COCA-COLA EUROPACIFIC PARTNERS plc (CCEP) June 2, 2026 Conference Transcript

Okay, thank you. Well, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for coming. My name is Matt Ford. I head up the soft drinks coverage at BNP Paribas within the European Beverages team. I'm delighted to be joined by Ed Walker, CFO of Coca-Cola Euro-Pacific Partners. Hopefully, you're all broadly aware of the CTP business and the story. So, without further ado, we'll just jump into questions, if that's right. So, Ed, I think probably the most important question, one that certainly can't today, is around the COGS outlook for the business. So, it's been, you know, six, seven weeks since we heard from you at the Q1 update. Clearly, you know, some things have changed, lots haven't. How would you comment on the state of the business, I suppose, firstly from a demand perspective since then, and then also from a COGS perspective and how you think about that this year and then into next year?

Yeah, thanks, Matt, and thanks for having us here. So, yeah, I think maybe if we start with the commodities piece and the cost piece. So our first priority is always making sure we have continuity of supply from a raw materials perspective. Obviously, we've learned a lot over some of the previous crisis, whether that was COVID or the Ukraine-Russia situation, and we've built up a lot more resilience in our supply chain as a result. And we're all delighted today that there's no supply disruption we've had from a raw material perspective, and we don't foresee any in the next few months. And then the next thing, as you say, is around the cost piece. So we have a very extensive hedging program. We always aim to be 80% hedged as we enter the year on all of the key commodities. And that served us extremely well, obviously, this year in terms of... And mitigating some of the on costs that we've seen. I think the other important thing to remember about CCEP is that commodities only represents 25% of our total cost of goods. So we do have quite a lot of kind of natural resilience within the P&L to these types of cost pressures. We do have some hedging already in place for 27 as part of this ambition to be 80% hedged before you get to the start of the year. So that as well will give us some protection as we go into the following year. So today I would say it's all manageable. In these situations, we look within our own P&L at what costs are discretionary, what costs can we mitigate, what are some of the other options to manage that impact. From a demand perspective, which ultimately is probably the biggest unknown, so far we haven't seen any real material impact on demand. Even in Asia, where we probably thought we would see it the first, given the dependency of the geography from the Strait of Hormuz for so much supply, we haven't seen any real impact on consumer demand to date, despite there being an uptick in inflation. Obviously, we monitor it very carefully. I think it's still early days, so that doesn't mean to say there won't be challenges coming along in the future. But today, no impact on demand, which is probably the most pleasing thing overall.

That's great. I suppose linked to the COGS piece is cost discipline and OPEX savings. It's been something which has defined CCP and has allowed you to hit that 7% EBIT growth consistently over time, no matter what's happening to the top line and what's impacting the business. How much scope do you see from here on cost efficiencies and savings going forward? And I suppose, you know, part of the current dynamic is that maybe you'll have to bring some of those forward or lean into those a bit more heavily. If you could kind of break down, you know, which buckets do you see as having the most scope and which levers can you pull if the cogs impact is more dire than we're seeing at the moment?

Yeah, I mean, we're very proud of what we've done in terms of our ability over multiple years to convert that kind of 4% top-line growth, or the average of it, into a 7% or more profit. There's some big levers behind that. One is the transformation program, which I'll come back to in a second. The other is, you know, the benefits of volume. So, you know, bottling is quite a fixed-cost operation. So as soon as we get some volume growth going through the P&L, we obviously get a bit more leverage on the profit line. And then thirdly, there's just a very strong culture within CCP of cost management, cost discipline. But one of the biggest elements over the last 10 years has been our transformation program. We're now in our third wave of that. And we've got a lot of confidence that it can continue to deliver between 80 and 100 million euros a year of transformation benefits. I think the big areas of opportunity going forward, firstly, technology, I think, is going to be a big unlocker, whether it's in terms of technology enabling you to move more activities above market into lower cost locations and do things centrally with less people, Whether it's the use of technology to move to one instance of SAP, which is what we're looking at at the moment. So therefore, you can have one set of standard processes throughout the business, and therefore less people to operate them. But then I still think there's more opportunities in terms of our network. So most recently, we've consolidated two factories in Paris to one mega facility in Paris. We have had site closures in Germany, in Indonesia. And those type of network opportunities from a manufacturing perspective all help the P&L. And then, of course, logistics is the other big cost component within that supply. And there, there's always opportunities with more automated warehouses, more efficient route to markets, particularly adapting as the customer wants to change, then we can change with a more efficient operation. And then finally, I think within our shared services environment, we've got over 1,500 people in Bulgaria. We'll have over 300 people in Manila by the end of this year. There's more and more opportunities to do things more efficiently and to bring on board new capabilities to that environment. We've expanded much more broadly from finance where we started. We now have commercial operations done out of shared services. We will have supply chain planning done by the end of this year, and then an awful lot of people services, people management processes done there. So whilst we've done some of the low-hanging fruit, I would say over the last 10 years, I think there's lots of opportunities to continue that momentum over the next few years, So we're confident it will still be a big contributor to that 7%.

