Good morning, everybody. My name is Simon Burke. I'm the chairman of Bakkavor. It's a pleasure to welcome you here this morning, for our twenty twenty-four half year results. We're particularly pleased because they're good results, and so that always makes the job, much easier. But I'm not going to steal the thunder of the team that produced them, so I'll hand over straight away to Mike, who will take you through. Okay. Thanks, Simon. Morning, everyone. I think the agenda today is fairly standard for the first part. So myself and Ben will run through business performance, and then Simon will step back and talk a little bit to our CFO change. Straight on, I mean, what I wanna do up front is get some of the key messages out there. And as Simon says, you know, we're in a great place, so it's fantastic to be able to stand up here and share the messaging with you. I think if we look at the first half, it says up there that there's a strong performance. In truth, I think it's a fantastic performance, you know, right across the board. We've got progress in EBIT, so declaring a number of £55 million, it's 27% up. I think most important for me is we're showing margin progression, so 4.9% margin, which is a 90 basis point improvement. Now, me and Ben have talked a lot about margins moving up. It's always nice to be able to back that up with some delivery, and that is delivery itself, so really pleased in terms of profitability. That, of course, helps in terms of debt management and leverage, and again, we've brought debt down, and our leverage now stands at 1.2 times, which is the lowest it's been. Great news in an environment where the cost of borrowing is still high. If I come across to the far side of the page, your ESG measures, a bit of a blip around net emissions. I'll touch on that later, but a really fantastic story in the other two KPIs as well. So in overall terms, a fantastic performance, and, you know, we're proud of what we've delivered as a team. I think the bit to reflect on here, and it's quite important really in the context of the go-forward, the environment that we're operating in now, is a lot kinder than it has been. And it's important we recognize that. I mean, we've been through two truly horrible years, and I'm not gonna go through all the corruption that's on the slide in the middle there. I think the point for me is, as we're in this better environment, all of the great stuff we do internally to improve our business, drive efficiency, will actually start to build back margin further, rather than just go to plug in gaps, predominantly over the last couple of years around pricing. So that's why we feel positive about a continuation of margin build-back. As a result of all of that and on the back of a decent start to the second half and good line of sight for the full year, we're in the great position of being able to upgrade guidance for the business, so new guidance sits 108-112. Current consensus is around about 106, so you can see a nice step on there. And, you know, we're absolutely confident, clearly putting that up there, that we will actually deliver. So, I think from my perspective, I just wanted to get some of those key messages up front. As ever, Ben will now bring some real color to those numbers and share the more detailed stories with you. Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. I wanted to actually start with a, "G'day, mates," because obviously a little bit more appropriate as I'm Australian-bound. But yeah, as you've said, we'll focus on the business end of things in the first instance. So I'll start with there's a very strong delivery that has driven this first half performance. And in case you didn't realize that all of our financial metrics are progressive, we actually added large green ticks for you to see to make it even more obvious. So we're really pleased with this performance overall. And those couple of highlights I'll just touch on. So firstly, like-for-like revenues are up 3.8% with the return of positive volume growth for the group. Secondly, adjusted operating profit is up 27%, as we finally benefit from our own efficiency activities rather than have them offset some of the inflation that we have struggled to recover. As always, cash generation remains really strong, and once again, we see a conversion of EBIT into free cash of almost 100%. As a result, we've delivered leverage of 1.2 times, which is 0.6 times lower than where we were last year. We now sit very comfortably at the lower end of the range. All of this translates into a much stronger EPS, and combined with our improved expectations for the full year, the board is recommending a 10% increase to the dividend, so we'll dive into a little bit more detail, starting with revenue on slide nine. Like-for-like revenues were up 3.8%. Pricing has been the key driver of this top-line growth for the past two years, and is, in the first half of this year, represented 2.1% of the growth. Positively, volume is now contributing to overall growth, with volumes up 1.7%. On a statutory basis, revenue is up 2.8%, so slightly lower, but ultimately, that is driven by two very simple adjustments, and only two. The first is the impact on currency. Clearly, we operate in the U.S. and China. The second captures the revenues from our China bakery business up to the date of disposal in March 2024. So now to the right-hand side of the slide, which shows the like-for-like revenue performance by region. UK revenues were up 4.8%, and this is split almost evenly between price and volume. Price does reflect the benefit of increases secured last year, and much of that is now annualizing out. Volume has strengthened through the period, and it is really pleasing that all four of our categories are now back in growth. The 5% reduction in US revenue is in line with the guidance we stated, earlier last year, or actually some time ago, and, as we have continued to reshape our business from growth, from profitability to growth. With performance now stabilized, we are starting to rebuild our pipeline and expect to return to growth in H2. In China, like-for-like revenues were up 6%. We've seen good growth in our Mainland China business, but this was offset by reduced volumes in Hong Kong, where the market has been very depressed. As a quick reminder, we now only have two businesses in the China region. The first is Mainland China, which represents around 85% of our sales there, and the balance sits with Hong Kong. So moving to slide 10, where we once again show this very familiar bridge that, I think you're all used to, where we reconcile our EBIT from last year to this year. So now that volume is back into positive territory, we start to see the impact of those increased sales contribute to profit at around GBP 4 million itself. The next you see here is the GBP 26 million worth of inflation. Still a chunky number, but definitely moderated. When we stood here last year, or I stood here, and you guys sat there, which is obviously where I'd rather be, but when I stood here last year, that number was £91 million for the half year. That is 10% increase across our entire cost base. Right now, we sit at 2.6% increase across our entire cost base, and that is predominantly labor. It is actually the most significant part, as you'd expect, of our inflation overall. But pleasingly, at least, we can say that our voluntary turnover is down, and all employee KPIs have stepped on. We do expect inflation in the second half of the year to be similar to that of the first half, and therefore, total inflation will be around £50 million for the full year. We have received a good level of