Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Collins Foods Limited FY23 results. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation, followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by 1 on your telephone. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Drew O'Malley, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead. Good. Thanks, Ashley, and good morning, everyone. I'm Drew O'Malley, and with me on the call is Nigel Williams, our Group CFO. I'm pleased to be able to take you through Collins Foods' results for the 2023 financial year, which was the 52-week period to the 30th of April, 2023. Please note, as we take you through today's results, that financials are presented on a post-AASB 16 basis, unless stated otherwise. In FY23, Collins Foods continued to grow the size and scale of the business in both Europe and Australia amidst a challenging environment. We continue to manage cost inflation across the group while prioritizing customer value to protect transactions and long-term brand health. Key FY23 result highlights include the following: Revenue increased 14.2% to AUD 1,349.5 million, with growth across all business units. Underlying EBITDA decreased to AUD 205.1 million on a pre-AASB 16 basis. EBITDA was down 4.6% to AUD 141.4 million, reflecting inflationary headwinds. Underlying NPAT was down 12.1% to AUD 51.9 million, with the equivalent on a pre-AASB 16 basis down 9.4%. Non-trading items during the year had a AUD 36.7 million impact on statutory NPAT, primarily relating to a non-cash accounting charge taken to impair the remainder of Taco Bell's asset value. Detail on non-trading items is presented on slide 33 of the accompanying deck. Additional financial highlights include net operating cash flow decreased to AUD 146.2 million, comfortable gearing with net debt of AUD 212.2 million, and a net leverage ratio of 1.47. Underlying basic earnings per share from continuing operations of AUD 0.443 per share. Lastly, taking into consideration Collins Foods' operating cash flows, strong balance sheet, and growth opportunities, the directors declared a fully franked final dividend of AUD 0.15 per share, consistent with prior year. Turning to operational highlights on slide 2 of the deck. While both KFC businesses recorded solid top-line growth, our European operations were the standout performer in FY23, delivering consistent double-digit revenue and same-store sales growth. We continue to grow the network with 22 restaurants added across the group in FY23. KFC Australia same-store sales increased 5.8%, driven by robust e-commerce growth, the rollout of Uber Eats, as well as higher ticket. Increased availability and brand strength, saw nearly 25% of all sales come through digital channels in the second half of FY23, up from 16.9% in the prior year period, even as inflationary pressures have continued to impact margins. 10 new restaurants were opened during the year, ahead of development agreement pace, and we acquired 1 restaurant from another franchisee. KFC Europe delivered impressive same-store sales growth of 13.9%, reflecting strong balanced growth in transaction volumes and increased ticket. Netherlands same-store sales increased 12.8%, as our corporate franchise agreement, or CFA, in the region improved marketing, brand strength, and product quality. 5 KFCs were opened in Netherlands, inclusive of 2 by sub-franchisees, achieving our first-year development commitments under the CFA and earning the business Yum!'s Franchisee of the Year award for Western Europe. Germany also performed strongly with same-store sales growth of 17.3%. Our European footprint now stands at 72 restaurants, an increase of more than 50% over the past 2 years. In Taco Bell Australia, same-store sales improved a bit in the second half after the launch of Uber Eats. However, they remained negative, declining 4.8% for the full year. 8 new restaurants were opened across Victoria, WA, and Queensland during the year, bringing Collins Network to 26 restaurants. Value-led marketing and product quality initiatives are underway to return the business to growth, supported by additional Yum! resources. Moving to slide 4 in KFC Australia. In FY23, KFC Australia revenues surpassed AUD 1 billion for the first time, up 10% over the prior corresponding period. Revenue growth was supported by a same-store sales increase of 5.8% and the benefit of 11 new restaurants, bringing our Australian KFC network to 272 restaurants. As I mentioned earlier, higher ticket sizes, significant e-commerce growth, and Uber Eats were the primary drivers of same-store sales growth. Transactions remained broadly flat on prior year period, in line with the overall Australian QSR market. Underlying EBITDA margin was 19.2% on a pre-AASB 16 basis. Underlying EBITDA margin of 15% was within range of previous guidance, given the full year impact of inflationary pressures across labor and supply chains. More on this subject shortly. Turning to slide 5, the KFC brand in Australia continues to be on a roll, strengthening and modernizing, with now nearly a quarter of sales coming through digital channels. Brand strength is being supported by investment in proven advertising campaigns and innovative marketing initiatives such as KFC Couture, which are driving a broad mainstream appeal. Further to the point on digital, greater delivery and kiosk availability, combined with improved digital software, has delivered that strong e-commerce growth. As seen in the accompanying graph, these channels are continuing their steady climb, up more than 7 percentage points on