That's great. Now, turning a little bit to the top-line performance, I suppose. I mean, at the Q1 stage, we saw a strong performance, helped by selling days, potentially helped a little bit by Easter, but your underlying sales grew by around 2.5%. And your full-year outlook is three to four, which kind of implies that things from here may pick up and accelerate. It'd just be interesting to get your sense of, you know, what do you think will drive that into Q2, into Q3, and those key summer months? And, you know, what's going to be the biggest driver of that top-line improvement in performance as we move through the year?

Yeah, I mean, we were pleased with Q1, so... Obviously, we had a big impact from the days. So if you take out the days effect, our volume growth overall was 1.6% and actually 1.4% in Europe, which we were very pleased with. One anomaly, I suppose, of Q1, and we'll actually see it in Q2 as well, so for H1 overall, is we have the exit of the Suntory ARTD deal that we used to have in Australia, and that's worth about 1% of revenue. So if you add that back to the life for like sales, we're kind of bang in the middle of our 3% to 4%. And guidance. We did benefit from Easter being a bit earlier, which, of course, then is a headwind going into Q2. But then we're very positive about the innovation and the marketing calendar that we have in place in Q2 and for the rest of the year. We've obviously got FIFA, which is a great marketing asset we can get behind. And it's one of those programs which leads to a really much better consumer experience with the products rather than just doing pricing or promotional deals. So something we can really activate very successfully as a system. We've got lots of great innovation in the market. New Coke flavors, Coke Zero Cherry Float. We've got a new 500ml Coke Super Can. We have Monster Viking Berry. We have Sprite Chill. So there's lots of very exciting innovation that is out there today that is really going to help us deliver that 3% to 4% for the year.

And within that, I suppose, pricing and price mix is another important factor. I know at the Q1 stage, I think you mentioned, you know, obviously the importance of pricing as a business, potentially, you know, the need to take further pricing later in the year should the situation worsen, you know, six, seven weeks on. How do you feel about that kind of pricing dynamic? Clearly, you have Germany price increases to come later in the year, I believe. And given the outlook from here, how do you think about pricing, particularly in Europe, I suppose, where the consumer potentially is under more pressure over the next six months?

Yes, I mean, we're always very considered, I would say, when it comes to pricing and careful to make sure that we don't undermine what we're trying to do from an affordability perspective. I think if you look back over our history over the last few years, we've got a good track record there in terms of getting the pricing about right, in terms of what's important from a consumer perspective and an affordability point of view, what's important for the category to make sure the category is profitable for the retailer, and of course, what's important for our P&L, but also to generate the funds that we can reinvest back into the market. As we went into the end of the first quarter before the Middle East, a lot of our pricing plans in terms of annual increases had been executed. And as you said, Germany was probably the one big market still to come in September. So that's good that that is done and with no disruption. Germany is still to come. But when we look at these things and then back to your first question about the Middle East, it's a very dynamic environment when we look at pricing. And it isn't a blunt instrument or a one-size-fits-all solution. So in every market, we'll be looking at what's the impact on demand, what's the cost piece, how do we look from an affordability point of view, what's the underlying volume performance, and then make some very considered decisions about do we tweak the promotional mechanics, do we do something different on pricing. Whatever we do, it'll be extremely segmented, so only on particular packs or on particular customers if we do decide to change anything. And back to what I was saying earlier, it's not all about pricing. For us, the focus has to be on creating value back into the category, giving it a better consumer experience, and really making the brand worth what it costs and what people are going to spend. Luckily, as we said, we haven't seen a big impact on demand at this stage. So with all these variables, we'll keep a very open mind as it comes to pricing and promotion and investment for the rest of the year.

