Good morning, and welcome to this audio cast covering our half year results for the six months ended June 30th, 2022. I will start the presentation with the first half highlights and then hand over to Rohan for the financial review. After that, we'll take you through a broader business review, including how our growth engine has delivered in the last two and a half years, and how we can further accelerate this through incremental capacity investments, how we are dealing with inflationary pressures, and an update on strategic progress related to broadening our business and ESG. I will finish this morning's presentation with the outlook for the year. Let me start with the first half highlights. I'm pleased with the first half results in which the group performed well, building on the track record of recent years and reflecting our strong and improving growth platform. Constant currency revenue was up almost 9%, with strong contribution from volume and price and mix. This is an excellent performance given the challenging macroeconomic backdrop. As expected, we faced increased inflation. Our targeted price increases are sticking, but in the first half were due to the timing of the implementation, slightly lagging the inflation impact. Secure price increases will further benefit the second half and full year absolute inflation is expected to be fully recovered, mainly through pricing. With our growth, despite inflation price impact and continued growth investments, constant currency operating profit was marginally ahead of the prior year. I'm not only pleased with our financial performance, but also with the continued strategic progress. We continue to invest in our growth initiatives, brought successfully online new capacity in Czech and China, and are also making good progress with our ESG initiatives, and I will update on those later in the presentation. With all of this in mind, the board has declared a GBP 0.029 interim dividend, 3.5% up on the prior year. Let me now first hand over to Rohan for the financial review. Thank you, Rutger, and good morning, everybody. As Rutger mentioned, the first half of 2022 has delivered strong revenue growth, resilient operating profit, and good free cash flow. I will start today's presentation by focusing on the key financial highlights for the first half of 2022. Constant currency revenue was up 9% to GBP 130.4 million, driven by strong volume growth, price increases across all markets, and favorable geographical mix. This reflects the continued success in the execution of our strategy, which is now building on our improved track record of growth. Reported revenue was up 8% to GBP 129.8 million after accounting for foreign exchange headwinds, which was mainly driven by a non-recurring hedging gain in the comparative of H1 2021. Constant currency underlying operating profit was up 0.5% to GBP 20.4 million, reflecting inflationary pressures and increases in investments to drive further growth. Reported underlying operating profit was down 8% to GBP 18.6 million after adjusting for the foreign exchange headwinds, again, mainly driven by the non-recurring hedging gain in H1 2021. Underlying profit before tax was down 10% and underlying basic earnings per share of GBP 0.075 was down GBP 0.012 versus the prior year. We continue to see robust cash generation with free cash flows of GBP 3.2 million after adjusting for the increased CapEx spend. Balance sheet leverage continues to be strong, with covenant net debt to EBITDA ending at 1.6 x, which is unchanged year-on-year and includes a GBP 5.1 million impact of the retranslation of the U.S. dollar borrowings. Given the group's financial position, strong trading performance and positive outlook, the board has proposed an increased interim dividend of GBP 0.029, up 4% on the prior year. Let me now give you more detail on group revenue. Volumes of edible collagen casings were up 4.5%. Emerging market volumes were broadly flat, but we had strong price increases and positive mix in H1 and overall revenue up 6% in emerging markets. Mature market volume was up 8%, again, with positive pricing and mix, resulting in overall revenue up 9% in mature markets. Price increases were actioned across all markets to offset inflationary pressures. The secured price increases actioned in the first half will benefit the second half and next year, as there's a short-term time lag before the full benefit is seen. The positive mix was driven by better geographical mix as we continued to gain market share in North America with declines in China due to capacity constraints. Other products grew double digits across all product ranges, driven by strong underlying demand. The non-repeat hedging gain of GBP 2.9 million was offset by favorable foreign exchange gains due to the weakening of the sterling against the U.S. dollar. If rates stay as they are for the rest of the second half, we expect a foreign exchange gain for the full year. In summary, the first half revenue growth was pleasing, driven by strong underlying demand, positive price increases, which has accelerated our revenue growth year-on-year. Looking at underlying operating profit, and