Welcome everybody to the call. I think we're happy to connect following the release of our Q1 results. If I just summarize was encouraging start to the year. We saw good volume growth our Food Cultures and Enzymes business and stronger than expected performance of our Health and Nutrition business driven by our Human Health business. And we saw good growth across our core business and the Lighthouses. We see good momentum going into our Q2 and obviously we need to continue to drive into the productivity of our. Business. The improvement of our productivity in our HMO business as well to continue to drive the profit improvement for Chr. Hansen. Heidi, with that I will hand it back to you to start the Q and A. Thanks a lot for that. So as you said, Q1 was a very strong start to the year. You sound very positive going into Q2. So why didn't you upgrade full year guidance? I think as we said, you know, we are for sure going through a still volatile environment with COVID Omicron variant. We thought that with only three months of the FY22. Only three months into the 12-month calendar year was too early to change our annual guidance. And we will continue to look at that as it evolves. But we were happy to be able to maintain our guidance and confirm that we see that we feel quite confident on our growth momentum and hitting as well the target for our profitability between 27%-28% EBIT margin as well as our cash flow guidance for the year. And in terms of the guidance, what are you assuming in terms of volume and price? Because you mentioned that pricing will be put through because of inflation. So what's the underlying assumption? Our underlying assumption into the year, Heidi, is that it will be mostly a volume driven year. We have mentioned that we do not expect this year benefit from euro based pricing based on currencies. But we will see, also as of Q2, a positive contribution to growth from inflationary pricing pass through. So we hear a lot about pricing from yourselves and peers. And you know inflation is everywhere, right? It's for consumers, it's food, it's energy, it's, you know, old household goods. Do you think at some point there could be a volume response and do you see any changes in behaviors across regions? If you see, Heidi, our Q1 result for Food Cultures and Enzymes, you know, it was largely driven by North America and Europe. So I think we do not see that in the mature markets. I think the type of products that we supply are well embedded into the consumer baskets. Obviously we probably have seen some contraction in the developing markets already. So I don't see that as a larger concern. But obviously we hope that developing markets will come back to be a contributor for our growth. Talking about pricing, can you discuss how pricing works in your business? And I wonder if it differs by segment and end market as well. And if we do see further cost inflation, you know, energy costs keep going up, for example, are you able to, you know, price up again? Because you said, you know, from Q2 there will be pricing, but can you have further discussions to increase prices further? Given the profile of our P&L, we are typically relatively well protected against inflationary pressure. This year, obviously being different, the way that we engage our pricing across our businesses is when you make a new customer win or a new product launch, we show and demonstrate the value that we create and then we take our fair share of that and then we apply a relatively conservative pricing mechanism basically on an annual basis pushing through what typically would be around 1%, which will be enough to cover that regular pricing inflation. What we've done this year is we've been a little bit more in the forefront. We've had these normal annual discussions taking place here in November, December being applied in January, February, and of course gone for a little bit more. We've seen customers being very receptive to that. What we've also said to them is if the inflationary development continues, then we will most likely come back and re-engage in that discussion. I think that is one way of addressing this for us being a small portion of the overall cost base. There's also opportunities to turn this around. Having an engagement of saying, okay, we can, we can not only help you on the products we take, food cultures and enzymes, but we can also help you on your processes. So we might be able to support certain customers in addressing the issues they have with the inflationary pressure. The same we will do inside looking at optimization in our Fuel for Growth initiatives, optimizing freight. Patterns, et cetera. So pricing is one element of addressing the inflationary environment. I think continuing with pricing, you had said that the idea is to protect the percentage margin because your guidance is the same, right? Last year and this year, the 27%-28%. Normally when you have inflation, there is this dilution, right, the denominator effect. So percentage margin actually goes down even if you're passing it on fully. So how do you manage to recover percentage margin that's above absolute? I think the way you should look at it. We delivered 27.7% EBIT margin last year, and we are guiding 27%-28%. So there's of course room both ways. You could, you could say what we said specifically for inflation is that there will be a timing delay. We did see some negative impact in Q1 that was less of that part. That was a cost that flows directly into our P&L. When we produce, we typically produce three months in advance, meaning that some of the inflationary from electricity and other parts and production that is actually being placed on the inventories at the moment. And then here from Q2 it then flows in. We see pricing