Good evening. This is Gomi, Head of Investor Relations at Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings. Thank you for joining our 1st quarter 2026 earnings presentation for analysts and investors. Today, we are joined by President Calin Dragan and Vice President, CFO, Bjorn Ulgenes. Also with us are our Vice President of the food service company, and the Chief Business Strategy Officer, Maki Kado, Executive Officer and President of the retail company, Alex Gonzalez, and Executive Officer, Chief Supply Chain Officer, and Chief Sustainability Officer, Andrew Ferrett. Following prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. Simultaneous interpretation in Japanese and English is available for both today's presentation and the Q&A. Before we begin, please note that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements and should be considered together with cautionary statements contained in our presentation materials. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Calin Dragan. Calin-san. Good evening, everyone. This is Calin Dragan, and thank you for joining our earnings call. Today, I am honored to be able to open my prepared remarks by reminding everyone that next month, on May eighth, Coca-Cola celebrates the 140th anniversary. With that occasion, we want to wish Coca-Cola a warm happy birthday. We are really proud that we are able to bring such a iconic global brand to consumers in Japan, and we remain committed to further enhancing its value in the market. For the highlights of today's presentation, please turn to slide three. We are off to a very strong start in 2026. Business income for the 1st quarter exceeded our target, growing by JPY 3.8 billion versus the previous year. Already, we have achieved more than one-third of the full year business income target. This was primarily driven by a strong volume growth of 4% versus the previous year, gains in value share, and improved profitability from price revisions, resulting in a solid profit growth. In vending, top line trends are improving and showing positive momentum. Announced today, we will offer Japan's leading energy drink brand, Monster Energy, through our vending machines starting this peak summer season, positioning us to further accelerate growth in our vending business. In the 1st quarter, we successfully executed key initiatives to improve profitability. Price revisions, one of our core profitability drivers, were implemented as planned for green tea products in March and are steadily delivering results. Our transformation initiatives are also progressing smoothly, generating cost savings through strengthened operational foundation. Despite continued uncertainty in the current outlook, we have assessed the potential impact of the situation in the Middle East, and we are confident in our ability to manage any resulting cost increases this year. By leveraging the strengths of the global Coca-Cola system, which is one of our core strengths, we expect to mitigate these pressures through our procurement efforts. In addition, by accelerating our profit growth momentum, pursuing further cost savings, and seriously considering further price revisions, we will take all necessary actions we are determined to achieve the full year business income target of JPY 35 billion. Now, our CFO, Bjorn Ulgenes, will provide a detailed explanation of our financial results. Thank you, Calin. Good evening, everyone. This is Bjorn. Please turn to slide five for the 1st quarter profit and loss. In the 1st quarter, we achieved both revenue and profit growth that exceeded our targets. Despite the impact of changes to the channel mix, revenue exceeded the targets and achieved strong year-over-year growth of 3.6%, driven by higher than planned volume growth and improved wholesale revenue per case. Gross profit outpaced revenue growth and grew by 5.2%. In addition to top line growth, this was supported by commodity cost management, including joint procurement across the Coca-Cola system and solid hedging strategies despite a challenging external environment marked by rising costs. In addition, as the 1st year of our strategic business plan, Vision 2030, we reviewed the useful life of our manufacturing machinery and equipment in line with our policy of making selective capital investments to improve capital efficiency and deploy capital effectively over the long term. As a result, lower depreciation expenses totaling approximately half a billion JPY contributed to profit growth. Business income increased by 3.8 billion JPY year-over-year, primarily driven by top line growth and cost savings achieved through transformation initiatives. Factors contributing to this profit change will be explained later. Operating income increased by JPY 9.8 billion year-over-year. In addition to business income growing year-over-year, gains on the sale of tangible fixed assets recorded as part of our efforts to optimize the balance sheets contributed. Net income increased by five and a half billion JPY from the previous year, primarily reflecting higher operating income. EBITDA, a measure of cash generating profitability, increased by JPY 0.6 billion year-over-year to JPY 5.4 billion. Slide six shows our financial results by segment. In the 1st quarter, a significant increase in the vending business profits drove overall profit growth. For the vending business, volume trend for existing machines improved, and volume remained flat overall versus the previous year. While revenue for the business declined year-over-year, specifically Coca-Cola vending machine increased revenues due to improved wholesale revenue per case. In addition, driven by transformation benefits improving routes, segment profit increased significantly by JPY 4.6 billion year-over-year, returning the segment to profitability. While this includes the benefit of lower depreciation expenses following the prior year's impairment loss in the vending business, we also achieved solid organic profit growth. In OTC, revenue outpaced volume and increased by 6.5% year-over-year, driven by robust top line growth and price revision benefits. Volume and revenue growth were driven primarily by online, drugstores, and discount. Through a rigorous focus on profitability-driven initiatives, segment profit increased by 25.6% year-over-year. In the food service business, we achieved high growth with double-digit increases in both volume and revenue compared to the previous year, driven by an expanded product portfolio tailored to customer needs and successful efforts to secure new customers. To sustain this momentum, we are steadily executing investments to support mid to long-term growth and are driving business expansion in line with our plans. Please turn to slide seven for the factors behind the change in business income. Business income grew strongly, increased by JPY 3.8 billion compared to the previous year. Starting from the left, we can see the impact of volume, price, and mix. Together, these factors