in this slide, we bridge the main movements for the first half. The first three bars of this waterfall show the operating profit impact of the revenue items we discussed on the previous slide. We continue to deliver on cost savings, which contributed GBP 1.7 million delivered through ongoing manufacturing initiatives focused on cost reduction and efficiency programs. Inflationary cost pressures of GBP 7 million were driven by energy, labor, and raw material input costs. Energy was the largest headwind across the group, and we expect a greater H2 impact as hedging rolls off. Inflation was partially offset by price increases and cost savings in the first half. Secured price increases will benefit H2 as we expect to offset current inflation headwinds for the full year, mainly through higher pricing as well as cost savings. Operating expenses increased by GBP 2 million, and this includes an increase in our investments in new product development to drive long-term growth, as well as one-off costs incurred. Taking account of these factors, constant currency underlying operating profit increased 0.5% to GBP 20.4 million, with constant currency margin decreasing by 130 basis points to 15.6% as we aim to protect absolute profit through price increases to cover inflation. This higher revenue will therefore have an impact on the percentage operating margin. We saw a net GBP 1.8 million negative foreign exchange headwind, which is mainly driven by the non-repeat of the GBP 2.9 million 2021 hedging gain. This, as I said earlier, was offset by favorable foreign exchange gains due to the weakening of the sterling against the U.S. dollar. If rates stay as they currently are during the second half, we expect to have a foreign exchange gain for the full year. Looking at the cash flow, the group delivered good free cash flow. As usual, seasonal working capital increased by GBP 7.5 million, reflecting higher H2 anticipated volumes. Capital expenditure in H1 was GBP 9.3 million, up GBP 1.7 million on 2021, mainly due to the capacity expansions in China and Czech Republic. For the full year, as guided, CapEx will be marginally above depreciation as the group invest in additional capacity to support the medium-term growth. Tax payments of GBP 4.7 million were marginally below the prior year due to timing of payments. The foreign exchange impact of GBP 5.1 million was due to the retranslation of the U.S.-denominated debt as the sterling weakened versus the U.S. dollar. After the good free cash flow, payment of the interim dividend and retranslation impact of the GBP 5.1 million pound impact due to the U.S. dollar-denominated debt, net debt increased by GBP 6.6 million versus 2021 year end. The group continues to maintain a strong balance sheet. Covenant net debt at the 30th of June 2022 was GBP 95.3 million, up from GBP 88.6 million as of December 2021, and down from GBP 103.1 million as of June of 2021. The covenant net debt EBITDA ratio was a comfortable 1.6 x, which is the same as the prior year and slightly up on the 2021 year end. It is worth noting that the group's pension fund deficit has reduced by GBP 3.5 million to GBP 32.7 million. Overall, the group maintains a strong balance sheet with good leverage and strong cash generation, which will support the group's future capital allocation priorities of investing in further growth, returning increased dividends to shareholders, and with the excess cash generation, the ability to acquire accretive, strategically aligned businesses or further reduce net debt. As with previous years, we have once again included some detailed modeling guidance on slide nine. Rutger will cover a slide on 2022 inflation and pricing guidance later in the presentation. As previously mentioned, CapEx for the group is likely to be above depreciation in 2022 as the group invest in additional capacity in China and Czech sites. Pension contributions are unchanged, and with the current contribution levels, the group is on track to close the deficits in the next four to five years, subject to market conditions. Please do contact us if you have any questions with regards to any of the guidance. Back to you, Rutger. Thank you, Rohan, and let me start my section with a few slides on how our growth engine has delivered in the last 2.5 Years. This slide shows nicely how our growth platform has started to deliver from 2020 onwards. Remember, that year we faced an adverse impact from COVID and destocking. With that out of the system, you can see the acceleration in 2021, which has continued in the first half of this year, despite temporary capacity constraints. In the last two and a half years, we have grown volume by about 9%, which is towards the higher end of our longer term growth expectation of between 2% and 4% per annum. We expect this momentum to continue through H2 and into 2023, supported by our backlog and better visibility of our growth opportunities through our IDP process. As we've seen in terms of revenue, the volume momentum is further enhanced through price increases to recover inflation and mix. As a reminder, our long-term key growth drivers are overall market growth, in