Lotus Bakeries Unsp/Adr

Good morning everyone. Welcome to the investor call following the announcement this morning of the 2025 annual results of Lotus Bakeries. I'm Jan Bolle and joining me today is our CFO Mike Puglir and we are both here in Landbeker. We will start with the presentation providing an overview of the performance and also the milestones of 2025 and later on deep dive into the financials. Of course, following the presentation, we are open for questions from your sites. And in total, we have foreseen 15 minutes for this call in total.

First slide.

I'm proud to report another year of strong and double-digit top-line growth. The reported sales in 25 amounted to 1.35 billion euro, and that represents an increase of 10%. This evolution is driven by continued strong volume growth in the second semester for both Lotus Blizzcoff and Lotus Natural Foods. At constant currencies, growth was even stronger. given the negative currency evolutions of the dollar and the pounds in the second half of the year. Profitability improved further, with underlying EBITDA on sales exceeding 20%, and this is an increase of 12% compared to prior year. Also, the net profit increased, and the net profit increased with 13%. A strong reduction of net financial debt led to a historic low multiple of 0.25 times underlying EBITDA. Besides a strong operational cash flow delivery, we also realized a successful exit in FF2032, with the sale of our participation in the Good Chris company. A dividend of €90 per shares proposed, and that's an increase of €14. euro per share compared to the 76 of last year and similar similar amount to prior year we invested 120 million in capital expenditures and that's mainly in the plant in thailand The successful startup of the first lines in Chamboury is, for us as a company, a huge milestone. And the operations teams deserve full credit for delivering this greenfield ahead of schedule and within budgets. Last but not least, the partnerships with MonaLys advance strongly and they contribute positively to the results. Lotus Vehicles is a growth company and has been for the last 20 years delivering a compounded annual growth rate of 11%. Looking at the pillars, the three strategic pillars, we see that Lotus Biscoff achieved a growth of 13% in 2025. To reflect the discontinuation of Lotus Vehicles' own Biscoff ice cream sales, Following the new license agreement with Forneri, 11.6 million euros of second semester revenue was excluded from the reported top line sales. This primary volume growth of Lotus Biscoff demonstrates continued strong demands for Biscoff cookies and spreads. The Biscoff cookie once again ranks as the fastest grower in the global cookie brands ranking, further reinforcing its position within the top five. Lotus natural fruits is the fastest growing strategic pillar and 25 with a growth of 17%. And after a strong performance in the first semester of 25, Lotus Natural Foods continued on the same positive path. Truck is the fastest growing brand and bear is the biggest contributor to growth. After sales remained flat in the first half of 25, the local heroes delivered again growth in the latter half of the year. Anas Pepperkakor even realized more than 10% growth and had its best holiday season ever in Sweden. The gingerbread sales in the Netherlands stabilized on a full year basis. Growth in continental Europe of 9% is outstanding, certainly given the full allocation of the local heroes portfolio to this region. Belgium and the Netherlands are good examples of home countries that carry a broad assortment of the three strategic pillars and generates good growth in 2025. The reported growth in the UK was 2%. Currency evolution of the pound has a negative impact on the reported sales in the second half of the year. The defocus on the own Biscoff chocolate business and the exclusion of Biscoff ice cream sales in the second half of the year further tempered the growth. On the contrary, the natural foods brands performed strong in the UK. As an example, Trek was the fastest growing brand in the bar category in the UK. And in the US, Biscoff was the fastest growing brand in both the cookies and spreads category. Household penetration for the Biscoff cookie has steadily expanded in recent years and now stands at 9%. Significant growth was also realized again in the US with Bayer. Our largest consumer markets continue to increase in imports. You can see this in the overview here on this slide. The overview that shows the revenue distribution by country. The UK remains our largest market, closely followed by the US. Other major consumer markets, including many European markets, China and Canada, are also gaining share. Within the remaining 90%, Several smaller but high potential markets are emerging. Let's now go into more details about Biscoff. Biscoff realizes a 10-year average growth of 15%. The most important growth engine of Lotus Bakeries in absolute value of the last decennia. We have reached with Biscoff again a lot of milestones, and we will go into more detail on some of those in the following slides. The lounge of spreads was almost 20 years ago, namely in 2008. You can see the interesting evolution of our pipe design over the years. In 23, the brand name Biscoff became prominent on the pack. And now we take the next step and we will move from a generic shape jar to our own design.