prior year to 24.3% in the second half. With the addition of Uber Eats, KFC is now available on all major delivery aggregators in Australia, and we note steady increases on our delivery-as-a-service platform. KFC's use and effectiveness of personalized offers continues to grow and improve with time, ensuring that customers are getting the right offers at the right time to maximize redemption. On to slide six. Working closely with Yum!! on the KFC brand, we continue to start with the customer in mind. Value has always been a key tenet of KFC and is particularly important at a time like now. Enhancing that value proposition to consumers while mitigating inflationary pressures on margins, has been the principal challenge over the past year, a challenge which we expect to continue. Value, of course, is not a single thing, and KFC has a sophisticated, customer-centric approach to value, including entry-level value offerings, group bundles, and more. Price increases, while certainly unavoidable in a high inflation environment as we are in, are nonetheless meticulously attuned to consumer willingness to pay, and overall pricing continues to be highly competitive versus other QSR brands. We believe the decision not to seek full offset in short-term cost pressures via menu pricing has been the right decision for the consumer and the long-term health of the brand. At the same time, we have been proactive in identifying initiatives to help mitigate those cost pressures. Some of those initiatives can be seen here, including innovating new menu bundles and increasing diversification in the supply chain base, including in chicken. Further, implementation of new technologies in our KFC kitchens has helped to increase freshness and decrease wastage, and in conjunction with extensive retendering, we are ensuring that we are realizing efficiencies wherever possible on the P&L. Slide seven highlights our continued innovation in restaurant design and technology. As noted earlier, during the year, we opened 10 new restaurants, acquired one, and remodeled a further 47. These restaurants feature modernized customer areas with dedicated delivery driver entrances and waiting areas to cater to our evolving order mix, as well as innovative technology and software to enhance efficiency and speed. We're also embedding sustainability in our restaurant development, with rooftop solar now installed in all 162 available drive-thrus, water tanks in 21 restaurants and growing, and we have organic waste diversion and food recovery partnerships in various stages of trial and implementation, as noted here. Now turning to KFC Europe on slide nine. Overall, we've been very pleased with the performance of this business unit. Europe has managed to generate impressive same-store sales growth in both markets, despite operating in one of the most challenging environments seen in years. Revenue increased 31% to $249.5 million, driven by overall same-store sales growth of 13.9%, and the benefit of marketing and operational control under our Netherlands corporate franchise agreement, or as we stated before, CFA. This same-store sales performance reflected a combination of increased transaction volumes and higher ticket, with Netherlands up 12.8% and Germany up 17.3%. It's important to note that both markets were cycling strong same-store sales growth in the prior period of 18.8% and 11.7%, respectively. Underlying European EBITDA margins of 13.2% was in line with previous guidance and reflects the impact of record levels of cost inflation across labor, utilities, and all supply chain categories. As seen in the bottom right graph, however, EBITDA margin on a pre-AASB basis remained largely stable at 6.6%. The next slide highlights our improving brand fundamentals. Marketing and operational control in the Netherlands has strengthened brand and product quality perceptions in the region, and we are continuing to gain traction with consumers. Consideration and conversion are both up over prior year, and we are seeing positive indicators on value metrics versus competitors. Innovation continues to feature heavily in our product strategy, with KFC Netherlands veggie platform, one of the highest in the world for this brand. Importantly, as in Australia, digital is a key pillar of our convenience strategy, with kiosk, delivery, and the new app, all elements of how we bring that to life. Turning now to slide 11. As mentioned earlier, inflationary pressures in Europe have been significant over the past year, with annual inflation more than tripling, record high energy costs, and sizable increases in labor and food. Similar to Australia, we have prioritized customer value as our North Star during this difficult period, and this has helped lead to the steady transaction and sales growth necessary to offset some of that margin pressure. Our pricing strategy there has also been conservative, emphasizing a fast follower approach to our larger QSR competitors in those markets. Similar initiatives to Australia, such as innovative menu bundling, as well as procurement and supply chain tenders, have also been employed, and we have additionally identified some labor efficiency opportunities at restaurant level, which have been realized. Overall, our team has executed well under the circumstances and continues to aggressively identify margin improvement opportunities that don't compromise on the customer's value or experience. Moving on to slide 12. Importantly, we achieved all first-year targets under our Netherlands corporate franchise agreement, opening 3 net new KFC restaurants, in addition to 2 