particular in emerging markets, our opportunity to further increase our share in all markets, convenience and healthy snacking, in particular, driving the sticks growth, and continued cost conversion opportunities. This is the group picture, but now let's have a look at the performance in terms of our emerging and mature markets over this period. This slide shows the very strong performance we've seen in the last three years in emerging markets and the recovery in mature markets post the COVID lockdowns. The average growth in recent years in emerging markets has again been at the higher end of the 6%-10% average per annum growth expectation. While mature markets are somewhat below the 0%-2% average per annum, we've seen strong recovery in the second half of 2021 and an acceleration into the first half of this year. As said, we expect this momentum to continue, and we have a well-invested and efficient global manufacturing footprint to support that. Let's move to the next slide and review in a little bit more detail how we do that. As we shared with you before, we have opportunities to reconfigure some of our lines to increase the capacity of those lines by about 50%. The associated investments are incremental and within our guidance, and the return on investment is in excess of 20%. In 2021, based on our growth forecast, we decided to reconfigure two lines each in our Czech and China facilities. Towards the end of the first half this year, these lines were commissioned on time and within budget and are performing well. This will provide additional capacity in the second half of this year and into 2023. Given our momentum, market demand, and planning assumptions, we have committed to further capacity investments, leading to capital expenditure likely remaining slightly above depreciation for the next year as well. Hopefully the last three slides were a good reminder of how the growth engine is delivering, and how we can support the growth through incremental and financially attractive investments in the current footprint. With that in mind, let's now move to a more detailed regional performance review. As highlighted, we've seen an accelerated momentum in terms of our mature market growth, increasing from 6% volume growth in H2 2021 to now 8% in the first half of this year. North American snack continues to deliver double-digit growth. We've also seen double-digit growth in Continental Europe and West, with markets recovering post-COVID lockdowns, as well as some new business wins. U.K. and Ireland also benefited from post-lockdown upside in food service, as well as from gut conversion. Both Australia and New Zealand and Japan had weaker market conditions, with the former impacted by the weather and in Japan not getting the Olympics benefits this year, as well as some impact from gut. Overall price mix was a + 2%. This is forecast to further increase in the second half of this year, although further pricing will also flow into 2023, and some customer contracts are planned to be renewed later this year. FX was marginally adverse, with sterling weakening against the U.S. dollar, but strengthening against the euro, Japanese yen, and Australian dollar. Let me now move to our performance in emerging markets. After the strong performance in the last couple of years, overall volume was broadly flat, impacted by temporary capacity constraints during the reconfiguration of some of our lines in Czech and China, which will provide additional capacity in the second half of 2022 and into 2023. While volume was broadly flat, revenue was up 6%, benefiting from strong pricing actions. With additional capacity in the second half, we expect a pickup in volume growth across the sales areas, with the exception of Russia and East, where we have stopped selling to Russia in Q2. The manufacturing capacity associated with those sales has been reallocated across both mature and emerging markets, and we're confident this will have no impact on the full year outturn. Clearly, inflationary pressures have been a key challenge in the first half and will continue to be so for the remainder of the year, as well as into 2023. Let me remind you what we are doing to mitigate the impact. There are inflationary pressures across all parts of our cost base, but most significantly in freight, chemicals, and energy. The levels of inflation do differ by region and are most significant in Europe and the U.K., driven by energy and the war in the Ukraine. For this year, we expect a bigger impact in the second half. Some of the energy hedging rolls off, and clearly prices are very volatile at the moment. To mitigate the impact, we have already implemented targeted but significant rounds of price increases, and those are sticking. We will continue to review the need for further increases and will implement as and when required. Throughout the first half, we've seen a month-on-month increase in the benefit from pricing. This will continue in the second half as well as into 2023. Also, in mature markets, where we often have longer term contracts, there will be an opportunity to further increase when those are renewed. To summarize, we continue