Coca-Cola HBC (LSE:CCH) Q3 2026 Earnings Call

0:01 Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Coca-Cola's HBC's conference call for the 2026 third quarter trading update. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be some opening remarks followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone keypad at any time and wait until your name is announced. I must also advise that this conference is being recorded today, Wednesday, November 4, 2026. I will now pass the floor to one of your speakers, Jemima Benstead, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you.

0:45 Good morning, and thank you all for joining the call. I'm here with our CEO, Zoran Bogdanovic, and our CFO, Anastasis Stamoulis. We'll start with some opening remarks from Zoran, and then open the floor to your questions. Please keep to one question and one follow-up, waiting for us to answer the first question before moving to your follow-up. We have about an hour for the call today, which should give plenty of time for a good discussion. I will also remind you that this conference call contains various forward-looking statements. These should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements in our trading update this morning. With that, I will turn the call over to Zoran.

1:21 Thank you, Jemima. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining the call. We delivered another strong quarter. Demonstrating the consistency of our model and the strength of our focused execution in driving broad-based growth, despite the dynamic operating environment. Let me share three key highlights from these results. First, we delivered strong, high-quality top-line growth, building on the strength of our first half. Organic revenue increased by 9%, led by volumes, but also supported by good revenue per case growth. Revenue and volumes grew across all three segments, despite a range of market conditions. Second, investments in our portfolio and bespoke capabilities continue to set us apart.

2:08 These investments support the consistency of our performance and translate into strong market execution and share gains. We have gained 70 basis points of value share in NARTD year-to-date and 40 basis points in SparkLink. I'm pleased that we were again the number one contributor to our retail customers' absolute value growth within FMCG in our European market. Another demonstration of how drive joint value creation with our customers. And thirdly, while the macro environment remains dynamic, we are well positioned to deliver on our full year targets and have made a small update to our revenue guidance today. So, a strong quarter, and I would like to sincerely thank all our teams, customers, suppliers and partners for their ongoing efforts and support.

3:00 I'll now share some detail on the Q3 performance and then Anastasis and I will be happy to take your questions. I'm very pleased by the continued strong performance in Q3. Organic revenue grew 9%, led by volume growth of 5.4%, with revenue per unit case up 3.4%. supported by targeted revenue growth management initiatives and positive mix. Reported revenue grew 9.6% driven by strong organic growth and a small benefit from FX translation. Volumes expanded at a similar pace to Q2 and we saw broad-based strength across our 24-7 portfolio. I spoke at the half one results about the fantastic FIFA World Cup program we executed in partnership with the Coca-Cola company.

3:51 We continue to leverage all these initiatives through the start of Q3 and built on this momentum through the summer with focused execution of our brand activations and innovation enabling us to capture the growth opportunities across our market during this important period. Our revenue growth management capabilities continue to support growth as we offer consumers choice across a wide range of occasions and price points. Affordability remained important and we maintained our focus on accessible entry packs with a good performance from pet multi-serve entry packs across markets. Alongside this, we continue to drive positive mix through targeted initiatives.

4:37 Single-serve mix improved by 180 basis points in the quarter, supported by recent pack innovations. One example is the half liter Trademark Coke Super Can, launched earlier this year in Ireland, Poland, and Greece. This is an excellent single serve proposition that is resonating strongly with consumers. We are also seeing strong momentum from recently launched single serve formats in Egypt, including the half liter Trademark Coke PET bottle and the 250 ml Fury can. Overall, the quality of our execution over the summer continued to set us apart, driving market share gains across NARTD and Sparkling.

5:23 Now turning to performance by category. Sparkling volumes grew by 4.5% in the quarter. Trademark Coke grew mid-single digits, driven by Coke Zero and Coke Zero Zero. During the quarter, we rolled out a new visual identity for Coke Zero across most of our markets. supported by dedicated activations and value-added promotions. The new packaging brings Coke Zero closer to the broader Coca-Cola brand look and feel, creating a more consistent and recognizable brand presence across the portfolio. At the same time, Coke Zero Zero continued its standout performance, delivering triple digit growth. Sprite grew high single digits as we tapped into summer refreshment occasions, leveraging local music festivals and activations across channels to highlight the full portfolio including the new lemon mint chilled flavor launched earlier in the year.

6:21 Fanta grew low single digits driven primarily by Africa as we continue to focus on winning in food led moments. Adult sparkling volumes increased low single digits driven by Schweppes and 3 Cents. We continue to strengthen Schrepp's brand relevance in the straight drinking occasion with dedicated campaigns amplified by local influencers while maintaining mixability focus in the out-of-home channel with our global brand ambassadors. Energy continued to perform exceptionally well with volumes increasing 24.7% despite strong comparatives in line with the year-to-date volume growth.