After 17 years, it is time for a makeover. Something more unique, with more standout, and more branding. So meet our new jar. Highlighting we are Biscoff in a Jar. Strong branding via label orientation. Improved standout via contoured shape. And rest assured, new jar, same taste.

The new jar makes the perfect reference to our Biscoff cookie, with the embossments linking it to our iconic cookie. And you can see the new Biscoff spreads lined up next to other global spread brands. And now it's our goal to make this Biscoff jar also iconic. Here you can see that our Biscoff brands, here you can see our Biscoff brand identity over the years. In 2018, we created the red banner on the packaging design. And in 23, we placed Biscoff front and center on the packaging as part of a shift towards a unified global brand identity. And we are ready to take the final step. In 25, we introduced the Biscoff engraving on the cookies, replacing the long-standing Lotus engraving. This change completes more than a decade of brand evolution and ensures us one consistent visual identity and tone of voice. The letter font on the cookie is aligned to our Biscoff logo, also connecting the Fs to ensure readability. The new engraving will be introduced across the entire range, including the original cookie and the sandwich cookie, as you can see here. Implementation began late 25 in the US and India, followed by a global rollout in 26. And now, an update on the partnerships. One of the highlights, 25, is for sure the lounge of Biscoff Cookie in India. Towards the end of 25, an unprecedented nationwide lounge campaign was rolled out, rapidly building distribution in more than 300,000 stores in less than four weeks. Sales conferences were organized across 15 key cities to inform and energize the Mona Lisa sales teams across the country. This allowed us, to reach 10,000 salespeople in all parts of the country. A wide range of impactful marketing initiatives was deployed across the country. The main focus was on the unique product tastes.

Oh my, what a feeling. Oh my, what a feeling. Oh my, what a feeling. Oh my, what a feeling. Oh what a feeling. I can't just stop. Can't seem to get enough. You were mine, you were wonderful kind. For me, you're good enough. This feeling knows no footstop. Oh my, what a feeling. Oh my, what a feeling. Oh my, what a feeling. Oh my, what a feeling. Caramelized crunchy and irresistibly tasty. The all new Biscoff. Welcome to the Biscoff feeling.

