Pernod Ricard S A

Welcome to our H1FY24 Sales and Results presentation, to be followed by a Q&A. We are hosted today by Alexandre Ricard, our Chairman and CEO, and Hélène de Tissot, our EVP, Finance and IT. Alex and Hélène, over to you.

Thank you very much, Florence, and good morning to all of you. Let's dwell directly into our first half financial year 24 sales and results. Globally speaking, we've had a robust performance with organic sales down 3% and organic profit from recurring operations down 3%. Regarding the overall H1 performance, I would like to share with you maybe four underlying factors. The first one is the overall normalization of the spirits market globally, particularly skewed towards the US after three years post-COVID super cycle across our spirits industry. The second factor is inventory adjustments in the US, particularly at a retailer level in a high interest rates, therefore high cost of carry environment. The third element is a weaker consumer confidence in China. within a weak macroeconomic environment. And finally, the fourth element is strong growth in India and very strong growth in Asia, excluding China, very strong growth in Africa, Middle East, in Central and Eastern Europe, if you exclude Russia, and finally, pretty strong resilience in Western Europe. That's basically the four key factors that describe our first half performance. At the same time, we sustained our organic operating margin, principally related to a very strong gross margin expansion, and this is a direct consequence of our revenue growth management strategy, and as well operational efficiencies. We've maintained strong investments behind our portfolio brands with roughly 1 billion euros of marketing investments in growth versus the first half a year ago. And we've maintained very strict control of our structure costs, which are broadly stable. We are accelerating our strategic investments as planned and anticipated for the long-term sustainable growth of our business. So we've had a significant step up in H1 and our capex behind our Irish whiskey capacities, behind our North American capacities in Kentucky, and behind our Scotch capacities in Scotland. We've also secured future growth by maintaining strong levels of investments in our aged or strategic stock. And finally, while the free cash flow reflects perfectly the lower reported PRO, which is also impacted by currency effects, and accelerated strategic investments, as I've described two minutes ago. You have here the principal financials, which we'll go into a lot more detail with Hélène in a few minutes. So broadly saying, if you exclude Russia, we're growing in two out of the three regions. You see here, minus seven in America is impacted by destocking. Half of that is destocking. You see Europe at minus 4, which would have grown 1%, excluding the Russia technical impact. And finally, Asia, rest of the world, plus 1%, impacted by a weaker consumer confidence in China. And you see very strong pricing across the globe. I thought this analysis could be of interest to you because this perfectly illustrates what we call by normalization. So the first column is basically the pre-COVID semester. H1 fiscal year 20 was the semester starting July 2019 up to December 2019. We used an index 100 for the following first half, just to show you the exponential growth we've had, which we call the post-COVID super cycle, which is now normalizing. And by the way, ever since that super cycle started, you see that our KGAR is at plus 8%, whereas our natural framework is somewhere between 4% and 7%. We're still very consumer-centric. We've been extremely active all the way through to the run-up to the festive period, to the OND period. And without further ado, I'll share with you one of our commercials that was very successful across Christmas.

Friday gold.

It's a board of wine. Galua. Stir up.