opened by sub-franchisees. A further 8 high-quality KFC restaurants were acquired in May 2023 to bring our Netherlands network to now 56, representing a 64% share of all KFCs in that country. Our future development pipeline continues to build. We are seeing a collective appetite for growth with some sub-franchisees supportive of our leadership. As mentioned earlier, Collins Foods was recognized as Franchisee of the Year in Western Europe by Yum!!, reflecting our reputation as a strong operator and growth partner. Our development team continues to monitor the landscape for expansion opportunities in Europe, as the region remains a key growth driver for Collins and is still under-penetrated relative to competitors. Turning now to Taco Bell Australia on slide 14. Revenue increased 36.1% to AUD 48.7 million, reflecting eight new restaurants added over the year. Same-store sales improved over the second half due to the successful rollout of Uber Eats, remained down 4.8% on a full year basis. EBITDA profitability at restaurant level, excluding new restaurant opening costs and brand, general, and administrative costs, was $2.8 million. The equivalent on a pre-AASB 16 basis was negative $1.6 million. As I mentioned earlier, a non-cash accounting charge has been taken to impair the remainder of the Taco Bell asset value, even as we continue to work on the brand. New brands do often take time to gain traction, and we've continued to refine the marketing and enhance the product quality as we endeavor to drive transaction growth and return the business to sustainable, positive same-store sales. Slide 15 shares more on these initiatives. We did see a bit of an improvement to same-store sales trends at the launch of Uber Eats in the second half and a correspondingly high 25% delivery mix. Overall, same-store sales were still a minus 2.8% for that period, with same-store in-restaurant transactions still down over prior year. Nonetheless, we have undertaken an aggressive program of works with the support of Taco Bell International, which is part of Yum!, to drive more consistent consumer trial and engagement. Taco Bell International has provided both resources and financial assistance to help increase media spend and accelerate the improvements needed to drive top line same-store sales growth. Job one is on value. Second-half marketing efforts have featured iconic, cravable Taco Bell products at memorable price points, such as the $5 Chipotle Crunch Burrito, which has outperformed expectations. More broadly, we have looked at every aspect of product quality to look for enhancements and have worked extensively with Yum! Global and local suppliers to refine flavor profiles and consistency on core proteins like beef and chicken. One of our biggest changes, and one of my personal favorites, has been the introduction of McCain's super-premium SureCrisp French fries in recent months to improve crispiness and hold time, particularly important given our high delivery mix. Finally, in-depth consumer research projects are in process to support even greater attunement to local Australian preferences. Moving on to our Taco Bell network on slide 16. We opened 8 new restaurants over the year to bring our network to 26 restaurants in the 3 states of Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia. We've provided even more focus on our geographic cluster strategy around the key metro areas of Southeast Queensland, Melbourne, and Perth by closing 2 underperforming stores in Cairns and Townsville, and we will have 1 additional opening in the next few months in Underwood, which is not far from Brisbane. For now, further new store development following the Underwood opening has been paused. We will reevaluate our development plans on a quarterly basis connected to progress on sales and brand metrics. Turning to Sizzler Asia on slide 18, which rebounded as operating conditions normalized, royalty revenue increased 45.8% to AUD 4.1 million, generating EBITDA profit of AUD 2.9 million. The Sizzler Asia business, considered non-core to our strategy, has now been sold for SGD 20.2 million to a subsidiary of a listed Thai company, Minor International. The sale is on a cash-free, debt-free, and working capital neutral basis. It is expected to complete in early July of 2023. The capital is effectively being redeployed to support investment in our high-growth European operations, as evidenced by our recent acquisition of 8 restaurants in the Netherlands, which came into our portfolio from the 1st of May. The transaction will bring an expected book gain of at least AUD 10.2 million upon completion, together with additional accounting foreign currency gains. I will now hand over to Nigel to provide an overview of Collins Foods' FY23 financial performance. Thanks, Drew. Turning to Slide 20, Collins Foods remains highly cash generative in FY23. Although with EBITDA down on prior year, the net operating cash flow did decrease to AUD 146.2 million on a post-AASB 16 basis, and AUD 106.4 million on a pre-AASB 16 basis. Operating cash flow continues to facilitate investment in new restaurants, remodels, acquisitions, and our dividend. Capital investment initiatives totaling AUD 65.8 million, included AUD 20 million in new restaurants, AUD 25.5 million in remodels, AUD three and a half million in digital and sustainability initiatives, and AUD 16.8 million towards maintenance and other sustaining activities. A final fully franked dividend takes the total dividend of the year up to AUD 0.27 per share, consistent with FY22. Turning to our balance sheet on Slide 21, the cash balance