Painting the towns red with Biscoff billboards across top cities. Social and influencer buzz delivering more than 150 million views. Also a nationwide and broadly covered press conference was organized. and of course impactful in-market activation in all channels, both modern trades and traditional trades. Traditional trades include thousands of smaller shops as you can see on the slides. In 25 we successfully launched Discoff with Cadbury, Milka and Codor. And Mondelez is working on some more exciting innovations that will come soon on the markets. The Froneri-led Viscov ice cream lounges will start in 26 this year in the UK and later on in European countries. Following extensive work throughout 25 to define the new assortment and develop new product innovations. This slide shows the different concepts that have been developed. You can see the sticks, the pints, and the new sandwich concepts. And the sandwich concept is ice cream in between two original Biscoff cookies. In recent years, Lotus Bakery has invested in a new greenfield production facility in Chonburi in Thailand. to support its growth ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region. We have now four Biscoff plants, including India, on three continents. By the end of 2025, the first cookies produced in Chamboury have been delivered to the customers. The plant is expected to be fully completed and operational by the end of the first semester in 2026 at the latest, including capability of spread production and in-house bottling of spread troughs. You can see here a drone picture of the current Chambourine plants. On the left of the current building you can see that the plot of land still allows for significant future expansion. Mid-25, a new investment in spread production and bottling was also commissioned at the plant in Melbourne, U.S. Local sourcing and production of Pisco spread in the U.S. will reduce our ecological impact, lower import duties, and accelerate our logistical flow. Our ambition with natural foods is clear. We want to become a global leader in better-for-you snacking segments. And in 25 we have made great steps again. Lotus Natural Foods was the fastest growing pillar of the group with 17%. It is now a 300 million euro business. And this is another one-off because since we entered the better for you snacking segment in 2015, our 10-year average growth has been that same 17%. With natural foods, we reached several milestones in 25, and we will go more into detail on some of those in the following slides. An important driver of growth in recent years for those natural foods is the successful development and introduction of innovations. Under the bear brand, the fruit splits are a perfect example of an innovation that was introduced in recent years. The fruit splits are performing very strongly next to the original bear fruit broths. In both key markets, for bear, the UK and the US, the splits rotate in the top quartile at most retailers. Seasonal activation strengthens brand visibility and consumer engagement. Alongside Bear's strong overall performance, the brand successfully launched a nationwide Halloween edition featuring a single wrapped strawberry fruit roll and themed cards with the Bear mascots. Also under the Track brand, we launched one of the most impactful innovations of recent years, the Track Protein Flat Jack with Biscoff. And this track protein flapjack with Biscoff is a vegan protein bar layered with smooth Biscoff spreads. This innovation created a strong halo effect. Fact consumers were introduced to the iconic Biscoff taste, while the Biscoff brands encouraged trial and visibility for track, strengthening relevance and appeal for both brands. In 2025, Lotus Vapies enters into partnerships with Run True in the UK and with Golazo in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. We will be a key partner at running events reaching over 900,000 runners annually and offering a strong opportunity to further build the visibility and relevance of track and naked brands. So this concludes my part of the presentation. And now we'll hand over to Mike, who will present the financials.

