Hello, and welcome to the Lucas Bols Half Year Results 2021 - 2022. My name is Jess, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. For the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only. However, there will be the opportunity to ask questions. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question at any time. If at any point you require assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad, and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand over to your host, Floor van Baaren, to begin today's call. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, welcome all to today's conference call and webcast. Unfortunately, no physical meeting again, so we will have some people on the call and some people on the webcast. Huub van Doorne and Frank Cocx will be the speakers of today. They are not physically in one room. For the Q&A, you can just ask your questions and they will answer. Huub van Doorne will start the presentation. I hand over to you now, Huub. Thank you, Floor, and welcome everybody to the half-year results 2021-2022 of Lucas Bols. I would like to start on page five of the presentation regarding the highlights of H1 2021-2022. Our revenue came in at EUR 45.6 million, which is a strong year-on-year growth of 70%, and it was nearly on par with the pre-COVID-19 H1 2019-2020 revenue. We are extremely pleased with the excellent performance in the U.S., where revenue tripled versus the same period last year, but also we saw an accelerated growth of 59% versus H1 2019-2020. We saw strong recovery in most markets except for Japan, Southeast Asia and travel retail. Also depletions. The depletions were up 33% compared to H1 2021. More importantly, we're also up 6% versus the pre-COVID H1 2019-2020, reflecting a strong performance of our global cocktail brands. The gross margin was 56.6% in line with last year, and our operating profit more than doubled to EUR 11.5 million, while net profit came in at EUR 7.7 million. I'm pleased to report that our targeted structural overhead cost savings were achieved. We achieved a strong free operating cash flow of EUR 11.4 million, which is enabling us an important net debt reduction of EUR 8.9 million to EUR 83.5 million. Lastly, with the start of Maxxium Belgium and Luxembourg in October, Lucas Bols now controls the distribution of around 40% of its global revenue. If you could follow me to page number seven, where we will present to you our strategy update called Fit for Growth. 2021 was, as we all know, disrupted by COVID-19. We successfully took action, and fiscal year 2021-2022 marks for us the start of a revised strategy and a company with stronger fundamentals going forward. In April 2021, we implemented the Fit for Growth program, which is a revised operating model to boost growth. We are pleased to see and report that we are already seeing the first effects in our results. The Fit for Growth redefines the value proposition and is based on the following success factors. Even more brand focus, even more focus on cocktails, brands and innovation. The market approach has been changed to more tailored to cocktail culture maturity. The ways of working have been redefined, and we even want to make smarter use of our assets and partnerships. Last but not least, the organization which has been transformed into a flat and agile entrepreneurial organization, which in summary positions us optimally to capture further organic and acquisitive growth. Page number eight, we have defined the key success factors for the Fit for Growth program. First of all, the brand focus you see on the left. We are a brand company and brand led in everything we do. We are cocktail inspired. The cocktail is at the heart of all our activities and activation. We are innovative and trend led. We inspire our community of bartenders and influencers and consumers, and we redefine our brand portfolios, which I will treat later in the presentation. In the market approach, we have redefined our market clusters and made these market clusters more based on the cocktail culture maturity. Therefore, this will allow us to be better, even better in our brand market unit based A&P investments and make this more, even more targeted. It also will lead to an improved in-market brand activations. In our ways of working, we really continue with our long-term partnerships and JVs. We want to make smart use of our production assets and distribution partners. The control of sales and marketing in selective markets has been improved, as I said before, with 40% now controlled of our revenue in our own hands, and the way of working is innovation and entrepreneurial in nature. In our organization, we have made some changes as well, to reflect the previous three points which I have explained. We revised our decision-making, and we now have a flat reporting structure. It completely fits our brand focus and our market approach. It stimulates teamwork. The teams are more integrated than before, and we are more forward-looking and results-oriented. On page nine, first, the focus on brands, cocktails, and innovation. We redefined our brand portfolios into two brand portfolios being A, the global cocktail brands, and B, the regional liquors and spirits. The regional liquors and spirits are divided into international liquors and spirits and domestic liquors and spirits. We will have specific objectives by brand and by market. They have all been defined and put in motion and action, and as I said before, a tailored market approach and resource allocation to make the brand and the market optimally Fit for