support from our customers in recovering these increased costs, and this is reflected in the price increases shown on the chart. I'll just add a further word of caution here, that that level of recovery is flattered because it does represent price increases that were secured twelve to fifteen months ago, and these are starting to annualize out. The key point I want you to take away from this chart, however, is this is the first time in a long time that actually you see inflation being offset by price recovery and volume. And so finally, with all these efficiency activities and efficiency improvements that we've been delivering, it's now dropping through to the bottom line, and that is what's securing our improvement in profitability. And there are really two core components to those efficiency improvements. The first is, you'll remember back in November 2022, we announced a restructuring plan, and we talked about there being annualized savings of around 25 million GBP. Those savings have actually come in at around 30 million GBP on an annualized basis, and some of that has now or all of that has now concluded and is dropping through into our run rate, hence the 11 million GBP improvement, but also sat within there are the factory efficiencies across all of our businesses globally, and that is driven by what we are now terming the Bakkavor Operating System, which Mike will come on and give you a little bit more detail about, because we recognize this is a phrase that's unfamiliar to you guys. Moving to Slide 11, and our adjusted operating profit performance by region. In the U.K., profit was up GBP 7.6 million, or 17%. This was driven by the combination of improved volumes, good price recovery, and excellent progress in driving further operational efficiency. I'm really pleased to say our margin is now moving in the right direction, and this will support the group's target to rebuild margins over the medium term. The turnaround of the business in the second half of last year for the U.S. has strengthened further in this period, with EBIT up GBP 3.5 million. While margin is also up at 3.3%, this does remain dilutive to the group. Another really important point I want you to take away here is that actually if you look at EBITDA margin, the U.S. is making exactly the same EBITDA margin as the U.K., at 8.4%. The depreciation charge in the U.S., however, is a lot more significant relative to the size of that business versus the U.K. So good that both businesses are at exactly the same margin, but that said, I know all of you have heard me spout for many years now that the margin, EBIT margins in the U.S. should be higher than the U.K., and they should be accretive. I'm not stepping away from that statement. I believe in that just as much today as I did four years ago when I came into this role and two years previous to that when I was out in the U.S. So the U.S. team are working brilliantly to deliver on that margin accretion over time. In China, it's good to see operating losses reduce once again as volumes continue to improve and our lean manufacturing program drives returns. The business, therefore, continues to be self-sustaining and cash generative. As the business does remain dilutive to group margins, we have continued to look at opportunities to simplify our operation, and at the end of March, we completed the sale of our frozen bakery business. The profit on disposal of this business is the key contributor to the 3.8 million GBP you see in exceptional items there, and as a result, operating profit steps on by 12.5 million GBP. So now to Slide twelve. What I would say here is the strength of the group's cash generation has been a consistent theme in my time as CFO, and we see really good cash generation here, driven by those improved profits I talked about earlier, so GBP 11.6 million of improved profits, also delivered by sustained focus on working capital and a really good discipline that's been maintained around capital spend. So from a working capital perspective, although the improvement looks relatively small, that is built on what was a record level of working capital inflow that we delivered last year. So we have sustained that improvement and delivered a little bit more. The cash flow also benefits from this lower capital spend at around GBP 15 million. And the reason that capital spend is lower, 'cause we did guide to around 60-70 million GBP for the full year, is because we are seeing longer lead times on kit and equipment, and we are looking to rephase projects as we bring volume back into the business. While this delay has happened with regards to capital spend, I don't want anyone to be left in any doubt around the pipeline of opportunity and projects that we have in this business. So ultimately, we are still looking to rebuild spend, and I'll come on to talk about guidance on capital spend in a moment. So that strong level of cash generation has supported a good dividend payment. And on top of that, debt is down once again. So there's a 28 million GBP reduction in debt. I'll say it again, leverage at record low is 1.2 times. I won't have many more times to say things like this, but down 0.6 times in 12 months, and very much sits comfortably at the lower end of the range. I also want to talk a little bit about the refinancing, 'cause given the stability in the lending markets over the past 6 months, we did take the opportunity to refinance our debt facilities, and I would like to thank the excellent support from all of our banking syndicate, many of which are in the room today, and if they couldn't be in the room today, I absolutely know they're on the call, and the working relationship that we have with you guys is absolutely fantastic. We now have debt facilities totaling GBP 350 million, comprising GBP 150 million in term loan and GBP 200 million in RCF. We have a four-year term with two one-year extensions, and our new facilities include a 25 basis point reduction in margin. That concludes the first half performance. I'll just touch on guidance now. Reported revenue growth is expected to strengthen, with guidance improved to 2%-3% for the full year. This is driven primarily by the improving outlook in U.K. volume. In the U.S., I've talked about the rebuild of sales, albeit moderate, in the second half, and in China, we do expect statutory sales to go backwards at around 6%. On a like-for-like basis, once you adjust out the impact of the bakery disposal, we are continuing to deliver 10% growth in that business. Once again, we are upgrading our profit expectations to the new range of 108 to 112 million GBP. We believe interest costs will remain unchanged, but positively, we now expect the effective tax rate to be more like 24%, down from the 26% we previously guided, as we benefit from additional tax losses brought forward following a review of the group's taxable loss position. Just to be clear, that benefit is for 2024 only, and we are likely to return to 26% in 2025. For my final slide, I'll conclude on guidance for capital allocation. I outlined earlier that we have had less spend in H1 in capital spend than we first expected. We are now revising our guidance to GBP 50-60 million. This does include the spend on our ERP replacement here in the UK, a project which we did talk you through at our last announcement, and what I would say is, even though it's early days, we are tracking on time and on budget for that project. We believe our target leverage remains absolutely appropriate. Having said that, we do expect to see further net debt reduction, and as a result, further leverage improvement coming through, driven by those