Thank you, Jan. On the financials. In 25, we delivered another strong set of annual results, powered by an in sync flywheel of sales, profitability, cash flow, and continued reductions in net debt. You see that revenue is up by 10%, underlying EBITDA is up by 12%, free cash flow before expansion CAPEX is up by 20%. All of which make it possible to invest 240 million euro in the past two years and at the same time reduce the net financial debt further to 0.25 times underlying EBITDA. The strong performance of 25 is also reflected in a proposed increase of the dividend with 14 euro per share. This slide shows the yearly volume growth in percentage on the left and in millions of euro over the past years on the right. The reported revenue growth of 10% in 25 is primarily driven by continued robust volume growth of 9.5% or more than €115 million. This is the darker bar in the graph. Before exclusion of the Biscoff ice cream sales of the second semester, normalized volume growth is actually higher at 10.4% or close to €130 million. This is the bar on the right of the graph. And you can see that this volume in 25 was outstanding and comes on top of a record volume growth already realized in 2024 of 14% and 150 million euro. Over the past five years, underlying EBITDA has grown faster than sales. And in 2025, underlying EBITDA reached again the 20% of sales level, matching the profitability level we delivered also in 2021. Our partnerships with Mondelez further enhance the group's margin profile. Underlying EBIT and underlying EBITDA grew by more than 12%, as you can see, outperforming the top-line growth of 10%. This demonstrates the solid underlying quality of earnings. Strong volume growth, combined with disciplined pricing and margin management, continue to support the expansion of profitability and cash flow. Our Biscoff plants in Lembeke and Mebben, together with the Behr factory in Wolseley, operated at high occupancy levels throughout the year. And towards the end of 2025, our new plant in Thailand became operational. The annualized depreciation in 26 for Thailand is expected to add around half a percent on sales. The volume growth and operating leverage is being reinvested in strengthening our commercial organizations, expanding marketing initiatives to build brand awareness and penetration, and further increasing production capacity. The non-underlying items of €4.8 million relate mainly to the start-up cash costs for the plant in Thailand before production commercially goes live. The financial results of 2.4 million euro consists of interest expenses, net of cash deposit income, bank charges and a negative exchange rate impact from the revaluation of balance sheet positions in foreign currencies. The tax expense amounts to almost 53 million euro and remains as a percentage profit before tax in line with prior year at 23.5%. underlying net result amounts to 177 million euro or 13.1 on revenue on this slide you can see our investment program over the last five years we invested more than 500 million euros since 2021 in total capex and more than 430 million euro in expansion capex alone In 2025, we invested 120 million euro, similar to the 2024 number, and the majority of this budget goes to the plants in Thailand. Maintenance expense remains well under control and also remains below 1.5% of sales in 2025. The CAPEX forecast for 26 and 27 combined stands at 250 million euro. And it's slightly above the 240 million euro of the last two years, 24 and 25. Cash flow delivery was once again very strong in the second half of the year. With cash conversion before expansion capex well above 90%, we were able to absorb more than 100 million euro of expansion capex and still reduce net financial debt further. Supporting drivers of cash conversion remain control on working capital and maintenance capex. Net financial debt is historically low at 0.25 times underlying EBITDA. The sustained strong cash flow delivery over the recent years and the successful exit by FF2032 of the participation in the Good Crisp company are the drivers in 2025 and i have to repeat myself this balance sheet again is stronger than ever increased long-term investments reaching the 1 billion euro mark alongside increased equity networking capital remains stable and reported net financial debt further reduces On this slide, the reported net financial debt of €89 million includes €21 million of debt to be expressed by applying the IFRS 16 standard about leases. The evolution of underlying earnings per share shows a CAGR of 17.1% over the recent five years and is actually outpacing the underlying EBITDA evolution we saw in one of the previous slides. And then to end the presentation with another highlight of 2025, Lotus Bakeries has reached the status of dividend aristocrat with 25 consecutive years of dividend growth and proposing a dividend this year of €90 per share. This concludes the presentations. We will now open the call for questions. And we have a first question of Alexander Kramers of Kepler-Chevreux.

We hear you, yes.

Thank you. Yes, so first question, I would ask two questions, and congratulations on the good set of results for the first. So the first question would be, You mentioned at the beginning of the year that you could have only a maximum growth of 10% over the full year 2025 in Biscoff. And you mentioned also that there was going to be a high base in H2O. Of course, at the H1, you already mentioned that there was the new plant in Thailand opening. But now we show in Biscoff 15% growth, half on half. And if you compare that, because in the first half of the year was only 1% growth, half on half. I was just wondering, now can we also expect that 15% growth to also be present in H1 next year? Because of course there was little room for growth supposedly, but now apparently that was well overshoot. So that was the first question. The second question I would have would be on CAPEX. I was just wondering why CAPEX landed a bit on the lower end in H2 and how much capacity would be coming free in 2026 that would seem as required.

Thank you, Alexander, for the questions and also for the congratulations, so thank you. Regarding your first question, indeed in 25, we gave some guidance in respect of capacity related to Biscoff. And in 26, there is not. The demand will be leading. And we had indeed a very good, a very strong second semester. And the 15% growth with Biscoff was a bit exaggerated. It's more like for like almost 13% in the second semester that we grew with Biscoff. But the demand will be leading in 26. We have been investing in increased capacity. mainly through our plant in Thailand, and that plant will be producing for Asia and Australia and New Zealand. So, the capacity is there to grow this cough in 2026. In relation to the CAPEX number, we have shown an outlook for 2026, 2027, So, about 250 million euros will be reserved for increasing the capacity in our different factories. That includes our Biscoff factories, but also our factory in South Africa for natural foods products. And sometimes there is between H1 and H2 a difference in cash out, but you can be assured in H2 we did work quite hard to get the plant up and running in Thailand. We are extremely happy with how the team performed, our operations team performed in Thailand. We did not have any significant setbacks, and that's why we made a clear statement in our press release that at the latest, by end of the first semester, we will be up and running with all our lives.