Growth. On page 10, you see the newly defined global cocktail brands. By this redefinition, we also took the opportunity to increase our target. Our yearly revenue growth target of the global cocktail brands is now set at 4%-5%. Previously, it was 3%-4%. The global cocktail brands consist of this, on one hand, of the Bols Cocktails, which is the liqueurs, the genever, vodka, and the Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails, the Passoã brand and Galliano. In the market developments, we see growing global cocktail trends. We see the continuing increase in popularity of cocktails and mixology, and also we see the in-home cocktail consumption growing. Last but not least, the premiumization of brands and products. That has as consequence for our actions that we take the cocktails more than ever as a driver for growth. We are focused on innovation and product development, and the A&P investments will be more directed to consumers and also in digital marketing. We have ambitious brand marketing and commercial objectives by brand. On page 11, it's the regional liquors and spirits. There we have as a target to maintain our revenue and optimize our profit. On the left, you see the international brands in this category, which is Damrak Gin, the Pisang Ambon, Nuvo, the Henkes Gin proposition, and Vaccari Sambuca. Here we go for a growth strategy in specific niche markets, so well-defined specific markets, where with these brands we also aim for growth. We intend to expand distribution to new markets where we see opportunities, and in principle, these brands have a higher gross margin and very targeted A&P investments. On the right side, you see our domestic portfolio. As you know, the domestic portfolio is still under pressure, but nevertheless, we aim to maintain our market leadership in the Netherlands. We want to further optimize the chain profitability and cash generation of this unit. In general, we can say these are lower gross margins with a limited A&P investment. On page 12, you see the market clusters based on cocktail maturity. You see on the left the wheel, as we always say, the wheel of the cocktail maturity around the world. The population growing over 21 years. There's urbanization. Disposable income is increasing. Expenditure on spirits is increasing. You see the movement from domestic to international brands. Cocktail scene is often growing. The bartenders and influencers set the quality standards and trends, and the cocktail culture is expanding both in and out of home. If you take this wheel and you plug that on our three defined markets, we first have defined the sophisticated cocktail market as being North America, which consists of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico in our definition. It's a sophisticated and well-developed cocktail culture, both in and out of home. The second cluster is the developed cocktail markets, which we have defined as Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand. There is a cocktail culture becoming more sophisticated and widespread. While in the third cluster, which we have put as the emerging cocktail markets, consists of two different parts, actually Eastern Europe and Asia, excluding Japan, where we see a growing and developing cocktail culture and bartending scene. Markets like Africa, Middle East, and Latin America is an early phase, mostly in big city cocktail scene. These are the three newly defined markets. On page 13, I won't read it all in this presentation, but it's on one page. You see that we are reinforcing our message in terms of our mission, our strategy, but changing the execution and making the execution more towards growth and more impactful implementation. On the left, you see the first one is still the same. Build the equity of our brands. We have leading brands for the international cocktail markets. Bols is the world's first cocktail brand. We actively invest and innovate in our brands, and we continuously develop new flavors and concepts. Second, we lead the development of the cocktail market by engaging the local bartending community to create and drive new trends, share knowledge and expertise, nurture our brand ambassadors, and we showcase and inspire in the House of Bols and the Bols Cocktail Academy. Thirdly, we accelerate growth of the global cocktail brands. We want to grow the global cocktail brands in all cocktail markets, extend it to new and developing cocktail markets, and grow the cocktail market and grow our market share through direct-to-consumer initiatives. Fourth, we leverage the commercial and operational excellence, our asset-light business model, our scalable distribution and production platform, long-term partnerships, and the optimization of the chain profitability of our regional liqueurs and spirits. On one page, this is our reinforced mission and strategy for Lucas Bols. On page 14, if you summarize the Lucas Bols value proposition as a company, we are a leading global cocktail and spirits player poised for future growth. The four elements which I just mentioned, you see there, and the cocktail market, we believe, will continue to grow globally. We aim for organic annual revenue growth from global cocktail brands of 4%-5%. We aim for high and sustainable profit margins, strong cash generation and high cash conversion. We have a scalable distribution and production platform through partnerships and/or acquisitions, and we want to reward investors with an attractive dividend. This is the summary of the strategy update. I would like to now take you to page 16, which is more talking about the