reflect changes in marginal profits from our commercial activity and contributed a positive JPY 2.6 billion year-over-year. The main factors were a positive impact of JPY 2.3 billion from volume, including channel mix, and a positive JPY 3.8 billion impact from pricing, partially offset by a negative JPY 3.5 billion Impact from other factors. Although adverse channel mix due to changing consumer trends remained a headwind, volume growth and improved wholesale revenue per case resulting from price revisions are steadily contributing to profit growth. Transformation benefits totaled JPY 1.9 billion in line with plan. Savings were particularly significant in the commercial function, where benefits from the transformation of the vending business continued to materialize steadily. In the supply chain and back office, we are building a foundation that contributes to mid- to long-term growth while also generating cost savings. Marketing expenses decreased by JPY 2.2 billion year-over-year. We continued to invest appropriately in marketing while carefully managing spending based on the return on investment philosophy and market conditions. Manufacturing costs increased by JPY 0.1 billion year-over-year. Although production volume rose in line with sales and manufacturing efficiency improved, changes in product mix, including a higher proportion of outsourced production, increased costs. We continue to pursue cost savings in the production floor and strengthening our production structure ahead of the peak demand season. Other costs increased by JPY 1.6 billion, primarily due to higher IT-related investments and expenses to support future profit growth, as well as increased labor and outsourcing costs. This increase includes the benefits of lower depreciation expenses resulting from the impairment loss recorded in the vending business in the previous year. Commodity and utility costs decreased by JPY 0.8 billion, thanks to successful hedging strategies and our procurement function leveraging the Coca-Cola system's global network, one of our company's key strengths. Net cost improvements from commodities and foreign exchange amounted to JPY 0.4 billion. Utility costs also achieved a decrease of JPY 0.4 billion. From the next slide, Alex will give an overview of our commercial activities. Over to you, Alex. Good evening, everyone. This is Alex. Slide eight shows sales volume by channel and by category. Although price revisions negatively impacted demand, our effective commercial activities and contributions from core categories meant that Q1 sales volume grew 4% year-over-year, exceeding both the overall market and our plan. Additionally, because of the series of price revisions, wholesale revenue per case continued to improve across most channels. 1st, by channel. In vending, volume trends improved and remained flat year-over-year, supported by a strong performance from core products and existing vending machines. In supermarkets, drugstores, and discounters, sales volume increased as well, as we successfully expanded shelf space through campaigns tied to the FIFA World Cup. In convenience stores, while price revisions impacted volume, wholesale revenue per case improved significantly, leading to improved profitability. In online, volume grew by 20%, driving overall growth despite a declining wholesale revenue per case due to a higher mix of large PET water. In food service, volume grew by 12%, supported by an expanded product lineup, including customer exclusive launches and stronger sales of sparkling products in restaurants. By category, in sparkling, Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero contributed to a 10% increase in volume. In tea, products such as Yakan no Mugicha and Kochakaden contributed while Ayataka continued to perform well. Although the March price revisions impacted green tea products, volume levels in Q1 were comparable to the previous years. Sports, water, and coffee declined due to price revision impacts. Slide nine shows the status of market share and OTC retail prices. This year, through profitability-focused commercial activities, we achieved balanced growth in both value and volume share. Our total channel value share increased by 1.1 percentage points. Despite a challenging market, volume outperformed the market, and the year-over-year increase in volume share has contributed to value share growth. In vending, growth in volume share drove an increase in value share. Growth initiatives in the vending business, including profit-focused assortment optimization using our AI-based assortment system and targeted promotions through Coke ON have delivered strong results. We successfully captured demand while improving wholesale revenue per case through price revisions. In the OTC channel, despite the impact of lower volumes resulting from price revisions and channel mix changes, we have enhanced our competitiveness through expanded shelf space and targeted commercial activities, achieving balanced market share growth. In the 1st quarter, we effectively captured increased demand, improved value share by 0.3 percentage points year-over-year. Our OTC retail prices have continued to maintain a price premium relative to industry averages. As a result of the series of price revisions, OTC retail prices for small PET products continue to exceed those of the previous year. For large PET, although affected by channel and packaging mix shifts, we have maintained the elevated price level. In March of this year, we implemented the green tea product price revision as planned, marking the 9th such revision since 2022, and we expect further improvement in trends during the second quarter. Slide 10 highlights key topics for our quarter one commercial activities. We have successfully translated robust volume growth and improved profitability into solid profit growth. Initiatives aimed at enhancing competitiveness have driven volume growth. In the core categories, driving overall volumes such as sparkling and tea, marketing campaigns highlighting drinking occasions have proven effective. To expand shelf space, we are focused on maximizing unique Coca-Cola assets, such as the FIFA World Cup, and rolling out exclusive products for our customers, thereby accelerating efforts to improve competitiveness. In vending, positive signs are emerging in volume trends. Growth strategies such as further leveraging of Coke ON and revising product assortments with our assortment system are proving successful. In particular, volume trends for existing machines have improved and vending channel value share has increased. At restaurants, we promoted Perfect Serve to ensure consumers can enjoy Coca-Cola assets at its best and aim to enhance the dining experience through proposals such as effectively utilizing bottled Coke and glassware. Our efforts to improve profitability are making steady progress. We've implemented price revisions for green tea products such as planned, effective for shipments starting March 1st. At the