Okay, thank you very much. The next question, Chris Keppers, De Groot-Peterkamp.

Chris?

Yes. Good morning.

Good morning, Chris.

Okay, perfect. So yeah, indeed, also on my side, excellent second half. So congrats on that. My question is more on the comment made in the press release in the first page also on the profile of the group. Looking forward and looking at your cost base, which remained indeed well under control in the second half, given the fact that you have some scale increase as a group. You have indeed Mondeleed, which is helping. On the other hand, there is, of course, the effect of Thailand, which might not be as profitable as the Belgian plant or even the Bain in the short term. But what seems to be a realistic margin assumption going forward, because indeed it could be that 21% in a couple of years is feasible, or would it imply that and what you've done in the past that you aim for, let's say, more marketing effect in order to focus on the long-term growth, it would be helpful to give some insight on that because it does seem indeed that your margin uptake in second half could be structural. That's my main question, actually. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris.

Yes, indeed. We are happy that the EBITDA margin was higher than the 20%, so we are now at 20.2%. There are a couple of elements that affected that percentage first of all the ice cream business we took out in the non-underlying line so not only the top line but the whole P&L of the ice cream business in the second half is not included in the in the underlying results. So, as you know, our ice cream business was not the most profitable one, so that helps to increase that profitability percentage. Looking into the future, a couple of elements will play. First of all, we will have the Thailand plans, as from the 1st of January, fully consolidated into the results, which also means full overheads will be in the costs, and so it's clear that A new factory being integrated in the profit and loss has its overhead costs and once it's fully in the P&L and you add lines, it's more profitable. So if we add lines in Lembeke, the profitability level of these additional lines is higher than implementing in your pnl a full plant so that's the effect we will see in in 26 and also depreciation uh will be a bit higher about a half percent uh impact on our depreciation um on the other hand and the mondelis partnership will play positively on the on the epida and percentages as well india as the cooperation on ice cream and and chocolate will play a positive side percentage wise so And to summarize it, and we think for 26, the EBIT and EBITDA percentages will be more or less in line of what we have communicated today in relation to 25.

Okay, very clear. And just one follow-up, coming back on the CAPEX program, with 250 million somewhat north of what we anticipated, I presume, to what extent is this

passive expansion with this provider could you share more details on what it entails thank you um i said it's uh linked to our disco factories and also our factory in uh in south africa um we the calculation made is uh of course based on what we expect uh relation to to demand the coming years you know We don't like to build empty factories. We're not going to invest already for 30-40% additional capacity. We'd like to be quite close to the market and the factories, the three Biscoff factories specifically, They are close to, and they're always very close to the full capacity. 26 will give us room for growth, but we're not going to be over-investing in capacity, so the 250 million will not give us 30% to 40% additional capacity.

I don't know if that gives you an idea. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. Next question, Maxime Strana from ING Bank.