highlights by brand in the first half of the year. The global cocktail brands and regional liqueurs and spirits both strongly recovered in both revenue and gross profit. On the left, you see the global cocktail brands achieved EUR 33.8 million in revenue, which is a growth of 77% versus last year, while the regional liqueurs achieved EUR 11.8 million, which is up 54%, which means that the global cocktail brands at 74% of the revenue and the regional liqueurs and spirits, 26%. In terms of gross profit, EUR 20.6 million was achieved for the global cocktail brands, up 78% versus last year, and the regional liqueurs and spirits, EUR 5.2 million or 43%+ versus 2021. You see that 80% of our gross profit is coming from the global cocktail brands and 20% from the regional liqueurs and spirits. On page 17, you see how the Bols Cocktails brand, how we see that brand. It's the world's first cocktail brand, and the portfolio consists of the liqueurs. We know the flavored liqueurs, which act as the cocktail enabler. You see the Genever, which stands for credibility and your original cocktail mixer. We have the vodka brand to support the trade with an all-round cocktail focus and new, the new kid on the block, and very important for consumers, is the Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails by Bols to build consumer brand name and brand cocktails at home, which is an exciting new innovation for the Bols brand. On page 18, you see a summary of the results for the H1 for Bols Cocktails. The gradual reopening of the on-trade drives clearly the Bols Cocktails revenue growth. In the U.S., Bols Cocktails depletions were up 94% versus last year, and even more important, up 34% versus 2019-2020, which is a major achievement and shows the strength of the Bols Cocktails in the U.S. market, achieved by more listings, so an expansion of accounts, more menu listings, and more flavors which we managed to sell in the market. Of course, also due to the reopening of the on-trade versus last year. Also depletions in China and Eastern Europe exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels. That shows that in China and Eastern Europe, the brand is doing really well and is back on a growth track. We also saw improving trends in Western Europe as from Q2. First quarter was still influenced very much by COVID, and Q2 saw an improvement in Western Europe. The exception to the recovery were Japan and Southeast Asia. They were still very much down, but we expect recovery in H2 2021- 2022 now that the on-trade is reopening step-by-step and on a gradual basis. We focus more than ever on our drinks strategy, our cocktail strategy, and we focus on popular signature cocktails, which are implemented more and more in the various markets. As I said, the Bols Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails were launched as from October in the U.S. and the Netherlands. On page 19, you see the Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails. The Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails in a tube and in beautiful styled bottles. These have been developed in H1. Developed means from development from product, packaging, production, etcetera, have been shipped to the U.S. and will be launched and rolled out in the U.S. and the Netherlands in H2. In that sense, there's very, very limited revenue in H1, but mostly it will be based on H2. For the U.S., we aim for 3,000 distribution points by March 31st, 2022, and we will have a zip code-targeted social media campaign around distribution points. In the Netherlands, we are focusing on distribution in retail outlets and cash and carries, and also there we will move with a PR and social campaign in media. We are happy to report that also these products have achieved already two gold medals in the Spirits Business competition, for quality, where many, many, ready-to-enjoy or ready-to-serve cocktails participated. Two gold medals and two silver medals, which is a testament of the quality which we have in the bottle and in the tube. On Passoã, page number 20, we continued double-digit revenue growth, and it's really exceeding expectations. Passoã is really, really doing well in almost all top markets, and we are well ahead of 2019-2020. All the work which has been done on the brand since we took it over is now starting to being translated into accelerated growth. Drivers are the reopening of the on-trade, of course, but also the very successful cocktail and mixed drink strategy. We've seen accelerated growth on a higher and higher basis in the U.K., driven by social media campaigns, the Passoã Star Martini activations and PR coverage. Besides that, we saw also positive momentum in the U.S., Puerto Rico, the Netherlands and Australia, and also even on a smaller scale in many other markets. Passoã is really one of our growth drivers. On page number 21, Galliano. On Galliano, we saw overall high single-digit growth in depletions, both versus 2021 and 1920. We have a clear focus on the after-dinner coffee moment with key signature serves like the Galliano Hot Shot and the Espresso Martini, which is a very popular cocktail. Strong results in Australia and New Zealand continued, but also in Scandinavia, double-digit growth, which were driven by the Galliano Hot Shot. We launched a new digital platform, galliano.com. More to come on this brand because we will relaunch the Galliano Ristretto and turn it into a Galliano Espresso, as we're going to call it, in H2, because we want to leverage more and more the popular Espresso Martini cocktail. On page 22, the regional liqueurs and