working capital benefits, but also driven by the uplift in profitability. We remain absolutely committed to our progressive dividend policy. The improvement in profit, reduction in debt, and leverage, combined with a positive outlook, has led us to reconsider the increase to the dividend. As you know, we've historically increased dividends by the 5%, but given this very strong set of results, the board is making an exception, and therefore, the increase will be 10% to the interim dividend. We also remain absolutely focused on strategic growth opportunities. Our recent refinancing secures our growth platform, and with ROIC improving to eight point seven percent, we are now targeting a path to double digits. So to conclude, all financial KPIs are progressive. We have positive momentum in all three regions. Debt and leverage are at record lows. All of this provides us with confidence in delivering our upgraded profit forecast for the full year. So for me, a very final time, to hand back to Mike. Thank you. Thanks, Ben. Well, a great story, brilliantly told, so, thank you for that, Ben. So what I want to do now is talk a little bit about strategy, and the progress we're making about strategy. And I think on the first chart, the big reveal really is the guidance we're giving in terms of our ambition for future margin for the business. We've talked a lot about it. As I said earlier, I think the time is now right to paint a picture, give some more color, as to where we're headed. And we are absolutely confident we will deliver against this. But I think the story is told through the page, and at the top, it's our strategy. The strategy remains unchanged. It's really clear, and it is what is actually going to power us towards that target that we've set out. I think the middle part of the page really talks to the plan that Ben referenced, the plan that we came up with to generate 25 million GBP worth of internal benefits, ended up being 30 million GBP, which is fantastic. But actually, the pillars of that plan have kind of become embedded in the business and they will, you know, help us back up the strategic focus in terms of the way we run the business internally. So having, you know, lean structures, effective business process that's going to fuel efficiency and synergy, absolutely critical. Having really clear regional priorities, so our leadership teams know what they've got to focus on. And then finally, the clarity we've got around the capital allocation program so that, you know, we get ourselves really focused on both profit generation and cash delivery. So all of that will come down to the ambition to take the business to 6%. So very clear, very unequivocal, and you guys need to think about that in the context of the medium term. And for me, the medium term would be three years. And I would ask you to think about it in a very steady and sustainable way. So the glide path is going to be steady and sustainable. I'm sure one of the questions that I'll get asked is: Can you bridge that for us? Can you take us on the journey? Really, the answer is no. We're not going to be specific on that, so I want to kind of head that off at the pass. But I'd just take you back to the strategy. Yeah, the strategy will actually power us towards it. If I give you an example, at the moment in the U.K., unfortunately, we've announced the start of a consultation at our Wigan site. You know, that is suboptimal business. That will actually help our margin delivery. In terms of... And there's probably a key message there around sales, because, you know, this margin target is more important than just chasing sales. The sales that we have coming into the business needs to be good quality. Actually, but when we make that decision, if we end up closing the business, it helps from a capital allocation policy because that site needs a disproportionate amount of spend to bring it up to the Bakkavor standard, but the economic case just doesn't make sense. So, you know, it, it's touching the final pillar as well. In terms of international, I'll come on and talk about that in a minute, but as Ben said, you know, we've recovered the business in the U.S. We're not in recovery mode anymore. We're going to stop talking about recovery. It's kind of negative. There's still plenty to go at, but it's more into that business-as-usual mode. So international will contribute to this. Then I'm going to talk in a bit about our excellence pillar. You know, we talk a lot about self-help efficiency, but we've not really explained what's powering it, and I'll do that today. And then, of course, finally, the ESG or trust pillar within our strategy. You know, there's money to go at there as well, whether it's around food waste, emissions, or turnover. All these things are important non-financial measures, but they all have a fantastic financial benefit. So look, not going to be any more color than that, but this chart really talks to the target and how we're going to get there. If I come on and speak about the UK and that part of the business, I think the big story in town here is the market is absolutely backing growth, and that is fantastic news for us because it's clearly our biggest market. The reason that it's backing growth is that, you know, consumers are, you know, demanding more of our products, which is great. I think the first part of the story here is that, customer and consumer confidence is growing. The optics in the UK are definitely much better now than they were several months ago, and that's translating into more confidence from a consumer perspective. What's happening there is that consumers who were really focused on one thing only, price, are now starting to think about the things that are very fundamentally key to our market, and that's convenience, it's quality, and it's value, which is very different to price. So there's a shift from price back to those macro dynamics that are within our market that work well for consumers, and therefore drive growth back in, and that comes through frequency. We know that the more people are shopping, and the more frequently, they're going into stores, that benefits us because we tend to be an impulse purchase, less planned. So the story's really good here in terms of the market. The story's also good in terms of our performance. You know, we continue to outperform the market. The gap is a little bit less or a lot less than it was last year, but we've absolutely consolidated the gains we made last year and remain ahead of the curve, and actually, there's some annualization going on in the first half, which is unfavorable to us, so that trend will improve as we go through the second half. So look, a really good story around growth in the UK, and frankly, you know, we've not felt more positive about the UK for a good number of years. It feels like we've been treading through treacle year after year, and now there is finally light at the end of the tunnel, which is great, and that has to help us, given our position in the market. If I look at international, the big story here is international is delivering for the group. You know, we are now in a position where, you know, international is absolutely contributing to the delivery of the business, and a lot of that is about the recovery in the U.S., and you can see that the profit has stepped on significantly, and the guys are doing an amazing job, and you know, this officially is the end of recovery speak, because the business is making money, it's operating to the Bakkavor standard, and, you know, we're now in the place where we're just going to build out growth in a very considered way, and