Good morning, everyone, and welcome to International Distribution Services half year 2023-2024 results presentation. I'm John Crosse, Director of Investor Relations. Now, before we start, I wanted to draw your attention to the usual disclaimer in our release this morning on forward-looking statements. This sets out examples of the factors that can cause actual results to differ from any forward-looking statements that we make. A summary of the principal risks and uncertainties which could affect the group was set out in today's release, and they're also included in the annual report, which was published in June of this year. All of these risks and uncertainties have the potential to impact the group's business results of operations, financial condition, and prospects adversely. Now, turning to today's agenda, Martin will kick off with some initial comments. Mick will then take you through the financials, and then Martin will cover the business updates for both Royal Mail and GLS. Then we'll be happy to take your questions. Now I'll hand over to Martin. Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. It's great to be here presenting our results as Group CEO of International Distribution Services. Before we go into the detail on performance, I want to say a few words about why I took the job and where we are today. I took this job because I firmly believe both Royal Mail and GLS have great potential. Now, three months in, I'm more convinced of that than ever. The combination of Royal Mail and GLS is a powerful portfolio for IDS, and one that will be even stronger once both companies reach their full potential. Royal Mail is recognized as a great brand and has a special connection with the UK public. Turning around a loss-making business in a fast-moving market is not easy, but with the CWU agreement in place, we are entering a period where we can really make progress. GLS is a high-performing business, known for delivering high quality across all its markets. As we now invest for growth, the company has significant potential, and I have no doubt GLS will continue to flourish under the leadership of Karl Pfaff as the new GLS CEO. There's hard work ahead, but we're starting to head in the right direction and seeing positive impact from our actions. Now, let me hand over to Mick to take you through our financial performance. Thanks, Martin, and good morning. Starting with the group financial summary. The key takeaway here is that we are where we expected to be at the half year. The economic and market backdrop remains tough, but both of our businesses are so far delivering on their plans. Revenues were up 0.4% in the first half, as continuing growth in GLS was offset by the anticipated reduction in Royal Mail revenue, as the thankfully now resolved industrial dispute ran into the summer. The group made an adjusted operating loss of GBP 169 million. This comprised of a loss of GBP 319 million in Royal Mail, which was only partly offset by profits of EUR 150 million in GLS. The impairment position with respect to the carrying value of Royal Mail remains unchanged from year-end. When you recall, we wrote down the value of that business. Its recovery plan remains on track. The in-year trading cash outflow on a pre-IFRS 16 basis was GBP 159 million, with net debt pre-IFRS 16 reducing slightly to GBP 142 million. This remains a strong group position. Successful actions we've taken on cash management have helped preserve our position in spite of the trading losses suffered in Royal Mail. The outlook for the full year for the group is around breakeven at the adjusted operating level before voluntary redundancy costs in Royal Mail. We now expect to be able to pay a modest dividend from GLS at the full year. Moving on to the high-level segmental results now, starting with Royal Mail. Clearly, we're staring at a material loss for the period, but the positive news is that the turnaround trajectory is where we need it to be as we enter into our busiest trading period. The worst is now behind us. The adjusted operating loss for the half was GBP 319 million, pretty much in line with our expectations at the start of the year. Revenues were down 2.9% to GBP 3.5 billion. Year-on-year growth in letter revenues was more than offset by declining parcels revenue, as the impacts of the industrial dispute, coupled with a weak market backdrop, negatively impacted the half. On cash flow, lower year-on-year EBITDA was more than offset by improved working capital management approaches and more focused prioritization of capital expenditure. These containment measures allowed us to restrict trading cash outflows to GBP 222 million. I should also quickly mention the GBP 5.6 million fine we received from Ofcom this week in relation to quality of service shortfalls last year. This has been provided for as an operating specific item in the reported loss for the half. I've included a bridging slide to show the year-on-year movements in the half one loss position. Letter revenues are up 1%. I said back in May that our ambition was to hold letter revenues flat this year. Some material but essential pricing moves in certain letter product lines have driven the improved performance, with growth in our business mail revenues more than offsetting declines in advertising and international mail. Parcel volumes are down 6% year-on-year. Our data, though, suggests that the domestic parcel market volumes have declined around 7% in the half, so we're slightly better than that. Parcel price rises that we've introduced have been broadly offset by mixed shifts into lower price service lines in the period. Our trajectory is an improving one, though, as we win back the customers we lost during the industrial disruption last year. I'll cover this on the next slide. Moving on to people costs. We've been able to hold our costs flat in the half, in spite of the 6% pay increase that was introduced in April. This increase has been broadly offset by the benefit from our running through the period with less resource, where frontline FTEs were 9,600 lower year-on-year at the end of September, so continuing the FTE step down we entered the year with. Non-people costs have also been well controlled in spite of inflationary pressures. Overall, as I said earlier, we are where we expected to be. Given we're moving into our busiest trading period, if we can deliver appropriately for our customers, we're now optimistic that the top line will start to turn in our favor. Here you can see the sequential improvement in domestic parcel revenues and volumes I mentioned, with domestic parcel volumes down 9% in Q1, then improving to being down just 2% in Q2. In order to give some additional evidence points on the recovery trend, I've also provided the monthly figures for September and October. You'll see that the volume trend is now into growth of 4% in the most recent trading period. Now, it's too