Scandinavian Tobacco Group

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Scandinavian Tobacco Group Q1 2026 results conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Alternatively, you may also submit your questions on the webcast at any time by typing them in the question box and click Submit. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker, Torben Sand, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Yes, welcome to the Canadian Tobacco Group's webcast for the first quarter of 2026. My name is Seth Bromsan, and I'm Director of Investor Relations and External Communications. And I am, as usually, joined by our CEO, Niels Frederiksen, and our CFO, Marianne Roeskel-Bock. Before we start, I ask that you pay special attention to our disclaimer on forward-looking statements, which can be found on the next slide in this deck. Please turn two slides to number three for today's webcast agenda. We will start the presentation by giving you a brief overview of the key highlights for the quarter and the results announcements, including a snapshot of the key financial highlights. NILS continues by turning to an update to our strategy focus 2030, including details on the performance of our product categories before Marianne takes over to provide an update on the group and divisional financial performance. Nils will conclude the presentation by giving some insights into the expectations for the full year. After the pre-prepared presentation, we will conduct a Q&A session where we will be pleased to take any questions you might have. Now, let's begin. Please turn to slide number five, and I'll leave the word to our CEO, Ms. Wallach.

Thank you, Torben, and welcome to the call. The first quarter of 2026 marks the beginning of our new strategy, Focus 2030, and hence it's still early days. However, I would like to spend a moment to share my reflections on the initial progress we've made. We are off to a good start, and we follow the plans we outlined in relation to the launch of the strategy last November, and I'm confident that we've set the right direction to deliver on our long-term ambitions for the group. We have laid the first bricks to build a solid foundation for protecting our market positions within both machine-rolled cigars and handmade cigars. We are mindful that one quarter does not change a trend, but during the quarter, our market share positions have stabilized within machine-rolled cigars in Europe. We have grown our handmade cigar business measured by organic net sales and our nicotine pouch brand, XQS, has continued to take market share in Sweden. Furthermore, we have set a clear direction for prioritizing our investments, putting more emphasis on our power brands, we've taken steps to reduce complexity in our organization and in our portfolios, and we started to execute on our plans to deliver cost improvements as part of achieving our financial ambitions. So based on the financial performance in the early months of the year, we maintain our full year 2026 expectations. We still, however, expect it to be a year where geopolitical uncertainty will remain a key market condition and economic growth will be challenging. For Scandinavian Tobacco Group, this means that our main priorities in the year are unchanged. To stabilize earnings in our machine-rolled cigar and smoking tobacco business, to inject new energy and growth into our strong handmade cigar business, and to continue to grow our promising nicotine pouch business. Now, please turn to slide number six, where Marianne will talk to the financial highlights of the quarter.