therefore improve the profitability as we move forward. And as Ben said, our number has always been 7%, so when we talk about 6% for the group, that gives you the context as to the role the U.S. will play. But good news in China as well. I mean, as Ben said, we've been simplifying. We've been bringing cash back into the business, as we've simplified the business, and that's great because we can get more focused on the main task in hand, which is the mainland China business, which is the biggest part of what we've got left. The guys there are working really hard, focusing on lean projects to reduce losses. And actually, we're making good progress towards our target, which again, agriculturally, we want to get back to a break-even position. Well, not really get back, because I'm not sure we've been there, but get to a break-even position in China. I'm not sure, you know, we ourselves can, you know, push on too much further than that break-even position without doing something more strategic. And, and actually, when we come and talk about what Ben's going to do, you know, in his run-up to leaving the business, you know, he's going to be very focused on revisiting the China strategy and working out what options we have, you know, and, you know, 'cause we can't carry on with a business that is just suboptimal to the overall group delivery. So the key point on here to just stress is from international perspective, the US remains the priority. It's an incredibly exciting market. You know, we're back on track, and it's going to be enhancing for the group, when we run through the next few years. If I talk now about our excellence pillar, yeah, we don't, we don't speak much about our excellence pillar in some regards, but we talk a lot about self-help and efficiency. And really, the thing that's powering that self-help and efficiency is the Bakkavor Operating System, and that is the cornerstone of our excellence pillar. And we've been on a big journey here that we've not really talked about 'cause we didn't want to talk about it until we'd kind of got to the place that it's very developed and very established. And yeah, the journey started really way back when, where we just looked at site improvement plans. We then started to coordinate that and look across the group, and now we've very much got into the mode of driving operational excellence, and you know, operational excellence is supported by a dedicated team of people that drive consistent approach across the business, and really help us prioritize our activity, but the cornerstone of this is the Bakkavor Operating System. It is what we've created, it's a way of working that is consistent across the group, and it goes hand in glove, really, with Smart Manufacturing System that we've got in all our sites in the UK. This system gives us live data. The operating system sets out the way that we use that data to look for value opportunities. So this is what is powering the self-help, the efficiency, and will continue to play a massive part as we move the business towards the margin target that we've talked about, so the final pillar of the strategy, trust, really is dominated by the KPIs we have around the ESG agenda, and if I take the first one there, it's a brilliant example of how the strategy or the pillars in the strategy work hand in hand, 'cause these aren't exclusive. They all interconnect, and they all work strongly together, and through the Bakkavor Operating System, yeah, we've created a standard approach to managing waste, and the OpEx teams have been really focused on this. We've always been brilliant at managing labor. We're now getting much better at managing the raw material and packaging side of the business in our factories, and it's coming through that approach through our excellence pillar. And you can see the reduction there. That is significant based on the size of waste that we've got, you know, a real step change. You know, that's shifting the dial, it's not just a nudge in the right direction. Unfortunately, there's a bit of a blot on the landscape with regard to emissions. This relates to an issue in one region at one specific site where we had an F-gas leak. In truth, the leak had probably been ongoing for a good period of time. It was only when the refrigeration system failed that we knew we had a problem, and we had to report the losses at that point in time, and they were pretty significant. Without that, we'd have actually been showing a progressive number for the group. So it is a blip. We're confident we've learned some lessons from that, and we've got a very clear plan to be less reliant on the nasty F-gases that are in the system as we move forward. And then the final measure here is people, and again, we look at turnover here, and this isn't just a nudge, this is another shift and step change. Now, some of this is about the environment that we're in. There is no doubt that labor availability is kind of more prevalent, and therefore, people are maybe less likely to move. But we've been working tirelessly on our people agenda, and in truth, have been quite disappointed that we've not got a better return for all the effort that we've put in on this turnover measure. So a big step down. It's not actually back to where it was before all the mayhem started. You know, we would've been just below 20% back in the day, but you know, really important because turnover just creates disruption in factories. Disruption in factories isn't conducive to driving efficiency. So, you know, this has real money attached to it. So that brings me on to the people plan, and I think here, Donna Marie is in the room, we have a really strong people plan, and we are passionate about looking after our people. I think this is another example of how our matrix works, our matrix organization, 'cause whilst Donna Marie is sat there, front and center of this, it's gotta be led by the whole leadership team. There has to be buy-in. It's not an HR project. This is about living and breathing our people agenda, and there's some things I'd call out there. The increases of pay that we've given over the last three years to factory colleagues comes in at over 21%, yet we've still protected profitability of the business. We've really invested heavily in facilities. You know, so rest facilities, but also our staff shop initiative. And you know, we're now actively making live product to put in our staff shops to give our employees a benefit, rather than just seeing it as a way of dealing with food waste. We still put, you know, our food waste, so overruns, et cetera, into staff shops, but we are making products specifically to send to our staff shops, a massive benefit for employees, and the list goes on. But the point here is this is a huge effort across the business, and it's really nice now that we're seeing the fruits of this in our turnover number. So I think you know, you've... You've heard the big messages. Ben's given you brilliant story around the detail. Really just yeah wanted to update on strategy. And as I say, the big story is being open on our margin target. It's now just about summarizing and you know giving you the two big things to take away before I hand over to Simon. The first one obviously is that we're in a really good place. We're feeling confident, we've got momentum in all three regions and we're upgrading guidance to 108-112 which is obviously ahead of current expectations. Really good news in the short term. I think in the medium term the big story is this 6%, and I would just come back to what I said when I landed it earlier. We are very confident around this. We wouldn't be talking about it