same time, we're focused on maximizing the impact of price revisions, and wholesale revenue per case continues to show an upward trend. In addition, we have proceeded as planned with the rationalization of rebates and promotional expenses, implementing marketing activities that are flexible and focused on ROI in accordance with market conditions. Furthermore, to improve our product mix, we have strengthened our efforts by rolling out products and packaging tailored to each customer's profitability. Our prioritization of profitability in commercial activities remains unchanged this year. We're implementing optimal growth strategies for each business unit while rigorously enforcing detailed data-driven performance management. On the next slide, Maki will go over our 1st quarter marketing activities. Maki, please. Good evening. This is Maki Kado. On slide 12, I will review our marketing activities for the 1st quarter. In Q1, we achieved strong growth in revenue and value share through powerful campaign activations. To strengthen our core category, in February, we launched limited edition Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup bottles. We maximized the in-store visibility by implementing effective campaigns that leverages Coca-Cola's unique assets, including dedicated shelf displays. These efforts proved successful, further accelerating Coca-Cola's growth trend from the previous year. Volume in the sparkling category, including Coca-Cola, increased by 10% year-over-year. Additionally, for Georgia, we revamped our co-core products in parallel with the new campaign launched in March, aiming to enhance the brand's appeal. For Ayataka, we continued and strengthened last year's campaign that successfully highlighted its pairing with onigiri and worked to expand Ayataka drinking occasions. In particular, since Ayataka underwent a price revision this March, we are thoroughly implementing in-store displays that emphasize its values. Regarding new products, Minute Maid fruit juice brand, in March, we launched Minute Maid Zero Sugar Peach Lemonade as addition to the Minute Maid Zero Sugar Lemonade lineup, which has been well-received and seen steady sales growth since its launch last month, March. We will continue to strengthen sales efforts from the second quarter onward, aiming for further growth and expanded consumption occasions. In terms of experiential marketing, we have launched campaign for users of the Coke ON app, which surpassed 70 million downloads cumulatively by the end of 2025. The campaign will run throughout the year to celebrate the app's 10th anniversary, and the 1st wave has already begun. For the FIFA World Cup 26, we have organized a trophy tour and launched a promotion where consumers can enter codes found on the outer side of caps from purchased products via Coke ON to enter a draw for original merchandise based on the number of points earned. By building excitement for the FIFA World Cup 26, even before the tournament begins, we aim to maximize exposure and sales of our products. Slide 13 highlights our marketing activities for the second quarter. To strengthen core category, Coca-Cola is releasing the second installment of its limited edition FIFA World Cup packaging for a limited time starting April 20th, featuring a selection of designs inspired by the uniforms and flags of popular participating nations. In April, Fanta relaunched its core flavors. For the 1st time in a Coca-Cola Japan product, we utilized global AI technology to create a taste that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional fruit-flavored sparkling beverages. As for new products, we are launching Aquarius Zero from the Aquarius line this week. With zero sugar and zero calories, it provides superior hydration compared to water. By introducing this innovation product, we aim to revitalize the sports drink market. For Ayataka, we are launching four new products and revamping existing ones. In April, we launched Ayataka Koi Hojicha, a functional food designed to meet health needs. In May, we will introduce Ayataka Mineral Green Tea, the 1st mineral-enriched green tea in the brand's history. By expanding our product lineup to address diversifying consumer needs, we aim to achieve further growth for the Ayataka brand. For experiential marketing, in addition to launching the second phase of the Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup 26th promotion, we implemented initiatives leveraging bottled Coke and launched a certification program called Coca-Cola Foodmarks for restaurants where customers can enjoy delicious meals paired with the ultimate Coca-Cola experience. Through these efforts, we aim to enhance the experience of value sought in today's dining out scene. Next, Calin will share our outlook. Calin-san, please. Calin again. Slide 15 outlines our outlook. To ensure we achieve our full-year business income target of JPY 35 billion, we will carry forward the positive trends we have seen so far in implementing additional measures to maximize profit. As we enter the second quarter, all initiatives continue to progress smoothly. In April, sales volume achieved robust growth of more than 2% year-over-year, while improving wholesale revenue per case. In addition, we are implementing further cost-saving measures to help offset anticipated cost increases. Furthermore, while we are seriously considering further price revisions, we will ensure that we meet this year's profit target and drive mid to long-term profit growth by offering Monster Energy in our vending machines. With regards to the impact of the situation in the Middle East, assuming that conditions stabilize during the second quarter and that oil prices, exchange rates, and other factors will improve towards the year-end, we expect the additional cost increase for this year to be limited. Our hedging strategy provides a clear visibility in the near term, and we expect virtually no impact on 1st half earnings. For the full year, we anticipate additional cost increases of approximately JPY 2 billion-JPY 4 billion. As discussed earlier, we plan to absorb these costs across the business by accelerating our positive earnings trend and implementing further measures. Accordingly, there is no change to our full-year business income target. We will work closely with the global Coca-Cola system to leverage scale advantages for competitive procurement, helping us to maintain and to contain the cost increases and ensure a stable supply of materials. Given our strong underlying performance momentum and the resilient business foundation we have built, I am confident in our ability to achieve our targets. Slide 16 is about Monster Energy. As mentioned earlier, starting from this summer, our peak demand season, we will begin offering Japan's number one energy drink brand, Monster Energy, through the industry's largest vending machine network. This is an exciting initiative that will bring about significant change for us. This was made possible