spirits. Damrak Gin and Damrak Virgin, they showed a slow recovery based on the reopening of the on-trade. Nuvo is doing really well in the U.S. and South America. Pallini is performing according to plan and growing versus year ago, so we are very pleased with that because we took that brand over, as you know, in December 2020, but it's really going well and according to plan. Pisang Ambon continues to perform well with depletions of mid-single digit. We saw excellent performance of Henkes in West Africa with consumer communication on billboards leading to accelerated growth. Vaccari performs well and made a comeback driven by the very positive trend in Mexico. The only negative in the regional liquors and spirits is the continued decline of the Genever and Vieux portfolio in the Netherlands. This concludes my part of the presentation, so I would now like to hand over to Frank for the financial highlights. Thank you. Yes, good morning, everyone. The financial highlights section of this H1 analyst presentation starts with where we left you off in our last analyst call on the 27th of May of this year, where our results over the 2020-2021 fiscal year were discussed. In that call, we provided you four key outlook messages for the current fiscal year that was then ahead of us, and of which we've just closed the first half year. The first of those four outlook messages was that we would aim to recover most of the COVID-19 sales decline during the year. Now that vaccination programs are rolled out, markets reopen gradually, and our brands continue to show strength and resilience. We also mentioned that following last year's substantial destocking, we would expect shipments to follow depletions closely. In other words, there would be no further destocking, nor would there be any material stocking. The third outlook message had a more cautionary tone to it. We said we would expect ongoing COVID-19 consequences to impact our performance still, and mainly in H1, and that we would consequently continue our focus on cost and cash control, as well as further reducing net debt, but without jeopardizing our brand investments and hence our growth strategy. The last outlook message dealt with the global disruptions in the supply chain, commenting that these disruptions would also hit Lucas Bols, for example, through increased input costs and logistical challenges. Although we are currently only halfway through the fiscal year, this is, I believe, the right time to look back and analyze H1 performance against the outlook that we then provided. Overall, as Huub already said as well, we definitely think we have delivered to that outlook and outperformed it in certain instances. On the sales recovery, we can comfortably state that that has been strong in the first half year. Revenue went up 70%, and growth is even achieved versus H1 of the pre-COVID-19 fiscal year of 2019-2020. Also, depletions went up 33% versus last year and 6% versus pre-COVID. This growth was achieved despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19, which as we've mentioned, mainly in Japan, which is one of our top markets, hit us. On the second message, that is what I would like to call a tick in the box because there was no net material stocking or destocking in the first half, and the further destocking in Japan, which we commented on before, took place in accordance with plans. Despite the strong recovery, we did not let go of our cash cost and or net debt focus. We fully achieved the structural overhead cost savings we targeted, and our free operating cash flow is almost 20% higher than last year and almost 30% ahead of pre-COVID-19. During the first half year, we also further reduced our net debt substantially by almost EUR 9 million to EUR 83.5 million. Again, I'd like to stress that none of this ongoing focus on cost and cash has been at the expense of brand investments. Those have absolutely returned to normal levels and important innovations have been financed during the first half year. Unfortunately, the last outlook message also stood its ground. Although relatively limited to date, we have faced increased input costs and much higher costs of logistics. Our full profit and loss statement for the first half year is discussed on the next slide 25. I've compared our H1 results versus last year, H1 of last year, which is what we are required to report on in the H1 financial statements. In my opinion, more importantly, also versus H1 2019-2020, predominantly to analyze the extent to which we have recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels of performance. A key focus for us internally as well, to keep on focusing on the recovery. Revenue came in at EUR 45.6 million, 70%+ versus last year on the back of on-trade reopening and positive brand momentum, complemented by the addition of Pallini. As commented on before, we saw recovery in pretty much all of our markets except for Japan and those that are heavily dependent on travel, such as travel retail, but also on markets that depend on tourists. Versus 2019-2020, if we adjust for FX impact, we have also grown revenue and depletions went up 6%, which also demonstrates the further premiumization of our portfolio, and again, the addition of Pallini. We are not yet exceeding H1 of two years ago. That's of course because COVID-19 is still out there in some of our markets, and we spend more on commercial A&P, specifically in the retail channel, which is netted off in net revenue, which is why net revenue is also a bit lower because of that. Gross profit comes in at EUR 25.8 million, which means that our