of $80.2 million was down on the prior year, following the repayment of some drawn balances. Property, plant, and equipment of $224.5 million was up $8.4 million on the prior year, reflecting the ongoing spend on new restaurants and acquisitions, less development depreciation. The right of use assets and corresponding liability are both up on prior year, due to building and acquiring more restaurants in FY23 compared to FY22. Net assets of $384.5 million was down from $393.5 million at the end of FY22. Moving to Slide 22, we have significant capacity to fund our growth plans. Our net leverage ratio remained at comfortable levels, coming in at 1.47 times for the year on a pre-AASB 16 basis, providing significant headroom to the covenant maximum of 2.75 times. Net debt increased by AUD 37.3 million to AUD 212.2 million, due to a net cash outflow of AUD 13.3 million, and approximately AUD 24 million due to the effect of foreign currency translation on net debt. We have comfortably continued to expand our network, pay the dividend, and afford M&A activity within our covenant. Our current facility of approximately AUD 400 million provides significant headroom. On Slide 23, it talks about Collins Foods' sustainability commitments. We are continuing to work towards our 2026 targets. As you can see on the slide, over the past year, we've made progress across all three pillars of our ESG strategy. Our greenhouse gas emissions decreased 11.4% over the 2 years since FY21. We have achieved this despite our expanding restaurant network. We've also diverted more waste from landfill at a rate of 19.5%. Importantly, we've retained our strong safety culture with lost time injury frequency rate down to 10.37. Our recent appointment of a group ESG and sustainability manager will drive these initiatives going forward and ensure our growth remains sustainable. I'll now hand you back to Drew to talk through the outlook for FY24. Thanks, Nigel. Turning now to Slide 25 and our outlook for the year ahead. We've had an encouraging start to FY24, with all three business units delivering positive same-store sales in the first seven weeks. Inflation does continue to be a very real part of the operating environment, we do expect margin pressures to remain for much of FY24, but most commodities appear to be easing off their peaks. While we have a strong program of initiatives in place across energy, supply chain, and menu pricing to support margins for all three business units, we continue to manage the business for the long term, prioritizing brand health and consumer perceptions of value. KFC Australia continues to perform well, delivering 8.8% same-store sales growth for the first seven weeks of the year. While we expect cost pressures to begin to moderate, we are navigating higher energy and labor costs, with minimum award wages increasing 5.75% plus superannuation from July. As mentioned, some commodities are stabilizing. However, there can often be a lag before this flows through to input costs. Given these ongoing headwinds, we are targeting FY24 EBITDA margin to be broadly neutral, with improvement in FY25 towards historic levels. E-commerce is expected to account for a greater proportion of sales over the year, as we continue to see strong growth in digital and delivery channels. We're continuing to grow our network with a further 9-12 restaurant, new restaurants planned for FY24. KFC Europe had a strong start to FY24, with positive same-store sales of +9% in the Netherlands and 12.4% in Germany. Europe continues to experience unprecedented inflationary pressures across energy, labor, and cost of goods sold, margin headwinds are expected to continue for most of FY24, with a potential softening in the second half of the year. We are targeting limited margin contraction in FY24. 3 to 5 new restaurants are forecast in FY24, with the pipeline building in line with CFA targets. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to monitor the European landscape for additional M&A opportunities, including potential new geographies. Taco Bell Australia has had an encouraging start to the year with positive same-store sales growth of 2.1% in the first 7 weeks. Shared earlier, a host of product quality, e-commerce, and marketing initiatives are underway in partnership with Taco Bell International, which we will look to extend this early sales momentum. The margin pressures will also remain this year for Taco Bell. Our target is to reestablish profitability at restaurant level, that's pre-AASB 16, and improve upon the FY23 result. Restaurant rollout has indeed been paused as we focus on sales traction. Despite the challenges, we still believe the brand has potential to ultimately be a growth platform for Collins Foods. Moving to slide 26. As we like to re-articulate, Collins Foods has a proven track record operating world-class brands in the resilient, value-centric QSR sector. We remain well positioned to navigate challenging conditions over the coming year and are confident that our best days are in front of us. Finally, I would like to say a special thank you to Nigel Williams, who will be leaving the business in mid-July. Nigel has been a valued part of our growth story over the prior 8 years, and we're very appreciative of all his great work during that time. As announced also this morning, we are pleased to welcome Andrew Leyden to Collins Foods later this year as our new CFO. That concludes the formal presentation. I would now like to hand back over to Ashley to open the call for questions. Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from James Ferrier with Wilsons'. Please go ahead. Good morning, Drew and Nigel. Nigel, just firstly, thanks to you and for your time and all your assistance over the last few years, and best wishes for the next stage of your career. First question from me is just around the like-for-like sales to start the new year. A pretty solid numbers there. Drew, I was wondering if you could give us a little bit of color on the mix of transaction count versus ticket and price in that time period. Good morning, James. Good, always good to hear from you. Listen, we, as you can see, the number has ticked up. As you know, we don't typically split out the two, but, you know, clearly, it's a higher increase in ticket is driving the proportion of that. Given operating conditions remain challenging, you know, we certainly believe this reinforces the strategy of prioritizing brand health and making sure the transactions stay healthy. We have seen evidence in recent months that KFC is not just holding share, but actually gaining share, which is encouraging. We do think that the strategy of staying customer-centric in terms of value is the right strategy for us going forward. Thanks, Drew. It's pleasing to hear. On the margin outlook comments, for both Australia and Europe, you sort of, you've made some assumptions around benefits from various initiatives, and offsets there. Can you give us some color just around what actual assumptions you've made there? What's embedded in your margin guidance in terms of self-help, benefit to margin? Yeah, look, I think anything that we can do on our end that doesn't compromise on the customer experience or customer value is something that we're gonna take a look at. We've highlighted a few initiatives in the deck around, you know, procurement on any services that we have in restaurant, in areas of re-tendering that we think Yum!! can do. I'll tell you, James, we're looking at every single item we can down to delivery stickers on bags to give you a sense of the granularity we're looking at right now. I think, you know, broadly speaking, as we've shared with you many times, we're continuing to prioritize the long-term brand health, so we're gonna be very cautious around areas like menu pricing, even as we continue to navigate some of these areas. Any lever that we can do without compromising on the customer, is something that we're gonna be continuing to look at. Yep, understood. Thank you. Maybe Nigel, if you could just help us with expectations on D&A and CapEx and corporate costs for FY24, please. Yeah, sure. Thanks for your comment earlier, James. Very much appreciated. Look, I would say, depreciation for next year is probably going to be in the mid-50s AUD. capex is going to be getting on for AUD 80. Corporate costs, I think you've probably got to assume probably close to a double-digit increase, plus or minus any movement on STI incentive payouts. Excellent. Thanks, Nigel. Thanks, Drew. Thanks, James. Thanks, James. Your next question comes from Tim Plumbe with UBS. Please go ahead. Hi, guys, congratulations on the result. I'll just leave it at 2 questions and then jump back into the queue. The 1st one is a little bit of a follow-on from James's question, if possible. Appreciate you don't split things out, but if we backed out the pricing increases that are benefiting in terms of that 1st 7 weeks of trading, and we thought about, you know, transactions or basket size, can you talk at all... in terms of the movement that you've seen in that last 7 weeks relative to the 4th quarter of 2023? I'm just thinking against the backdrop of other retailers that noted that they'd seen a pretty material drop-off in terms of consumer spend. Yeah, look, it's, you know, it's certainly an encouraging start to the year, let's start with that. You know, being up, close to 9%, I think is certainly an encouraging start to the year. You know, obviously, with transactions is something we look at, as one of the key indicators, and, you know, that's still an area that we wanna keep healthy. I can't give you the exact split out there, but, you know, certainly, what we are seeing is a shift in consumers that continues on to digital channels. You know, we know that delivery and digital are two of the areas that we have certainly, you know, been big promoters of and are pillars of our growth strategy. You're continuing to see shifts in that direction. Other than that, Tim, you've got to be a bit careful because you have a lot of shifts around different promos that we're doing that are lapping different years. Seven weeks can be a little bit hard to extrapolate too broadly in terms of overall shifts, but I can say we're certainly pleased with a good start to the year. Great. Thanks, guys. Then just the other question, also a bit of a follow-on from James' question, but flat EBITDA margins for FY24, in the case of Australia, obviously, you've had some pretty decent pricing increases in the second half of 2023. Are you able to talk about how you're seeing EBITDA margins on an exit run rate basis by any chance, please? Look, I'll talk in broader strokes on that, Tim. Certainly, I think the way we're looking at the environment right now. First, I'd have to start by reinforcing the point that, you know, look, our strategy overall is to prioritize long-term brand health and consumer trust over the short-term margin pressures. I think, you know, no one takes margins more seriously than we do, but KFC is a value brand, and we're managing this brand for the long term. I can say when you look at, you know, into the margin piece, certainly, you know, it's encouraging