For those of you who haven't recognized her, this was Salma Hayek. I thought that would be interesting to share with you as well one of our greatest investments over the last couple of years, which is the Chuan. So it's basically a malt whiskey distillery in China, the first whiskey distillery in China invested by an international spirits group. I was there just a few months ago. It was quite breathtaking. I tasted the product as well, and it's phenomenal. We are very excited about the Chuan, which we started commercializing in China since Christmas. We've been very active in terms of our portfolio management. Last time I shared our results with you, I shared the fact that we had acquired a number of brands. I had mentioned Screwball. I had mentioned Codigo. I had mentioned an increased stake in sovereign brands, which includes Bamboo. But since then, we've been quite active on the other front, which is the disposals front, with two major disposals, Cloncombelle over summer and Bekarovska, which is expected to close within the next two to three months. So very active portfolio management from an M&A point of view. And again, as reflected in our CAPEX investment I mentioned, we're doubling our capacity in Middleton and the new doubled distillery down in Middleton will be the biggest whisky distillery in the world. In Scotland as well, we're particularly investing behind our malts. And as I mentioned as well, we're building a distillery in Kentucky for our Jefferson bourbon brand. And at the same time, investing behind our strategic stocks in terms of aging and warehousing. And all of this is done in a very sustainable way. So we're still growing sustainably from grain to glass. You have here a number of examples that are occurring as we speak. If we go into the sales by a must-win market, the U.S. organic growth of minus 7%. Despite strong or resilient consumer demands as the spirit market continues to normalize, as we already mentioned a number of months ago, last year in fact, we believe that the sellout in the U.S. spirits industry from a value point of view is between 1 and 2 percent. Two, if we include the RTDs. One, if we exclude the RTDs. as it normalizes and eventually catches up with its long-term underlying trend of 4% to 5%. Our value depreciations were down 6% with high comps. So we're cycling high comps and, as I mentioned, compounded by inventory adjustments, which are costing us a little bit more than three points over the first half. We've gained share on Jameson Original, Malibu, Kalua, the Glenlivet, Corrigo, and Jeffersons. We have accelerated investments in the key and core U.S. market. Roughly 20% of our sales have been reinvested behind our portfolio of brands, and we do expect an improvement over the second semester of this fiscal brand with very strong execution. When it comes down to China, which declined by 9%, I mentioned this as we started the conference, consumer demand is soft in a challenging macro environment. Our international premium spirits brands are quite dynamic, particularly Absolute, Jameson, Tequila, and Gin. Martel Noblige is quite resilient, and so are premium and super premium whiskeys. So the trade has been cautious, and we share this with you as we enter into Chinese New Year. And we'll have the real sellout data in six weeks from today. India was up 4% over the first half, recycling the loss of the Delhi license. We do expect strong growth for H2. And the market remains very strong, with very strong, as well, consumer demand. And we are seeing clear premiumization in the Indian market. Finally, global travel retail down 3%. There is an ongoing normalization in terms of passenger traffic. We're now at 95% pre-COVID levels, but Chinese travel recovery is still lagging. The net sales are impacting by phasing between H1 and H2, and in particular, some discussions with a number of customers. More broadly speaking, in terms of regions, resilient Europe, which would have grown with the exception of Russia. So very good resilience. Strong growth in Central and Eastern Europe, led by Poland. Very strong resilience in Western Europe, led by Germany, which offsets a softer performance, particularly in France and UK. We are gaining share in the premium plus categories in many European markets. America, as I spoke about it, is mainly related to the U.S. Canada's sales have declined, but that's average phasing for the year. Latam, we're cycling a high comparable basis, particularly in Brazil and Mexico, and we do expect a significant improvement over the second half. And finally, Asia, rest of the world, up 1%, with very good growth in Japan, Taiwan, travel retail, and Australia. And I'd be remiss not to mention Africa and Middle East, and in particular, Turkey, with very strong growth, and Nigeria as well. From the House of Brands, you have here the principal numbers by segment. I would just underline the strong performance of Jameson, which is impacted by a little bit of destocking, as I mentioned. The dynamism of Absolute, in particular in Asia, rest of the world, and Europe. And on that note, I'm passing over to Hélène for the financials.