through the agreement between Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan, Monster Energy Japan, and Asahi Beverage. By sourcing products from Asahi Beverage. we will leverage the strength of both parties, namely the leading energy drink brand, Monster Energy, and our industry-leading vending machine network, to create synergies and maximize value for our consumers. We aim to expand consumer choice and purchasing opportunities for vending machines while further improving sales and profitability in the vending business. We plan to introduce products to Coca-Cola vending machines in our business area by this summer, which is the peak season, with the aim of driving immediate sales growth and improving profitability. The product to be introduced, Monster Energy, comes in a 355 ml can with a manufacturer's suggested retail price of JPY 230, including tax. We anticipate that strengthening the energy category will significant boost. We will significantly boost vending machine transactions. Since this product will be in the highest price bracket within our vending machine product portfolio, we also have high expectations for improving wholesale revenue per case through product mix improvement. Under our Vision 2030 strategic business plan, we are striving to improve profitability and capital efficiency while aiming to achieve ambitious goals. To realize this vision, we are exploring every opportunity for growth. In this context, we are very pleased that the introduction of Monster Energy has paved the way for us to strengthen the energy drink category, which holds significant growth potential for our company. Also, as explained today, the vending business is aiming for an increase in segment profit of over JPY 9 billion this year. We achieve a steady profit growth in the 1st quarter, and current sales volume trends are showing signs of improvement. Now, offering Monster Energy will build on this positive momentum and further accelerate profit growth in the vending business. Furthermore, successful execution of these initiatives will further strengthen our path towards achieving Vision 2030. Finally, here is today's summary. Please turn to slide 70. As the 1st year of our strategic business plan, Vision 2030, we delivered a strong 1st quarter performance. Business income exceeded our plan, and we have already achieved more than a 1/3 of our full-year profit growth target. We achieved strong growth across all KPIs, including sales, volume, value share, wholesale revenue per case, and profit, and we are very pleased that this has led to improved competitiveness and profitability. As a result, business income surpassed our targets. As we move into the 2nd quarter and beyond, we will prepare thoroughly for the peak demand season. We will also build on our positive underlying momentum and steadily implement additional measures with strong discipline. By doing so, we will mitigate the impact of the situation in the Middle East and deliver our full-year business income target of JPY 35 billion. I would also like to reiterate that our short and medium-term targets remain unchanged. The measures discussed today, including the potential for further price revisions and the introduction of Monster Energy to our vending machines, are important initiatives that will support mid to long-term profit growth. By further advancing these mid to long-term initiatives and fundamental transformations, while continuing to strengthen our business foundation, we will accelerate our profit growth trajectory towards achieving Vision 2030. That concludes today's presentation. Thank you for your attention. Now we'll move on to the question and answer session. Gomi-san, please take it from here. Thank you, Calin. This Q&A session is intended for analysts and investors. Members of the media are kindly asked to refrain from asking questions at this time, as a separate session will be held later today. Due to interpretation, please ask only one question at a time. We will now begin the Q&A session. Operator, please proceed. We would like to begin Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, press hash seven on your phone. Please note that pressing hash seven again will cancel your request. You can also press hash seven at any time during the Q&A session to join the queue. If you wish to ask a question, please press hash seven now and wait to be called on. We already have someone in the queue, let's begin with the Q&A. I will now call on the 1st person in line. When it's your turn, please state your company name and your name before asking your question. We will now unmute the 1st participant. UBS Securities, Ihara-san, please go ahead. Thank you very much for your presentation. This is Ihara from UBS Securities. Thank you for having me. Ihara-san, thank you for joining. I have two questions. 1stly, it is not just about this year. I would like to rather know what's your outlook for the next fiscal year. This year you have offset measures to offset the inflation, cost inflation this year. If this trend or the market situation continues, what's your expectation for the cost push next year? Your target for next year's BI is 45 or 50, are you able to commit to that target, and what do you need to show your commitment to those targets for next fiscal year? Ihara-san, thank you very much for your question. Basically, he's asking your ideas about next year's business. Calin, please take this question. For the question, well, I decided to pick this question on purpose to try to reiterate on exactly what I mentioned in prepared remarks. I said couple of things which I'm going to repeat. 2026, it's a tough year, but as you can see, we were able to over-deliver our 1st quarter and basically in the smallest quarter of the year, we already have been able to deliver more than 1/3 of our profit targets. All the parameters of the year are going extremely well, as we mentioned, so we are remaining confident for the year-end results. I mentioned loud and clear that we are forward-looking to absorb the costs of the crisis in the Middle East from our own transformation efforts as well initiatives in the market. Having said that, already that position in the very 1st year of our journey, the JPY 35 billion, I would say it's a jump start, for the lack of a better word, a jump start on a fantastic journey towards 2030. With that in mind, I mention as well that we remain committed to our Vision 2030, including our targets communicated so far. We believe, we based all this on the resilience that we have been able, in our opinion, to build in our business over the last years, going through a number of crises, as well fundamental transformation in our business. Nevertheless, through the crisis of Middle East that we are passing through, I just want to remind you that we are part of the worldwide consortium of The Coca-Cola Company called TEPG. Of Coca-Cola system, I'm sorry. It's just fair to assume that we are able to acquire at best prices probably in the world, leveraging the power of the entire Coca-Cola system worldwide, as well availability of supply. Nevertheless, I would add is the fact that we are having our company hedging policy, which deliver very good results so far. It's helping us at this moment in time, and it's only fair and normal to assume that going on, our hedging policy and pricing policy, it's going to deliver results as it delivers so far based on a clear track record. All this give us confidence that we are going to be able to deliver the results, but primarily, we are very proud of the current trends that we were able to build, especially in the vending business, basically growing from all key performance indicators. Hope that answer your question. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Additional question. When there was a Ukraine crisis, you've utilized the power of our procurement system, but still you faced the push cost increase. If this trend continues into next year, what the size of the cost push you would expect for next year? Thank you very much for your additional question. Bjorn, please take this question. Thank you, Ihara-san. As Calin tried to outlay already, we are very confident about our 2026 delivery, and we're also definitely maintaining our 2027 outlook or even 2028 for that matter. Speculating today what costs will come in 2027 is not very meaningful for us. I think instead focus on what Calin tried to convey. We have probably the world's most powerful buying consortium for all the commodity baskets. We have a very good hedging policy that you can see the effect of in the Q1 results. We are already taking proactive cost measures to manage the JPY 2 billion- JPY 4 billion that we included in the prepared remarks. I think from a qualitative standpoint, you should also think about the flexibility, the agility that we have built into our business over the journey coming out of vending. That ability to turn around to manage the situation, because this is not the 1st crisis we're experiencing, gives us the comfort to believe in our targets and make sure that we will deliver them. Hope that answers your question. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me quickly ask the second question. Monster Energy, up until now, I haven't seen many non-Keio products in your vending machine up until now. Now you receive supply from your competitors, which is quite rare in the market. What was the mindset change that you pursue this opportunity positively? Do you think there are any other rooms to explore further collaboration with Asahi? Thank you, Ihara-san. We've just announced the sales of Monster Energy in our vending machine. Calin-san, please take this question. Well, since this is a strategy question, Ihara-san, Calin back here on the mic. Thank you so much for the interest in our business. It is very well known that The Coca-Cola Company has a stake within Monster business and the collaboration worldwide. There should not be a mega surprise that we are leveraging and try to exploit exactly the same way all options that are available for us in order to grow our business. We believe that Monster Energy, it is a good brand. As you can see, it's a sizable market, and it's the leading brand in Japan. We are proposing to this our significant and basically the largest in the world vending-retail business. We are convinced that through the combination of Monster Energy within our largest vending network, outstanding results are going to come out over time. We are going to look forward to strengthen this partnership and as well to use, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, every possible opportunity for our business to grow and to build a solid base for our shareholders and their shareholders gains. I hope that answered your question. Thank you very much. Monster Energy and Coca-Cola system has a capital relation worldwide, that's it and nothing more than that. Thank you very much. Operator, please put through the next question. I will unmute the next person with a question. SMBC Nikko Securities, Furuta-san, please go ahead. Thank you. SMBC Nikko Securities, Furuta speaking. I have one question. The further price revision, you are going to consider seriously the further price revision. What is the timeline for that? What the target scope of the further price revision? Do you have any? Could you please tell us that? You did a price revision for the green tea category in March. Will that be a scope target for the further price revisions? That kind of scope and further possibilities, I would like to ask. Furuta-san, thank you very much for your question. The consideration for the further price revision, Alex will take this question. Furuta-san, Alex here. As you rightly pointed out, we are executing the wave nine of price revisions with tea, and that's progressing pretty much as planned. Now, with what has been shared in the prepared remarks, there's evidently a very fluid situation around Middle East. As Calin and Bjorn have shared, we're looking at every single option to make sure that we deliver the business income target. In that regard, we are seeing that the pressure on costs is not only for CCBJI. It's a cost pressure for the entire industry. We always, I think, have been walking the talk, seeing price increases as one of the levers to ensure that we are driving and protecting the margins of our business. In that regard, we are seriously considering price revisions. At this point in time, nothing has been decided yet as it regards to the timing and the scope, and we will come back when in due course to share more details. That's it for now. Thank you. Under such circumstances for the Middle East crisis, the cost increase will further increase the cost. Under such circumstances, the price revision, you probably have to do the price revision at early timing. Also green tea categories, your competitors are not following up. Under that market conditions, do you think you are able to do the further price revision? Furuta-san, thank you for additional question. Alex will answer this question. Furuta-san, at this point in time, we continue to evaluate the situation, and we will come in due course when the time is right to share with you more details. Thank you very much for your answer. Thank you. Operator, please put through to the next question. I'm unmuted. The next person with a question. Nomura Securities, Morita-san. Morita-san, please go ahead. Morita from Nomura Securities. I have two questions. 