if we didn't have the resolve to get there. We're gonna do it by driving better performance through our strategic pillars, and it's gonna be a steady, sustainable glide path through the next three years. So I think from my perspective, that's all I wanted to say formally. I mean, I do want to just you know thank all our colleagues because this is a fantastic performance, and without them we couldn't have delivered it. I wanna thank our customers 'cause they continue to support us, and we try and do a great job for them. We're not always perfect, but we have a good relationship, and they've supported us, as Ben said, through inflation recovery, which has been really important for us through a difficult period. And as Ben said, I wanna thank you, you guys, because you support us financially. And that's also incredibly important to us, even though we're borrowing less money now than we used to, which I know isn't necessarily so good for some of you, but it's good for us, and yeah, we can be quite selfish at times. So, but look, that's it from me. I'm gonna hand over to Simon, who just wants to say a few words with regard to our CFO change. Thanks very much, Mike. Well, obviously, as you know, we put out two announcements today, and the second one relates to the change of CFO. I guess that transformation, as a word, is deeply overused these days in corporate announcements, and if ever I see it creeping into one of ours, I get out my red pen. But I think it is probably a very appropriate word to use for the impact that Ben has had, in particular on our relationship with the people in this room and the financial world beyond. Obviously, the improvement in our share price in the last twelve months has been backed by very good financial and trading performance. But I think it also reflects a change in sentiment and in the way in which Bakkavor is viewed, and the reliance that you place on the things that we say to you, and the expectation that we will at least deliver, if not a little bit over-deliver on what we have promised. And a great deal of the credit for that, I think, belongs with Ben and the impact he's had, on that whole way of working, not just in terms of how it's presented, but actually in terms of how robust the numbers are, how well put together they are, how few surprises we ever have. And so, you know, it's been our sense that Ben has not only been a highly capable person to work with, but also a pleasure to work with, and I'm sure that's reflected by many of you in this room. So, it goes without saying, therefore, that we were very sorry to learn that he might be going. And we thought initially that we should try and put a stop to this. But we found we were up against factors that we couldn't really compete with. For Bakkavor to say that is quite something, I have to say. But we wish you the very best, Ben, for the future. We're delighted that you're going to be continuing to work with us for a period of time, and in particular, focusing on some of the strategic work we're doing in Asia and that we'll have the benefit of your advice and support through that period. Thank you. Obviously, when we became aware of this, as a possibility, we embarked on a succession program. And we had identified in our board succession work for some time, Lee Miley as a successor to Ben. But in line with good practice, we tested that out by conducting what was a pretty rigorous recruitment process, in the course of which we met a number of very able and appointable people. But I think it was very pleasing to us that at the end of that, we felt very comfortable to conclude that the succession planning had been right all along, and that Lee was the right person to appoint to take over from Ben. A number of you will know Lee already. He's sitting here at the front, so I hope you'll take the opportunity to say hello to him before you go. Lee actually is a very long-standing colleague, and has been, I think, finance director of the U.K. business for more than a decade. Yes. Is that right? In fact, I dare say that he has actually spent more time in line finance roles in Bakkavor than Ben did. So we appoint him with great confidence that this will be a smooth transition. He hasn't just worked in line finance. He's done a number of other things, including M&A. Most recently, he's also been responsible for our ESG program. So he has a very broad understanding of this business and has acquitted himself with huge competence over a long period of time. So we're absolutely delighted that he's going to take over. It's as orderly and managed a transition, I think, as could be managed or done. And so we have very high expectations that you'll see nothing but continuity in terms of how we manage our financial affairs. So we wish you every success and look forward to working with you, and I'm sure everyone else will feel the same. So thank you. Before we get into Q&A, I mean, I can't really follow that too much, but there's a couple of things I'll say about Ben. The most important one, he's just a bloody good bloke, and you know, that will stand him well Down Under, no doubt. The second thing is, he's also bloody fantastic at his job, and as Simon said, he's done an immense job, coming into the role at a difficult time, and leaves with the business in rude health, frankly. So, you know, hats off on that one, and I think the third thing I'd say, you know, he's made my transition into the CEO role, you know, easy. You know, his knowledge and experience has made sort of connecting with you guys much easier, and I thank him for that and his loyalty to me, his commitment to me through my couple of years in role. As Simon said, life goes on and, you know, Ben will be replaced by Lee. I've worked with Lee a lot in the past, and, you know, he will bring a different style and approach to the role. But the most important thing as a leadership team is we will keep powering on, we will keep driving this business forward, and we will deliver that 6% target, so with that, I think I'll hand over to Emily, who will organize sort of Q&A. Yeah. Thank you, Mike. And good morning, everyone. So we'll now start our Q&A. I know we've got some analysts in the room with us today, so we'll start there, and then we will go to our conference call. So over to Charles. Thanks, first of all, Ben, thank you very much for all your help and insight over the years. It's been a great pleasure and many best wishes for your move Down Under. I'm sure it'll be great to get away at spring next year. So maybe a bit more insight into margins in the US. You talked about getting to 7% from 3.3% in the first half. Can you just try and lay out a roadmap on that bit of the business? I know you're not going to do it on the full company, but is that volume growth? Is that efficiencies? Is that D&A starting to drop away as we go through some of those projects, sort of getting to the end of their depreciation life? Yep, look, happy to pick that up. The first thing I'd say is that we have delivered 7% before in that region, so it's not as if this is something new to us. We are very familiar with the last 13 years that we've operated in this region as to the retailer relationships, the prices we can achieve on our products, and the very attractive proposition that we're offering. So it's all bedded in history and understanding. The next thing I'd say is that we certainly have capacity headroom within our facilities, for sure. And we've talked about this, kind of $500 million capacity that's available to our business, and it's something around that. As we deliver more efficiency, we start to see more opportunity from that