And how much, you know, I mean, the previous question I asked, you know, you spoke about, you know, the investment, I suppose, in your digital and your AI capabilities. And, you know, the business has clearly come on a long way since 2022, for example, when, you know, extraordinary pricing had to be taken. And how much does that help in terms of, you know, if we are in a position where we need to take additional pricing, how can your AI capabilities and your digital capabilities help to put that through with a minimal sort of consumer backlash and impact on demand? Is that something that you're really investing in significantly? Because I imagine that's something, you know, potentially over the next 12 months is going to be very important.

No, absolutely it is. I mean, you know, we're spending billions of euros a year on promotional activity within Europe and Australia. Australia, New Zealand, and therefore, you know, having any better insight there in terms of just small changes can be very beneficial from a top-line perspective and a consumer perspective. So, a lot of effort goes into really trying to understand the performance of activities in the market and what's the real elasticity of the activity. I think AI has already been a real game changer there with Agentic in terms of being able to provide you with insights, but also just the analytical capability now and the ability of AI to bring together multiple data sources much more quickly, which leads to much more valuable insights. We do see our elasticity accuracy getting better in terms of the modeling, but it's still not a perfect science, and there's so many variables that impact the uptake on an activity that you can't model all of them, but certainly AI is going to be a game changer there and making sure that we really invest the money where it makes the biggest difference.

And within, I mean, are there any, I suppose, examples that you could point to perhaps in the business where... Where you've really seen kind of AI, maybe from a cost perspective, but potentially from a top-line perspective, you know, really make a meaningful, tangible difference to your top-line growth, let's say, and that price mix, either through the pricing implementation or the minimization of the sort of volume downside.

Yeah, I mean, I think the area that's had the biggest benefit from technology is more the machine learning type environments. If you look back historically, you know, our ability to forecast and plan better from machine learning led kind of applications has been the biggest unlocker of value. I think the AI piece we were just talking about will be a much bigger unlocker to generate growth for the future. We are seeing the benefits today, but I would say it's still small compared to some of the machine learning applications. The biggest differences are in areas where you can use the agentic capabilities of AI to really act

as an extra insights analyst.

So we have a new application called Kira, which uses our data, Nielsen data, shopper panel data, and will use customer data as well to provide real-time insights, outlet by outlet, customer by customer, across the whole portfolio. So work that typically would take weeks to be done by analysts can be done almost, you know, much quicker via AI. Areas like Salesforce AI Buddies we're using now, so the AI really designing the perfect sales call, you know, what should be the opportunities in this outlet, what does the picture of success look like, what should be the call objectives, and using AI to generate that material as opposed to the sales rep generating it themselves so we can do more calls and those calls are more effective. And then, as you already mentioned, probably the biggest thing is just better understanding of the promotional performance and the uplift. But I think on the top line, you know, very exciting and a lot to come. And I think we're more advanced on the cost line when you think about shared services, use of agentic there, which we've already had for a while, robotics. So I think the growth piece is still really to be fully unlocked.

That's great. And now, I suppose, shifting to... Perhaps shifting to Europe and some of the categories where we've seen incredible growth, energy being the most obvious example, you've seen several years now of impressive double-digit growth, and that continued in Q1 with quite amazing growth. How do you think about the sustainability of the growth trend in the energy business now that it's, you know, a meaningful part of your group sales? And I suppose from a profitability perspective, how do you think that can become more meaningful? How does it compare to the rest of the group? And, you know, what's your kind of view of that category over the next three to five years?