1st question is regarding the Monster Energy. Is it a contract with the CCBJI? Is it within the contract with the CCBJI or is it outside the contract with the CCBJI? Thank you for the question. Regarding the Monster Energy, Calin will answer. Calin, again. We need to clearly understand the question to be able to answer it precisely, inside or outside the framework of The Coca-Cola Company. I just want to remind everyone, we are working on a franchise or franchisee framework with The Coca-Cola Company. Of course, within that framework, there are of course, certain rules of dos and don'ts. Of course, this is something that is aligned within the frame of operating in Japan as arrangements between The Coca-Cola Company and the bottlers regarding this category are happening around the world. In term of Monster per se product supply, this is something that is happening between us, Monster and as well, Asahi. Well, did we answer your question, Morita-san? Sorry, I didn't understand very clearly. Basically, the marketing belongs to the CCGC. Will CCGC provide that marketing to the Monster or is it included in the concentrate? Meaning coming into that. We need to. I'm sorry to slow down the answer, but we need to determine some basics and explain couple of basics which might not be well known. Monster Company, it's a standalone company as well, publicly listed, a separate entity than Coca-Cola Company, where of course, Coca-Cola Company holds a equity stake in it. That's a matter of ownership. In term of marketing and the means of distribution, Monster, it's operating like a separate company. From that perspective, the marketing relationship between us and the brand owner happens between Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan and Monster as a company. Hope that answered the question. Additional question is, the profit per case compared with other product, does Monster provide more profit per case? To this, Morita-san, here Calin speaking again. I'm sorry to drag me into these details, but we're not going to disclose at this moment in time details like profit per case. However, we try to be as explicit for you to be able to model telling you that this is going to be in the range of JPY 230 brackets as a price point, one of the highest that you can find within the vending machines in Japan. If you overlap that SKU at the highest price possible there over the highest number of vending machines in Japan, which is our Coca-Cola network, probably you can simulate the size of the benefits that can bring to our business. I hope that answered the question. My 2nd question is regarding the possibility of additional cost increase because of a Middle East. You said that it's a JPY 2 billion-JPY 4 billion. Could you explain the background of that calculation? Do you think that in the latter half of this year, the situation will subside and improve? Is it what you thought? Bjorn will answer that question. Thank you, Morita-san. On the costs, as you heard in our prepared remarks, we estimate the net impact of this for 2026 to be in the range of JPY 2 billion-JPY 4 billion. We're not gonna give details on how we arrive at that. That's built on the set of assumptions that in the foreseeable future, this is the impact, and it's within the range of what we will definitely manage. Again, remind yourself exactly what we also said to Ihara-san about the cost levels. We are buying at the best prices, most likely globally, through our global procurement system of all the commodities used in our beverages in Japan. Secondly, we have a very strong hedging policy. As I also said to Ihara-san, you can see that from the impact of Q1, which helps us manage the highs and the lows of commodity basket fluctuations. We're hedging currency like I'm assuming is normal. We have already, as we also said in the prepared remarks, we're taking additional measures already on the cost increases. You heard Alex comment on the, on the, strongly considering pricing increases into the future. We believe we are managing this within this year. We are fully committed to delivering the profit for this year and definitely for next year, and we will continue to update you as we go through the year. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for your question. Okay, operator, please go to the next person with a question. I will unmute the next person. Next person is Miyake-san from Morgan Stanley MUFG. Thank you very much. This is Miyake from Morgan Stanley. I would like to check on this current term that you just completed. 1st question is that, with regards to the change in the useful year of your equipment, and then you have enjoyed the benefit of reducing the depreciation of about the tune of JPY 500 million. It's annualized maybe about JPY 2 billion. Is this already factored in in your business plan? Thank you, Miyake-san. Your question is about whether or not we are factoring in the benefits coming from the change of the useful life, useful year of the life for the machinery. Bjorn, would you like to answer this question? Yes, correct. We have reevaluated the useful life of our manufacturing assets. Again, part of the overall focus on ROIC and sensible uses of our capital. The impact, yeah, will be JPY 1.5 billion-JPY 2 billion on a full year basis. It was not included in the initial plan, but it's not material enough at this point to revision anything up or down on a full year basis. We put this into the mix and again remain strongly committed to deliver our JPY 35 billion target for 2020. Thank you. When you come up with the business plan at the beginning of the year, you already factored in, you already have factored in this half to JPY 2 billion in a full year basis. You are not putting this on top. Just to follow up, this is not included at the beginning of the year. Okay, understood. If that's the case, you mentioned that you can commit to that JPY 35 billion target, right? Yes, right. Okay. One point. One more point. Against the 1st quarter plan, you have overperformed for the profit, right? You have divided into these segments, can you show me the each contribution breakdown? For example, vending, versus last year, JPY 4.5 billion was the amount. Because of the depreciation decline, there was about JPY 2 billion and plus. The sales, the revenue is not like on top of versus last year. What are the benefit coming from? Is that the cost? For the OTC, I know you have better revenue than last year, but is there any cost increment behind that? Oh, sorry, vending, you are not factoring in the reduction in the depreciation, right? Anyway, by looking at the segment, what is the contribution factor for each segment that you can overperform versus the plan? Thank you, Miyake-san. You would like to understand the background to why we could overperform the 1st quarter versus the plan. Alex, would you like to answer this question? I'll take that, Miyake-san. As you know, we have started publishing the segment profitability, and we're very happy with that. In your question, I think let me just go back a little bit again to August last year when we issued the Vision 2030 plan because it contains some very key elements to how we run the business. You remember we talked about job tickets or job profiles by business unit. Therefore, you can't just correlate immediately volume and revenue and profitability by segment. You have to look at the role of that business unit. Let me quickly take them so we don't spend too much time on it. The whole