perspective. And so, given where we sit today, we have an opportunity of seeing growth of 10%-12% for the next few years, and that naturally will contribute to profitability through that operating leverage. The final thing I'd say is that the guys have done an absolutely amazing job, and I can't kind of understate this. It is fantastic, the level of efficiency they've driven out of that, this business, and it doesn't end here. So you can see the glide path that supports them in driving further profitability improvements for this business. So I think it's a combination of those three things that gives us kind of the absolute kind of confidence around that ability to deliver the 7%. And Mike, maybe it'd be helpful just to touch on that volume aspect, how much of that will come through existing customers and innovation, how much through new business wins? And obviously, you've been through a period where there was too much complexity, the product range was too broad, pricing wasn't right, so you've got a lot of learnings there. How do you get it right this time? Yeah, no, absolutely. I think the first thing is we're not going to get fixated about a sales number. You know, whatever sales number we deliver, it's going to be, you know, sustainable, and we're going to make sure it's the right growth we bring in. We're back in growth now, and the second half will show growth in the US, and that's been driven in the main by our innovation pipeline. So it's taken time to kickstart that, because when I kind of took over and run the rule over the US, we just put the brakes on, stopped everything, and it takes time to kickstart that. So I'm really pleased to say that that's back up and running and delivering nicely for us with our existing customers, and that has to be priority number one, get our existing customers to build out the proposition, and outperform in the market. But of course, we do want to bring other customers on board. We've developed a brand that has our, you know, biggest-selling types of product embedded within it. We've just launched that with one particular retailer. And, you know, it's early days, but it's starting to build. And the beauty with this is it helps us to manage the point about complexity, 'cause not every retailer over there will have the ability to sell the same volume as our big customers. So how do we get into maybe smaller customers, where the opportunity is not quite so big, but it sits there nevertheless? The brand is opening that up for us. It's going to be a combination of the two. Charles, you have a strong innovation pipeline, coupled with bringing new customers into the business. But we're not gonna allow the team over there to get seduced by big growth numbers. We want growth. It will be growth ahead of the U.K., absolutely for sure, but they've got to move towards this 7% in a, you know, in a steady, stable way. It's just part of that glide path I talked about in terms of the 6% really, sits within that. ...One more question, if I may. The meals category in the UK, could you just talk a little bit about that? It's obviously had overcapacity. It's been a challenge in terms of margins, and that must be one of the sort of rationales for Wigan. How much does this answer the overcapacity issue in the industry? Look, I'm not sure it answers the overcapacity issue. I mean, what it does do is it sorts out the outlier within our business. Because, yeah, Wigan is an outlier, both in terms of profitability and the sort of asset that we've got there. In terms of meals, I mean, I think we bucked the trend a little bit here. We have a really focused meals business. You know, we've done a lot of reorganizing and restructuring a footprint quite a long time ago, and we're very happy with our meals position. I think there's a lot of shakeout to happen in the market, in the supply base, you know, where people have maybe got volume in their businesses that perhaps doesn't work, and that maybe needs to be dealt with so that there starts to be a shift in terms of, you know, the value proposition that a meal gives. If you look at how cheaply, you know, meals are sold in retailers compared to certain other product categories, given their complexity and high protein dairy content, there's a bit of a disconnect there, and somehow, you know, that needs to be sorted out. It's just a matter of economics. Good morning, Mike, Simon, and best of luck with everything in the future, Ben. Thank you. Two questions from me, please. Maybe just following on from that last one, could you give us a bit of color in terms of how your other U.K. categories are performing? And like, I guess specifically with categories like pizza, where maybe you benefited from, like, the fakeaway trend, as, you know, people were sort of pulling back budgets. With confidence coming back, yes, you'll get some trade up, maybe from lower value categories, but is there a risk that you lose some of that incremental volumes, and particularly at the high end? And then just secondly, so I appreciate you, you're not giving the full building blocks for the 6% margin, but- You asked this yesterday. Is China in that? So it's not subject to the work that Ben is going to be doing in the next few weeks, but is China in that 6%, or is there potential further upside? Look, let me deal with that one first. I mean, yeah, we've been as clear as we can be in terms of our excitement about the U.S. and concerns about China because of the fact that it's a drag on our profitability, and that needs to be dealt with, and we've had so much other stuff to deal with. You know, whilst we've stabilized the business in China, we probably need to go back and have a real fresh look at what our options are. Are there people to partner with? You know, have we got rationalization opportunities, et cetera, et cetera. But within all this, you know, we need to change our China business and the impact it has on the group. And Ben, you know, will be very focused on this. Australia happens to be closer to China than the UK, and the time difference is a lot easier to work with. So, you know, he, he's gonna be, you know, really involved with this, and, you know, we've got a lot of thoughts on it already, but it's just having that quality of time to bring those together and, you know, work out what the levers might be. So look, I don't think I can say too much more on that, but you can't have a region that's underperforming to that extent and deliver a margin improvement target. That said, China is such a small part of the business. I'm not sure, you know, with all the other opportunities we've got, it's all that significant, but emotionally, it needs to be, you know, needs to be resolved. With regard to the market over here, I mean, you know, we've seen the market's back in growth. Actually, the one part of the market that isn't is pizza and bread. You know, that's showing a bit of a decline. The main reason for that, actually, is the tail off in terms of the value ranges. Because we saw in this particular market, you know, good midweek fodder for families, you know, the value ranges performed incredibly strongly. We saw it particularly in our bread business with the value garlic baguettes just going crazy in terms of volume. That is easing off massively, so starts to have an impact on that volume dynamic in that particular category. As it happens, when pizza was, you know, performing probably best category in the market, it wasn't really helping us 'cause we, we're underrepresented in that value category. So whilst the category is showing decline, we're beating the market in terms of pizza. The big winners within the