4% alcohol proposition built around a clear consumer need, a smoother, easy-drinking lager that stays true to Tiger's bold spirit. India continued to build on its leadership in a high-growth beer market. We grew total volume high single digit as we leveraged our scale and national footprint as market leader, with premium growth led by Kingfisher Ultra and Heineken Silver. and in China our growth momentum continued, now eight years in a row, in great partnership. Our portfolio of Heineken Original, Silver and Amstel grew close to 30% and China remains a top three market contributor to net profit in the first half of the year. This is a good example of the quality of growth we are targeting. Strong market positions, premium momentum and disciplined execution in high potential markets. With discipline on cost and cash, a very strong value creation engine. Let me double click on Vietnam and India, because these are two strong examples of where our advantage positions in Asia Pacific are compounding over time. And starting with India, we are the clear leader at scale. We combine Kingfisher, India's strongest national beer brand, with international premium brands such as Amstel and Heineken, and we operate the broadest commercial and supply footprint in the beer industry. This nationwide presence, a balanced supply chain across owned breweries and long-term licensed partner brewers, gives us a great platform as the category accelerates. The market is also benefiting from favorable consumer trends and a progressively more supportive operating environment for beer in several states, helped by Brewers Association's efforts to ensure quality operations and responsible category dynamics. We are investing behind that opportunity through premiumization, cold beer refrigeration and commercial execution at scale, supported by greenfield investments such as in Andhra Pradesh. In Vietnam, we are on track to build broad market leadership. The business now has record market share across both on- and off-premise, supported by national coverage and a differentiated portfolio across premium, mainstream, and value. Innovation and execution are also contributing, with Tiger Revitalized and stronger participation across locations and price points. Both markets show how stakeholder engagement, brand strength scale, route to consumer, supply chain and disciplined investment can compound overtime to unlock real market potential. Turning to Europe now. In Europe, results recovered, supported by strong activation, innovation and transformation. Net revenue during the first half of 2026 was up 0.1%, whilst total volume declined 0.6%, and price mix was flat. Operating profit grew 0.6%. Perhaps worth pointing out, improved momentum in quarter two, with volume positive 0.2% and revenue up 1.6%. In the United Kingdom, our system strength drove volume and revenue growth. We grew market share in the off-trade and in the on-trade, our star pubs continued to outperform the broader pub market, while Cruz Campo, Murphy's, Foster's and our premium cider portfolio supported its momentum. In Western Europe, customer partnerships and innovation helped rebuild momentum. France delivered mid-single-digit volume growth as weighted distribution recovered from the retailer dispute last year, with innovation and strong summer activation supporting the growth. Finally, an efficient operating model and cash delivery remained important components to sharpen Europe's value creation model. The setup of multi-market organizations is helping simplify our business, supporting scale and productivity. Strong discipline on cost and cash conversion also supported the region's performance. Now, let's go through the financial highlights, which I keep relatively brief. Starting with net revenue, we delivered 2.6% organic net revenue growth, reaching 14.8 billion in the first half. On the bridge, consolidated volume growth contributed 57 million and price mixed 328 million, resulting in 385 million of organic revenue growth. Consolidation changes added 325 million, mainly reflecting the acquisition of Heineken Costa Rica, partly offset by a 57 million currency translation headwind. Net revenue per hectolitre increased 2.3%, reflecting disciplined revenue management and positive mix. Growth was led by Asia-Pacific and Africa-Middle East, with Europe broadly stable and the Americas flat despite volume pressure, as you just heard. Importantly, growth gained from the markets where we have chosen to focus. Our focus markets delivered over 90% of Heineken's organic net revenue growth, led by Vietnam, Ethiopia, Nigeria, India, Brazil, the UK and France. Moving on to operating profits. We delivered close to 2.2 billion of operating profit. Growing 6.7% organically, with operating profit margin expanding 55 basis points to 14.6%. Organic growth contributed 135 million, consolidation added 46 million, mostly reflecting Heineken Costa Rica and the disposal of the Demographic Republic of Congo, and currency translation was a 38 million headwind. Given the differences across legions, a brief color. Africa and Middle East was an important contributor to the organic profit growth, led by Nigeria and Ethiopia and supported by pricing, revenue management, productivity initiatives and a much improved cost base. Asia Pacific also delivered strong operating profit growth, led by Vietnam with China supporting through license income and share of profit, so not fully reflected here in the operating profit bridge. Drivers with a double-digit volume growth, favourable portfolio mix and productivity actions in key growth markets. In the Americas, profit grew despite softer volumes, with Brazil supported by price mix, improved customer and channel mix, productivity initiatives and supply footprint benefits. Results from Henneken Costa Rica are recorded as consolidation differences. In Europe, savings and cost discipline helped offset a declining category, negative channel mix, as well as higher regulatory costs and competitive investments, mainly in pricing and brand activation. Head office costs were a slight drag on organic profit growth. I would position this as temporary transition-related costs towards a simpler and more scalable organization. Variable costs increased by a low single digit per hectolitre, with gross savings helped to mitigate inflation as we kept pricing below inflation in many markets. Marketing and selling expenses remained at 10.1% of revenue, with stronger resource allocations supporting our brand and marketing priorities, and investments in sponsorship and in-trade execution. Overall, we expanded operating profit margin while continuing to fund growth momentum. Let me turn to other key financial metrics. At the middle of the slide, you see that net profit increased 10.2% organically to €1.256 billion and diluted EPS was €2.29, up €11.6 on a constant currency basis. It reflects the strong operating profit delivery with the operating profit to net profit conversion broadly in line with last year. Share of profit from associates and joint ventures increased 19% organically to 159 million, supported by profit growth from an associate partner in China. Net interest expenses were 287 million on a Bayer basis. The organic development was favorable. The reported line includes consolidation in currency effects. All the net finance expenses improved organically to 76 million, supported by lower losses from currency revaluations on outstanding