early to declare success, but a good trajectory. We've more to do on quality, and the market remains challenging, but this recovery rate is in line with our customer win-back target following the dispute, and that's a real positive for us. Moving to GLS, I'll talk to the financial results in euros. Revenue was up just over 4% against volumes that were up 6%. This, once again, excellent performance was achieved against a tough economic and market backdrop in all of our markets. Inflation remained high, and as expected, our pricing leverage weakened slightly from the prior year. Fuel surcharges were lower in the half, and freight revenues also reduced. Once again, though, we achieved better than average growth in the higher margin cross-border business. That's been a real strength for us over the last few years. Operating margin reduced by 100 basis points to 6.4%. Much is anticipated, given the 2 fewer working days in the period and the strategic investments we're now pursuing. Overall, GLS continues to show real resilience and agility in difficult circumstances. Trading cash flow at GLS was also as expected. Lower EBITDA, coupled with a step-up in CapEx, has driven a year-on-year reduction. Working capital was negatively impacted by some timing differences over the last year end. It's worth noting that the balance of our capital investment program in GLS, which is anticipated to be up to 5% of revenue for the year, is very much weighted to the second half year. Martin will cover more details on progress in both of these businesses shortly. Moving to the group balance sheet position and funding. The net debt position at GBP 142 million remains robust. We're particularly pleased with the progress we've made in managing working capital in Royal Mail, although the net debt position is flattered at the half year by GBP 130 million of pension escrow money, which was paid over to our people shortly after period end. Even still, this is a good outcome in the circumstances. I've again included the details, separating out the net debt position between the trading businesses and corporate center. You can see the position has remained fairly stable in each of the segments since last year end. Now, turning to capital allocation. As I said back in May, the broader policy remains under review, though I can provide some background to our current thinking and approach. We continue to believe we should have two independently cash-generating businesses in the group, although clearly with Royal Mail still recovering from industrial action, that will not be the case this year. We want to maintain a conservative balance sheet, given the high operational gearing in Royal Mail. The focus this last period has been on cash management and building liquidity. This has been important in Royal Mail, as despite improvements in working capital, we have ongoing losses and delays to the anticipated real estate disposal program. It's also important in GLS, where we're stepping up investment to support organic growth as we focus on our out-of-home expansion in new automated hubs. We're also continuing to evaluate accretive inorganic opportunities as and when they arise. The current level of group liquidity is strong, but of course, a significant proportion is not considered as available for capital allocation purposes. For example, the cash needed to repay the 2024 bond when it's due next July. With regard to dividend, as I said earlier, we expect to be able to pay a modest dividend from GLS of the full year. But Royal Mail will not be able to contribute to funding the dividend until it returns to being cash positive. Now, I'll hand back to Martin to cover some more detail on the two operating businesses. Thank you, Mick. In summary, performance of the group in the first half is in line with expectations, with an expected adjusted operating performance for this full year to be around breakeven. I will now go into more detail on the business performance of Royal Mail and GLS. Let me start with Royal Mail. The last year has been challenging for Royal Mail, with the dispute only ending in the summer.... This has been tough on our people, our customers, and the communities that know and trust us. The numbers we announced today have been influenced by a drag from the industrial relations dispute and a difficult macroeconomic environment. This has seen consumers being more conservative in their spending and shows the scale of the task ahead. There's a lot of work to do, and that will take time, but the opportunity in front of us is clear. With two new hubs and an agreement with the CWU, we now have the foundations we need to modernize. Following the dispute, we have done a good job winning back most of our customers and most of the volume lost during industrial action, and we haven't done this by cutting prices to get volume at any cost. In fact, we have introduced targeted price increases and still retained our customers. I've been speaking to many of these customers about why they have come back to us, and the trend is clear. It's because we have unrivaled scale and reach, the best brand, and strong customer relationships, and we're the greenest operator in the industry with the lowest CO2 per parcel, which is a major competitive advantage. So we are back in the mix. We now need to earn back more of the volume by delivering great quality, and I will say more on that later. When stepping into Royal Mail, it was clear that taking short-term action was essential. We were loss-making in a tight cash position, and quality was not meeting our usual standards. Therefore, immediately, I focused on three things: ruthlessly prioritizing activity to stabilize the business and focusing on short-term value drivers, getting a better grip on quality of service to set the foundation for growth, and of course, focusing on delivering Christmas for our customers. Let me take you through what we've done. Task one for me was to ensure that we really stabilized the business. There are a lot of great ideas in Royal Mail, but we were trying to do too many things at once. We needed to focus and have therefore made fast decisions to get control of our costs, prioritizing initiatives with the highest returns, and securing our cash position. Our investments have been refocused, reducing our project portfolio and related spending by more than a third. We instilled a new cash and cost management approach, and we are now ahead of plan. This is already visible in our half-year trading cash flow performance, which includes a significant improvement in working capital. We introduced blended double-digit price increases in letters and high single-digit increases for many customers and parcels to offset strong inflation and USO costs. Customer retention remained high, further proving that our customers want to work with us. Throughout my long career in logistics, my core belief has always been that quality