7:06 Importantly, growth was broad-based with all three of our segments growing double digits. Recently launched monster innovations are resonating strongly with consumers while sports and music partnerships continue to support growth across the whole portfolio. Coffee volumes in the out-of-home channel increased 10.1% as we recruited new outlets and grew in existing ones. Total coffee volumes declined 2.3% reflecting Our ongoing strategic decision with Costa Coffee to prioritize the out-of-home opportunity. Stills volumes increased 3.2%. Water grew low single digits, helped by weather trends, while juices grew mid-single digits, with a particularly strong performance in Nigeria.

7:56 Sports drinks grew more than 20%, benefiting from FIFA World Cup activations in July, as well as local sports partnerships. For example, we launched a new powering flavor in Egypt in partnership with Al-Athli Football Club. Turning to sustainability, the science-based targets network independently validated our nature materiality assessment and prioritization. We are the first Coca-Cola bottler and one of the first companies globally to achieve this milestone. The assessment identified water as our most material nature-related impact in our direct operations. and reinforces the importance of our water stewardship priorities and in our mission refresh sustainability commitment.

8:41 Now turning to performance by segment. In established organic revenue grew 8% with volumes up 5.6% and revenue per case increasing 2.3%. I'm really pleased with the level of volume growth we delivered. which was driven by strong execution across the segment and supported by favorable weather trends in Western Europe. Sparkling grew mid-single digits, led primarily by trademark coke, while energy increased high teens and stills grew mid-single digits. We saw mid-single digit volume growth in both Italy and Greece and continued momentum in Ireland, Switzerland delivered a particularly good improvement with volumes up low double digits.

9:28 In developing markets, organic revenue increased 8.7% with volumes up 3.7% and revenue per case growth of 4.8%. Sparkling grew mid-single digits, including mid-teens growth in Coke Zero and triple-digit growth in Coke Zero Zero. Energy grew mid-teens despite the tough comparative. Poland delivered low single-digit volume growth with a sequential improvement from Q2. Hungary also grew low single digits, while the Czech Republic maintained its strong momentum, with volumes increasing low teens. Finally, in our emerging markets, organic revenue grew 9.8%, with volumes increasing 5.8% and revenue per case up 3.8%.

10:18 Nigeria delivered low teens volume growth, supported by activations to mark 75 years of the Nigerian bottling company. Nigeria is where our business began 75 years ago and today we are as committed as ever to the country and to the wider growth opportunity across Africa. Egypt grew high single digits despite tough comparatives with good growth across sparkling and continued strong momentum in energy. Elsewhere, Romania volumes declined low single digits against the challenging consumer Backdrop, while Ukraine declined by more than 20%, reflecting the difficult environment and ongoing supply chain disruption, which started in early September.

11:06 And now, looking ahead to the rest of 2026. With regards to CCBA acquisition, we have now received antitrust clearances in five of the six jurisdictions, with Tanzania remaining. We remain on track to complete the CCBA transaction by the end of the year as planned, and we'll share further updates in due course. We have delivered a strong performance through the first nine months of the year, which has enabled us to update our revenue guidance to date, now expecting organic revenue growth slightly above our 6% to 7% range. As we continue to intentionally invest behind sustainable growth and drive a healthy algorithm, We are reiterating our guidance of 8-10% organic EBIT growth.

11:55 Thank you for your attention and with that, let us now open up the floor to your questions. Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. We are now going to take our first question. and this one comes from Sanjita Ujila from UPS. Please go ahead.

12:27 Morning, Zora and Anastasis. Two questions from me, please. Firstly, on the outlook for 26, you've raised the top-end guidance and not the organic EBIT guidance. Can you just walk us through the building blocks to that? What held you back from not upgrading the organic EBIT guidance? and my second question is just really on the COGS outlook as we go into next year. What sort of magnitude of escalation can we anticipate and where are your hedges today? And with that, how are you thinking about the balance of pricing versus volume as we go into 2027? Thanks. Good morning, Sanjit.

13:12 So well, Anastasis and I will... We try to provide color on both of those. First of all, we slightly update the guidance for the top line as we are really confident based on all three quarters of this year with the execution of all the plans and we really feel that we will be slightly above the guided range. We also have strong plans for Q4, so overall that will wrap up what will be a pretty strong 2026. and for the bottom line, Anastasis.

13:55 Yes, good morning, Santhit. As you heard also from Zoran, we are very pleased with the quarter three performance and this is giving us confidence in delivering an organic EBIT guidance of 8% to 10% for the year, which I would like to remind that comes on the back of a very strong growth last year as well of 11.5%. Now, the key drivers on reiterating the EBIT guidance As you may recall in our half year results and also what we said from the beginning of the year, we were expecting half two to grow at a lower rate versus half one when it comes to EBITDA and also top line on the back of four less selling days that we had in December versus the extra four selling days that we had in January.