Good morning. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Perfect. Thank you for that. So first of all, looking at organic growth, coming back on that, if I may, excluding the impact would imply the organic growth is above 14% in H2O. with volume growth of almost 13% if I look at the number you just communicated. Just want to cross-check with you that's basically the correct assumption to take. And is it a level you see sustainable in H1? That would be the first question on my side. And then secondly, digging deeper into India, could you elaborate a bit on what are your view on what the growth could be in 2026? That would be all for me. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Maxime. Indeed, in the second half of the year, we increased like for like, and that means the FX like for like, also the ice cream, was indeed 14% of organic growth, which is exceptional. We were delighted with the 14%. And if you see it in the history of the last 5 to 10 years, 14% of organic growth for the group is exceptional. What do we expect? H1 26. We are confident to further grow, but as I said, 40% is exceptional. And we also have the headwinds of the foreign exchange effects based on the currencies of today. pound wise dollar wise and we have already and we have to start with minus two and a half percent um okay things can can change uh in a good way or in a gorgeous way uh you never know but we start with minus two and a half percent and uh but if we purely look at life-to-life growth, and 14 is extremely high, and that's why both Mike and I are sitting here with a big smile, because of the fantastic results in the second half. And then in respect of India, and then I have to quote my CEO colleague of Mona Lisa, he said, okay, I want to have at least 100 billion US dollar sales in five years in India. and for us it's a clearly security a very good uh partnership uh we have been in india for 20 years uh even more and we could never realize the substantial sales that we could never become a real brand in india and i think through this partnership we will be if we see the resources that Mondelez have used now to launch the marketing efforts and especially also the way they operate and the fast way they can get the Biscoff products in all these stores, in more than 300,000 stores. That's really truly impressive. And I'm sure they will create a brand. They will create Biscoff as a brand also for the Indian population. And that's our ultimate goal. I want to become a global brand. And if you cannot become a brand in India, you cannot say generally we are a global brand. So I'm happy that we can work together with Mondelēz on realizing that.

Thank you, Maxim. Next question is Gi Sips from KPC Securities.

Yes. Two questions. First question is on the raw map and the packaging cost evolution. We see some easing in the raw map. Can you give us some color if that could give some tailwinds from that side going forward? And the second is coming back on the capex. Do you intend to allocate some additional capex to the healthy snacking activities?

Thank you, Guy. In respect of packaging raw materials and other costs, what we do is we have a whole budget around and also calculating the cost prices and the different cost elements of our products. That's an exercise we do very meticulously and that gives us the ability to communicate also our prices to our customers before year ends. We also try to hedge as much as possible of these costs, so we have a cash flow predictability. For 26, price increases will be moderate. So, if you look at the growth of next year and hopefully the growth of next year, it will be based on volume so it will be very price effects will be very limited um In respect of capital expenditures for healthy snacking, indeed, Bayer is doing really well. So we're going to invest in our South African plant. And also for Naked, that we also produce in the same plant, we will add capacity over there. So partly is allocated for the plant in Woolsey.

Thank you, Guy. Thank you. Next question, Jeremy Kincaid from Lansford Campen. Jeremy, you need to unmute yourself.

There we go. Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Apologies. Thanks for taking the questions. One more for me on CapEx. Are you able to split out how much of the CapEx guidance will be to the Biscoff brand and to the Natural Foods brand? And then my second question is just on your balance sheets. Obviously, you called out it's very strong. Does that mean going forward we could expect higher cash distributions to shareholders? Or do you have a target leverage ratio that you're working towards? And then just finally, on the good chip company or crisp company, Are you able to disclose how much you sold that for? I'm sorry if you said that at the beginning of the call. I was having technical issues.

Thank you, Jeremy. In respect of CapEx, the majority should be allocated to PISCOF. and the exact number we will not disclose, but it's the majority to BISCON. And we do have a strong balance sheet. We have increased the dividend payout slightly. I think if you look at the underlying net profit of last year NRP out ratio which was a bit below 40% and now it's a bit above 40% because we have indeed a very strong balance sheet with low leveraging. So, happy to be dividend aristocrats. So, we're official aristocrats, that does not mean that we're going to stop working. But the view on our dividends has not changed, I think. the dividend payout, we have no plans to really dramatically change the payout ratio. But the balance sheet enables us to invest in capacity. So we will invest a quarter of a billion euros the next two years, and that helps if you have a strong balance sheet. We do look at M&A, we do look at external growth, but it's not something that we really need today. As you can see our organic growth is very strong, as well for Natural Foods, as for Biscoff. The organization is also built and organized to really focus on Biscoff, focused on Natural Foods and also the local heroes. So an external growth and acquisition could be interesting, and we have the balance sheet for it, but it really has to be a perfect match, and it's not something that we really need in the short term. We love the organic growth, it's the most profitable way to grow, We are not nervous by the fact that we have almost no debt anymore. And in respect of the funds, F2032, what we've seen is that the most targets are in the US. We invest in scale-up companies. not in seed, we're not investing in seed money, but more in scale-up companies. And we like companies that we think that in the mid-long term, they can reach 75 to 100 million euros. And we've seen also out of experience that most of these targets are in the US. And so we have our team now in San Francisco, mostly looking at US targets. And the Good Chris company, very nice company in the sense that they have very good products. They did grow significantly the last years and Pearl Rock, uh private company did acquire and we agreed not to disclose any detailed information but we did create some surplus value for the funds great great okay thank you thank you we have time for one more question a follow-up question from maxine stranar of ing