Thank you very much, Alex. Good morning, everyone. So let's look at our financial performance. So we achieved strong gross margin expansion in this first half of 126 pips and organic operating margin expansion of 7 pips. This gross margin expansion is delivered thanks to strong pricing, complemented with a focus on revenue growth management and as well continued operational efficiencies. This is more than offsetting easing COGS inflation and adverse market mix. We have maintained strong marketing investments with notable increase in our key geography, which is the U.S., with A&P ratio now at 20% of net sales. We kept a tight control of structure cost and with strong discipline on that front. And together, this leads to the organic operating margin expansion of 7 bits I was just mentioning with organic profit from recurring operation at minus 3% versus last year. We have significant unfavorable FX impact of 311 million euros, which is partly compensated by a favorable perimeter effect, which translates into a reported profit from recurring operation decrease of minus 12%. Our softer profit from recurring operation translates into a group share of net profit from recurring operation at minus 17% due to the increase of recurring financial expenses, with an average cost of debt at 3.1% in this first half, which is following the significant increase of interest rate. And the EPS is declining by 16%. Bridging now from the group share in profit from recurring operation at minus 70%, we report a decline in group share of net profit at minus 12%. This is mainly due to non-recurring operating income driven by asset disposal. Turning now to cash flow and balance sheet, recurring free cash flow amounts to €301 million which is 68% lower than last year and this is due to lower profit with significant adverse effects impact and the acceleration as planned of our strategic investment to fuel long-term growth. especially with capex increase close to €400 million in this first half, which is up €216 million versus last year, and as well investment in strategic inventory of €221 million, which is increasing by €75 million. The operating working capital outflows are broadly stable versus last year. So, as you know, we are making significant investments, as Alex mentioned, in our new U.S. whiskey distilleries in Kentucky, our Jameson Middleton distillery in Ireland, as well as in Cask and Warehouse in Scotland. We expect the investment in CAPEX to remain elevated at record level for the next two years to support the very strong trajectory expected from our H portfolio. Let's look now at our net debt, which is increasing by 1.1 billion euros. The net debt to EBITDA ratio is higher at 3.3 times compared to last year, reflecting lower year-on-year reported profit from recurring operations and higher net debt. We have a strong balance sheet consistent with our solid investment grade rating. while deploying capital with discipline, as illustrated by the bridge on the page. So, limited impact of the M&A with Ace Beverage cash-out offset by concombre disposal proceeds, and we expect Becheroka proceeds to be cashed in in the second half, share buyback execution of €150 million in this first half, and dividend payment in line with our policy. our leverage ratio to improve as reported payroll growth normalizes. Back to you, Alex, for the outlook.

Thank you very much, Hélène. So for the outlook, first of all, regarding our medium term, building a very strong fiscal year 23 In what we described as a robust performance over the first half of this year, we are confident in our medium-term financial framework of plus 4% to 7% top-line growth, aiming for the upper end of the range with organic operating leverage of roughly plus 50 to plus 60 bps. And we do trust that our strategy and our mid-term financial framework are very much valid beyond fiscal year 2025. Now, within this fiscal year, what do we expect for 2024? Well, dynamic H2 second half net sales, which are improving versus the first half and leading to broadly stable organic net sales for the full year. We will continue to focus on revenue growth management and operational efficiencies, as we have over the first half. We expect an A&P ratio of circa 16% of net sales and to continue the very strict control of our structured costs. This should lead to organic operating margin expansion, with organic operating profit growing low single-digit. There will be a negative FX impact partially offset by the parameter effect. We will keep on investing in our strategic inventories, as mentioned, at a similar level to fiscal year 23, and we are increasing capex to circa 800 million euros this year. The free cash flow is expected to reflect lower reported profit from recurring operations and the increase in our strategic investments. And finally, we expect a share buyback of roughly 300 million euros, with already half completed in the first half. And on that note, before moving in to Q&A, I will share with you another little commercial on Jameson.

Jameson, a famously smooth whiskey from a famously big family. So big that Jose here could be one of us. You see, he's nearly as smooth as our whiskey. For him, long turns usually turn out all right. Even when he shows up uninvited, he's never empty-handed. And he only ever drinks smooth Jameson whiskey. Surely he must be part of the family. Must be a Jameson.

Thank you, Alex and Hélène. Now we're turning to your questions. So as a quick reminder, please, two questions only each so that everybody has a chance to ask a question. And now I'm turning to the operator who's going to be handing the questions.