14:42 So there is a phasing element to that and we have been saying that all along. Now we also mentioned in the half year results that we expect to see higher cost pressures in the second half in relation to the ongoing Middle East conflict and you know overall fuel price crisis that has been building up around this situation. The other new element here of course is the challenging environment that we see in Ukraine with ongoing supply chain disruptions and with keeps the situation quite unpredictable. And as you would expect, there is an impact on profitability. But this is well captured within our 8 to 10 organic EBIT guidance. And lastly, I would like to call out that as we have done in the first half where we have intentionally invested behind growth, we continue to do that also in the second half of the year in order to drive a healthy algorithm.

15:36 So all in all, we are comfortable to reiterate our strong guidance of 8 to 10%. and we feel that we will be delivering against those objectives.

15:48 And Sanjit, you said for the next year, if I remember well, look, we see for next year that the guided range of 6% to 7% is an appropriate guide for the next year where all three drivers of volume, price and mix will be active drivers and we count on all of them to be the contributor to the revenue generation. To which extent each one will be, we will see, but probably a bit more balanced ratio between them next year than what we've seen this year where volume clearly was the dominant driver, as we actually said and expected that it will be so.

16:35 And to come back on your COGS question, as I recall also, first let me highlight that for the year we expect COGS per case to increase by low to mid-single digits, based on the visibility we have now. I want to call out that we have 100% coverage on our key commodities for the year, but if we want to look ahead for 2027, Obviously, we'll provide more specific guidance in our February full-year results call. However, what I can say today is that we would expect COX inflation to be slightly higher in 27 versus 26 on the back of these inflationary pressures that we have seen across the globe in this case with key commodities, including sugar and P&P.

17:21 I want to highlight here that we are equally for next year engaged with our hedging positions as you would expect at this time of the year we are approximately 40% covered across key commodities which is quite normal and you will expect that to increase as we proceed in 2026. Very good, thank you. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question. And this one comes from Nadine Sarwat from Bernstein. Please go ahead.

17:59 Yes, good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my question. Two for me as well, please. First, your organic revenue per case growth of 3.4%. Can you give us a little bit more sense of how much of that was incremental pricing action in the quarter? And if so, in what markets? versus existing pricing from earlier in the year versus positive mix. And then the second question just on Ukraine, you commented on the down 20% volumes in the quarter. That implies that September was very meaningfully down. Should we expect that same level of volume decline that you saw in September to continue into the fourth quarter? And am I correct in that that's all factored into guidance? Thank you.

18:47 Good morning, Nadine. In the overall build-up of our price mix, pricing had a solid part of that, I would say, probably three quarters of that, but there is also a positive mix, and all that is also kind of balanced out on the other side with the negative country mix, which is a technical matter, because It's logical that with the growth of Nigeria and Egypt, we know that we have the lower revenue per case over there. But that really doesn't matter in this case. So all that comes from pricing that has been taken throughout the year in a number of markets. As I said in the previous question, that's absolutely active. The situation we have from beginning of September is not the first time that it happens.

19:55 First of all and foremost, most importantly, is that in any such situation and every single day, Protection and safeguarding well-being and health and security of our people is the most important thing. Secondly, whenever something like this happens, we immediately activate contingency plans by bringing product from other countries in order to constantly serve our customers. And lastly, I can say that the teams are very passionately working on restoring the The operations in the country, taking fully into account that there is intensified level of air raid now every single day. So that slows down the speed of which we think can restore and normalize the operations. But this will happen.

21:05 I cannot say exactly when, but in the next several weeks, a few months, we will gradually Reactivate the operations in Ukraine and while also leveraging the imports from other markets. Perfect, thank you.

21:27 The guidance, as I said before, the Ukraine disruption is captured in the range of the guidance we have provided. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question. And this one is from Lauren Fiat from Barclays. Please go ahead.

21:51 Hi, morning, Zoran, Anastasis, Jemima. Thanks very much. A couple of questions for me as well, please. Firstly, on Nigeria, you had a very strong performance in Nigeria on volume terms. Of course, you had the 75th anniversary in the country. So just want to understand how sustainable do you think this level of growth is going forward? Of course, next year, you don't have the same level of anniversaries to enjoy. So just wondering if that's a sort of sustainable rate or if we should expect a step down into next year. And then secondly, Switzerland, another market with strong improvement. I'm just wondering what really happened in Switzerland in order to get that improvement up. And again, whether that is a sustainable level of growth. Thank you.