Yeah, I mean, energy has been an incredible category and monster within that has performed incredibly well as well. So we see no slowdown or sign of a slowdown. And actually, when you look at the dynamics of the category and the strength of the brands and the innovation, we see it continuing well into the medium term as a minimum. I think it's positive because the growth is coming from basically all directions. I think the category will continue to expand into lighter energy occasions. The category will continue to expand to be like an everyday soft drink. You know, you already see that, people consuming it throughout the day. The demographic is half female, half male. The average age of an energy consumer is 39. You see it appearing in meal deals. You can get it at your favorite burger chain as part of the offering. So it's becoming an everyday consumption. And when you look at the metrics versus markets like the US, we've still got a long way to go in Europe. I also think there's a lot of growth opportunity from a distribution point of view. So we still have lots of more opportunities to put Monster in away-from-home environments. We're still relatively low on multipacks versus the US, for example. And when you look at the growth of where Monster's getting its growth from, half is from the core and half is innovation. So it's super healthy in terms of the underlying business is still growing, but the innovation, when it comes, really lands. And we saw some great things last year with Lando Norris. Viking Berry this year is going incredibly. So the innovation coming out of Monster continues to be really strong. So we don't see any slowdown at all. It's now a meaningful part of our revenue and our profit, and certainly our profit growth. And it's a very profitable product. You know, the margin percentage can be a bit lower than some soft drinks, but that's more just because the revenue is higher rather than it's not profitable. So it's certainly very profitable per case and very accretive from a value perspective, and it's a key part of our growth story in the coming years.

That's great. And turning to one area of the Europe business, I suppose, which has been a bit more challenging in recent years, which is trademark Coke and kind of original Coke. You know, clearly, there are some headwinds facing that part of the business, whether that's health and wellness, potentially GLP-1s around the edges. How do you think about the, you know, if we look five, ten years down the line, perhaps kind of a more longer term view, how do you think about the relevance of a full sugar Coke or full sugar sparkling, you know, versus the zero sugar alternative, which has generally been outperforming, and you've seen that sort of shift away from traditional Coke into Diet Coke into Coke Zero? Do you think that's just where we end up in 10, 20, 30 years' time in Western Europe? Or do you think there's still a place for trademark Coke, original Coke? How do you think about that internally within the organization, and how's that affecting your strategy going forward?

Yeah, I mean, I think Coke and actually all the full sugar variants of all the brands will always have a key place in the portfolio, because for a lot of consumers, they want the sugar, and they love the taste of sugar products. You know, it's not a unique situation with Coke. I think when you look across soft drinks, we're seeing everywhere more growth in zero sugar or low sugar alternatives coming really from the full sugar equivalents. I think in beverages, that's not really an issue. And actually, in CCP, our strategy has always been about providing choice. So providing great tasting alternatives for, you know, for consumers in every brand, whether it's a sugar variant or a zero sugar variant. And then we're a bit more agnostic about, you know, which one which one the consumer picks up. I think we've been a bit of a victim of our own success, really, as well, because the zero sugar variants taste so good, and there is no taste penalty versus their full sugar equivalent, but it's very easy for people to pick one up off the shelf. And I think if as a consumer you are being careful about the number of calories you consume a day, then a zero-sugar soft drink is a very easy way of managing that, and easier than managing it in some other categories where the zero-sugar equivalents just aren't as good or aren't as great tasting. I think we'll probably see a continuation of that. I don't believe in Europe it's necessarily GLP-1-led. I think it's just more of a trend. I do think there'll be always a place, though, for those sugar variants. It might be sometimes in smaller packages. So we've seen great growth in, like, the mini cans that you get on airlines that you can keep in your fridge. So people who maybe want the original taste but don't want to drink a full 330 ml but love that sugar taste, then there's an option for them. And obviously for us, that's fantastic from a mix point of view as well. So I think the strategy will continue to be around, you know, providing choice for the consumer and making sure there's something for everybody across the portfolio.