foreign currencies payables. The effective tax rate was 29.7%, slightly higher than 28.9% last year, as Heineken Costa Rica was integrated in the footprint. Net debt to EBITDA was 2.6 times, slightly above our target of below 2.5 times, mostly reflecting the acquisition of Heineken Costa Rica. And finally, the interim dividend is proposed at 76 cents per share, in line with our dividend policy to pay out 40% of last year's total dividend. Let me now turn to free operating cash flow. We delivered a strong step up in cash generation. With free operating cash flow increasing to almost 1.4 billion compared to 257 million last year. This represents a total improvement of 1.1 billion and a cash conversion ratio of 97%. The improvement was mainly driven by stronger working capital performance and lower capex. Working capital moved from a 405 million outflow last year to a 290 million inflow this year, an increase of around 600 million, driven by better inventory and payable days. CapEx was lower at 1.1 billion, or 7.2% of net revenue, significantly below the 9.9% ratio of last year, driven by improved capital phasing and tighter capital discipline. A rallying cry of growth without capex resonates and helps us think and act differently, with opportunities to unlock additional capacity from existing breweries through research and development, recipe and process improvements as we have seen, for example, in Rwanda and Ethiopia. Costa Rica also contributed to the cash performance with strong cash generation in the first months since acquisition, supported by improved payment terms and disciplined financial management. Overall, our capital productivity focus under Evergreen 2030 is starting to deliver. Stronger working capital management, more disciplined capital deployment for more cash and higher returns on invested capital. We are accelerating our Evergreen 2030 execution. As we mentioned earlier, on our growth priority we are stepping up our innovation efforts through a more agile pilot and scale model. We are brewing the future with Heineken Studio, our consumer-facing innovation center here in Amsterdam, where we can experiment at pace and improve through continuous and direct consumer feedback. In parallel, we expanded the deployment of AI and digital capabilities across the business, including the global rollout of My Freddy AI, an AI-powered platform supporting our commercial teams with global insight while ensuring local relevance. Together, these initiatives enable faster execution, stronger consumer engagement, and will drive sustainable growth. Let me briefly turn how we are building the organization to deliver Evergreen 2030 with more speed, skill and discipline. This is the next phase of our productivity agenda, building the capabilities to invest behind growth, improve efficiency and strengthen execution. And Heineken Business Services is an important proof point. We already have circa 4,000 people in our Heineken Business Services, reflecting both the capabilities we already had built and the roles we have started to move into the network. With centers in Poland, Mexico, Brazil and India, HBS is now becoming a global capability platform, expanding specialist capability across finance, procurement, HR, data analytics and AI. The point is not only lower costs. HBS helps us to standardize processes, connect data, skill automation and robotics, and build digital and AI-enabled ways of working. This should deliver better, faster, and more consistent services, while giving operating companies more focus on growth and commercial execution. The second proof point is in Europe, where we have launched four multi-market organizations. These so-called MMOs allow us to pool resources and capabilities across countries, combining local proximity with greater scale and more efficient execution. These are part of a broader productivity and operating model agenda, and across the group, productivity actions materially advanced in the first half, including a reduction of circa 3,000 FDEs, while we continue to build a simpler, more scalable organization. Through HBS, MMOs and clearer ways of working. Let me now turn to a short reminder on our capital allocation priorities. We invest first behind our organic growth and business expansion, while maintaining strict financial discipline and our long-term net debt to EBITDA target of below 2.5 times. We ended the half at 2.6 times, reflecting of course the acquisition of Heineken Costa Rica, but are on track to be below our target this year. We value a consistent dividend policy and propose an interim dividend of 76 cents per share. We recently updated our payout ratio for the full year to be in between 30 to 50% of net profit. We continue to shape Heineken's advantage footprint. And with Heineken Costa Rica, we materially strengthened our position in Central America, while the DRC disposal gives the opportunity to continue building our brands in that market with an asset-light model. Combined, this is expected to add 2-3% of earnings per share. And finally, we remained in the second year of our 1.5 billion share buyback program, which on a reduced share count should be around 2% accretive to EPS this year. Overall, the framework is unchanged. Invest for growth, protect the balance sheet, maintain a consistent dividend policy, pursue value announcing acquisition, and return excess cash where appropriate. Let me close with the outlook for 2026. We remain confident in the execution of Evergreen 2030, but prudent in our expectations for the remainder of this year. We assume continued macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty and an unchanged consumer environment in most of our markets. We continue to invest behind growth and adapt our operating model with speed. Gross savings are expected towards the upper end of our 400-500 million guidance range, helped and will help mitigate parts of the emerging cost pressures related to the middling situation. And as a result, we continue to expect variable costs to rise by a low single digit per hectolitre, broadly in line with previous guidance. We expect the effective tax rate to be around 28% towards the upper end of our previous range of 27 to 28%, reflecting the inclusion of Heineken Costa Rica. And other assumptions are broadly unchanged. All in all, we reiterate our operating profit growth guidance to be in the range of 2 to 6%. Note that based on current spot rates, currency translation is expected to be slightly favorable to operating and net profit. Finally, on EPS, the acquisition of Heineken Costa Rica and the DRC exposure are expected to be 2-3% accretive for full year 26 and the ongoing share buyback adds about 2% to EPS. Together, this reinforces the value of disciplined capital allocation while we continue to invest behind growth and maintain balance sheet discipline. So, to summarize. We delivered quality volume and revenue growth, robust profit delivery and strong cash conversion in the first half. Growth was driven by our global and local power brands in focus markets, while productivity supported margin expansion and returns. You also heard many examples of how we accelerate implementation of Evergreen 2030, including innovation, business services, multi-market organizations and operating model simplification. and we reiterate our full-year operating profit guidance of 2-6% growth. With that, thank you for listening and we're happy to take your questions.