22:35 Hi, Lawrence. So, Nigeria, yes, this year, one of the things was 75 years, which was a remarkable milestone, also leveraged by Coca-Cola company and our teams to really do excellent consumer activation and promotion, which was also a form of saying really thank you for the trust that they place in us. but this comes also in the mix of so many other initiatives of music activation, sports activation, constant food occasion activation. So all that comes together to give us this continuous, sustainable, strong performance in Nigeria. Just to say that this is going to be the sixth consecutive year of driving market share gain and this gives us confidence that next year as well we have a very strong plan with a number of assets that we will activate together with Coca-Cola company as well as with other brand partners. So yes, this year was 75 years but there is a lot in the pipeline for next year which really makes us exciting and confident that Nigeria is going to have Another strong year next year.

24:02 On Switzerland, this comes also from the fact that consumer confidence is recovering over the last six months and inflation is remaining very low by international standards. We also are operating this year in a continuously, let's say, normal trading level, as last year there was a A period of time where we were also coming to an agreement with an important customer. So just the fact that we are on a normalized level enables the team to activate holistically and we see that in the results because the results are really strong across the whole portfolio.

24:55 both in very strong in the at-home part of the market, but also we see also good results in the out-of-home. Single-serve particularly has been driving also quality of the growth. And all that has resulted that we are gaining share in the country. So Switzerland is important market for us. and we are positive about continued growth in Switzerland also next year and in the years to come.

25:32 That's really helpful. Thank you. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question. And this one is from Aaron Adamski from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

25:47 Thank you and good morning, Zoran, Anastasis and Jemima. I have two questions. My first question is on 2027 profitability. I think earlier you said that the 67% organic sales is a reasonable assumption as we head into next year. So I was wondering if you could please share your early perspectives around the key moving pieces on margins, and in particular, I was wondering if you remain confident on delivering your medium-term EBIT margin expansion target of the 20 to 40 basis points during 2027? My second question, I wanted to check in on the consumer environment. I guess with the fuel and energy costs still elevated, I was wondering if you observed any changes in consumer behavior in any of your particular markets. Thank you.

26:34 Good morning, Aaron. As you know, we will issue our 2027 detailed guidance with the full year results in 26 in February next year. So what I can say at this stage is that we remain confident in our levers to grow EBIT. It's not the first time that we face such challenging environment and we have a good track record that we have managed to deliver all this time with both top line growth in a balanced manner and gain shares and also improved profitability. As Zora highlighted earlier, We need to understand that we are fully aware of the external cost pressures and we would expect to grow on the top line in a more balanced manner between volume and price mix. And the key levers that we are building on, as always, is our toolkit behind our RGM capabilities that they have proven in the past and they will continue to be relevant for us to drive growth.

27:30 I want to call out also our strong risk management framework which is on the back of our initiatives on hedging as well as suppliers agreements to ensure that we have the right availability but also cost optimization. And with that one I want to call out how we have always been focused on productivity and efficiency that has been both working on COGS and OPEX and 2027 will not be a different year. Such efficiencies as we have said in the past Not only to flow down to the profitability and the margin, but also we have been reinvesting those to drive further growth and ensure a long-term deliverable. So we are confident that we will be able to navigate in this environment and still bring a good, even growth for CCH.

28:21 Aaron, on the consumer environment, we don't see any significant shift versus what we've seen in the previous quarters. So fairly good resilience. respecting that there is a broad-based need for affordability propositions and solutions which we are doing as part of our RGM in every single market. But we also see how consumers are reacting in a very good way with the consumer activations and events where we activate all the great assets, whether that's the FIFA, which was spectacular really this year, Other sports events at the back of sponsorships with a number of sports clubs, various marathons that we are partnering with or music events.

29:14 So we really see good reactions and participations and demand from consumers. Also, same is valid for the innovation pipeline to which consumers have reacted in a very positive way. and therefore innovations are the important contributor to this overall volume and revenue growth. So all in all, nothing dramatically different and we've seen good resilient consumer demand, which I also have to say that is a result of the anticipated and very good plans that we've done with our partners and which we are executing in a very strong way.

30:04 Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question. And this one is from Matthew Ford from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

30:19 Hi, Zoran, Anastasis. Thanks for the question. So just one question actually from me. And it's on CCBA. I think Coca-Cola reported their Q3 update last week and they gave a bit of color around their sort of expectations from a scope perspective for next year talking to kind of 2% of EPS for them from CCBA in 2027. Now obviously these are rough numbers and there's a lot of rounding but roughly speaking it would imply In Euro terms, you know, something north of 250 million Euros of net profit for that business. If I look at consensus as we have it, you know, the kind of EBIT number for consensus in CCBA is only just a little bit higher than that. So just wanted to get your thoughts, if you can give them on that. on that and is the kind of low single-digit accretion assumption that you mentioned 12 months ago, is that still valid or potentially is there some upside to that?