This is the conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and 1 at this time. The first question is from Olivier Nicolai with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, Alexandre, Hélène, Florence. I've got two questions, please. First of all, on India, sales growth improved in Q2, but it's still obviously below the double-digit growth that you did historically. Now is that slow down due to macro shift in consumption or actually competition stepping up? And would you be able to give us an update on when you would expect your licensing in Delhi to be given back? And then second question on the U.S. Alexandre, I can't obviously have to notice that a few of these brands are appearing on the shelves behind you. Would you be able to give us a bit of an update on these three acquisitions, Kodigos, Kubol, and the sovereign brands? How much progress have you done in terms of distribution across the U.S.? And how much of a boost is this for the organic sales growth for the U.S.? Thank you.

You want to take India? Yes, with pleasure.

Perfect. You want to start with the U.S. or I start with India? I'll start with India.

I'll finish with the U.S.

Great. Thank you. Thank you for the question. So India, yes, we expect an improvement in H2. By the way, if you look at the performance in H1, it's a solid one because, as Alex was saying, referring to we are cycling in Q1, the period last year where we had our license in Delhi. So excluding this, this is a quite good performance in H1, so more to come in H2. I would say in India we have a very solid strategy, a very solid performance, and by the way, a very strong ambition for the future. We are maintaining leadership with our Indian whiskey brands. We are gaining share with the imported spirits. So a lot of excitement. As you know, this is probably one of the countries where the consumer confidence is the strongest. GDP growth is as well great. So many, many positive and potential for us moving forward. On your question on the daily license, we are doing everything we can to get it back as soon as possible. But strong ambition in the near future, no change in terms of potential. This is a must-win market for us. So the low double-digit algorithm is perfectly valid. So we'll see what would be the full year performance. Obviously, H1 is going to wait a bit on this low double-digit algorithm, but I would say our ambition is fully intact.

So on the U.S., and in particular on the three brands you mentioned, I'll start with Codigo. So we're very happy with the acquisition of Codigo. And as we speak, we're investing and executing against Codigo to increase velocity, which is happening, and distribution, which is equally happening. On Screwball, the distribution transition was more complicated than anticipated, but now it's fully in line. The distribution is now fully aligned and we have normalized our A&P investment and execution against Screwball. So we're very excited as well. On bamboo and sovereign brands, sovereign brands in the U.S. have their own distribution, and it's going very well. And outside the U.S., I'm happy to say that we're extremely happy with the performance of, in particular, bamboo, but also Bel Air, and as well, a great start with The Deacon, which was created by sovereign brands with the help of our master distiller at Chivas Brothers. So we're pretty happy so far.

Thank you very much.

The next question is from Simon Hills with CT. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Morning, Alex. Morning, Glenn. Morning, Franz. So my first question is just coming back to the US depletion trends. Clearly, I think, you know, H1 was a little bit weaker than you and the industry hoped, and perhaps holiday season was also a little bit softer. I wonder if you could just talk a little bit more about the performance of your portfolio through Q2. Was there any trade down to call out, maybe some of the channel differentials between the on and the off trade that you saw within your portfolio? And associated with that, some of your peers have talked about maybe some improvement or signs of improvement in depletion trends towards the end of December and into 2024. Is that something that you're seeing within your business? How do we think about depletion trends for Perno in the US in the second half? So that's a quite detailed first question. And then secondly, Alex, I mean, you've reiterated your midterm guidance this morning. What gives you the confidence that you can deliver As you say, still at the upper end of that guidance range. Obviously, one of your big competitors has pared back their midterm expectations, especially with regards to operating leverage in recent months, highlighting the need for sustained investment. Why are you still very confident you can deliver at the upper end of those target ranges?