And I suppose picking up on that health and wellness trend, you know, Which other parts of the portfolio excite you the most, I suppose, looking ahead five years down the way? The ones that come to mind are obviously proteins, functional beverages. Clearly, the Coke system has a very broad portfolio across many of these products. You've already spoken about Powerade and potentially Fairlife in Australia. It'd be interesting to see which element of the portfolio do you think is the most exciting over the next five years and could be more transformational outside of energy and outside of those that we've already mentioned.

Yeah, I mean, I think generally the whole zero sugar portfolios for all the brands is very exciting. And I think us doing more unique activation around those brands rather than it just being kind of the spinoff of the full sugar equivalent is a big opportunity for us. So I think we'll see that everywhere. But I think to your question specifically about the categories, I think you're absolutely right. You know, protein or beverages, beverages with any enhanced functionality, I think will be a big growth area. You know, we see that in the U.S., and I feel incredibly privileged that when you look at the Coke systems brands and Monster across the globe, you know, there's some amazing opportunities that we can bring to our markets. So I think, yeah, protein will definitely come. We're going to start with core power in Australia, probably is going to be our first kind of experimentation at CCP in that area, but I think it'll quickly follow into Europe. We launched body armour in New Zealand and Spain, so more of an enhanced sports drink. The other category that I'm very excited about is ARTD, so alcohol ready to drink. And, you know, if we can only get a fraction of the scale that we have in Australia with that segment in Europe, you know, that's going to become a very meaningful part of our growth. And I think it brings together all the great things that the system has to offer in terms of partnering with the premium spirits providers, you know, the best soft drinks brands, then with the bottlers and CCP's execution capability is really the best way of bringing ARTD to life as an opportunity. So, yeah, I think those are the main kind of big growth opportunities from a portfolio perspective as we look ahead.

Brilliant. And then shifting a little bit to APS, the Philippines is clearly a very important market, has been growing very well since acquisition. And at the CMD last year, you set out your short-term, medium-term target to get to 10% EBIT margin. That's clearly going quite well, certainly was as of last year. What are the key drivers for you? To kind of drive the next leg of margin expansion. Was that just the low hanging fruit that we saw? Or is actually there potentially more scope for margin expansion in the Philippines than you originally thought? And, you know, is this a business that can get to group margin and beyond over the next three, five years? And how important can that be, given that it's a sort of mid to high single digit growth market?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, definitely. It's a wonderful market, you know, one of the oldest Coke markets around the world. And when you visit, I mean, the love the consumer has for the product is just phenomenal. So we've been so pleased with, you know, the acquisition and the progress since. So, you know, we've grown the top line. Last year was a little bit bumpy from the macro and some weather events, but still very solid top line growth. But then operating margin accretion has been incredible. You know, we took that business over, and it was an operating profit margin of around 5.5%, and we should get close to 10 by the end of this year, or maybe just slightly above 10, and much more opportunity to continue doing more. So, you know, the big unlocker really has been the access to invest and capital in the market. You know, we've invested in more glass capability and capacity for the returnable bottles. We're building a brand-new greenfield facility. We've been able to invest in capacity in some of the more mixed accretive packs, which were constrained previously. And of course, every time you invest in these capacities, you've got the opportunity to put in more efficient, better performing equipment than the stuff it replaces, which then all helps to improve the margin. I don't see any reason, given the fundamentals of the market, why we can't be up to the group average. And actually, we have a number of emerging markets that are above the group average. So I think the fact it's emerging doesn't mean it's a constraint in terms of what we can do from a margin point of view. And also, I think we've been very selective so far about how we have integrated the business. So same for the Amital acquisition. You know, we integrate where we think it makes sense, where the local team recognize there's value to be gained by focusing on certain priorities, or where we need to do something different from a risk perspective. We don't go in with a one-size-fits-all, this is the CCP way. And I think that leads to a very smooth integration and allows us all to focus on what generates the value and what's really value-accretive. But that does mean there's quite a few things still left that we can go and have a look at. I think one thing we're very excited about is the opportunity to do more development in the modern trade. Obviously, it's relatively small compared to our developed markets, but all the capabilities we've built up over many years in Europe actually apply just as well to the retailers out in the Philippines or in Indonesia. So I think bringing some of our R&M GM capabilities, the use of technology into those environments is a great opportunity. So we see that margin continuing to grow in line with the top-line growth.