31:23 Thank you. Yes.

31:28 Good morning, Matthew. As you know, we're not yet the owners of CCBA, so I cannot say information in respect to the CCBA's financial performance and how this looks like and also regarding I call this disclosure. That would be a question to them on how they have assessed on what they're reflecting. What I can say and I can confirm is that our expectation remains for the acquisition to be low single digit EPS accreted from the first year of completion. And that does not change. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question. and this one is from Andrea Pisacchi from Bank of America.

32:13 Please go ahead.

32:15 Yeah, hi, Zora and Anastasis, Jemima. I have just a couple of follow-ups on COGS, please. So you said that COGS inflation should be slightly higher next year. Would you be expecting meaningful differences in the cost inflation across regions established, developing and emerging? And then I think you said that you are around 40% hedge for next year, which is a normal level. And with energy prices still very volatile, how much could the picture change from here, potentially improve if oil and gas prices come down? And with that in mind, if the cost outlook could change still quite a bit, how flexible can you be with your pricing initiatives?

33:07 Yes, hi Andrea.

33:11 Quite a variety of scenarios and developments that could take place, right? And we have seen that the environment remains quite volatile. What I can say is that one of our key toolkits here is the regular scenario planning and execution in the marketplace to adapt or address such type of developments, positive or negative in that case. What I said before is that today we are correctly at 40%, above 40% coverage on key commodities. To your question on energy and probably utilities, I guess what you mean by that, is that that's a hedging capability which is limited to European markets and some of the European markets. So that's something that is not across all geographies.

33:59 but in general the view of key commodities like sugar and aluminium and PET is more or less standard across and it's not just a matter of hedging contracts and derivatives it's also a matter of long-lasting relationships with our suppliers to ensure availability which has been the case so far and also be able to address certain activities. I also highlighted that when it comes to Got it. And any last thing?

34:54 Just on any difference between cost inflation in emerging markets versus the European markets, should we expect any meaningful difference there?

35:06 I wouldn't call out any meaningful differences. You also have to take into consideration there is an FX element also in some of the emerging markets, like Nigeria, Egypt, if you have in mind. So that has been played out in a way. I think on average is what I said for the group, we would expect to see it slightly higher in 27 than in 26. Very helpful, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question. And this one is from Simon Hills from Citi. Please go ahead.

35:46 Thanks. Morning, Zoran, Anastasis and Jemima. So just a couple, please. So can we just go back to the established market performance? We see very strong volume delivery in the quarter. Zoran, you called out and talked about Switzerland. I wonder if there are any other particular markets that you think really sort of drove that strong performance. And I know it's difficult to always break these things out, but how much of a driver do you think the weather was across established for you in Q3? and then secondly on emerging markets and particularly Ukraine is the right way to think about how Ukraine might develop through Q4 that the volume picture will improve because you have put in place your contingency plans to get volumes into the market but clearly that's going to be weighing on profitability given the costs associated with that and also is there any other you know sort of emerging markets where we're seeing maybe a little bit more of a Hi Simon, I hope I remembered everything you asked.

37:08 So to start with on the established, it's really broad-based, very good performance in the segment where I would really highlight a very good performance of Italy, which was at this level of mid-single digits and very pleased with pretty broad-based performance. Ireland has been continuously performing well throughout the year. Greece had a good step up in Q3 also versus Q2 and Austria as well is having a very good year so overall very very strong performance across reflected in gaining market shares winning in the market driving single serve driving single serve mix so overall I'm very pleased with all the markets in the segment and we do expect the established segment next year as well as the other segments to be the positive contributors to the growth.

38:22 Ukraine, yes, look, it's so unpredictable. Planning here is really like a lottery because It's fair to say that with the intensified level of the war activities on the ground that simply we would and what we assume is that Ukraine is not going to be at the level of last year simply because our supply is unreliable like for everyone else simply because of the intense intensified air alarms that are happening So even the importing product is not easy logistically if the country is going through all these disruptions.

39:15 But also these impacts on the demand side as simply the shops and bars or customers cannot be continuously open as they were more in the past. So we will do every effort with an amazing, passionate team that are serving customers to do the maximum we can. And whatever they will do, we know that they are doing their absolute best. But for your purposes, I would not assume that they will be at the same level as last year. And as Anastasis said earlier, this is reflected in the guidance that we are providing. And then on the Emerging markets, clearly there are few markets where the affordability is more prominent and consumers are on a softer side. Romania has consistently have been seeing challenges in the market due to many regulatory and political factors that country is going through. We've seen also a softer consumer environment in Bulgaria, which is also in the first year of Euro introduction.