is a driver of revenue and growth. This approach serves us well at GLS, a company that has driven growth through its reputation as a quality leader, and this is why we've brought quality to the top of Royal Mail's agenda. We're taking short-term measures to grip quality. However, some changes will take longer as they are cultural and structural. To solve this complex problem in the short term, we've kept it simple: enable the operation through focusing on our people and improve our network efficiency. On enabling the operation, Royal Mail is a people-driven business with more than 85,000 people walking up and down every street in the U.K. The facts are a more stable, permanent workforce know their routes better and deliver higher quality more efficiently. We are recruiting new permanent employees faster than ever to fill vacancies and in turn, have reduced our dependency on agency. Our sick absence rates are considerably higher than the national average. This puts a lot of pressure on local teams when their colleagues are off. We're tackling this through new sick and attendance policies and an industry-leading well-being program. We've also strengthened our operational management with clear accountability around national and local quality targets. Next, on improving our network. Having a seamlessly operating national network is critical for delivering high-quality logistics. This is true for GLS as it is for Royal Mail. We've got our hubs really moving and are maximizing the volume we put through them. This gives us 6 times faster processing than our next largest mail center. And in our Midlands hub, our customers can now inject as late as 1:00 A.M. for delivery later that day. We have also strengthened our management information and insights through the introduction of a quality control center. On a day-to-day, hour-by-hour basis, this enables us to see any challenges coming down the pipe with the goal of intervening fast before problems materialize. This is a big step forward. By supporting our people, improving our network, and taking a pragmatic approach to quality, I'm confident we will deliver for our customers and grow. Of course, Christmas is just around the corner, and our peak season has already begun. Last Christmas was challenging with industrial action. We need to deliver a better Christmas for our customers, showing them that they can count on us. Therefore, we have introduced a new incentive for our operational team members, who can earn up to GBP 500 extra if local and national quality targets are achieved. A win for our employees, the company, and our customers. We've also agreed our volumes with our large account customers so that we can protect the quality of Christmas. We've launched a major We Are Christmas campaign internally to keep everyone motivated and focused. This has been an important way to start rebuilding the pride and team spirit that comes with working at Royal Mail.... As you heard, we are recruiting new permanent employees faster than ever before. As usual, we are resourcing up over peak to deal with increased volumes, including 16,000 seasonal workers, almost 7,000 additional vehicles, and 5 additional peak sorting centers. On top of that, thousands of office-based staff will be out delivering and sorting mail during peak this year. It's a real team effort. We are aware we are investing here, but that is deliberate, as I know from my experience that good quality will pay off. As well as taking these short-term actions, we are also driving a considerable modernization agenda. We're making good progress implementing the CWU agreement, which provides a solid foundation for future growth and productivity. We have introduced seasonal hours, new sick and attendance policies, and are introducing My Performance to facilitate performance dialogues. More than 7,000 people have been recruited on new T's and C's, giving us more flexibility in how and when we deliver for our customers. We are improving the way we sort letters and parcels by modernizing our indoor processes. We also plan to implement later start times in the beginning of 2024-2025, which will remove 50% of domestic flights, improving quality and cost, as well as reducing our impact on the environment. While all of this change is going on, we are looking ahead at our strategic development with a focus on how we serve our customers best in a rapidly changing environment. This includes reviewing our approach to out-of-home and digital solutions to improve our customer convenience. We are also looking at the shape of our future network, leveraging the GLS relationship to share learnings, and you will hear more on this in the months to come. While we are doing all we can to transform, we also need the regulator and the government to do their bit. It's simply not sustainable to maintain a network built for 20 billion letters, when we are now delivering only 7 billion, and this number will only continue to decline. No change is not an option. Most other comparable countries have already reformed their universal service, and the UK is getting left behind. We want to deliver a modern and sustainable universal service that reflects the customer needs of today. Regulation has to move with the times, just like we are, and we urge the government and Ofcom to move ahead quickly. To summarize, we are gaining momentum. We have made important short-term decisions. Now we are focused on gripping quality for our customers, delivering a better Christmas, and driving our modernization agenda. There's no doubt there's hard work ahead. However, my team and I are truly enjoying rolling up our sleeves and executing our plans as we can see the opportunity in front of us. Let's now turn to GLS. As Mick highlighted earlier, we are really pleased with the progress that has been made during the first half of the year. Both volumes and revenues were up, while our profit and margin trajectory are in line with full year guidance. That's a great result, given the weak economy and market backdrop. But as always, there are various dynamics at play impacting how we're performing in individual countries and business segments. So let me take you through these in more detail. GLS delivered a robust performance across its European markets. In most markets, we have seen a decline in consumer spending due to persistently high inflation, rising interest rates, and high energy costs. In Southern Europe, we saw good growth in all markets, bolstered by increasing B2C deliveries. In Italy, revenues were up 6.7%, driven mainly by higher B2C volumes. Combined with good cost control, this resulted in an increase in operating profit. Spain also performed well. Revenues grew by 19%, driven by double-digit volume growth, improved pricing, and the value add driven by our Madrid hub. Operating profit decreased slightly compared to last year due to higher minimum wages and costs associated with