to aim to offset the absolute impact of inflation to protect absolute profit, mainly through pricing. This will drive higher revenues that will impact operating margins this year. Let me now finish this section with a few slides about our strategic progress and start with our initiatives to broaden the business. Currently, our core business are our edible casings, but outside of that, we do have other products as well. The majority within our other products comes from our collagen co-extrusion gels for sausages, but we also have collagen film, medical splits and gels, non-edible casings, and plastics. In total, they represent about 12% of group revenue, and we've seen healthy growth of 13% in the first half after a challenging couple of years, and we expect further growth in the second half. These are niche businesses with healthy margins. As you know, with our new purpose, vision, and mission, our aim is to further broaden our business, and we're investing commercially and in product development to create new growth platforms. They're still commercially sensitive, but we're making good progress, albeit that they are at this stage pre-revenue. We do believe there's significant long-term potential, but recognize it will take time to realize those. We have three different focus areas. We're looking at new markets for existing products and have a small dedicated team focusing on that. They're building relationships in these markets and have engaged with over 100 potential customers and have started customer trials with a few of those. We're also looking at new materials for our existing markets, where we can leverage our position as sausage solution providers. Here, we are closer to a new product launch, which we expect in the second half of this year. Finally, we are looking at new markets for new collagen-based products. Our focus so far has been on product development to prove that we can deliver key technical properties with our products for those targeted markets. This development work is going well and gives us confidence to start engaging with potential customers in these markets as well. We will further update you with more information as and when appropriate. Let me finish this section with an update on our continued progress on ESG. Last year in September, we shared with you our updated sustainability and ESG goals, targets, and commitments, and I'm pleased to say we're making good progress against those. At that time, we also talked about the ESG framework and reporting standards, and that as a medium-sized business, we need to make choices here. At the time, we already committed to TCFD and CDP, and I'm now pleased to say that we were also committed to Science Based Targets initiative, and we will validate targets as soon as possible. In the meantime, we also completed the solar panel project for Nantong on time and within budget, with generation ahead of expectation, and have started a similar project for our Australian site in Bathurst. Our environmental KPIs are improving in all areas. Ahead of our Science Based Targets submission, we have progressed with our understanding of our Scope 3 emissions. In terms of social, our key 2020 initiative is our Dignity at Work program, with the training rollout for manager and leaders in the second half of this year. Lastly, in terms of our community activities, our colleagues in Czech have been amazing in supporting Ukrainian refugee families through providing housing in an existing dormitory at our site by raising money, clothes, and furniture, and also in many cases, by providing employment in our factory. This is a great example of how we live our values and in particular, how we care. Those initiatives make me proud to be part of Devro. Let me finish this presentation with some concluding comments and our outlook. Let me reiterate that I'm pleased with the first half results in which the group performed well, building on the track record of recent years and reflecting our strong and improving growth platform. This is particularly pleasing against the backdrop of the challenging macroeconomic environment. Given this performance, the solid order book, pricing actions, and ongoing momentum, the board's expectations for the full year are unchanged. We remain alert to global supply challenges and inflation, and foreign exchange rates are volatile. If the current rates would prevail, they could provide an upside. As the group continues to generate strong cash flows and has a solid balance sheet, this provides options to invest in new products and technology, both for our existing markets and to broaden the business, as I've spoken about. Increase manufacturing capacity for growth. We have done already, and we will continue to do so. Increase returns to shareholders and to consider bolt-on acquisitions that are accretive and strategically aligned. I'm sure you have noted the board has declared already an increase in the interim dividend. We are resiliently positioned and have a positive long-term outlook and are benefiting from good momentum. With that, I would like to finish this presentation.
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