Thank you. As a reminder, please press star 1 if you would like to ask a question and star 2 if you would like to withdraw from the question queue. First question on the line is from Edward Mundy with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Morning Harold, morning Tristan. So two questions for me please. The first is really around Evergreen 2030 which appears to be working quite nicely given the good balance of volume, sales margins and cash. As you step back, what do you think are the two or three things that you're doing differently under Evergreen 2030 that's driving this better performance and do you think this argues for continuity with the strategy as the new CEO comes in? And my second question is on the guidance. You know, clearly you've delivered above the guidance range of 2 to 6 in the first half and that would imply, you know, some slower growth coming through in the second half. Other than Middle East uncertainty and some of these emerging cost pressures, what do you think continues into H2 and what do you think changes into H2?

Thank you for the question, Ed. First on Evergreen 2030, I think you will recall during our Capital Markets Day that This very much is built on the foundations of Evergreen 2025. I think we've got the mega trends right. But your question is, what are you doing differently? There are three things. The first on growth, we are very intentionally now starting to focus on fewer markets and our global and local power brands and are differentiating and many others. So this notion about how do we focus and how do we differentiate is really starting to kick in as you can see from our results. The second one is how we build both Heineken's global scale but also leverage the skills that we have in some of the markets more broadly across the organization. And this is, for example, true in moving from brewery optimization to supply chain optimization, but also to really unlock skills with, for example, the introduction of Freddie AI, where marketing practices are just simply flowing faster through the system. And that helps us to build global brands with the power of the learnings of the Heineken brand behind it. The third one is that we are just faster as an organization because we are more intentional in what we want to achieve. And the executive team, even without CEO leadership, is very effectively in raising topics when they need to be raised, but then really deploying at speed in the market to really focus on execution and delivery and transformation. Those I would call out as the three things which are really changing. And my own view is that this will certainly continue in the second half of the year, as Rafa will start learning about the business as from the 1st of October. Then on your point on the guidance range. I think we are very pleased with this set of results. Because as you rightly point out, it's volume growth, it's revenue growth, it's operating leverage. At the same time, we do really not see any good reason to narrow the guidance range at this moment in time. There is still uncertainty in the world. We also know that the Vietnam growth that we see in the first half of the year was boosted with a very strong festive season and really very strong market share gains. And we, as we said, are not satisfied with our America's performance and will continue to invest and focus on accelerating that performance. And within that, we felt it was appropriate to basically stick to the guidance range and and continue focusing on strengthening our business and securing consistent delivery.

Great, thank you.

Thank you. Next question is from Sanjit Oyla from UBS. Please go ahead.

Hey, morning, Harold, Tristan, a couple from me, please. I think, Harold, a couple of times on the call you alluded to not being satisfied with the performance in America. and alluded to perhaps increased investments coming through. Can you just go deeper into what sort of investments you think you need to make to improve competitiveness? Is that marketing led? Is it route to market? Is it pricing or a combination of all? And is that something that we'll see already in the second half of the year? My second question was really on Europe. So I think the The pace of volume decliners has improved over the half year. There's still a lot of productivity coming through Europe, I think, probably counting for a disproportionate amount of those savings. So I'm surprised why margins are not stronger in Europe in the first half of the year.