40:37 So that has some impact apparently. Ukraine I mentioned, but other than that, we see other markets really performing well, primarily in Nigeria and Egypt really doing very well with Strong set of affordability related initiatives. And selling days in 27, we don't see that there is any similar impact like we've seen in 26. And then whatever that is, we will reflect that in our guidance that we will provide in February call. Very comprehensive. Thank you, Zoran.

41:24 Thank you, Simon. Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. We are now going to take the next question. And this one comes from Richard Witthagen from Kepler-Chauvin. Please go ahead.

41:45 Yeah, good morning, Zora, Anastasis, and Jemima. Just two questions for me. I'll ask them one by one. First on Italy, you mentioned it just a moment ago, Zoran, but Italy appears to have moved from a period of volume weakness, particularly in water, to much more broad-based growth in Q2. Are you now comfortable with the composition of the portfolio and the balance between volume growth and profitability, or is there still work to do perhaps on consumer, on channel mix? That's my first question.

42:19 Hey, Richard, hi. Look, I think on Italy, if I understood well, first of all, I really want to say that Italy has been having a pretty solid performance, and Q3 is another reflection of that, where we see that it's really across the categories. Sparking had a very good growth, driven, as always, with zero variance, where Coke Zero is driving mid-single-digit growth. Zero Sugar, Zero Caffeine is having excellent triple-digit performance. Very pleased in flavors with how Sprite is performing. Adults also perform very well because of Lauricia and Three Cents.

43:10 And energy, water, sports. So, first of all, very comprehensive and across the... and across the... both parts of the market at home and out of home, driving single-server mix and we are gaining share. So we are confident and happy with the strategy and focused on consumer, shopper and channel development. In Italy for last number of years, we are consistently investing in the market where we have a very strong team supporting the whole at-home part of the market but we are also intentionally developing our capacity and capability to serve away from home part of the market and all this is reflected in the performance which is good both on the top line level and also bottom line.

44:18 Yeah, that's clear, Zoran. And the second question is, I know this is a sales call, but I wanted to ask about free cash flow this year. First of all, would it be fair to assume CapEx to sales at around 7% this year? And then on working capital, does the selling day phasing in Q4 or the rising input costs have any impact on working capital needs?

44:44 Yes. Hi, Richard. So As we have said also in our half-year call, we are pleased with the frequent flow generation that we have, which is at the back of maintaining our six and a half to seven and a half range of CapEx investments, and we are on track to deliver this level of investment as well for this year. And we believe that we'll be landing on a year with another good FECAS load generation. All of those are captured, of course, within the phasing of the period. So within the phasing that we have seen, it's still reflected within the guidance that we have provided.

45:29 And Anastasis, if I can press you a little bit there, is it? Could we expect higher free cash flow this year compared to 2025? I mean, I think, you know, it was a little bit lower in the first half. What's the outlook for the full year?

45:48 I would say that similar levels is a fair statement, considering the fact that, you know, there is a step-up also in CapEx this year.

45:59 Yeah, yeah. Okay, very clear. Thanks, Anastasis. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question. And this one is from Ed Hawking from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

46:16 Hi all. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Just two please. One is a follow-up on the established markets question earlier. I think you said it would expect it to contribute to growth in 27. Can I just ask from a volume standpoint, This year clearly looks very strong and has had some weather benefit. Are you able to quantify how much help favorable weather has been? And as we look at volumes in 2027, should we expect that established markets see some volume normalization or what you have in your commercial plans to continue to grow volumes in this region? And then my second question is on Egypt, where clearly you showcased your impressive capabilities at your recent investor visit there.

47:06 It looks as though volumes have continued in high single digit, even against a tougher comp. So can you give more details on what you're seeing in Egypt from a market standpoint, your own share performance, and how we should think about Egypt heading into 27 as well? Thank you.

47:24 Hi, so on the established, so I think you mentioned on the weather, I did call out weather as being one of the factors. Clearly, it was the tailwind, but I really can't put my finger how much it was because I contribute more of the performance to very strong plans that we had for the quarter and how they were executed. and on top of that, yes, weather was not a detractor and that really enabled us to have that kind of performance. How we think about it going forward? Yes, volume will be positive in the segment in the next year. I would say that low single digit volume level is fair to assume.

48:22 at the back of strong plans that we are preparing together with Coca-Cola company, Monster and other partners. On Egypt, country is really having a very good another year. Q3 performance really was at the back of very strong cycling of last year. and Q4 is having very tough comps. But we are confident that the performance of Egypt will be rounded also in Q4 to call it a very strong 2026. At the beginning of the year, we had slight share losses as we anticipated.