being applied January, February. So here in Q2 we will definitely see everything else being equal. Some pressure from inflation on margins. Then that will. We will catch up that in Q3 and Q4, and when we leave, you can say FY22, we expect to be in a position where we are protecting our margins. But for this year there will be a negative impact, timing impact. And we often. With a series of measures, not only pricing, but productivity and sourcing and that's how we ensure that we protect our margin. Just to finish on pricing. We often hear that your price points are at the high end, like across your peer group. Is that true, and is that a disadvantage when you're trying to win new business in the current environment when maybe customers are a little bit more cost conscious than normal? So you know, Heidi, we've always been value based price and for sure the success of our commercial execution relies on the value communication and delivery to the customers. So I think that's what signs up the customers, right? It's the value of the technology, the value of the innovation and what keeps them engaged is the value of our technical services. And you know, for price increases that applies the same. Right? I think they see the value. I have always talked that this business being a business that has high barriers to entry and high switching costs for customers and therefore I don't think it is a disadvantage. Also taking into consideration that at the same time that we may bring price increases to customers, we also bring commercial ideas and technologies that help them drive yield and productivity. Right. We work with customers on a portfolio of solutions. And then on the topic of competitive positioning, if the price costing is not an issue, have you nevertheless seen any changes? So we see, for example, ADM has been making a number of acquisitions over the couple of years. Deerland was the latest one. How do you feel about such players coming into this space? Has there been any change? I think the competitive dynamics, Heidi, remains largely similar. Meaning we compete with formidable companies, companies like DSM, DuPont. That also drive businesses based on innovation and I think they keep us on our toes of always being better. You have seen a few other entrants, companies like Kerry, that has come in with spore formers for food companies like ADM that is hard at trying to build a specialty unit. I think all of those are positive for the category. Right. We see a large opportunity to expand the consumer reach the moments of consumption for probiotics and for specialty cultures. So not a big change in the competitive dynamics, but great to see a strong entrance into the category. So I guess one of the key competitors, I guess would be DuPont who merged with IFF. Have you seen any changes there now that it's been a year since the merger? I mean, not really. I think IFF has gone through a series of organizational and leadership changes and I think it's a very resourceful organization. I'm sure they will find their way into the market for sure. There has been some element of internal distraction to this period which, you know, we just continue to execute our business and stay very close to our customers. I just wonder, you know, given your flavor background, do you think that kind of, you know, flavor company coming together with a health and bioscience type combination makes strategic sense? You know, Heidi, different strategies work for different companies, right? So you know, I think they would need to find, you know, their purpose, their resource base and their strategy connect well. So I wouldn't comment further on that. I can say in our case we find our strategy as, you know, focus purpose led company and focusing our microbial and fermentation technology platforms to really resonate with customers. Right. When we go to customers, there's no confusion about what we're focusing, what we're delivering and where the value of our offering lies. Makes sense, and then maybe before we go into the segments, one last more general question. So, during the pandemic, you had repeatedly said that commercial execution could lag because you couldn't visit your customers. And that's quite important feature of you, you know, pushing innovation forward, you know, with the customer. You know, you have found workarounds, you know, online, you know, communication and all that, and you've managed through. But yeah, you know, what is the latest on that? Is there still a lot of pent-up execution to be, you know, to come through, or what's the status? I think, I think one of the benefits that I would attribute to our Q1 strong results was the ability to meet with customers and to hold more face to face meetings and close projects that ultimately contributed to our growth. So I think first of all, you see that as a benefit reflected in our results. We've been resilient through COVID and I think we're learning more and more together with our customers how to make virtual meetings more effective, how to bring projects to the finish line. Makes sense. So yeah, that's the reason why behind your confidence, I guess. Right. Big, strong Q1 and looking, you can see the pipeline coming through. Maybe if we then move into the segments. One question from the earnings call. Actually, there was a comment that in Health and Nutrition specifically, the growth would be front-end loaded and it's. Yeah, I don't quite understand that. The comparables get easier in the second half. Right, and you have all this strong momentum at the moment. So, is there anything that you're concerned about in the second half or is it conservatism? You know, why would the growth slow in the second half? I think to take the comparables. Yes, we had 