Excellent questions, Sanjit. Look, we decided to be... Very clear on how we assess our performance in the Americas. And indeed, we are not satisfied with the performance. And you would hear the same from Alex, Maurizio and Oriol in all of those markets. So this is very intentional. Let me first start with some positives here. We saw improved momentum towards the end of quarter two. So we know that we're on the right track to restore competitive performance. We are also pretty confident, Alex and the team, that this will be sustained in the second half of the year because we see the early results of our actions. But what has happened? Go a little bit deeper into this. The first one is let's look at the movie over a longer period of time. And I do want to start there because the point that I called out in the script was that I was not structurally concerned about our America's position because we believe in the market and we believe in what we have in our big operating companies. We have fantastic six stores. We have a fantastic route to market in Brazil. We have fantastic brand portfolios and we have innovation now kicking in. So a movie is we're very happy with our performance and the structure that we've built. The scene, the shorter term, is you will remember last year when we were speaking about let's call it the volatility that we caused in our organization by going into channels with pricing discounting actions to support a fantastic growth momentum that we saw, particularly in Brazil, and that is now basically the after effects of that. So we are really trying to get the channel strategy, the portfolio strategy and the pricing strategy right and really focus on brand power and execution excellence to really bring that sustained growth back into the organization. It's just big markets, complex markets, complex rural markets, so it takes time. And I did speak in quarter one about the fact that we would see improvement only in the second half of the year, and that is what we're seeing now. The second one is how we drive innovation. And a good example of that is the launch of Heineken Ultimate in Brazil, a 3.5% proposition, gluten-free, who has just been recently launched. But the early signals are fantastic, not only in the month of June, but also, and I'm not going to comment more on that, in July, that momentum continued. So it's early days, but you also know how big the Heineken franchise is in Brazil. and if that starts firing we really start to see an important contribution from innovation coming to the fold as well. So there are specific interventions by market with investments to bring back operational execution, price competitiveness and innovation support that will sustain that success in the second half of the year. If I then can move to Europe, You're right to first of all celebrate that the category has become more stable in Europe. Because last year Europe was quite in low single-digit decline as a market. Not only our performance, because you know that we had that retailer conflict, but the market this time around is broadly flat, slightly declining. What is not helping us is still an adverse channel mix, because on-trade is not back and off-trade is growing. And that really means that that productivity muscle that Europe is doing is really catering for the negative channel effect. And secondly, also very intentionally, we are investing... In brand activation, we're investing in key brand support, we're investing in innovation, and we're pricing below inflation to bring affordability back into the category. So part of the reason why you see the European improvement not yet flowing through the bottom line is that we're prioritizing share and category recovery over the quick buck to get Europe back to margins. Of course, this needs to happen over time.

Thank you very much. Thank you. The next question is from Lawrence Wyatt with Barclays.

Please go ahead. Morning, Harold and Tristan. Thanks very much for the question. Two from me as well, please. In China, you mentioned it's now a top three profit market, and you've been delivering excellent results there for a number of years, sort of 20s, 30s growth rates. Of course, we've seen... Thank you very much. I'd love to hear a bit more about the Heineken Zero Ultimate launch and how that's gone in the markets. It's gone into whether you'd expect to explore some additional markets for that brand and how it sort of played into the flavoured line extensions that you've also launched on that brand. Thank you.

Thank you, Lawrence. And thanks also for a question on China because you heard a little bit of my frustration coming through that we can't bank this on the net revenue line, but it is a very important part of our business. And you heard me say before as well, but we continue to be very confident that this growth is sustainable for a few years to come. Yes, the total market is in decline, but let me remind you, we are 30% of the distribution on the Heineken brand, and Amstel, which is now close on an annual basis to about a million hectolitre, is actually almost growing twice, two times, twofold is the right word. And that's only unlocked in the northeastern province at this moment in time. So there is a lot of excitement with our partner on the potential of the Heineken portfolio, not only in Heineken that continues and we are investing to first create demand before we put distribution in there, as you know, but also on the Amstel brand that is really starting to play a very significant role there. Importantly, as a proof point of that, the rotations per, let's call it, point of distribution continue to go up. So it's not only that we are seeding more distribution points, we also see velocity of our brand portfolio still growing. So this gives us confidence. That we are in the journey for some time to come and so does our CRB partner because as you know this growth trajectory is very firmly regulated through a very appropriate joint venture and contractual agreement. So we're all putting investment and focus in to make that growth come true. Then on 00 Ultimate, I think maybe it's good to zoom out and not go onto a specific product formula only. What you see happening with our flavor variants, with Heineken 00 Ultimate, with Heineken 3.5% Ultimate in Brazil, is that we're opening up our strongest brand to cater for more consumer occasions. And this really is the macro picture that we're trying to display. And we know that in Europe and in North America, the Heineken Silver franchise did not work. But I also want to point out that in Vietnam, in China, and therefore in APAC, we still delivered 34.5% growth. So the Heineken brand has much more consumer appeal, and that's what we're trying to broaden out. The precise articulation of that may differ market by market, but we're very encouraged with the early successes that we see. It's a bit too early to be specific about what is working, what is not working. That is first test and scale.

Very clear, Harold. Thank you very much.