purpose of vending is to drive profitability and capital improvement. That's what you see happening in Q1 with a very strong improvement in costs and efficiency. That's the job ticket at the present moment for vending while we continue to maximize the revenue opportunities coming up in that channel or business unit. OTC, yes, there are expenses related to running OTC, but most of that is related to our work with the customers and also therefore all the programs we're doing in supermarkets, in online, in convenience stores, et cetera. The role of food service business unit, albeit smaller than the two others, is to drive both top-line growth and profitable growth. Again, the expenses there are more related to customer activation in the market. Hopefully that gives a little bit of texture to your question. Thank you so much. Maybe we shouldn't look by the segments. At the end of the day, in the 1st quarter, you could gain more profit than the plans because you have, are over-performing in the volume, and also you have more benefit coming from the transformation effects. Can I understand in that way? Is there any other additional cost reduction activities that we should be factoring in here? Correct you a little bit. It might be the translation, but you said you should not be looking at the segment profits. Remember, the segment profit is again to give insight into how we run the business. Going back to what I said, the three business units have very distinct and clear job tickets, the objectives they're supposed to deliver. When it comes to transformations, a lot of the effort you see coming through in vending improved profitability is the function of transformations. We're optimizing the routes, we're optimizing resources, we're optimizing how we buy the products and the assets. On top of that, remember, we're also driving a lot of revenue initiatives against pricing, but also the key elements of Alex we had talked about earlier on product assortment and how we optimize against place and SKU profitability. There are always a lot of activities happening in a big business unit like vending. You can't isolate, in most cases, one single cost effect to explain the whole profitability. My suggestion, look at the overall profitability, but also how the key drivers are manifested in the segment disclosures. You will have a good picture of what is actually happening. When you look at the overall company base, I was just thinking, I believe that you have many transformation in effects in every corner of your business, and particularly in the vending, it was really strong. That's what I understood. Thank you very much. Thank you, Miyake-san. Since we are approaching the designated hours, we would like to pick up a couple more questions, but I hope that we can keep it one question by person. Operator, please put to the next question. I'll mute the next speaker. Next, we have Haji-san from Mizuho Securities. Please go ahead. I have one question about Monster Energy. I would like to just double-check. I would like to understand, this will be a wholesale supply from Asahi to CCBJI. You said that Asahi is a supplier of Monster Energy to CCBJI. CCBJI has no involvement in the manufacturing, meaning that the financially, it's about margin. It's only about margin, no production cost. Because I would like to understand the nature of contribution, financial contribution of this business. Thank you, Haji-san. You would like to understand whether CCBJI is involved in the manufacturing and this is a pure wholesale business. Alex-san, please take this question. Haji-san, it's Alex here. Yes, just probably building on your confirmation. It's the agreement with Asahi is we're buying product from them, and we're deploying into the largest network of vending machines. Yes, we're not involved in the manufacturing of this product. I hope this clarifies your question. Answer. Thank you very much. You will earn only the sales margin. Is that only revenue from this business model? Yes, that is correct. Thank you very much. Okay. Operator, please put through the next question. I will admit the next person with a question. Fujiwara-san from J.P. Morgan Securities, please go ahead. Hello, good evening. Fujiwara from J.P. Morgan speaking. I have one question. Just simply would like to ask about the figures. Page seven, slide seven, there's factors for increase and decrease. I would like to know the 1st volume price mix. There is a breakdown numbers here and volume, other than volume and unit price, and there's other, and that is minus JPY 3.5 billion, that's what I heard, I believe, and that is pretty big. I'd like to know the breakdown of that. After the 2nd quarter, what will happen to the others? What is the outlook for the others segment? That's all from me. Fujiwara-san, thank you for your question. The waterfall chart, the volume price mix, and there's other, you would like to know the breakdown of other of the volume price mix. Bjorn will take this question. Yes. Inside the other, that is a collection of several items. By selling more volume and therefore generating more revenue, which is good, you also incur additional sales costs, the moving costs, the center fees, et cetera. That will come as part of that because you're not always having sales that go straight through overall. The commissions, which is also part of the vending business inside here, decreased a little bit in the quarter. We also have the, what we call the variable transportation costs or logistics costs also rose again because we're moving more product in the quarter. All of those mixed elements will come in that category. Thank you. That means the variable promotion costs, the rebate or the kind of impact is coming from those impacted by that and the negative amount is big for other is something that is not negative. Is that correct understanding? Absolutely 100%. It's the cost of doing business. Yes, understood. Thank you. Fujiwara -san, thank you for your question. Operator, please put through to the next question. I'll unmute the next person with a question. Igarashi-san from Daiwa Securities. Igarashi-san, please go ahead. Thank you very much. Igarashi from Daiwa Securities speaking. Quickly, I have one question regarding the volume. Sustainability of the successful volume growth. +4% is very good. In April, it's +2% in the flash report. Is it just slowing down or in the 1st quarter, it was too good? Could you give us a comment regarding the growth in the volume? Thank you for the question. Regarding the sustainability or the growth of the volume and also how to assess the 2% growth in April. Alex will answer. Thank you. Alex here. The preliminary report in April is +2% flash. So far, eh, we believe we continue to outperform the market, which is a positive thing. What we've seen in the volume impact is, as you recall, we took the price increase of green tea, so that's negatively impacting or the trend in the early part of the month. Nevertheless, I think what I