the hub ramp-up. France continues to progress well and remains on track with its improvement plan, with revenues up 5.3%, driven by higher volumes. In Western Europe, our performance remained resilient. In Germany, revenues grew 4.5% on flat volumes, enabled by a successful pricing strategy. Despite the impact from higher minimum wages on our cost base, we were able to improve profits. In Eastern Europe, volume growth has slowed due to a general weakening in consumer spending. Despite this, we grew our revenues by 5.4%, with particularly good export volume growth in Poland. Turning to North America, the market has also been affected by the difficult economic climate, which is challenging all industry players and impacting freight and parcel volumes. As a result, the market experienced a softening of volumes due to reduced consumer spending. Despite this, in the U.S., we have seen significant growth in our B2C customer base, with double-digit parcel volume growth, which represents a strong performance compared with the market. Our revenues declined by 4.8% in U.S. dollar terms due to the lower freight revenues, which could not be fully offset by the growth in new parcel customers. We remain confident in our U.S. operations and the success of the turnaround strategy. Losses in half one reduced significantly compared with the exit rate in the second half of last year. In Canada, our organic revenues declined by 8% in Canadian dollar terms, principally due to lower freight activity and a normalization compared with last year's exceptional performance. However, we're continuing to perform well and deliver higher-than-average margins in the market.... In addition to a good financial performance, we also made progress on delivering our strategic priorities at GLS. We continue to invest in our network to boost productivity. Our planned hubs in Paris and Berlin are on track to be operational before the 2024 peak season, and as I mentioned, our Madrid hub is performing exceptionally well. This is a good example of how strategic investments into the network are driving our long-term success. The transformation of last mile operations remains a key component of our B2C strategy, and the global expansion of our out-of-home network is progressing well. The network grew by 11% in the first half of the year, driven by a strong increase in lockers. Moving forward, we will continue to ramp up our out-of-home footprint where we see promising opportunities. In parallel, our investment in digital solutions to enhance seamless customer experience is delivering real change to our business. We are also progressing towards a more sustainable footprint by making our hubs more environmentally friendly, expanding our low and zero-emission fleet, and testing hydrogen and electric line haul vehicles. Finally, the GLS international network remains one of our key strengths. During half one, we saw good export volume growth, and we will continue to look for opportunities to further expand our presence in cross-border. So in summary, we are pleased with our half one GLS performance. As we move into the second half of the year, we expect a generally slower economic recovery than previously predicted. Against this backdrop, we have a clear set of priorities to drive the business forward and are confident that we will meet our full year guidance while delivering on our strategic goals. Firstly, we have a high-performing core business, underpinned by a strong brand, known for delivering high quality with a broad, loyal customer base. Secondly, we are continuing to invest in innovation, boosting network productivity and automation. GLS is an integral part of the IDS group and continuously delivers good performance. We remain focused on our long-term growth ambitions and delivering solid profits in the years to come. Now that I've taken you through the business update for both Royal Mail and GLS, I would like to summarize before taking your questions. Half one results are in line with expectations, with an expected adjusted operating performance for the full year to be around breakeven, where we then expect to pay a modest dividend from GLS. For Royal Mail, there's clear potential. We've taken action, and I'm confident that getting a grip on quality and driving our modernization agenda will unlock further growth. But we also need regulation to move with the times. And at GLS, we will continue to focus on growth and strategic execution. Thank you very much. We look forward to taking your questions now, and I'll hand back over to John. Great. Thanks very much, Martin. We'll now take questions online and on the phone. If you're watching via the web, there should be a little box below the webcast where you can type your question and submit it to us here. And on the phones, Sandra, I'll just hand back to you. If you could just remind people how they can submit a question. We have some submitted already, but if you could just remind people before we go to Q&A, Sandra. Thank you. Yes, I will do it. Thank you very much. The question and answer session is now open for telephone participants. Please press the star key followed by one on your touchtone telephone. If you change your mind and wish to remove yourself from the question queue, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask a question, please ensure that your phone is unmuted locally. To confirm again, star and one. The first question comes from Samuel Bland from JP Morgan. Please, go ahead. Oh, morning. Thanks for taking the question. I have two, please. The first one is just on the guidance. I think previously it was that the group would be profitable this year, maybe modestly, but profitable, and now it's breakeven. I was trying to sort of square that with, you know, the commitment to a dividend and parcel volume seeming to get some good momentum. I sort of wasn't sure what else there might be that have got worse versus where we were previously. The second question is just on the recent parcel trends. Obviously, it looked pretty good in September and October. Could you just sort of confirm that if you sort of do it on some sort of comp adjusted basis, excluding the impact of the strike last year, is it sort of a genuine improvement, not just comparatives weakening? Thank you. Okay. Thanks, Sam. Mick, do you want to kick off with the guidance question? Yeah, sure. Hi, Sam. Look, I think, I mean, you're right. We did say at the start of the year, profit for the group. As you rightly say, though, it was a small profit. And so, you know, we're basically guiding here to say that GLS is completely on track. The guidance is completely unchanged from where we were. So that's for a profit of EUR 350 million-EUR 370 million. That converts back to about a profit of GBP 310 million. So, you know, we're expecting a broadly breakeven second half in the UK. If we're at the better end of where we might turn out, then that