Thank you. The next question is from Olivier Nicolai from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Harold and Tristan. A couple of questions, please. But first, a follow-up on the press release. Just on the head office costs, it was negative in H1. How much of it was due to the Evergreen-related cost savings implementation, and how much should we expect for H2? Because presumably, on one end, you get the royalties as well from your licensed volumes, so just would be keen to get a bit of your view on this, which is a bit of a black box on the outside. And then two questions. First on Mexico. I mean, Heineken has been losing share in Mexico this quarter, but also over time. How can you improve your share performance despite your geographic footprint within the country where you are much more exposed to the north, where per capita consumption is high and offers less upside? And then lastly, I've noticed, I think it's the second time that you mentioned the brand in the press release, but Murphy's volumes double in each one in the U.K., We've seen recent press reports that the entree distribution was getting better. What's been the initial feedback on the brand and how big could it become for Heineken UK? Thank you.

Thank you, Olivier. That's a wide variety of questions, I have to say, Olivier. Really nice. We can go all the places. So first on head office cost, let me ask you to pick up with Tristan and the IR team the specific details. because I'm aware that this is a bit sticking out but perhaps good for you to know that this is really transitionary in nature because of course what we are building is a changed evergreen model with Heineken Business Services, with D&T acceleration, with a head office transformation and this comes with incremental cost And that is just a transitionary element of the model that we're building. That is true in half one. It will also be true in half two. But the specifics on the numbers, I would like you to speak to Tristan, because I think that's more appropriate and not take too much time on this call. I'm not so worried about it, because it's basically building a stronger underlying business going forward. Maybe to your point on Mexico, you are right that we have not been gaining market share in Mexico for some time. And everyone on the call knows that this has been due to the Oxxo mixing effect and had the build-up of their own six stores. So I won't bore you with that long answer there. It's important to know that we are super happy with the six stores and actually believe that there is a lot more potential in it and therefore we will continue to invest behind it. So part of the answer how to improve and restore market share momentum is further unlock the potential of the six store franchise which is now 17,000 stores across the country. The other point that you also rightly point out is the channel and regional portfolio mix. And we are disproportionately investing outside of our north strongholds to ensure that there is more consumer choice, also with our portfolio in the central and south parts of Mexico, where there is still a very significant opportunity for us to grow. And last but not least, it is really revolving around the strength of our portfolio. And this is where Dos Equis, Indio as the traditional dark beer, which has a very important role to play, the value brand Carta Blanca, but also the investment in Tecate, where the brand power is really growing. This is where ultimately the long-term success needs to come from. What is encouraging is that we slowly but surely start to see the premium segment start to accelerate, although from a small basis in Mexico. And just to point out that we are participating there and Miller High Life was really growing at the high, what was it, high single digit or even double digit. So that was very encouraging for us to see. Olivier, what is still the case is that this will take time because it really has channel and portfolio dynamics and those things really take time to build but we're focused on it and it starts with excellent execution. The Murphy's entree is a fantastic proposition, and we really start to see that there is an opportunity there, and we are also introducing the nitro can in Murphy's. So we do believe that there is a potential to accelerate that, and we're very happy with the growth that we're seeing.

It's maybe worth mentioning, also Ireland showed really strong growth as well, so we're seeing a much broader expansion of the brand. Thank you very much.

Thanks all of you.

Thank you. The next question is from Chris Pitcher with Rothschild & Co. Redburn. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, Harold. Good morning to Tristan. A question on Southeast Asia and India. At the start of the year when we had the Middle East crisis, straight Hormuz situation, it was an area where people were worried about consumer demand on energy costs and margin pressure, but actually it's been one of your Stronger regions with very good margin performance in the first half. Are there still sort of phasing of cost effects to be mindful of? I mean, United Brews was talking about costs as a result of it to think about in the second half. Or do you think it's realistic to grow margins in the second half in markets like Vietnam, Indonesia, India, etc.? And then just a couple of follow-ons, apologies for that. On India, are you looking to sort of rebalance markets? As part of your capex away from contract manufacturing, or is that a model that's just going to continue to weigh on price mix achieved in India because of that negative mix? Thanks.

Yeah, Chris, thanks. Look, I'm now going to give a real CFO answer, so brace yourselves here. But we're very pleased with our results in APAC, as you know. But you're also right that there has been government support, for example, to keep diesel prices low. For example, food vouchers in Indonesia that helped consumers to the uncertainty of the Middle East crisis. Now, I think part of this is real creating, let's call it a platform for people to sustain livelihoods for those most in need. Part of it is also cushioning industries against certain shocks. So there has been active government interventions in Southeast Asia as well as India. And I think also our team has done a really good job to navigate that volatility. But part of your question, therefore, is, look, is this going to be sustained or what do we think about the second half of the year? Some of these costs will start to flow through because it's a shock absorber. It's not a structural solve, according to the governments. And part of the currency weakening that you have seen, for example, in India, is also related to that. So we are being a bit cautious in terms of our APAC results for the second half of the year, because we believe indeed that the first half is not representative of how we look at it going forward, while still being very proud of what the teams have done. The margins, therefore, we're very happy with where they are, and as you know, both in Vietnam. We believe that the margin structure is where we want it to be. In India, it takes time to pass through prices and that's an active dialogue with state by state governments in order to reflect the latest input cost on the pricing, which is why you heard UBL talk about the cost pressures. So different realities in different markets. Maybe to close on the point of India, look, the one thing that makes us a standout company is that we have got the most widely set up brewery network. And that is a combination between third party long time contract brewer relationship and our own breweries. And depending on the reality, we will look at what is the optimal choice. So I don't see this as a strategic dilemma that we have. It's just a network optimization that we want to do. And frankly, partnership structures, as we see in India and in China, as long as they are well governed and long term, are a really important part of our whole ecosystem. And we're very pleased with them.