Okay, thank you, Simon. I'll start with the first question on the U.S. So you were, I think, focusing on Q2, which is OND, obviously. So it's a very important season in the U.S. and elsewhere. But in the U.S., it was a bit softer than expected, as you rightly mentioned. Not dramatically softer, just a bit. Probably linked to two things. A bit softer in the on-trade. And as well, a bit less gifting than expected. What I'm just describing, it's not Pernod Ricard specific. It's really the market improvement end of December. It's true that when you look at the NAPCA and as well the Nielsen in January, that I can confirm that it's very early days. I'm not sure we can draw any implication of that. What I can tell you is that first in this first half, we had some, I would say, strong highlights behind some of our big brands. I mean, Jemson Original is gaining share. We are gaining share with Malibu, with Kahlua, with Codigo, with Jefferson, with the Glenlivet. So things are going well for some of our key brands, and these are our strategic priorities. Having said that, we are still a bit underexposed to a very dynamic category like Tequila. But more to come, as Alex mentioned, with Codigo, especially in the second half. We have as well a bit under exposure in RTD, even if we are very dynamic. By the way, I take the opportunity of that question to say that absolute ocean spray is on fire in the U.S., which is great. And we are probably still a bit as well underexposed in terms of exposure to the North American whiskey. And again, on that front, This is as well a strong ambition for us in the coming weeks. So what to expect in H2? Lots of exciting brand activation. By the way, you saw the Jameson media campaign, which is going to be, I guess, very visible in the U.S. in the coming weeks. So we are keeping strong investments behind, I would say, our historical portfolio and as well accelerating behind these new brands that are Alex was referring to, with again Codigo, with as well as Scruble, and old brands from sovereign brands, plus our North American whiskey portfolio. So quite exciting for this H2 in the U.S.

So on our framework, let me just be clear, it's a framework, it's not a guidance. But that framework, that medium-term framework, goes beyond fiscal year 25. I'm not going to start giving a specific guidance for fiscal year 25. We do think we will be in the range, but I'm not going to start talking about upper, lower, middle at this stage for 2025. Now, from a fundamentals point of view, yes, we are confident of that medium-term framework of 4 to 7 and the upper end of the range for a number of reasons. If you look at the must-win markets, we do believe that the U.S. will finally normalize. It's happening. And by the way, The sellout remains quite resilient. I mentioned between 1 and 2 before going back to 4 to 5 after three years of double the rate growth, three years at 8%. So until we reach that point, we do believe then the U.S. will go back to that mid-single-digit range. And if you move on to China, the reality is our consumer pool in China is middle-class Chinese households, which are expanding. And bear in mind, our penetration rate, our household penetration rate, our market penetration rate is still extremely low at 2%. Right now, there are macroeconomic headwinds, but the consumer right now is here. but he's basically putting money in the bank rather than spending it. But over time, we remain very confident on China as well. India, there's the technical impact Hélène mentioned, but the underlying fundamentals in India are very strong. The demographics are strong, the GDP growth is strong, the urbanization rates are strong. And the premiumization trend is happening as we speak, and we do believe India will continue to deliver strong growth for Pernod Ricard. And then the rest of the world has proven to be quite resilient, and I do believe that for the rest of the world, which includes, by the way, Europe, the recycling of that super cycle of that revenge conviviality is now behind us, and we do expect as well resilient growth on that front. So all in all, this is what brings us to believe that we are confident for the medium term. These fundamentals have not changed, and this was all consumer-centric. So I hope this helps. Thanks, Alex.

Next question is from Lawrence Wyatt with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Morning, Sandra and then Florence. Thanks very much for the questions, a couple for me as well. Just following on from what you mentioned around the medium term framework, I think when we spoke in September, you were expecting sort of high single digit, low double digit growth in China for the next 15 years. I noticed that when Ellen was talking about the aged inventories, she talked about the U.S. whiskey aging, Jameson aging, Scotch, but you didn't mention cognac. Firstly, I was just wondering if you were still expecting that high single-digit, low double-digit growth in China for the next 15 years and whether you are actually aging your cognac to expect that sort of growth. And then the second question is around the buyback in particular. I think previously the buyback was looking for around $500 million to $800 million in over this year, and you're now sort of expecting around the 300 million range. Just wondering what the key reasons for that were. Thank you very much.

I'll address your Konya question, and the answer is yes. I'm going to give a few explanations, but the answer is quite clearly yes. We do expect China to deliver over time some high single-digit, low double-digit. And I've always said there'll be better years and worse years. And so for the foreseeable future, you should expect, on average, China to be within that range, but with better and worse years.