might still be a small profit. But I think, you know, breakeven, given where we're at and given where the economy's at, is probably a fair guide to where we're projecting for the full year. In terms of recent parcel trends, well, yeah, of course, they do benefit from weaker comps with the industrial disruption last year. But, you know, the run rate into the start of this year was significantly worse than the direct comp that we're looking at. You'll remember last year, I think, in the first half, we'd had something like three days of industrial disruption, and by the year end, there'd been 18. So, you know, the run rate into the start of this year was poor and weak and badly damaged. And so the first half has been one for us of recovering those relationships with customers, and the trajectory that we're showing to the second half says that that recovery's going well. And so, you know, our growth rates that we're now seeing are significantly ahead of where we see the underlying market, and the trajectory is therefore into peak a good one. It needs to continue to improve in order to deliver the outcome and the output, the outlook, sorry. And that's what we're targeting to do with the various quality initiatives and investments that we're making in the balance of the year. Okay, understood. Thank you. Thanks, Sam. I can see, Alexia is next in the queue from Barclays. Hi, Alexia. Hello, thank you for taking my questions. Just firstly, on Royal Mail, how satisfied are you with the performance to date of executing the new deal, and where do you believe there is further room for improvement? Secondly, when you look at the trajectory of Royal Mail profitability into next year, how much do you think this is dependent on basically continuing to deliver the efficiencies versus the macro improving and kind of the revenue, growth accelerating? And then finally, could you elaborate on your review of out-of-home in general and your kind of evaluation of alternative ways to deliver and drop off parcels, and what you mean there? Thank you. Martin, do you want to take the CWU and the out-of-home strategy, and then, Mick, maybe if you come back on the profit trajectory question? Yeah. Okay, of course. So on Royal Mail, in terms of how are we doing with executing the deal, look, in my career, I've dealt with with many unions, and I think it's always best to do things together rather than not together, and I think that's the place we're in together with the union. The good news is we share the same objective, and that is displayed in the CWU agreement, which is we must modernize the business. We must change the business into a parcel and letter business, and that is understood because that will drive efficiency, which will drive more higher volumes, and at the end of the day, secure the jobs. And under this, with this understanding, we're driving the changes forward. We have implemented this year's quite significant changes already. We've implemented, as per the agreement, we've implemented seasonal hours, which is our frontline staff works longer during peak without getting additional compensation. The but therefore, they work less in the summer period next year when there's traditionally less volumes in the network. We have implemented a new sick and absence policy. We are rolling out a My Performance tool to help performance dialogues. And these are all things that we've agreed in the agreement, so we're moving in the right direction. But of course, we're not there yet because there's still some significant changes to come, which we're preparing now and which we're also piloting in some instances. Which is, which is about how we sort mail and parcels going forward in the delivery offices, called Indoor methods. and also, later start times, i.e., that we start later delivering the mail and the parcels in order to accommodate the network to help pushing more, well, more letters and parcels through the network to arrive in the morning and being then delivered to the consumer, to just name a few of those changes, still pending. Overall, I think it's reasonable progress. We're on it, and as I said, we share the same objective overall, and I think that is helpful. With regards to out-of-home, our out-of-home view, look, we have to recognize, the customer requirements are continuously changing in the UK, but also other European markets. And, we've seen it in GLS, where you've seen that we have been investing heavily into our out-of-home network with regards to investing in parcel lockers, but also into parcel shop networks. And, we need to review that in the UK because consumers have similar requirements in the UK as well as in continental Europe. So, we will be reviewing our out-of-home strategy in order to make sure that our customers in the UK have the best way to drop off parcels with us and to receive parcels. And that means probably that we will add to the service offering that we have in the market right now. Thanks, Martin. Maybe, Alexia, moving on to your question on trajectory. I think, you know, as always in Royal Mail, we have to do all of it. So I think, you know, we lost a lot of revenue in the dispute last year. And so, you know, probably the bigger driver of the turnaround of Royal Mail is gonna be the recovery in the top line. And clearly, the macro climate plays a role in that, along with our service to customers and deserving their custom in our win-back program. In the first half, you know, our estimate was that parcel market declined about 7%. Half two, we're expecting that to recover to more like a -2%. But within that half year, we're expecting the year to exit in growth. And clearly, that's gonna be a key driver of the top line turnaround, along with our own initiatives that's within our own gift to control. But given the high operational gearing in Royal Mail, that top line recovery is really critical. But, you know, we still need to deliver on the efficiency agenda as well. We need to do it all. And, you know, we've got some really key initiatives in the program following the deal with the CWU that we need to make good progress on. Because not only do they help with efficiency, they also help with quality as well for our customers. So these things are all linked in the background. And, you know, unfortunately, we need to do all of it in order to be successful. So prioritizing onto those areas that we can influence and that drive the most value is gonna be critical, and that's exactly what we're intending to do. Thank you. Can I just ask a follow-up, actually, on the kind of Out of Home evaluation? Obviously, cash generation at Royal Mail remains a bit of a drag on the group. Clearly, you know, consumer behavior is changing, so, you know, there could be some investments required. I guess, are you trying to tap into other assets within the Royal Mail, portfolio to boost cash generation more broadly there, other than property? Do