Thank you, Harold. Very clear. Good CFO answer.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is from Simon Hales with Citi. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Morning, Harold. Morning, Tristan. I wonder if I could just come back to Vietnam to start with, please, Harold. Clearly, very strong delivery. I just want to dig in a little bit more on how we should think about that volume momentum and the scale of that into the second half of the year, when you called out the fact that clearly you saw a festive season benefit in the first half, helping volume and and margins, but a lot of that was in Q1 already where you were growing mid-teens. So it looks like growth accelerated from a volume standpoint into Q2, I think driven by the share gain. I mean, is that share momentum really sustainable into the second half? Should we expect to see Thank you, Simon.

So first, look, I don't want to jinx the Vietnam performance. We're super happy with where we are. I think the team really is doing an absolutely outstanding role. But to your point, I don't think that we should get used to this. We really want to ensure sustained healthy growth. And just to give you a bit more specifics on that, as you asked, Simon, because it's relevant. We saw a market growth of about 6%. And this is our data, but I think that data is pretty appropriate there. We then delivered record market shares, both on the on and the off trade, and that was boosted by a very strong festive season. Where our portfolio, of course, outperformed, because the festive season is a premium occasion, as you know. So... We believe that that market share gain had a little bit of a tailwind from basically that festive performance, but we're super happy to see the portfolio strength coming through with Heineken Silver really up in the 30s, with Tiger Crystal now coming back, and also the implementation of new innovation like the extra smooth variant of Tiger off to a good start. What is important is that we're broadening the portfolio, but we're also broadening out geographically, because we still have a big opportunity in some of the regions that were not fully present there. And that has played a part in the first half of the year, both portfolio and geographical expansion. I think that that market share gain is probably a bit inflated because of the reasons that I said. The 6% market growth I think will be there to sustain because the momentum in Vietnam is pretty good and the government is stable. Population is feeling confident. The portfolio in geographical is really a factor of competitive and market dynamics. So we're confident in the second half of the year, but not to the 20s that you saw in the first half of the year. If you then look at the UK pub business, we are super proud of what our Star Pub team has been able to achieve. And you're right, we are really focused on building a fantastic portfolio. And just to call that out, we've invested about over 200 million in our pub estate. We have our full brand portfolio there. So part of why we're outperforming is that people really see the premium experiences coming through. So a pub estate is not static. We are selling pubs, we are acquiring new pubs in order to meet differentiated consumer demands. For example, a little bit outside of city centres, Offering better quality food with premium beer is really the trend that we've seen in the last couple of years and we've invested therefore in better experiences, more light, premium occasions so that people are finding it worth spending their money and with that a premium portfolio is a perfect fit. It's also for us a great opportunity to start innovating in. And that is what we also see. Beavertown continues to accelerate, but also the on-trade draft system that I was just talking about is still very relevant. We're also seeing, for example, an expansion of Murphy's in our own purpose state, and that is also conducive to growth. So it's really appropriate management of the purpose state being full on in terms of execution and upgrading and trading, which is what drives the success. And of course, the recent government change is actually quite helpful. Perfect.

Thanks, Harold.

I wanted to get that in, Simon. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question is from Richard with Aiken from Kepler. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Harold. Good morning, Tristan. Two questions from me as well. First of all, on innovations, you mentioned it a couple of times, Harold. I think there's increasingly more functional beers. Where is this especially a strong trend and how can you differentiate your brands versus competition? And then the second question is obviously on free cash flow, which was very strong. So why such an improvement, which seems a bit all of a sudden in the first half? And especially on the working capital benefits, are they sustainable? Thank you.