growth are unsurprisingly the categories that, you know, really struggled. So desserts being the obvious one, you know, massive discretionary purchase. People just opted not to put a dessert in the basket. You could do without it, and that's showing strong growth. Also, the salads category is showing good growth. That was, a... It's such a broad category, but there's a lot of other options, be that sort of whole head, less prepared, less value-add products for people to pick up if they're managing to a budget. So that's performing strongly. Meals has been really steady, kind of throughout. Within our mix, we are winning in three categories, and slightly, well, actually behind, reasonably significantly in another one, which is in the last one, which is salads. And the reason for that is we exited a big chunk of salads business last year on the back of closing one of the factories. So we've got that in our numbers at the moment. Well, it's annualized out now, but it's still lagging us in the market from a share perspective. So that's sort of the picture category-wise. Thank you. ... unless there are any other questions in the room? Nope. Great, we will hand over to our conference call, and so those joining on conference call, if you can just say your name and the company you're from, that'd be great. Thank you. Thank you, and as a reminder, that is star one to ask a question on the telephone. First up, we have Doriana Russo from HSBC. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning, everyone. I've got two questions. First question is on the subject of organic growth in the UK, you just gave an outline of your performance vis-a-vis categories. But, where is in which categories is that you are actually gaining business? I think the presentation was talking about net business gain. So if you can give a little bit more detail on where Bakkavor is getting more business. And also, are there any adjacent categories or businesses which sound attractive to you, which could be a follow-on underpinning further expansion in the UK organically? And my second question is, now that the leverage is at record lows, is the M&A opportunity coming back as a priority for building up growth in the future? Thank you. Yeah, okay, Doriana. Well, I'll kind of go in reverse order 'cause I'm not sure I entirely got the first question, but in terms of M&A, look, we've worked hard to strengthen the balance sheet, and we're in a really good position, as you can see, and yes, we're at one point two times leverage. You know, that will continue to come down. It's not going to step down at quite the rate of knots it has done over the last eighteen months or so, but it is going to continue to come down unless we make a big strategic investment. I think the key thing here is whether it's an acquisition or whether it's something big internally. We're in a position to be able to do it. I think the problem, when you look at M&A, particularly in the UK, is our share is quite large in certain categories, and therefore it makes the opportunity for M&A maybe a little bit more challenging. Of course, everyone wants too much money for businesses, and you know, we've got to be very careful that whatever we do becomes accretive to margin. Well, look, we've got our eyes wide open. We've got a great team on strategy, and we're alert for opportunity. I think in the UK, it's going to be quite opportunistic for us, but we'll continue to look in that way. Outside of the UK, acquisitions are quite difficult because we're clearly... You know, our spending is done in China, so we're not going to be doing anything there, and while we'd love to buy something in America, no one does what we really do, so it's quite difficult, so I think hopefully that gives you a sense on the M&A one. In terms of the next question, I think you were talking about which category, which categories are we actually winning business in rather than just gaining share. I would say the standout category for us is desserts. You know, we've obviously invested a lot in desserts. We've got good capability, capacity, and that would be an area where we would, you know, look to continue to win business. You know, the world moves so quickly in our space that there's lots of bits coming in and bits coming out in different categories. But for the most part, you know, we will win share on the back of our fantastic service and innovation pipeline. I'm not sure I got the first question. The first question also included an open-ended question regarding whether you actually can see any other category in which Bakkavor might actually make an entry, either organically or via M&A in the UK? Yeah ... to sort of underpin another leg of growth in the future. Yeah. Look, I mean, we look at this all the time, and the one obvious miss we have as a business is sandwiches, 'cause we're obviously looking for value add, large, you know, categories in the market that have growth potential, and sandwiches is an obvious one, and never say never, but the ship sailed a little bit on that one, and obviously other people have done a fantastic job, so I think you know, in our sort of space as we measure the market at the moment, you know, not seeing too many big opportunities. I think therefore, you look outside of our current space and say: Is there an opportunity to, you know, to stretch our category breadth? A very small example of that was when we bought the Devizes site as part of our desserts plan. That business does actually make chilled products through its bakery, so it makes fantastic tarts, but we also do quite a lot of ambient business there as well, so like morning pastries. You know, I think it will be looking for opportunities to stretch out of the current box we're in, really. And as I said, you know, we're alert to everything. People know we're good for it, and therefore, we get a lot coming across our desk. We've just got to make sure that whatever we look at makes, you know, absolute sense for us. Okay, and then as a follow-on question, if I may, given the fact that acquisitions are not really easy to come by, given the current environment and given your current situation in terms of market share, at what point would you decide to return cash back or to do something else with your cash? Look, I think there's two parts to that, really. I think the first one is you focus a lot on acquisitions. I'd say, look, focus on all the opportunities we've got internally, through the pillars of the strategy. You know, if I look at excellence, you know, opportunities to continue to outperform and therefore invest behind more capability and capacity, there's a lot that's within our gift here. So I don't think we need to get fixated with acquisitions. Plenty of internal opportunities. I think in terms of returning cash to shareholders, we've got a progressive dividend policy. You know, leverage at the moment is still at one point two times. You know, given our share register, it's unlikely we would be thinking about any form of share buyback. That, that doesn't make a lot of sense. So, I think we just continue to, yeah, play the next twelve months out, and see what opportunities come along, and maybe think about it then. But there's no plan- Okay ... to sort of change the capital allocation, policy that we've got at the moment. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. And we now move on to the next question now, which comes from Damian McNeilly of DB Numis. Please go ahead. Hi, morning, everybody, and thanks for taking the question. Firstly, I'd just like to echo the comments about Ben. You've been very helpful, and I think, we will miss you, but thank you very much. The first question or my only question, really, everybody's asked some good questions, is just on the new guidance of 108-112, lots of people are talking about how premium private label is getting improved traction within the marketplace. And I was just wondering, is there upside to the top end of your range, given that we're heading into Christmas, and the momentum seems to be in higher margin private label products? Look, I think, Damian, we feel very comfortable with the range. It's very balanced. If we didn't feel we had a line of sight to a hundred and twelve, we wouldn't mention the number. But we've still got, you know, a third of the year to go, and our biggest month within that, which is obviously December and Christmas. So, I guess you want to settle on a, you know, a range that is very credible and very balanced. You know, simple math would say we did fifty-five in the first half, why wouldn't we in the second? Which gets you in the middle of the range. I think the days of us having a skewed first half, second half have probably gone, based on some of the work we've done in the business around mix and shape of business. So look, I think you know the range is good. There's always opportunities- Okay ... in life, though, you know? You know, so, Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's hope Lee has a first beat on his trading statement in January. No pressure. Thanks, Damian. Thank you. And we now take a question from Danp ing Lu of Citi. Please go ahead. Yep, thanks for the presentation, and thanks for taking my question. So this is Dan Ping from Citi. Firstly, I would like to quickly say thanks, Ben, for all your help, and I wish you all the best in the future. Thank you. My first question is on the 6% medium-term EBIT margin. So is it right? So basically now, the U.K. has delivered 5.5% in the first half, and then seems like China is not really baked into this guidance. So is it right to think the big driver will be the U.S. EBIT margin going up to 7%? So is it right to think we should see the U.S. achieving this margin level or even higher within this medium term? So that's my first question. And then second one is on U.S. specifically. It's nice to see that we've finished the first phase of the strategic reshape, and then now we're moving to revenue growth. And then it sounds like you're quite confident about a 10%-12% growth over the next few years. I just want to check: how would you see basically about the underlying market there? 'Cause we've heard quite a lot of, especially on the branded food players side, a lot of companies are quite cautious about the current weak consumer demand, especially within the lower income group. So I just wanna get your thoughts on what you see the underlying market maybe over the next few months. And then do you feel like the confidence behind the revenue growth is it just because you're starting from a lower base, or do you see yourself benefiting from this slightly you know different consumer dynamics in the U.S.? So those are my two questions. Okay. Well, I'll deal with the second one first. I mean, I think, look, there's been a lot of chatter about the environment in the U.S., and I think we sit fairly calm on this one, and I'd point to two things. Through an absolute terrible few years, whilst we've not seen growth in the U.K., you know, we've seen how resilient our market is. And, you know, that's just amazing, really, and we don't think there's any reason why it wouldn't be so in the U.S. And it comes back to the same big things that people look for in fresh convenience foods. It's convenience, it's quality, and it's value. And I think if I then go on to the U.S. and look at a couple of dynamics there, the prevalence of people eating out of home in the U.S. is significantly higher than it is in the U.K. And when tough times hit in the U.K., you know, people eat out less and they switch into other options, you know, our space being one of them. And there's absolutely no reason why the same wouldn't happen in the U.S. In fact, it probably presents a bigger opportunity than the U.K., given it seems to be a lot more standard to go out for early dinner, as I've discovered on my travels over there. The other point I'd make here is there's a lot of... Unfortunately, I can't pluck a number, but I've read a lot of late where, you know, U.S. purchasers are switching into private label from brand, and of course, that would be another positive dynamic for us. So I'm not sure. We're never complacent, but the U.S. economy and impact on consumers isn't high on our worry wall. With regard to the U.S. and the 7%, I mean, I would just bring it back to, you know, the 7% is where we want to get to, where we will get to. That will absolutely support the 6% that we've talked about. It will run in parallel. I, you know, would say that, you know, growth is definitely going to play a part in that. You know, as Ben said, you know, and I'm not fixated with 10-12, you know, call it 8-12, you know, it's going to be more growth than the UK. But the important thing here is when we bring it in, we bring it in in a way that it falls to the bottom line and avoid the problems we've had of the past, where we've got it around our necks twice. So look, the 7% supports the 6%. It will be supported by growth, but there are many other things that are going to take us to that 7%. If you go back to that chart with the strategy and the embedded sort of tactics we've got underneath it, all of those boxes create value that will build us out to that 6%. Can I just add? That's helpful. Thank you. Dan Ping Lu. I'd just like to add one thing to that, because I probably wasn't crystal clear when I talked about the 10%-12%, and I don't want to set anyone up for a fall in this position. So the reference I was making to 10%-12% growth in the U.S. is we have the capacity to allow for that growth over a period of time, given the factory footprint we have today. Five years. That is five years. Yeah, exactly. That is not suggesting that we are going to, come what may, choose to grow at 10%-12% because, as Mike says, we have absolutely seen growth explode and seen the challenge of that. So we're going to be very measured about the way that we continue to seek growth in the U.S. And I just want to clarify that point, because if we grow at 5%, that might be the right thing for the business if the profitability drops through. So I just don't want anyone to take that assumption away differently. Yeah. And it's a big mind shift- Understood. Thank you. ... for our team over there. You know, it's a big shift for them. Thank you. That's clear. Thank you very much. Thank you. And as there are currently no further audio questions, I'd like to hand the call back over for closing remarks. Okay, well, look, I guess thanks for coming. It's always good to host these events. We're very passionate and proud about our business, and we love talking about it. I guess, you know, I think we've said it all in terms of Ben, and obviously Lee as well. I think the key thing for you to go away with, hopefully, and if you aren't feeling this, come and see us after, is that you're seeing a business that's in really good shape. It's got momentum across the board, it's upgrading its view of this year, and it's putting a marker down now in terms of where it intends to go. And supporting that, we've got a really clear strategy, really clear plan, and there's enough in all of that to get us to that number. We feel, you know, as a leadership team, absolutely confident that it's there to be had. So nothing more from me. Thank you very much.