you want me to take? Do you wanna take that one? Yeah, look, you know, we're across the group, in GLS and Royal Mail, we're looking at initiatives to bolster liquidity, to improve the options that Martin and I have for capital allocation across the group. You know, we want to continue to back GLS, but also in Royal Mail, you know, where there are investment requirements, and out-of-home might be a good example. You know, we need to create the headroom to be able to back those programs to make the business successful. So, you know, we've pointed to the fact that we'll be looking at real estate, and that program is ongoing. You know, but we also, for example, in the first half, did a sale and leaseback of some electric vehicles, which also kind of brought some cash through the door to, you know, to bolster our reserves. But also put in place an ownership model for our electric vehicles that we think is the right one for the future. So, we're looking at all areas of the Royal Mail and the GLS balance sheet to generate the optionality that we want to have as a business. Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks, Alexia. Go to the next person on the line, we've got Paul from Bank of America. Morning, Paul, go ahead. Hi, morning, guys. Two questions, please. Obviously, focus on service quality is clear and very positive, but can you talk maybe about what you see as biggest challenges on improvement in service quality of implementing it? And then, second question is, can you talk about your pricing expectations for GLS for the rest of the year? You talked about what was done in H1 across the group, and maybe specifically on GLS for H2. Thank you. Martin, yeah, Martin, do you wanna take that quality and pricing in GLS? Yes. So, of course. Look, on the service quality, we are a people business, and it's about having the people engaged and having the right amount of people in the right positions to drive the quality. And, as I said, we are bringing in more permanent people, and I think this is a key thing to do because those people know the processes, they know how to deliver mail and parcel, and they don't change every day. And that's really important because our, it's a repetitive business that we're having, but also a business at scale. And, sourcing the right people for the job and filling those positions that we have to fill is a massive task because it's a nationwide task. Getting that wide, I think, is already brings us a long way. The other thing is, as I said, having the oversight of what is happening day to day and really being on the ball every hour and every second, because our business is about network, it's about speed, and it's about really, once we have the item, making sure it flows through the network. The thing that I'm not so worried about is actually our network, because with the two hubs being fully integrated in our network, we see a massive step up in throughput and in volume and in performance. So that is, that's been good investments for Royal Mail, I have to say, which we now need to sweat. In terms of pricing expectations for GLS, look, it's a good question to ask. But the thing is, quality also allows or gives normally room for price increases. We're still seeing inflation. We're still having cost increases, electricity, and so on, energy is still increasing. So, we will be seeing price increases throughout the patch next year. Of course, it depends on the local competitive dynamics per market, so it's hard to give a single, one-size-fits-all answer here. But so far, GLS also this year has been quite successful in implementing appropriate price increases, as you can see from the numbers. And that strategy will not change. Rather the opposite, we will reinforce it going forward, and we will have to, given that the cost bases are continuing to rise. Great. Thanks, Martin. Thank you. Thanks, Paul. Next, we've got Cristian from UBS. Morning, Cristian. Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Maybe the first one on the UK profit guidance. You talked about the successful pricing initiatives in letters and parcels, the win-back markets, market share is on track. ... Is OpEx a bit weaker than you thought at the beginning of the year? I'm just trying to reconcile your slightly more cautious profit guidance for the full year versus the past. The second one, we've been reading about Post Office increasing competition on some of the Post Office shops. I guess, how do you think about that? I estimate it could be GBP 400 million or GBP 500 million of parcel revenues within the Post Office for Royal Mail. So how do you think about the risk of potentially losing some of those volumes going forward? And maybe any reason why your market share in the Post Office shouldn't be the same with your market share for the rest of the U.K. market, around 35%-40%. And the last one, if I may just, if you can give us a bit of color on the UK Q2 domestic parcel volume movement. Could you help to separate between the market volume decline versus the benefit from the non-repeat of the three days of strike last year? And the last part, I guess there's some headwinds from market share losses. Could you directionally provide a little bit of color on each of these building blocks? Thank you. Okay. Thanks, Christian. I think we'll try on the third one, but that might be a bit difficult to unpick it all. Yeah. So, Mick, do you wanna go? So, yeah, OpEx, was actually that in line with expectations or not? Post Office, and then the other question around the Q2 parcel dynamics. Yeah. Hi, Christian. Look, I think. Look, OpEx is pretty much in line with where we want it to be. We're pleased with the fact that we've managed to, you know, hang on to the FTE reductions that we made at the very end of last year. We clearly, as we move forward, though, we're, you know, as you know, Martin's enforced us, I think, reinforced this morning, you know, we want to invest behind quality of service. You know, we've introduced, for example, a new bonus scheme for Christmas quality of service with the front line. You know, and so some of these initiatives that are backing quality, clearly, they cost a bit more money, but we're looking to deliver the benefits, of course, on the top line. So, from our perspective, our outlook for the year is profit-wise or loss-wise in the UK, is there or thereabout where it was earlier in the year. But of course, you know, in a business like ours, you know, things move around slightly. So, you know, we're not reading it as big OpEx changes or big changes in guidance here, but there are certainly some moving parts that on the margins, you know, make a difference in our situation. I'll maybe cover your third question on Q2. Look, we spent a lot of time staring at the year-on-year performance to see how to best describe it externally and how best to understand it internally. And one of the moving parts that is really