wanna call out is the fact that we believe to be outperforming the market and we feel confident about the outlook that we have to deliver the JPY 35 billion profit for the full year. Understood. Thank you very much. Thank you for your question. Operator, could you move on to the next question? I will unmute the next person. Next person is Sumoge-san from Bof A. Hi, this is Sumoge speaking from BofA. I hope I'm audible. Yes. Please go ahead. Thank you. I know this has been repeating questions. I would like to ask about the cost side of that, about the JPY 2 billion-JPY 4 billion cost push. In slide 11, you mentioned about those plans, you mentioned that in the 1st half you don't really have much impact. Can I understand that you are expecting some kind of impact in the second half? You mentioned about JPY 2 billion-JPY 4 billion is a potential one, they may not happen. As you know, if we see the price of the oil stabilize after the April, is that the kind of scenario that you assume in here? Thank you, Sumoge-san. Your question is about the cost, pressure for this year. I would like to ask Bjorn to pick up this question. Thank you, Sumoge-san. Again, we reiterated our belief that the net impact will be about JPY 2 billion-JPY 4 billion in our commodity and currency basket for this year. Again, speculating about the future is not very helpful here. We are, again, committed to deliver our JPY 35 billion, we will manage towards that. I think instead, I would remind you of what happened back in 2022 when the Ukraine crisis hit again the commodity and the currency markets. You saw what we did, we managed that through probably one of the bigger impacts to the beverage business ever in Japan. You heard also the determination of Alex saying we are seriously considering price increases, which is exactly what happened when that Ukraine crisis started, flowing through into the commodity market. Rest assured, we are on that and we will manage towards our targets. Thank you. Understood. Thank you. What about the timeline? In your presentation on page 15, 1st half, you are not expecting any impact, but then you are saying about, like, maybe second half, you might be having the impact. What do you think about the timeline? Thank you for your question. The 1st half and the second half assumption, I would like Bjorn to answer this question. Again, Sumoge-san, we're operating with different scenarios that we're managing, again, with the purpose of delivering our profits. We estimate, as we also said in the prepared remarks, that in the foreseeable future, the effects of this event will start subsiding, and that's what we're managing against. I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for your question. Since we are running over time, I would like to pick the final question. Operator, please go ahead. I unmute the next question. Goldman Sachs, Miyazaki-san. Please go ahead. This is Miyazaki from Goldman Sachs. Thank you very much for having me. I would also like to ask a question related to Middle East situation. You've already explained the cost impact, so it's clear to me. How about the procurement risk? Is it correct to understand that you have no, almost no risk in the procurement aspect, such as PET bottle or packages? How about the physical procurement risk? I would like to understand how you see it. Thank you very much for your question. About the impact of Middle East situation, the risk of our procurement, Calin-san will take this question. Kisan, Calin's here. I'm jumping again in to take this last question and to try to answer your question, but as well to make a comment about this continuous concern and questions directed to us as a company about the political situation in the Middle East as well. Well, I can answer very simply the 1st part of the question. Right now, we are not facing any shortage of product. Second thing that I can say, in the foreseeable future, we don't foresee having any shortage of product. We can estimate some cost increases that we have measured because of the overall dynamic of the pricing, because of the demand and supply situation, but we are confident that through our network, we are able to supply at least to what we have visibility, the supply for our raw materials. I hope that clarifies the overall situation. Let me go back to the Middle East situation, which concerns everybody. With all due respect to the audience, I mean, asking us about scenarios of product shortage and product pricing for 2027, it's at least unrealistic. Meaning, we are not geopolitical experts, and we are not having a call here to debate political trends. Meaning, what's going to happen in 2027, I can tell you right now, I don't know, and nobody in our company knows. What the impact would be if this crisis is going to stay here for another 40, I don't know, 24 months or 48 months, nobody can estimate. We are doing our best estimations for what's in our control, as well leveraging our power of purchasing in any conditions out there. We need to make sure that no matter the condition out there, we are buying at the best price in the market. No matter the conditions out there, we need to make sure that we ensure supply. As well, we need to make sure that we are as well best in industry in ensuring supply. This is the only thing that I can tell you right now. The fact that we have created a very solid business in Japan over the years through our transformation. The fact that we are purchasing through the consortium, which is one of the biggest in the world. Third, we are having a very healthy hedging policy which proved to work over the last years, gives us confidence to believe that no matter the scenarios are, we will manage above average within the industry in Japan and outside Japan in the world within the Coca-Cola system. More than that, going and giving granularity now for quarter four impact of costs in 2027, I think that's totally unrealistic to be questioned at this moment in time. This is what I want to highlight. At this moment in time, we stay committed to the results of this year through fantastic trends out there in the market for our company. With all due respect, the way how I would suggest you read the numbers is that we have over-delivered in all the KPIs in quarter one, not only profitability. More than that, we stay committed for the year-end profit, as well for step-by-step 2027, 2028, and 2030, Vision 2030 results. Now, I hope that that concludes the answers today, and as well try to set the scene for how we are looking at the crisis in the Middle East. Thank you very much for your questions and your interest in the business. Thank you very much for your comments. Thank you very much for your question. With that, we would like to conclude the Q&A session. We are running over time. Thank you for your patience. We will put the information in the presentation on our website. If you have other questions, please contact the IR team in our company. Thank you very much for your participation.