that it does look like a fair number of commodities have peaked and seem to be plateauing and easing off. There's still, you know, a lot of that is still gonna be a bit of a headwind this year. You know, labor and electricity are 2 areas that, you know, we're continuing to see some headwinds on. There are some encouraging signs for us, but it can take a bit of time on the supply chain side before some of that flows through to the P&L. I will give you an example of something like cooking oil. You know, you take cooking oil, we've seen canola commodity prices drop down, but we contract out cooking oil a year in advance. That is something we think will be an encouraging, you know, encouraging element for next year, but, you know, it's not gonna go into our numbers for this calendar year. There are a couple of moving parts there, Tim. I think that's why we feel, you know, confident that we're gonna get margin recovery. It's just a little bit difficult for us to be too precise in terms of, you know, with a couple of those indicators still out there, in terms of exactly how and when, but we feel good about the outlook. Understood. Congratulations again, and Nigel, thanks for all your help as well. Cheers. Thanks, Tim. Your next question comes from Ben Gilbert with Jarden. Please go ahead. Morning, Drew and Nigel. Just first from me, a great result for the second half margin outcome in Europe. Just wondering how big the CFA incentive that came through was, if that had much of an impact to it? You'd previously sort of talked to about a 200-300 basis points expectation impact of margin to FY24, but it sounds like you think it's gonna be much less than that now. Is that fair for Europe? Yeah, look, Ben, I'll make some comments, and I think Drew might wanna make some as well. Look, we've been pretty tight-lipped about how much we share on the incentive. It's, you know, I'd say it's not a particularly material amount, but it is certainly a nice chunk of change, so we don't wanna disclose it. You know, one, it gives us a bit of a margin benefit, you're right. I think wider than that, it just gives us such a great strength in the relationship and opens up opportunities for us going forward. I think there's more than just the P&L that benefits. Certainly on the wider margin piece, you know, that has been a contributory factor in the second half, margin holding up. Along with the great same-store sales that you've seen and a good, healthy balance between transaction and ticket, which, as you'll appreciate, helps us to keep the margin in check. Also, you know, with some transaction growth in there, we feel confident we're doing the right thing for the consumer and the long-term health of the brand in Europe. Maybe I could ask it another way. With the cost pressures or the margin pressures you saw, did they ease into the second half for Europe? I'm just trying to. I know you're not going to, don't disclose it, but it sort of seems like it's probably somewhere around a couple of million AUD. If you just remind us how that incentive works going forward, is it similar type opportunities for the next few years as you continue to hit store targets? Look, I mean, some cost pressures did ease a little bit. Some are still very persistent, and I think, as I say, within those overall numbers, you know, we've been out of price sufficient to generate that margin result, which you can see. Going forward, the incentive is gonna be on a similar basis. It has some operational metrics. The big component is still the ability to open the relevant number of stores consistent with our development agreement. Thanks. Just one more for me, Nigel, how do we think about interest costs into next year as well? Just sort of looking through, you obviously got some floating debt, and you've got some you got hedged out for, I think, sort of 1-2 years at around that sort of 1.8%. How do we think about the rampage interest costs over the next sort of 12-24 months? Yeah, look, I mean, I can give you an indication for the next fiscal, which is you're probably gonna have to, you know, get reasonably close to doubling it. I think that you'll see, you know, our rates implicit within all the disclosure there. I think we feel good about the fixed rates that we've contracted, which is mitigating it to actually a pretty decent extent. Yeah, I think you're still gonna have to price in close to a doubling for FY24 compared to FY23. Okay. Fantastic. Just one more from me. I know you said you're sort of taking a fast follower approach, but do you still anticipate the opportunity to take more price across Europe and Australia through next year, or sorry, through this current fiscal year? Yeah, look, I don't think in an environment, a high inflationary environment, you can ever rule out pricing. However, it does tend to be the last lever we look for, I just reinforce that we always start with: How do we win on value? To be clear, KFC is winning on value right now, and that's certainly an advantage we want to retain. That'll continue to be our North Star, since we want to be very cautious in that area, and we recognize the consumer's under a lot of pressure right now, especially with all those increases in interest rates that, you know, we've alluded to. We want to make sure that affordability is top of mind. Fantastic. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, Ben. Your next question comes from Ross Curran with Macquarie. Please go ahead. Hi, team. It's Ross Curran from Macquarie. Again, very similar to Ben's comments before, you know, the European margin in the second half, it was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. Can you just to ask Ben's question in a slightly different way, is there a significantly different margin outcome in Europe and the Netherlands at the moment, sorry, Germany? Germany and Netherlands. Germany and Netherlands, yep. Look, I think that, you know, the Netherlands remains the strongest market, Ross. I would say, the gap has probably closed a little bit. You know, Germany has seen its margin pick up a little bit, perhaps a little bit more than we expected. The overall dynamics of the Netherlands being the stronger one, being closer to scale and all those components, haven't particularly changed. We're seeing good hold up of margins in both markets. How should we think about the seasonality of margins then in Europe? Oh, look, I think in a benign inflationary environment, there might be a level of seasonality that we'd probably point to and talk about, but given the high level of inflation and the timing at which cost pressures come through and the way we take pricing, it's probably very much the secondary factor in how the first and second half margin plays out at the moment, Ross. Okay. Can I then just ask about Taco Bell in Australia? Can we just confirm that, this is the last of the write-downs, that there's no more stores you're waiting to reach maturity before you write them off? This clears the deck now? That's correct. What are you looking for on this brand on a 2, 3-year basis that you'll keep investing in it? At what point do you say, "Hey, this hasn't worked and we're out? Look, I think when it comes to Taco Bell, it's important to point out that new brands can take time to gain traction. You know, we are encouraged by the fact that with Taco Bell, we have seen similar trends in other geographies in the early years, where the brand is now thriving today. I think when we look at Taco Bell, for any brand in QSR, you've got to start with value and taste, and anything we can do to double down on those attributes is gonna be something we're gonna work towards as we refine it. What are our success metrics? You know, as you might expect, consumer trial, engagement in the form of sales and same store sales for us is gonna be, probably the most important one. That's the way we look at it. We do believe that there is room in the Australian market for a value-centered QSR, offering in the Mexican space. You know, despite some of the challenges we've had, we still believe that Taco Bell is the right brand at the right time for that. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thanks, Ross. Thank you. Today, in regards to time, we ask that you please keep your questions to two per person. Your next question comes from Peter Marks with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead. Morning, guys. Just a quick question on Germany. Have you closed a few stores there? Were they loss-making stores? I guess, what's the outlook for that market? It doesn't look like you're really growing your store count there since FY18 on my numbers, or have I got something wrong there? We have closed the odd, challenging store over the last couple of years. You're right, we haven't been growing significantly either. Your analysis of the actual store count piece is right. Certainly with the same-store sales growth as it's been this year and indeed last year, you know, that is certainly encouraging us to continue to look at Germany and whether we can build a few more stores than we have done in the past, certainly with that same-store sales strength coming through and continuing. Yeah, just to add on to that, we certainly are very encouraged with Germany. Anytime you see the double-digit same-store sales growth over a period of time, it is an indicator that something is going in the right direction. The brand is still well under-penetrated. We believe there's opportunity on the new build as well as the M&A front. Germany is an intriguing landscape for us, and certainly something that we do believe could be a potential growth platform up for us in the future. Okay, great. Just to clarify, it looks like you've added back about AUD three and a half mil of acquisition costs in Europe into the normalized profits. Does that relate to the acquisition you did after the balance date? Like, were they cash costs, or can you just talk us through why you've added those back? Yeah, they were effectively, there's a bit of acquisition and sort of integration costs, entirely due to acquisitions. Obviously, we bought one store in Australia, in Griffith, in the first half, and, you know, the best of it is to do with the European acquisitions. As you say, we haven't completed that bundle of eight that we're buying, or we have completed it since the year end, but the costs were largely already incurred in the financial year. That's why we've booked them there and called them out. Okay, great. Thanks, Nigel. Thanks, Peter. Thank you. Your next question comes from Elijah Mayr with CLSA. Please go ahead. Good morning, guys, and congrats on the result. Just a couple quick follow-up ones from me. Maybe just looking at the margin neutral target for FY24 for Australia, can you give any color on, I guess, what to expect on a half-on-half basis, I guess on, you know, first half 2024 to be down and then maybe accelerate into the second half? How are you guys thinking about that on a half-and-half basis? Yeah, we really haven't split out the guidance, Elijah. It's a fair question, but I think at this point, we are looking more broadly, you know, at the year to come, and just recognizing that, you know, while