Yeah, very good. So first on innovations, I think you're right. To point out that there are very much evolving consumer needs there, but it's also good to recognize that these needs are different market by market. So when you're talking about, for example, functional beers, a 00 is also a functional beer. Health benefits have different meaning when you're talking to a Brazilian or a Vietnamese. So it's a bit difficult to answer your question, let's call it in the wider macro trend, but what we certainly see is opportunities in hydration. Opportunities in flavors and opportunities in basically lower alcohol beverage propositions like the Heineken Ultimate without gluten, for example. So these are some of the functional benefits that we believe are scalable beyond, and this is very important to do. So how to differentiate? I think there are two answers which may seem inherently conflicting. The first is brands matter. Heineken brand, which is why I emphasized it, carries so much quality credentials, has such a great following that innovation in Heineken I'm not saying it's always a success, but it certainly always draws attention, also because of our creative marketing campaigns. So global brand propositions, like in Heineken, but what we also see, for example, in Desperados, with lower ABVs in Sunlight, are really pulling consumers into the franchise. And then it really is about, as Bram would say, the delivery on product taste and format will be locally relevant. So you will see us therefore talk about pilots and experimentation and scaling much more on functional benefit level but potentially with different brand and product delivery expressions across markets. That's how we think about it and we're very pleased that therefore we are now having already in the first half of the year 40 of these innovation pilots ready to be scaled upon proven success. The second part of your second question is the free operating cash flow. And some of you on the call know that I'm actually very happy about the free operating cash flow and the return on invested capital delivery. It's a promise I made for some years and I'm starting to see it come through. And this is sustainable because we see two factors. The first one is our capital demands are going down. We're still investing in innovation, in packaging material, in sustainability, but also in growth and productivity. But we are doing that more smartly and more cautiously. And part of the impact of this big 1.1 billion, therefore, is a more even phasing of investment across the quarters as we start to get a better grip on how we invest across the globe. The second one is our inventory and payable optimization. It's on average four days. I still think there is more to come. And we really see that the length already for years we're talking with suppliers with optimization of value chains. And this is now starting to come through. Some of these contracts were long term. They first need to expire before you put new contracts in place. And you see the benefits of that now flowing through, and it will be sustained.

Thanks, Harold.

Very good. Thanks, Richard.

Thank you. Our next question is from Javier Gonzalez-Lastra from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Javier, we cannot hear you. If you could please check your lines on mute.

Yes, sorry. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Can you hear me now?

Yes, we can.

Hi, good morning, Harold and Tristan. So two questions from me. First one on cost savings. You stressed in the statement this morning that you are on track to deliver at top end of the 400 to 500 million range with a strong conversion into net savings and a reduction of $3,000. I wonder if you could share a little bit with us what are the key geographies and areas these reductions have been taking place and whether we should expect more incremental improvement in H2 in terms of the conversion, especially in terms of the conversion of gross savings into net. And then the second question is basically on COX inflation at the overall group level. So is the prolonged Middle East crisis having an impact on the Cox Outlook for the second half of the year compared to what you expected at the beginning of the year. I've noticed that you've dropped from your outlook, from your guidance, the sentence where you basically explicitly said that your guidance was... Thank you. It's a good question, and maybe it's easier for me to answer them in reverse order.

Because we do see indeed some pressure on cost coming from the Middle East crisis. I know that everybody on the call also looks at the oil price and the aluminium price and oil fluctuates up and down. But aluminium has actually stayed quite high compared to, for example, last year. So there is definitely cost inflation in the system. This is particularly noteworthy In Asia region, but also to some extent in the Africa region, although I have to say that the governments are doing a pretty decent job to contain inflation, we still see an increased inflationary outlook in the Africa market. So that's where it is most pronounced. and it is not on the points that we can hedge because we have been hedging pretty much for the full year. This is really about the transport contracts and in some markets you cannot hedge your energy. So there is about 100 million, let me just put a number to it, of cost inflation into the system as a result of the Middle East crisis. We are quite confident that because of these cost savings that you're referencing on your first question, we are able to absorb that. Because the savings are on track and we do see indeed in the first half year a good conversion rate. This is true in every market. It ranges from Brazil to Mexico to even in Vietnam, because our cost program is multifunctional, multi-market, and they are basically filled, these initiatives, already one to three years ahead. So we're executing on known plans. And on top of that, of course, the markets are responding to what they see in the market. So it's a whole system behind delivering these gross savings, which made us quite confident in the first half of the year, but also in the full year. Part of these cost savings will be reinvested to offset this incremental inflation. And very intentionally, we want to keep prices low. Because we believe that we have an opportunity to bring consumers back into the category with investing in brands, investing in innovation, and investing in affordability. And we do that while still sticking to our outlook range of 2-6%. So that's a bit the logic that we have and then we'll do our best to deliver the best value for the short and the long term.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next question on the line comes from Gen Cross with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Good morning Harold, thanks for the question. Actually a couple from me. The first one is just on the AME EBIT margin, which I think at 50% is higher than it has been for a little while. So I just wonder if you could talk a little bit about how sustainable you view that as being and potentially the scope to increase that further from here, given the work that you've done on the cost base in the region. And then the second one is just, you talked a little bit about these multi-market models which you've implemented in Europe. I just wonder if you could share some examples of How the business is actually being managed differently under these MMOs and the benefits you're deriving from this.