10% organic growth in Health and Nutrition Q1 last year. That was on top of a Q1 two years ago. That was really impacted negatively, so the comparables from a human side in Q1 was not the strongest. It was still we're very pleased with the growth and it was better, slightly better than expected. But for human, that was it. Also remember that with the acquisitions now 12 months into the period, they are included in the organic growth and UAS had a extremely strong Q3, less so in Q4, but the comparables from that one is actually tougher than it would look. So just from the math part of here, there are some changes here. I think when we look at what happened in Q1, there were some changes between Q4 and Q1. We recovered some of that. So that's part of it. We do see good momentum coming into Q2. We do see a good launch activity. So there's a renewed interest and belief in it. Then we also have to say, not only for us, but companies like BioGaia and Probi and the industry have faced huge volatility also compared to the past year. So when is it we'll see the reorders of these new launches and so on. And that's part of the reason why we are a bit, you know, making sure we're not getting too carried away by the strong start to the year. And I think Heidi is fair to say we feel strongly about the visibility that we have going into Q2. And even though we would love to have better visibility, I think COVID has proven that even our customers have less of a strong visibility into consumer behavior, consumer sell through. And that's why we said good momentum going into Q2 and let's be a little bit cautious after that. When you reported your Q1s and, you know, on this positive outlook into Q2, one of the comments you made is that there was a recovery in the traditional channels in Human Health. You know that was a weak point in prior quarters. Do you think this is a general market trend or do you think there were any initiatives that were Chr. Hansen specific that enabled you to take share? I think in relation to the traditional channel, I think it was a general recovery of the traditional channel. In Europe specifically, I think our combined Human Health business and our strength to solution strategy and the integration of UAS Labs and HSO gave us a stronger platform for growth in the Americas and in China. But I think in Europe it was more of a channel positive development that probably I would expect when we see reports from our peers that they would also benefit from that. Right, okay. Okay. So it's a general market development. And then on a related topic, we've talked many times about initiatives to educate consumers on high end probiotics and low end ones and the science behind your strains. So they pick the right ones. Right. Do you think consumers get it now or is there more work to be done? I think there will always be more work to be done. I think we are on a journey. We are quite happy with the Probiotic Institute now being launched in China and Europe. In the US. We're also very pleased with the work that we are doing, working with regulatory authorities, with our customers, and I think this continued awareness about the benefits of our strong microbiome towards immunity, towards preventive health will continue to be a journey where, you know, over the years we will make progress, but it's not one where we are going to claim, you know, short term victory. Right. We know that bringing leaders of opinion, bringing regulatory bodies, bringing information to the consumers is something that we will make continued progress. What about sticking with Human Health, the infant nutrition part? There's a lot of negative news about the market itself, slowing birth rates, retail price pressure and so on. You had a very good quarter in HMOs. Can you update us on what you're seeing, maybe both in terms of HMOs as well as the probiotics? Absolutely, Heidi. So just to paint a little bit of a more favorable picture into that, I think research has never been stronger than early life nutrition will have a lasting effect on the good health of a human being. Right, and therefore, I think independent of the birth rates and the mathematics of that, there will be continued focus on strengthening the quality of early life nutrition. Obviously, infant formula will play a role in that, and key ingredients like probiotics and like HMOs, we believe will be part of that. But you continue to see a growing category of growing up milks, particularly across Asia. I think that probiotics and HMO will also have a role to play in that, and so we're happy with the progress that we are making with our probiotic business and the. Increased penetration into premium infant formulas. Obviously, the launch of HMOs in the U.S. is a step, an important step in that category that I expect will continue to see growth. As we have said, we have not built our business plan on strong growth of infant formula. So any growth of the infant formula would be a good tailwind to our penetration story. I don't know anything you would add to that. Great. Okay, that's perfect. And then maybe moving to Animal Health in that case, what is your outlook for that business area? It had tough comparables in the last quarter. We do see, you know, that animal production is slowing in certain parts of the world. Swine flu is becoming an issue. Comparables are tough. So what's the outlook for that segment? We can always turn that a little bit more positive, basically using the same argument being that the key driver of opportunities for Chr. Hansen is penetration into the market. Obviously, if we have, you know, we're well positioned into some of the cattle markets and if production goes down there, obviously that will have a negative impact. But the opportunities