difficult to disentangle is that the half year last year, we talked about an impact of industrial disruption being about GBP 70 million to the top line, which was predominantly parcels. But comparing against that for the first half of this year, it kind of doesn't make any sense because the dispute continued through the whole of half two last year and into Q1 of this year. And so ultimately, the run rate impact that dispute had on our parcel business was, you know, bore no relation really to half one of last year. So the best way to understand it really is to for us to kind of assess where we think the market is, the overall market is, and to assess where we're doing versus market. Now, clearly, to recover the losses that we suffered during the dispute, we need to outperform the market. That's really the best barometer of whether we're winning business back. And you know, running in through Q2 and into the early part of Q3, you know, from our perspective, we're outperforming the market, so that trajectory is a good one, and we need to continue to deliver on it. Hence, the various initiatives that we've put in place to try and keep driving forward in quality, to try and win a larger and larger share of customer business. Yeah, and maybe then on the Post Office question. Look, I think it's important to understand that Post Office is one of our many sales channels, and indeed, actually, the fastest-growing sales channel for us is the online sales, where around 50% of our products are being sold currently. And the relationship with Post Office Limited has been non-exclusive since 2020, so we're expecting that move. And we did introduce, in the meantime, other ways of dropping off parcels or receiving parcel. Of course, you know, the postie is one of our main channels, and we've introduced Parcel Collect, where, you know, you, as a consumer, you can give your parcel to the postie, who then injects it into our network. And the success of this is massive. Other than that, we have other channels. We have 1,200 parcel boxes where you can drop off your parcel. Mind you, we have 115,000 mailboxes out there, where you can also drop small letter-sized parcels. So, of course, we're reviewing this going forward, and we will probably add to the optionality for the customer, where he can drop off the parcels and, where he can receive parcels. But, it's also no news that in the past, even years ago, customers could choose whether they would ship a parcel with us or with the competition. They had to go to a parcel shop of, where competitive parcels would be sold. So- ... It's not really changing a lot. Plus, recent surveys show, and also previous surveys show, that Royal Mail is the preferred choice of the consumer. Of course, we will have to continue to work hard to remain the preferred choice, but the trust that we have been - we are given by the consumer is immense. They want the parcel to be delivered by the postie, and they trust them, and we serve the whole country and nationwide. So I remain confident that we will continue to keep the trust of the public, and they will continue to choose Royal Mail as their preferred parcel provider. Okay, great. Thank you very much for your answer. Yeah, thanks, Martin. Thanks, Christian. Next on the line, we've got Gerald from Liberum. Hi, morning, Gerald. Yeah, morning, everyone. Three from me, if I can. I think last time out, you talked about being close to an appointment for a Royal Mail CEO. I just wondered whether you could update us on that search process. Is it still the intention to hire a CEO for the U.K. business? Secondly, could you comment on the adverse mix in parcels? I think that's evident in both GLS and Royal Mail against price increases. Do you expect that adverse mix to persist in the long term, or do you think it's something that's short-term related to the economic current macro conditions? Then finally, on GLS, could you update us on the status of the U.S. turnaround? It sounds like you made sequential progress, but when do you expect to get that business back to breakeven, and what alternatives are there if it doesn't get there? In particular, is it separable from the Canadian business anymore? Okay. Thanks, Gerald. Martin, do you wanna take those? So Royal Mail's CEO, the mix in, adverse mix in parcels in terms of price, and GLS US. Yeah, certainly. So on the CEO search, since I've been appointed three months ago, I've taken full ownership of take care of the Royal Mail business on an interim basis because we can't just wait for the new CEO to come in. We are continuing the search, but as you've seen probably from today, there is. It's a massive task ahead. So, whilst we're continuing with the search, which is ongoing, we just crack on, and again, I've taken full ownership of it, and as and when the new CEO comes in, then we'll do a proper handover at the point in time when we've found the right person. In terms of a mix of parcels, that's an interesting one because what you're seeing at, happening at Royal Mail, you can also see at other postal and parcel providers in other countries. There is a general mix shift into more economical, economic parcels. Whether that's a short or long-term trend, it's really hard to say. It is connected, from my personal opinion, to the economy, people trying to basically save some money when shipping parcels. History shows that these trends, if it's driven by economy, once the economy is stronger, again, also reverse. So we remain hopeful, but we, as Royal Mail, don't bank on that. We just make sure now that we have a good productivity for all of our products in place so that we can produce a decent margin for whatever products are being pushed through our network. So the jury is still out. We believe it's strongly connected to the economic developments in the countries, as we also see it in other companies, in other countries happening. In terms of the U.S., yes, I think your read of it is correct, we're moving in the right direction. Of course, it's yet too early to say when the breakeven will be there because, of course, we can do our bit, but especially in a market like the U.S., it's also important that the economy is resilient, continues to grow, and so we also need to see what is happening there. But we're putting ourselves in a much better position currently with all the measures we've been taking, with more volume coming in, with a good cost containment. So measures are showing results, but it's yet too early to call when the breakeven will be there. In terms of other options, look, we'll have to... We are focused now on turning around the U.S. business. Is it separated from the Canadian business? Yes, it is. Of course, we have commercial relationships in terms of volume flows between the western part of the U.S. and our Canadian business, but this is commercial relationships. We have not operationally combined Canada and the