Brilliant. Switching, I suppose, to a market which has been a little bit more challenging is Indonesia, of course. You know, that is a business where clearly there are some structural challenges, whether it's sparkling consumption, whether it's the kind of portfolio positioning around black tea. Clearly, the competitive element of the black tea portfolio has been Difficult, and potentially there's still work to do there. Do you believe, though, that the business is one that can be turned profitable, you know, in its current form? Or do you think there's something that needs to happen quite structurally to the business, whether that's moving away from black tea into sparkling or further kind of resets within the portfolio? How do you think about that business?

Yeah, I mean, Indonesia is a wonderful opportunity. It's almost like the perfect soft drinks market, if you think about the population and demographics and the climate. But we've struggled to crack it, certainly as the Coke system. I don't think it's specific to black tea. I mean, actually, black tea had a tough time as a category last year. I think it was down kind of double digits. And it's incredibly competitive with a number of local players. I think us being successful in Indonesia is not about being successful in tea. I mean, ultimately, we need to be successful in sparkling, and we need to grow the sparkling habit with consumers and help consumers understand all the positive things about sparkling beverages that we see, for example, in markets like the Philippines. So that's very much where our focus is, you know, and we focus very much on kind of controlling the things that we can control. So it's been a total review of the whole business, starting with the coat company, looking at the brand itself and the proposition and how we communicate that to consumers, looking at the portfolio and slimming that down to make it more targeted so we can focus on fewer things better. A lot of work on identifying what's the right price point for consumers, as affordability is obviously critical in a market like that. And then a lot of transformation on the CCP side in terms of the supply chain, reducing the number of facilities, lots of back office changes, and then a full redesign of our route to market where we now go via distributors as opposed to distributing the product ourself. So we've kind of built the foundations to grow. We maintain, we're still convinced that there is a lot of opportunity in Indonesia, but it's going to take the medium term to generate it. I think we're pleased with the results in Q1, and certainly the business has stabilized, and Sparkling actually performed well, and Q2 is performing in line with our expectations. We had a very good Ramadan and festive period, which is critical in Indonesia. So, yeah, there's some green shoots that we're positive about, but as I said, we're in it for the long game, so we're going to do the right things to unlock the long-term opportunity.

That's brilliant. And just touching, as we're talking about APS, one element of the business, I suppose, Papua New Guinea and the rest of Pacific doesn't receive a lot of attention. But actually, these businesses have been performing amazingly well over the last couple of years, incredibly profitable, high growth businesses. You know, what excites you most about these businesses, which I suppose, you know, people generally talk about Indonesia, potentially get a bit kind of doom and gloom. But actually, these parts of the business are amazingly, amazingly strong and doing very well. You know, what's the kind of secret to success there? And, you know, how meaningful do you think these businesses can be for the group?

Yeah, I mean, you're right. I think we do tend to focus on the things we're kind of discontent with, as opposed to the things that are going super well. And when you actually look across the rest of our emerging markets, like Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, fantastic growth since the acquisition. You know, and it starts from the things we're trying to address in Indonesia, you know, an amazing brand that's well-loved and has a lot of perceived value in the market, and then a very effective execution. capability from a bottling perspective. They're still small, so they're still always going to be small in comparison to an Australia, but certainly it helps as we think about that 4% top-line aspiration, and given the margin that they generate, you know, very good from a bottom line. And they are, you know, great learning grounds as well in terms of a number of the challenges we have overcome in those markets are equally applicable in our bigger markets. They're fantastic for the development of people and talent as well. So they're great assets to the portfolio and give a much more balanced view than just maybe our history with very developed markets in Europe. So they're fantastic, fantastic businesses.

Switching to capital allocation, you know, quickly, at the Q1s, obviously, you addressed the sort of the exit of Carlsberg's Coke bottling business in Denmark and Finland coming at the end of 2028. And you, you know, suggested your willingness to take over should things go that way. Clearly, no decisions have been made by the Coca-Cola company. But potentially, could you outline how this would actually look in practice? Let's say it was announced tomorrow, as of the 1st of January, 2029. How does that look, given that you don't have the presence in the market, given that the nature of bottling at the moment under Carlsberg is sort of a bit of a hybrid between beer and soft drinks? If you could kind of, you know, hypothetical at this stage, but let's say, if you could kind of walk through how that might look in practice.