Thank you. Great questions, Jan. Thank you. So first, let me start with the outcome. We believe that the AME EBIT margin is sustainable. As long as we can control the controllables. Because what we did see a few years ago, that if the macroeconomic conditions change, and you enter periods of hyperinflation and such, of course our conversation needs to be different. Then we need to remind ourselves that we can navigate this volatility, but short-term there can be disruptive impacts. Why can I say that they are sustainable? Because of three factors. The first is we've learned the lesson in Nigeria. And basically throughout those markets, whether this is Egypt or whether this is Ethiopia or whether this is other markets that we have, we have been fundamentally addressing the balance sheet as well as the cost base to basically make sure, you heard me talk about that before, that we lower break-even points and become less dependent on foreign direct inflows. and this is really what has changed in our Africa Middle East setup with the great help of the Africa region who saw the need and has acted with pace to put this in place. So it's not because of the center, it really is because of the market operations that we've made this change and they made it sustainable. A few examples of that. First, we are becoming less dependent on foreign direct inflows because we're converting more to local sourcing. We have more active dialogues with the government about why it is good for us, but also good for them to bring stability to the market. What is also extremely helpful, and this is the caveat, is that at this moment in time, I can say, honestly speaking, that the governments and the banks across the African continent are doing a really, really good job in building structural fundamentals into their policies. Whether this is currency exchanges, whether this is reducing dependencies in markets, long may that last, but I'm not in control of that. What I am in control of is building the right brand portfolio and really making sure, like we do now in Nigeria, that we're cautious on pricing. Because if inflation is moderating and currency is stable, we need to bring the attention to how we bring volume growth back to the market. Otherwise, we have a fantastic ratio, but with very low volumes, it doesn't really add much to the bottom line. So that's a bit the conversation that is currently going on in the Africa-Middle East market. But the business is very holistically thinking through how they can create sustainable growth based on the learnings of the past couple of years. And then to your second question of multi-market organizations, it's great that you asked that question. Because basically what we're aiming to do is put operating companies really focused on consumers and customers. But everything that is not related to that, how do we combine the force of a greater market, let's call it agglomeration, to the party? So this is Romania, Bulgaria, this is Czech, Slovak. And you do see that the moment you start putting teams together, we thought that this was going to lead to higher capability and lower cost. but you also see better collaboration for example on portfolio optimization, customer engagement. So the response from the markets is very positive that this is unlocking time and experience and growth opportunities at lower cost and that's why the European team is very enthused and will continue this journey.

Thank you.

Thank you. Last question we have on the line comes from Trevor Stirling with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Morning, Harold. Sorry, all my positive questions have been exhausted, Harold. I've got two slightly... And then the second question around personnel costs. You highlight that FTEs have been reduced by about 3,000, which I think is just over 3% reduction in FTEs, but your personnel costs are up 2.5%. Is that currency? Is that underlying inflation? Is that an EM mix effect? Maybe you could just give us a little color on that apparent discrepancy.

Trevor, you're in need of a beer, I think, Trevor, but we'll do that tomorrow, hopefully, or Friday. So you're totally right about Europe. And look, maybe good to remind ourselves, one of the markets that are holding growth back is Poland. And in Poland, two things have happened. So first of all, it's a market that is structurally not growing and not very strong. But you will also remember that at the start of the year, there was the DRS, the Deposit Return Scheme implementation. for which we were specifically calling out in the full year results that we have done some pre-loading for that so that the volumes are a combination of We had that sale in quarter four last year because we stocked up the market because we didn't know whether the market was going to be disrupted, as well as an underlying softer markets, partly because of economic pressure, partly because of, you know, basically less population that is currently in Poland. In Austria, we had a soft quarter one, so that also did not help the first half of the year. And more to your question, do we believe that this is going to continue going forward? Look, a lot will depend on July, August, as you know. But what is important that we highlighted is we saw improved momentum of our business in quarter two from the European team. We're very cautious on the market still because the European consumer is not getting happier still from a consumer index point of view as long as we can see the data. What is the case, however, is that our market share is accelerating and we do see the markets responding to innovation and excellent consumer execution in store. So that's what Glenn and the team are focusing on. So yes, we're not yet there with the European markets. Partially was phasing, partially it's still underlying activation that needs to kick in. On personnel cost, I was actually pretty pleased to see personnel cost growing up by 2.4%. There are two important points to that. The first one is we are in a way accruing for more variable bonuses than we did last year. And that's a good thing for our business because we are seeing better results and better performance in our business. And we are confirming the outlook for the year, as you know. And the second thing is that there is indeed an elevated wage inflation working its way through the business. And also that should not be a surprise following years of high inflation that finds its way through the wage inflation. and hopefully with better improvement on productivity we can further take that down but those are some of those dynamics and there maybe the last point there were some transition costs not only in head office that we were talking about but it's also sitting in personnel expenses as you would expect.

Super, thank you very much for the explanation Harold.

Okay, very good.

Thank you. We have no other questions on the line, so I'll pass the floor back to management for closing comments.

No, so let me then close, thanking everyone on the call for your interest. I believe we delivered a robust set of financial results in the first half of the year, with importantly two-thirds of our market in market share or hold position, which is also important to recognize. It's not only about the financials, it's also about the in-market performance. Very pleased with volume growth, revenue growth and operating leverage coming through, and I hope to see you soon. Thank you very much for your interest and see you later.

This concludes today's conference call. Thanks everyone very much for joining and you may now disconnect.