So, by the way, I didn't mention cognac because I was commenting the increase in capex. Obviously, when it comes to strategic inventory, Martel has his fair share to protect long-term growth. So your second question on share buyback, yes, I mean, we are now clarifying what to expect in terms of top line, which is a bit softer. than expected initially at the beginning of this fiscal year. That's why we are slightly adjusting the share buyback programme for the year. As you know, share buyback is a number four priority in our financial policy. So slight adjustment due to the softer top line expected for the year.

Understood. Thank you very much.

The next question is from Celine Panotti with JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Thank you.

Good morning, Alexandre, Hélène, and Florence. My first question is on the balance between pricing and volume in the first half. I think you had implied high single-digit volume decline. Of course, there was the issue of destructing in the U.S., but still, it would mean that you would have mid to high single-digit volume decline ex-dat. So how should we think about your volume performance going forward? And maybe in the same question, price mix has been quite elevated. You mentioned the premiumization. But what about the pricing? How do you see that environment coming? I think some of your peers have been a bit less positive about pricing. We've seen pressure. in some categories with price cuts. So, yeah, we'd be quite interested to see how that unfolds as we look in the next six months, but as well the next 18 months, in fact. My second question maybe is a follow-up on China. So while great about the mid-term outlook, just wanted to have a look more on the, you know, 25, sorry, 24 calendar performance. If I see, you know, like you mentioned that Chinese New Year, there was probably a bit softer intake on the trade. Let's see how the numbers pile in. But, you know, should we be concerned that there is some form as well of downtrading in China and what that means for your profit pool there? And maybe if you could comment as well what, you know, your views are on this ongoing investigation for anti-dumping and what would be... you know, a plan B if tariff were to be implemented. Thank you.

So I'll start with the first question on price and volumes and mix. So this is a very important point, obviously. As you know, we've been very clear in our strong ambition to protect margin when inflation was rising very dramatically. We believe we have a very strong portfolio of brands with strong equity. And that's why we were able to be probably, in many geographies, first movers in terms of taking price to protect margin. And that's exactly what happened last year. There is some implication in terms of volumes. And by the way, it's true that H1 is probably amplifying that because of the timing of those price increases that happened mainly in H1 and I would say end of Q1, Q2 last year, which means, by the way, that we're going to recycle in H2 a different environment because last year volumes were starting to be adjusting because of those price increases. So those price increases were absolutely critical to protect margin and, I would say, consistent with the equity of our brands. Having said that, we believe that volume growth is part of a good top-line trajectory mid to long term, and that's what we expect for the year to come. I insist as well on the fact that for the volume in H1, we were recycling as well post-COVID super cycle, including, for instance, fantastic summer in many countries, especially in the south of Europe. So this is as well impacting us in the volume in this first half. So some moderation expected for the price benefits in the months to come, because we're going to be, I would say, cycling H2, where most of those price increases were already implemented in the market. I can confirm what I said for the Q1 communication, which is we expect prices to be around mid-single digit for the year. So moderating, because pricing is high single digit in this first half. So Some normalization to happen, probably more, I would say, targeted price increase in the months to come compared to much broader price increase that we implemented last year.

So maybe on China, I'll start with the anti-dumping inquiry. Obviously, the entire industry is mobilized to cooperate with the Chinese authorities. So we're sharing with them all the data they are asking. We are, from a Pernod Ricard standpoint, confident there's no dumping on Martel. So bear in mind that the data that was shared with the European Union from the Chinese authorities is... They think there's a 15% dumping. So we're cooperating and we'll see what happens from that point of view. Regarding calendar year 2024 in China, again, I would say the current macroeconomic environment is more of a headwind. consumer confidence is relatively weak. And as far as it goes so far, the trade has been quite cautious as we enter into Chinese New Year. But it's still too early to have final conclusions on that front. In terms of downtrading and so on and so forth, again, I think it's a bit early to start saying there's downtrading. What we do see As we entered into Chinese New Year, pretty good performance of Absolute and our whiskey brands. Very strong resilience of Martel, Noblige, and some softness around XO. Would this already qualify as down trading? I don't know. It's too early to tell for this specific year. And then midterm, yeah, the fundamentals are absolutely unchanged.