U.S. Okay, great. Thanks, Gerald. Thanks, Martin. Next, to ask a question is Alex from Peel Hunt. Morning, Alex. Morning, everybody. Three questions from me, please. Firstly, you seem to be good quality of service in parcels, a bit less so in mail. You are investing in more permanent staff to help improve that. Can you say when we should start to see the benefits of that? Can you already see that what you're doing is meaning the on-time performance is getting better, or is that gonna come later? The second thing is, related to that, and I may have been slightly confused on this, but you have just reduced your workforce by 9,600, and now you're recruiting record levels of people. Is that just to replace churn, or are your FTE numbers gonna be growing again? ... and, and you just wanted to change the type of a person that you had there? And the, the last question was just on Whistl. They, or there was some press coverage over the weekend about their legal case against you, which I believe will start the preliminaries this year. Can you say what your expectations are for that, please? Okay. Thanks, Alex. Martin, do you wanna take quality of service and then the FTEs? And then, Mick, if you want to comment on Whistl. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Okay, certainly. Quality of service, look, as you rightly said, we are taking quite some massive actions to improve quality of service. Changing or improving quality of service in a company of the size of Royal Mail isn't done overnight. It requires many things to fall in line, and I think we've done the right things, now taking the right measures. But as I said, I'm in the job now for three months. We've started to take those measures now. It's yet too early to say when we will see the impact and to what extent. From my experience, it takes a couple of weeks to really get into it, and one important thing is indeed the hiring of the people and getting them out on the street and in the sorting centers. So I'm very hopeful we will see changes, but it's just too early to call. Of course, here and there in the country, I see already the right movements. But I wouldn't wanna call this a trend yet, so I'm a bit careful on this one. But from what I'm seeing, I'm quite hopeful we will see positive movements. With regards to the hiring related to that, yes, I think you're right in your assumptions. What we are seeing... Look, we have, as we've seen just now, we have a business which is still humming. The peak has started, which means we have increased number of parcels and letters coming in. And the peak, it will be up to 100% more of what we normally see, and we need to cover that. And, but also in the normal business, we have quite some churn. You know, coming out of industrial action is not really helping to reduce the churn, so we need to replace. We have open positions we need to fill, but also, I want a more stable workforce, which where we have agency and where we had agency in for quite a while. That is, from my mind, not the right way to go. It's having our own workforce around that is impacting the quality. So we are rather changing the mix, so to say, of our workforce, plus we are filling those vacant positions that have come up due to churn, and we're preparing for the growth that is there in peak and that hopefully will then sustain. Okay, hi, Alex. On Whistl, look, from my perspective, the claim's unsubstantiated, and we'll defend it robustly. So, you know, I don't... not sure there's anything more to add. Okay. Thanks, Mick. Thanks, Alex. Next, it's Andy from Deutsche Bank. Morning, Andy. Morning, everyone. Just one from me, please. Just in terms of free cash flows, you're guiding to breakeven operating profit. What does that translate into then, please, in terms of just helping out on numbers, in terms of the outflow at the free cash flow level? Thank you. Yeah. I mean, look, we've, we've not guided on free cash flow. So, as, as we said, at the start of the year, you know, we were, we were anticipating earlier in the year, seeking to offset the cash outflow in Royal Mail with, with certain asset sales. We've, we've recently postponed, the sale of the first of the assets that we were gonna bring to market, or we did bring to market, just because the market, you know, deteriorated around us while we were in that process. And so, you know, that, that asset remains available to sell. But, you know, if we remove the asset sales from our free cash flow outlook for Royal Mail, then clearly, you know, the loss will have a significant cash outflow associated with it. You know, in GLS as well, you know, where normally we would see a significant free cash inflow in the course of a year, you know, we're expecting that to be dampened down slightly this year. We said that we would step up the investment in locker banks this year, and that would mean that CapEx would increase to nearer 5% of revenues. The balance of that investment is very much loaded into the second half. So again, you know, we won't expect much free cash flow out of GLS in the course of this year. So, hence, that's why we've used the words modest dividend in relation to what we expect to be able to pay come year-end. So I would see some free cash outflow, you know, probably if we break even in half two, probably not unlike the cash flow from half one, and then with a small inflow in GLS. Okay, great. Thanks, Mick. Thank you. Thanks, Andy. Next up, we've got, Achal from HSBC. Morning, Achal. Yeah, hi, morning. Thanks for taking my question. I have two, if I may. First of all, in terms of market confidence, of course, we spoke a lot in the past about losing some business permanently due to the strikes and all that uncertainties. How do you see that situation changing now? What all you're doing to get the market trust you back, that you can handle the business, and how do you see that progress there? Secondly, in terms of cash flow, so basically, you're talking about cash outflow this year. And then you're doing a bit of monetizing your assets at all. But I mean, in case the volumes doesn't pick up and the business doesn't come back, how far can you go to raise fresh cash? Can you re-go to the market or to the shareholders for raising fresh cash? What all can you do, I mean, you know, in terms of fresh cash? And then finally, you know, you need cash, you have cash, free cash outflow, and then still you're still thinking about paying some dividend. How does that tie up? You know, could you please help to understand the decision behind still paying the dividend when you need cash? Thanks. Okay. Thanks, Achal. So, first one probably for Martin: So how's the customer win back program going? How are we kind of regaining trust with customers? And then maybe, Mick, the second one for you around, It's fine ... cash outflow and whether there'd be other sources of fresh cash if we don't deliver the top line. And then, as you heard-