outside of that driving new growth is definitely present. No changes to our underlying market growth expectation. Of these 7%-8%, you know, this year animal will probably deliver a little less for some of the reasons that you said here, but also on the back of a very strong FY21. So we feel very comfortable about the Animal Health outlook as long as we are able to show the benefits and increase the penetration of probiotic solutions. I think, Heidi, because you can, I mean, your question also has a little bit of, I think, undertone of the future of animal farming. Right. And animal protein. And you know, I think people need to think as how are we going to feed that growing population? We fully embrace the emergence of plant-based. Plant-based solutions. I think it's a great alternative to feed a growing population, but there is still very large global demand for animal protein. I believe that will be for better quality animal protein with less use of antibiotics. That's whether it's, you know, a poultry or a cattle or a swine. Species. Our probiotic solutions, I hope, will continue to gain participation in the nutrition formulation for animal farming. So on the plant-based topic that you raised, I have a few questions. First of all, do you think it is a trend that is interesting because we initially saw this fast growth, everyone started talking about it? But then there are ongoing questions about the health profile and the nutritional profile of many of these products. Some of these dairy or meat alternatives barely have any protein in them, for example, which is interesting. And yeah, some of the players that are out there, you know, listed players have also announced that they've seen a slowdown. So, yeah. Do you think it's an interesting trend? It is a very interesting trend and actually one that we spend a lot of time talking about in Chr. Hansen. So first of all, Heidi, I would say I don't think it's a fad. I think it's definitely a trend and it's a trend that is here to stay and it's a strength and it's a trend that is important to embrace. Now you're 100% right that there is a gap in plant-based solutions from what you read in the press to what you actually see on the pace of market development, and that is because I think plant-based has attracted consumers to a trial in the category, but it has not retained consumers to have a repurchase level. That has been what has been expected. I think we need to continue to work in that category to drive, if you talk about fermented products, to drive cleaner labels. To drive better taste and better texture and to drive better nutritional content, and you know, if you look back to our Capital Markets Day in 2020, we talked about that, right? We talked about the journey in dairy where today you can have, for example, a fantastic Greek yogurt that has only the dairy protein in a Chr. Hansen culture. Right. Our Vega range is a good example of showing, hey, here is a new generation of plant-based fermenting cultures that can deliver better texture, that can deliver a better taste. I think we continue to work in making those products more appealing to consumers in close collaboration with our customers. So you have talked about a number of launches like this vegan launch, right, last year. Can you update us on, you know, what are the main solutions you offer into this market? Is it both on the dairy and meat side? If plant-based products were to cannibalize animal-based products, dairy and meat, what is the actual net impact on Chr. Hansen based on your current portfolio? Yeah, so we don't have that large of a play on meat alternatives. We have more of a play on anything that's fermented and that's where we play. If today we would be, let's say, agnostic, whether it's a dairy base or a plant based. Plant based continues to be a bit of a premium for us because it's a premium segment. If that segment would become mainstream, we would expect that to be similar to our dairy products. Alex, I think it's a difficult question to give a precise answer. You know, this is, it's an emerging market. There are a lot of challenges to it. We think we have a good position to play here. Some of the issues that you also mentioned, Heidi, it's something that we have helped the dairy industry. Do. It's important for us. It's also important to say that we believe in dairy. In the medium and probably also to the long term. It is one good way of providing good nutritional value to people around the world, but obviously making sure we have this balance so that we are part of that transition. That will undoubtedly come, but probably at a slower pace than many people expect. If we look at the very short term. Now that we're on the topic of dairy, you always, at your Capital Markets Days, you give an update on the conversion rates or the, I guess outsourcing could be another term for that in cheese and yogurt. Has that been changing at all in recent times? So I think, Heidi, there's a very high level of conversion in fresh dairy. We have said sort of 90%, upwards of 90% versus in cheese we are just above the 50%. Right. And I think we see opportunities to continue to drive conversion. I think we also see opportunities to continue to, you know, help the new capacity that is being built for cheese or for fresh dairy to start directly on our DVS solutions as compared to start on a bulk starter and then convert to DVS. So if you look at our food cultures and enzymes growth model where we show how we can deliver a 5%-7% growth, there's about 1% that would come from conversion. And based on our business tracking, we continue to see that to hold pretty true to our expectations. In terms of what drives conversion, it's a lot about security in your production. It's of course also, you