Thank you. The next question is from Eduard Mundi with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Morning, Alex, Hélène, Florence. Hélène, you protected profit margins pretty well despite adverse operating leverage and negative country mix. Your guidance here implies some modest operating leverage in fiscal 24. Could you perhaps talk to some of the initiatives over and above the strong pricing that's allowing you to drive that operating leverage despite not delivering within the four to seven this year. And then the second question, Alex, at the capital markets event a year or two back, you highlighted some of the KDPs, including Matrix Vista, RevUp, and D-Star. In those markets that are sort of most advanced in your digital role, can you perhaps talk to some of the early wins that you're seeing from an execution standpoint on maybe share performance or ability to take price or ability to prioritize the right portfolio within those markets?

So I'll start with your first question. So for the full year, we are mentioning some operating margin expansion, organic operating margin expansion. And the reason for us being confident that we can deliver that this year is that First, as we highlighted, we have a growth margin expansion, which is very solid in H1. So we're going to keep some positive expansion at growth margin level. We expect top line to be better in H2. That's how we're going to be delivering a full year top line that we believe would be organically and broadly stable. So this as well will help with this top line trajectory. Again, as I was just referring to, probably a bit more moderation in terms of pricing benefit because we aim at delivering mid-single digit pricing for the year. makes a bit difficult to be as specific right now, probably still going to be a bit negative because of the destocking in the US and the macroeconomic environment in China. When it comes to COGS, I would say probably quite similar to what we had in this first half, which means much lower increase than last year in terms of COGS evolution. because of all the operational efficiency initiatives that we put in place. And we had as well in this yourself, and we'll keep that for the full year, very positive tailwind coming from logistic costs with the decrease of the deep sea freight, which I'm sure you remember, raised very, very strongly last year. So then in terms of resource allocation, ANP, we want to keep a strong E&P investment, which would be at this circa 60% E&P to net sales ratio, and as well, a strong control on structure costs. That's how it's going to lead to organic operating margin expansion.

Great. On your questions which relate to our overall digital transformation, we are absolutely tracking all of the different KDPs. By the way, the first one, the overall one is what we call Maestria, which is all about optimizing our portfolio strategy by market and being able to activate many more brands that we could in the past. And we're tracking portfolio strategy market by market. We're tracking the internal adoption rate of the KDPs one by one. And in all our markets, these KPIs are growing. So the three main performance-driven KPIs, which should deliver share gain, because at the end of the day, that's why we're doing this, The first one is the return on investment at three levels. The first one on pricing, the second one on promotion, and the third one on the return on spend on A&P investments. And on all three, the KPIs are in the green. The second one is the shelf space. So this translates through DSTOR, by the way, an increased shelf space and also through DSTOR, the distribution gains. So the first one is on velocity and the second two are on distribution gains. And we monitor this very closely market by market. the optimal situation will be when all three KDPs are perfectly aligned with our portfolio strategy, market by market, and we're in full deployment mode this year. Great, thank you.

The next question is from Sanjit Aweela with UBS. Please go ahead.

Hi, morning, Alexandra Helene. Two from me, please. Firstly, on the U.S., Could you just talk a little bit about Jameson? I appreciate the core brand is doing well and gaining share, but I think some of the innovation that's come through perhaps isn't sticking. Can you just talk a little bit about the lessons learned, what you need to do differently on Jameson innovation to get it to be more stickier? And secondly, just coming back to the Chuan Chinese whiskey, Do you think that is incremental to your franchise in China, or do you anticipate that to cannibalize Cognac to some degree? Thank you.

Okay, so thanks. I'll start with Jemison. So you're right, we are gaining share on Jemison Original. This is a beautiful brand. By the way, Jemison is growing in many geographies, so I take the opportunity to say it's not only a brand which is very relevant for the U.S. It's a beautiful brand growing very strongly in the rest of the world. And by the way, that's why it makes so much sense for us to build this distillery in Middleton. So having said that, I think your question was more focusing probably on Jameson Black Barrel and Orange. So we are strongly... activating the Jameson, I would say, Jameson family. There's more to come as well for Black Barrel and Orange. And probably what I can say is that this is a brand that has, as you know, a fantastic history, legacy, including strong activation in the on-trade. So that's probably as well something that could be amplified in the weeks and months to come.