we've seen, you know, some of the peaks in commodities in the past, and the environment from a supply chain perspective is more encouraging or certainly more stable, there are potentially still some moving parts to come in areas like labor and electricity. We haven't given a half-on-half forecast. It is still something that, you know, obviously, as soon as we're able to share information, we will. We do recognize that we think margin neutral is the right target for this year. There are still, you know, quite a few headwinds to navigate in this landscape. No problem. Maybe just a quick second one. What is the state of the kiosk rollout in Australia, how many stores have you've got kiosks operating in, as of the end of FY23? That's a great question, Elijah. The actual number is, forgive me, I think I'm gonna say, somewhere around 20-30. It is gonna be something we're gonna continue to expand. It is just something that enhances the convenience aspect for customers. We think it is the right thing to do. We build it into a lot of remodels. Any new store that we have continues to have it. You may be aware that in Europe, all of our restaurants have it. That'll continue to be part of our convenience strategy going forward. Apologies, I don't have the precise number, but, you know, directionally it's still a relatively low number on the portfolio. No problem. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Elijah. Thanks, Elijah. Thank you. Your next question comes from Alexander Mees with Morgans. Please go ahead. Thanks very much. I'd like to add my thanks to you, Nigel. Good luck back in the U.K. Just my two questions. Firstly, with regard to the growth in digital and delivery, which has been one of the standout performances in the year. What effect does that have on your margins, please? Yeah, look, I think you got to start by saying, you know, long term, this is absolutely part of the pillars of our growth strategy. You know, we see today, you know, there's 25% or near 25% of sales that are coming out of these digital channels. You know, these are channels that didn't exist five years ago. We do think this is part of where the customer wants us to be. This is part of where we think, our accessibility and convenience strategy needs to, needs to play as well. From a margin standpoint, you may recall, Alex, that in the early days we, you know, we took a bit of a margin neutral approach or to these channels, meaning, you know, try to operate within the same margin by channel. I think today, over the last couple of years, we've recognized that, we don't wanna be a little bit too precious on that front, and that we're willing to, take margin that we think is appropriate for each channel and manage the P&L more holistically. We don't say that delivery is margin neutral today to the other channels. Nonetheless, you know, we look for an aggregate to stay with healthy margins and ultimately margin recovery. Thanks, Drew. Just sticking with the theme of margins, with regard to your comments earlier that some commodities have peaked and are starting to ease off, I just wonder specifically what you're seeing with chicken, please. Right. Let's talk a little bit about chicken. We I think we shared typically that we had a number of contracts that were going to the end of last year. Several of our contracts did indeed roll off at the end of last year. Look, a few things. One, we have, you know, great long-standing relationships with our chicken suppliers, and we've really needed to work closely with them, especially given the inflationary environment we're in. I can say a good chunk of the pricing that we've taken on chicken has already been baked in. We don't disclose specifics around terms and contracts for competitive reasons, as I'm sure you're aware. Look, clearly in a landscape like this, it's not advantageous to lock in fixed contracts for extended periods of time. We have different terms and different mechanisms in place, depending on the supplier and their situation. What I can say, and I'd certainly point out, is, Yum!! is also working to diversify the supply chain and has added a fourth chicken supplier in Australia, which is called Golden Cockerel, who is a Queensland-based supplier and just doing an exceptional job that was added in FY23. We think that that's the right move for the supply chain base, and, again, the emphasis is on the long-standing partnerships that we have across these chicken suppliers. Thanks, Drew. Thank you. Your final question today comes from Mitchell Hawker with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Hi, guys. Thanks for the question. In regards to Taco Bell, could you please talk to when you expect to achieve store-level profitability on a pre-AASB 16 basis? Thank you. Our target is to get there this year. I think what we're certainly looking for is an improvement in the EBITDA, overall EBITDA result. That's probably first and foremost, but I want to be clear that the primary metric that we're looking at for this brand is around consumer trial and acceptance as measured by sales. I think that's going to be our guiding principle this year. Not to say that obviously profitability isn't important, but I think in the short term, it's more important for us that we see that the brand is resonating with consumers, and that means that the actions that we're taking around things like product quality and value-based marketing are resonating. Great. Thank you. Thank you. That is all the time we have for questions today, and that does conclude our conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.