know, although. More expensive to buy than produce yourself, the savings you can get around and so on as part of it, a new selling point is actually from an ESG angle and from a climate angle. And we've had a recent conversion which got helped. I'm not saying that was a key difference, but it got helped over the finish line. But our ability to go in and calculate what would the moving into a more effective process do for the customer's emissions, and you know, that will be a new driver of conversion in the future. I'm sure. You just mentioned that cheese capacity is increasing. I was also surprised how positive you were on cheese in Q1 and looking out because I see that milk production is slowing in certain parts of the world. So what is driving the increase in cheese capacity and cheese demand? I guess. Yeah. So I think, Heidi, maybe multiple factors, right. You know, one of them is clearly one of the segments in food that grew stronger through the pandemic delivery and in home consumption was pizza. So the demand for mozzarella globally, you know, is growing. You also have. You know, cheeses that have been probably easy way to have a specialty or a gourmet moment at home, so demand has been strong, and you know, even though you are right that the milk supply due to, you know, climate and droughts and some other things have been on the lower side, you know, customers have the opportunity to use their milk supply towards cheese, fresh dairy, liquid milk, and I think cheese demand has been strong and benefited from this demand, I would say particularly in North America, but you know, also on some key markets, we have seen a strong growth of the cheese market in Brazil. We're seeing increasing demand for cheese coming from Asia, and that's a global trend. It's of course important to understand how the milk supply and all of this is developing, but also bear in mind that one thing is milk supply. The other part is how do you then store the milk? You talked a little bit to it, but it can basically go into milk powders, it can go into butter, or it can go into processed foods like cheese and fermented milk, so there are a lot of dynamics in between that makes it very difficult to transition a change in the total milk production into what impact does that have on Chr. Hansen. And to. Complete the picture on cultures and enzymes. So what about the fermented milk side of the market? What are you seeing in different regions? I mean, obviously we've talked extensively about China, so I won't, I won't repeat that. And I think, you know, what we continue to see outside of China is a category that has been quite resilient. Right. Obviously one of the other things, Heidi, that we have seen is to some extent the global FMCGs have benefited over the last couple of years. And most of them, whether it's companies like Danone or Nestlé, would have fresh dairy as a key element of their offering and their strength of their supply chain. Right. So that has benefited the category in many markets. I seem to remember maybe five years ago, six years ago, you know, India was mentioned as a potential big opportunity in future for dairy. But yeah, the issue was maybe they're not very organized. You have many small operations, maybe it's not industrialized. Has there been any movement there? Do you see that still as a big potential opportunity in the future? You know, there's been positive developments in that, Heidi, and given that we are, you know, having a dialogue, is a good opportunity for me to also provide a little bit more granularity. So, you know, one of the frustrations as a global CEO in the current environment is you can ask me questions about China, but I've not been able to be in China for the last couple of years. Right, so I depend on the information that, you know, I work in close contact with the organization. But it's not that I have been with a customer in China having a face to face meeting. I did have the opportunity a few months back, late summer, to have a meeting with our largest Indian customer here in Denmark because there was a dairy congress that was held here in Copenhagen and it was a very interesting conversation because we talked precisely about that question. India is the largest milk producing country with the lowest industrialization of milk. So the opportunity has always been about the industrialization of milk. And there's clear signs that that is moving faster than what we would have expected two or three years ago. But we ended up talking a lot about what Anis mentioned. So the importance of nutritional density of dairy in India to support the dairy farmers in India and how beyond sustainability livelihoods of the dairy industry so important in India. So yeah, I think we are, we're bullish on India. I don't think we should. You know, it's not going to be a China-like development, but India had a very strong performance for us in Q1, and I will expect that Indian industrialization of milk in India will continue to be a net positive for many years. I mean, India will always be the country of the future. Right. So there will be a lot of opportunity communities there. Sounds interesting. How large is India at the moment? It's small. Yeah. Are there any other emerging countries like India, which has a lot of potential for industrialization but is still in its early stages that we should be aware of? I think India is quite unique in the sense that, as I said, it's the largest producer of milk with a low industrialization. You have other markets, for example, like Indonesia, where the availability of milk is very low, but the interest, for example in yogurt or the fermented category is quite high. So the challenge there is, you know, if you import milk or if you import milk powders, how