Yes, it was checked on F32, so you mentioned that you're still looking at OSTPAR again, when also Lotus is a group looking at M&A, so any element in the portfolio that you would add, any category you feel would be a great fit for Lotus as a group could respond to it.

I think I more or less understood your question, because the line is not perfect. But I understood that your question is, do we want to invest in other categories? I think looking at M&A, preferably it will be either in the healthy snack and natural foods fields. I think that's what we focus on in our search. On the other hand, also in traditional biscuits and bakery, it could be interesting, certainly in respect of getting more scale in certain countries. Today we're not seeking in other categories than the categories we are in today.

Thank you, Maxime. Just one last question. Antoine from Bank of America. Go ahead, Antoine.

Yeah, can you hear me? Yes, yeah.

Perfect, thank you. Yeah, two quick questions. So first one on the U.S. So 9% household penetration, super good development there. Any bit of an update of what you target there in the U.S. for household penetration over the midterm? And just a very quick one on India in terms of, like, I mean, strong launch, as you said, and find it out. I mean, in terms of spending on AMP and so on, I mean, how is it split between you and Mondelez? Is it them taking care of everything, or do you also need to contribute a bit? Thank you.

Thank you for your question. Indeed, the U.S. has been evolving very positively. We are now at 9% of household penetration and our distribution It's 80% more or less. So evolving really positively. What are our ambitions? Of course we would like to cross the bridge of the 10% household penetration in the short term in the US. Today the US consumers are Not that positive. We have not seen that in our figures for 25. And hopefully we will not see that in our figures in 26. Today there are no indications that the sales would be less good. So we still have a positive vibe coming from the U.S. And it's one of our, maybe our most strategic markets for this cost. We have been investing quite a lot in the US in relation to marketing. Above the line investments have been started in 24, evaluated positively. So we are extending it in 25 and also probably in 26. And so we keep on spending, supporting our brands through marketing. I think another important aspect is we have our factory in the US producing for the US now also we have added to the spread line. And the good news is that we had a vision to buy enough land in North Carolina on that site. So we can still extend capacity on the same sites because it takes quite some time. create know-how in the factory. And now in the US, quality of the cookies are very good and are fully on par with the Landbaker ones. So it's good that we can extend on the same spots in Mebane, North Carolina. So we are ready in the US to grow. Fantastic year, 25. In general, consumers are a bit more hesitant, but today we don't see that in our figures. India. Indeed, a great start. And our contribution is, of course, that we look at the quality of the cooking um uh we decide on the marketing program together and and we do have a uh a contribution also in the the marketing uh supports and the majority of this of the investments are being done by by mondelis but we also uh contribute a bit to the marketing uh efforts um and um like i said uh it looks very positive but we're only there for for two months now and But the start has been very promising and I'm very proud to see our products in so many stores and to see the positive vibe in India. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Antoine. Okay, thank you for your good questions, interesting questions.

Yes, also from my side, thank you. We will close the call here, but of course, if you have any follow-up questions, you know where to also find me or find us in the next few days and weeks. Thank you very much.