Yeah, I mean, clearly hypothetical, because, you know, we don't know what the future of those markets will be. But as we've said before, we're always actively looking across the landscape to see what could be the opportunities from a geographical territory expansion perspective. They're great markets. Obviously, they'd be a great fit for CCP, given, you know, they border Sweden and Germany. And actually, we could actually supply some of the volume from those markets. We'd be very excited to take them on, and we think we do a great job. But obviously, we don't take it for granted that there's CCP markets, and we'll have to let the process take its course. I think, as you said in your question, Matt, I mean, what's interesting is that it's a very integrated business today with Carlsberg. So many aspects of the operation, if we were lucky enough to look at those territories, would be Greenfield and Nature. So quite different from some of the other acquisitions that we have done. But, you know, we have quite a bit of time on our side or whoever's side ends up taking over the markets. It's not until January 2029 that actually Carlsberg stopped bottling Coke. But, yeah, they're great markets. We'd love to be the bottler.

And on M&A more broadly, I suppose, You've made several kind of smaller tweaks to the portfolio with the exit of Beam Suntory, with the Nesti transition in Spain and Capri Sun. There's been a lot of portfolio change. How do you think about the portfolio going forward? Is there anything else left to change? And is there a place for M&A over the next couple of years outside of potential bottling in Scandinavia? Is there anything that's kind of, I suppose, any gaps in the portfolio that you would like to address inorganically, potentially?

Yes, I mean, I hope we are at the end of the portfolio changes, because I'm sure you and I

don't like talking about underlying results with and without, you know.

But yeah, this will be the last change, hopefully, with the Suntory exit. And we've done some other big ones. I mean, Nest Tea going to Fuse Tea in Iberia was another big one. And Spain's a very big tea market. So it'll be nice for those to be behind us. And then I think absolutely we have the right portfolio as CCP for today. And of course, as we said earlier, with the access to all the brands that Coke and Monster have globally, I think we've certainly got all the right brand platforms for the future. There shouldn't be a need, really, when you look across the opportunities and what brands are available, or there shouldn't be a push for us to need to go outside. That from an M&A, from a brand perspective, I would say. There might always be small exceptions. So we had one in Australia last year where the Coke company bought Bilsons, a small ARTD operator with a unique proposition that was very relevant locally. So there might always be those exceptions, but I don't think from a general M&A

perspective there's any need to go outside the portfolio. Brilliant. Now, we only have two minutes left, so I have maybe time for one more question. This one's a bit big picture, but recently CCP celebrated its 10th birthday. You've worked in the business now for many years in various different functions within CCP. Clearly, there's been a lot of change to the business. You've acquired Amatil. You've acquired the Philippines. A lot has changed. But I suppose if you would characterize, you know, what for you has been the biggest or some of the biggest fundamental changes in the way that CCP does its business now versus 10 years ago, and then maybe if there's time, in 10 years' time, how do you think that will look?

Yeah, I think the biggest change, really, as you alluded to in your question, is the strength of the relationship with the Coke company and the strength of the partnership and the recognition that the bottlers as well need to be successful, as well as the company needs to be successful, and that the system overall needs to focus on value creation, not just volume growth, and all of those things have underpinned, I think, the great growth we've seen across the whole system over that time, not just in CCEP. From an economics perspective, our incidence pricing model is a very effective way of changing that kind of aspiration into something tangible that works with the teams, and I think that really is the foundation as well for success for the next 10 years. I think Enrique will be an amazing CEO. We obviously know him well, and he knows CCP well, and I don't see any change in the strategy and the focus of the system going forward. So, looking forward to another 10 years of success.

Brilliant. And just in time, we'll end on that note, that positive note. So yeah, thank you very much, everyone, for joining. Thank you very much, Ed, for joining us today.

Thanks a lot.