On your question on the Chuan, Western-style spirits penetration in China is so low that the Chuan is just going to be incremental. And I do believe there are enough moments of consumption and consumer profiles to drive growth behind cognac, behind white spirits, by the way, because Absolut is growing quite significantly, and as well behind whiskeys with different origins, and the Chuan will be one of them. So the team is very excited about the Chuan, but it's not going to be detrimental to some of our other brands. The opportunity to grow Western-style spirits is quite significant in China. Thank you.

The next question is from Chris Pitcher with Redburn Atlantic. Please go ahead.

Good morning, all. A couple of questions, please. Firstly, on the US, you've had a change in senior management there. I just wonder if this signals any major strategic shift in the market. And specific to that, you mentioned that AMP in the US is now up at 20% to sales. Can you remind us how much of a step up that is? And have you increased your commercial and selling resources as well, i.e. sales headcount? And then there's been a lot of talk around, obviously, your Chinese single malt that's coming to the market. Last year, you announced an Indian single malt, Longitude 77. Given sort of short-term supply issues and so forth, do you think the Indian single malt opportunity is actually much larger than the China one? And specific with your local R&D center now in India, should we expect a lot more product innovation to broaden out what has been a very tight portfolio in India thus far.

Thanks. Maybe on the U.S., so the new CEO in the U.S. is Conor McQuaid. He's a roughly 30-year-old veteran in the industry and started his career at Irish Distillers and is an integral part of the U.S. Jameson and, by the way, the global Jameson success story. What I would expect is continued very strong execution in the U.S. with probably a little bit more of a focus as well on the on trade, which is one of the core strengths around Jameson and a number of our brands. But overall, it's just a matter of really executing our very sound strategy in the U.S. and alongside that strategy with the right resources, which is increased A&P. Now, we're investing, as I mentioned, 20% versus historical levels that were probably a little bit shy of 18%. So it's 2% to 3% increase in the ratio. And in terms of distribution, it's a question of finding the right balance between off and by channel. Let's put it that way. And I won't go any further into detail. I think it's better not to.

India, maybe. So I can take this one. You mentioned innovation with the Indian malt. So it's still early days, but we are very excited by this innovation. And as you mentioned, this is fair to expect more innovation in India. We have already a very solid portfolio of brands, both local brands and imported spirits. And by the way, we've been bringing innovation to the consumers with our... indian whiskey brands in the recent past with a real stag and blend of pride now we are coming with this indian malt which looks like a quite promising brand so again india is a must-win market for us so you can expect all the right priorities to deliver a strong ambition in that country including innovation we're going to be taking our last question

The last question is from Jen Cross with BNP Paribas Exxon. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning and thank you for the question. I think back in the summer of last year, Alex, you talked about expectation of the US spirits market returning to this kind of mid single digit sellout algorithm over the course of six to 18 months from then. I wonder if you could give us an update on whether you think we're now closer to seeing that return or it's still too early. And my second question is just on Europe. Clearly, Russia was quite a big drag on the H1 performance. I wonder if you could just share any insight into whether we should expect a similar drag in H2 or it to be a bit smaller. Thank you.

So on your first question, yes, you're right. Last summer, I mentioned it would take anywhere between six to 18 months to get back to normative levels of growth in the U.S. So mathematically, that was six months ago. So I would say now it's probably going to take between six to 12 months. It's pure math. And so far, again, based on what we expected from the U.S. market in terms of sellout, it's perfectly in line with our expectations.

For Russia, so we decided to exit the country back in Q4 last year, early Q4. So there is as well some impact expected in our H2 performance versus last year.

Thank you very much, Alex and Hélène, for the questions. Thank you, everyone, for listening in and asking questions. We wish you a very good day and speak to you very soon.