49:15 but as we also forecasted we see in the several last months how we are gaining share and no question and there is a full confidence that both in sparkling with a strong affordability initiatives and premiumization initiatives that we are doing in the country We will continue performing well. I really want to emphasize also the strong work that is happening in constantly ramping up and building capabilities in the country, whether that's revenue growth management or route to market, which is continuously evolving capabilities of our sales teams that are going through our sales academy programs and certifications.

50:08 Innovation. I called out a half liter launch that we did. There is a great Schweppes Purple launch that we have done in the country. So there are exciting things that will happen in the next year that we will rightly include in the plans and I'm to wrap up confident in another growth year of Egypt. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question. And this one is from Edward Mundy from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

50:50 Morning, Zoran, Anastasis and Jemima. So I've got one question, but it's a sort of three-part question, if that's okay. So it's been about a year since the reshuffle in Atlanta, where you've had a new CEO, you've had some quite big changes to the commercial organization under Manolo and now Roberto. and then a much bigger emphasis on digital and data with Sodef. So the first part of the question is, with Enrique, I think he's got a big focus on growth. Has anything changed with regards to his ambition to do things differently for CCH, number one? On the commercial side, has anything changed to help complement all the good work you're doing on RGM mix and your strong execution? And then on the data and IT side, I know you're doing a lot sort of piloting on AI, but has there only been any more sharing of data and tech to again help accelerate your business and drive the top line?

51:53 Good morning, Ed. Yeah, on the Coca-Cola company, and I think maybe a few quarters ago I was asked a similar question. where I really said that this is the evolution story from James to Enrique and we see how well that transition has really worked and we really see strong, bold ambition drive for growth for the overall system globally. I think this is reflected if you see In Coca-Cola company results as well as in the results of our own as well as other botters. So I would really say that system globally is on a very healthy place, but with a nimbleness that we really want to get better every single day in, as Enrique say, in what we are doing already best, but also continuously also recognizing what we can do together. I'm very excited with the way we partner and work together. And I think that's one of the drivers of us winning together in the market.

53:09 And that gives me huge confidence with Enrique's ambitions for the system, for the Coca-Cola company and our own, that we really have strong teams, great plans. and alignment that is constructive and is a really driving force. I mean I could talk a lot about this but bottom line super excited with what we can and we will do together. This is also reflected in the way we work together in the revenue growth management. It is a joint capability because there are parts of the in the RGM framework that Coca-Cola company brings to the table as well as then what we really what we really do and as the last mile operator and part of the system we are at the delivering and touch point and with our customers where we deliver the whole variety of initiatives that we come together as part of the RGM framework and exactly right you mentioned data because this is the I think competitive edge that we have because the breadth and abundance of data that we have as a system from Coca-Cola Company side and from Coca-Cola Hellenic side is really exactly what makes the difference that we can leverage this data through fantastic segmentation, both on the side of consumer as well as on the side of the customer.

54:40 And that is visible in a big initiative that we are doing in Nigeria called Ignite Niger, where exactly that's what we are doing, putting our joint data together to make it work in a smarter, faster way, giving us sharper insights and what we need to do and where. And I'm very excited how these things is evolving year by year. In Nigeria, which started as a pilot, we are now live across the full market with all customers. And we do see that it's driving, it's part of the reason that you see strong performance in Nigeria. But overall, our approach is that we leverage each other's data in a way that we can strengthen capabilities like RGM. And for that matter, we are both investing more in technology and AI in a very meaningful, responsible, and relevant way.

55:44 Thanks, Ron. And if I could follow up, I mean, the pilot in Nigeria, is that something that might be replicated across other markets as well?

55:53 Yes, sure. That's what we are also learning, what other parts of the system are doing in a similar way. We had an excellent global system visit together led by Enrique under the umbrella of AI and digital and how we as a system in that space we recognize who does best and how we can Thank you. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question. And this one is from Javier Gonzalez Lastra from Barenburg. Please go ahead.

56:51 Yeah, good morning. Thank you. Good morning, Sorin, Anastasis and Jemima. So I had a question on developing margins in Poland, specifically H1 organic EBIT was up only 1.8% on revenue, up nine. Poland's sales fell double digits and energy grew low teams down from high teams in H1. Did 4.8% revenue per case rebuild margin in Q3? and it's the stills decline structural after the deposit return scheme. And my follow-up is on concentrate. The Coca-Cola company's concentrate sales run two points ahead of case volume in Q3 and it expects a slight destocking in Q4. Are you carrying extra concentrate and does this potentially affect Q4 gross margins? Thank you.