can you have a yogurt at the price point that meets the consumer's demand? But Indonesia is another market where we have seen a strong growth from a very small base of the fermented milk category. Perhaps given we're short on time, we will move on to M&A. So we saw a couple of deals at once. They're now getting integrated. It seems the synergies are going to be coming through. Growth has been very good. Is that it for M&A for the time being or should we expect more? You know, if you look, I always talk about 2022 being a year of execution for Chr. Hansen. I'm pretty happy with the execution our team of Hansenites did on Q1 and the momentum will go in Q2, I think. Heidi, if you look at our strategy, it has three pillars, right? Reinvesting in our core business, leveraging our lighthouses and then extending our microbial and fermentation technology platforms through M and A. You know, the bioscience industry is growing, moving very fast. We monitor the space very closely. Any bolt-on acquisition that would really bring value to our shareholders, we will look at it very closely. But I think we are now in a moment of showing the market that the strategy is working, that the acquisitions that we have done deliver on their promise, that we bring our leverage down to the level we have indicated, and then as we continue to have a strong cash flow, we have said our capital allocation principles have not changed. Organic growth priority number one. Focusing on innovation, focusing on market expansion, then bolt on acquisitions, and then incremental returns to our shareholders. I think previously you had said the majority of your M&A targets would tend to be in health and nutrition. Is that still the case or are there opportunities in cultures and enzymes? It might be in maybe the plant-based area, bioprotection, I don't know, maybe some of the lighthouses or you might have even, you know, create a new lighthouse, even. Yeah. What's your thinking? I think what we can say here is that if you look at FC&E and given our market position, consolidation, M&A is difficult to find and it's difficult to be allowed to do. But there are technologies and you mentioned some of the areas that over time could be interesting and where we would definitely, if the right fit and something that supports the current strategy, I don't think we have any ambition right now to launch a new Lighthouse, but something that builds on the strategy that Mauricio just talked about, then we would definitely look at it if it creates value. But obviously 2020 was an extraordinary year in terms of portfolio changes. You mentioned acquisitions that create value. How do you define creating value at Chr. Hansen? I think creating value for us first of all is meeting our internal business cases. Right. And it's about delivering profitable growth which has an element of growth synergies and also cost synergies. And that's, you know, what makes the acquisition model successful. You know, obviously we take, we look at return on invested capital as something that's quite important and somewhere where we need to continue to drive our development of the return on invested capital post the acquisitions and the portfolio changes that we have done. Thanks. And so, as a final question, as we have three minutes question on your midterm guidance, so organic growth, you're saying mid to high single digits, let's say that's, you know, five to nine. I think you've previously said that it's a very wide range in organic growth is probably the most important metric in this sector. Right. And companies that do 9% and those that do 5%, there's a big difference in valuation. So curious to hear, you know, what are the moving parts that would get you to the top or the bottom? Great question, Heidi, but let me give you sort of a slight different perspective on my learnings on the last few years as CEO. So I think on the long term financial ambition, because we don't call it long term guidance, it's a long term financial ambition. I don't think on a five year guidance anybody benefits from a very narrow range. Right. I think you're talking about the five-year ambition. My view would be that at 5% or at 9% we would be a very welcomed company into anyone's growth portfolio. And even at 5% would be at the top end of the growth of our peers. So I think we benefit from a long range, from a wider range in our long-term financial ambition. Now answering your question specifically. Our growth model for FC&E validates a 5%-7% growth for FC&E. And we said that health and nutrition would be accretive to the FC&E growth. So what would drive us? So take the middle of our guidance or our financial ambition as the starting point. And what would move us to the upper end? It would move us to the upper end. If we have an upper end of the food cultures and enzymes, expected growth, you know, 7% versus 5%. That would be a successful commercialization of innovation, a successful conversion of as we were talking before, as well as the expansion into some of the adjacent categories, lighthouses, fermented beverages, and for health and nutrition. It would be a continued strong momentum of our health and nutrition business that I believe has all the underlying trends to deliver on high single digits, low double digits growth rate. So that's what brings you to the upper end of that. I think if you want to think about the lower end, that would be negative headwinds across our core businesses. That's very, very clear. Thank you for that. So this brings us to the end of our session. Thank you to the Chr. Hansen team for the nice discussion. Thank you everyone for dialing in. Have a good day. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Heidi, for facilitation. Thank you everybody.