57:48 Hi, let me start with the last question first. I mean, the levels of cost are always planted in relation to the needs we have, and we always keep the necessary safety stock to ensure availability of capacity. We don't have any capacity constraints to meet the market needs, so I don't have anything particular or any special to comment on that one. To your question about Poland and the overall developing segment, what I want to highlight is that in the first half of the year we had also and increasing marketing investments as a reminder which was across the group but also particularly in this segment with the FIFA World Cup activation and a step up in people costs behind capabilities and a higher headcount to reflect the market needs particularly in the developing segments in countries like Hungary and Croatia.

58:48 I will reiterate what we said in our call that for the second half of the year we do expect the improvement in the EBIT in the segment and an improvement in profitability overall. We don't provide more details at this stage but we will share all the details in the year-end close.

59:09 Thank you. And on the stills decline if it's structural post the deposit return scheme?

59:18 On Poland, what we can say is that the stills were mainly on the backdrop of certain challenges that we see in the category, like mainly water in this case. but we're very pleased with the performance of Sparkling and Energy which had a significant step up and Energy double digit low teams and Sparkling a good volume growth in the quarter and also price mix which improved versus quarter two. So we're very pleased with the performance we saw and the comeback in Poland and the overall developing segment. Great, thank you. Thank you. We are now going to take the next question.

1:00:08 And this one is from Charlie Higgs from Rothschild and Co. Please go ahead.

1:00:14 Hi, good morning, Zoran and Anastasis. Hope you're both well and thanks for squeezing me in. My first question is on Romania, where I think Q3 volumes were soft against quite a soft comparison, and the country's been a bit subdued for a few years now. I was just wondering, Zoran, from a price packet architecture or portfolio perspective, how do you think about reigniting growth in Romania? Because it doesn't feel like the consumer environment is going to get much better anytime soon. That's my first question.

1:00:48 Good morning, Charlie. Look, we see the pattern that Romania is going through. It's similar what we've seen for a couple of years in Hungary, where when you have a sequence of several years of regulatory changes, which means the VAT increase, excise tax, introduction of DRS, and all that happening in the macro political environment, which could benefit from more stability, simply This does impact the overall market, as we also hear from our customers with whom we are obviously intensively talking.

1:01:33 So it's a period where we need to be patient and to do what is right and build this business for the years to come. I'm really confident that with more stabilization in the market, with the strong plans that we have for the market together that we are preparing with the Coca-Cola company for next year. RGM evolution to adjust and be adapted to the reality of the market. I know that the team is, as a matter of fact, today having a working session exactly on the RGM and the and our PEC price architecture.

1:02:26 So the team is working full speed on preparation and I'm confident that Romania will restore its well-known performance. We also see that in this type of environment, we are gaining share. So in those relative terms, we see that we are gaining share both in NARTD as well as Sparkling and that's even been accelerated in the last month and I see that it's same goes for energy share increase, sports, water and our overall commercial beverages.

1:03:11 So a little bit of tough spot for the country but we have patience and resilience and I have no doubts that The moment the environment a little bit stabilizes that we will see Romania back to absolute volume and revenue growth. Thanks, Ivan.

1:03:32 And then my follow-up was just pressing for a bit more color on Italy, please, where I think as we said earlier volumes up mid single digit excelling days that's the strongest performance in quite a few years and the country didn't have any FIFA benefit not just commenting as an England fan so can you maybe just provide a little bit more colour on the performance by channel how strong Coke Zero and Zero Zero are performing and if they're recruiting new consumers and then how you're thinking about Italy going forward into next year with some of the innovation you've seen and the plans you've got in place. Thank you.

1:04:11 Yeah, Charlie, tough reminder on FIFA, yes. However, football remains a passion point and that's why together with Coca-Cola company we are engaging and partnering with and a number of clubs in Italy that we are already working and we will further strengthen that in the future, which clearly connects very well with the brands that we carry and also with the interest and passion of consumers. So I'm very positive about that. Secondly, the development across channels works well and we are progressing constantly with the development both in at home and away from home.

1:05:03 Over the last couple of years, we have intentionally increased capacity to serve the markets by adding more market developers into the market. And I see year by year how our capability of covering that part of the market, constantly increasing the penetration, Recruiting new customers is really going in the right direction. And that helps us to achieve this type of result when you see Coca-Cola Zero constantly growing faster than the average rate of growth. It's almost every quarter with a double digit growth. For sure in Q3, it's been this mid single digits.

1:05:52 And Coke Zero, Zero Sugar, Zero Caffeine is performing Thank you very much, Charlie. Yeah, that's great. Thanks, Zoran. Thank you. Thank you. There are no further questions for today. I will now hand the call back to Zoran for closing remarks.

1:06:44 Well, thank you, operator.

1:06:46 I'd like to thank everyone for taking part in today's call, and I look forward to catching up with you again soon. Wishing you all a great day. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.