gross profit margin is stable compared to last year. On the one hand, we see recovering on-trade, which normally pushes up our margins, and it also did during this half year. We've also put through some price increases, among which in the United States. These positive effects are offset by increased input costs that I will get back to later, and also the addition of Pallini, which is a distribution contract and therefore naturally comes in at much lower gross margins. The drop in gross margin is 190 basis points versus two years ago versus pre-COVID-19, and there it's predominantly negatively impacted by the commercial A&P that I mentioned under revenue. More importantly, it's the mix. We still don't see a lot of revenue in Japan, which is one of our highest margin markets and not in all of our markets. The on-trade, also very high in margin, has not fully recovered yet. In addition here, we also see the increased input costs as well as the addition of Pallini at the distribution contract gross margin. Operating profit is EUR 11.5 million and consequently more than doubled compared to what it was a half year, the half year a year ago. It's driven by the strong on-trade recovery, but also by further overhead cost savings. We have returned our A&P spend to more normal levels. We're still focusing on where and how we spend it. What we have seen in the first half of this year, also compared to last year, is the global disruptions on logistics have put a lot of pressure on logistic costs, which I'll get back to later. We are not yet completely back at operating profit levels versus pre-COVID two years ago. We have the structural cost savings there, but those are more than offset by the lower gross margin, higher logistic costs, higher commissions, predominantly in regards to the growing revenue for Nuvo, and slightly higher depreciations following the implementation of the ERP we did last year. As mentioned, A&P expenses are in line with what they were before COVID. EBIT comes in north of EUR 12 million, which means it's almost triple what it was a year ago. Again, driven by better operating profits, but also very happy to mention that both our joint ventures, Maxxium and Avandis, have also accelerated their positive performance. Maxxium is seeing stronger results and Avandis, where we had to report an operating loss of EUR 1.5 million last year because as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, both ourselves but also the other brand partners at Avandis reduced their production volumes. They now come in at a break-even level, which means we no longer account for an operating loss there. First, two years ago, operating profit is slightly below what it was and of course impacted by COVID-19 still with approximately the same joint venture results. The last profit measure we have is net profit. The difference with EBIT being net finance expenses and income tax. Almost 4 x the net profit was achieved compared to what we achieved a year ago, driven by the strong EBIT improvement. Finance costs have remained about at the same level of what it was a year ago, but also what it was two years ago. Of course, our income tax expense has increased now that our trading and hence our profit has increased. However, our effective tax rate went down quite substantially from 27% last year to 25.2% this year. Two key factors driving that. The first one is that last year, most of our profits were taxed in France because there were Passoã profits taxed at a higher rate in France than the Netherlands tax rate. The second reason is that the French tax rate has gone down as well. That causes the decrease to 25.2%. The last topic on this slide is the earnings per share, which came in at EUR 0.62 compared to EUR 0.16 for the first half last year, and almost back to pre-COVID-19 levels where we achieved EUR 0.68 / share. If we can please make a page turn to slide 26. Both our revenue and gross margin is then analyzed over two brand portfolios, i.e. the global cocktail brands and regional liqueurs and spirits. The waterfall shows how our H1 revenue growth of 70% is split across these two brand portfolios, indicating that both portfolios have grown substantially and also that the FX impact has been very limited. If we first look at our global cocktail brands, we see a revenue growth of 77% on the back of 31% higher depletions, and the difference between those two indicating last year's destocking heavily in the global cocktail brands area. We see that Bols Cocktails is doing really well, as Huub mentioned, across all of our key markets other than Japan, and driven both by new initiatives as well as the on-trade reopening, and very importantly, also an increasing share in the retail channel. Passoã massively exceeding expectations, second year of double-digit growth. It's not just the U.K. that is showing accelerated growth. We see it across pretty much all of our key markets, including but not limited to Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, France, United States, and Australia. Galliano also continued the turnaround. Important to mention that up until a year ago, we saw Galliano decline globally, and that turned into growth last year, which sustained into the current year, and not just in Australia and New Zealand, but also in Scandinavia, amongst others, on the back of the original Galliano Hot Shots signature serve ritual. Our regional liqueurs and spirits noted very solid growth too. Revenue was up 54%, whilst depletions grew 41% versus H1 last year. Various brands contributed to this growth, amongst which Vaccari, Pisang Ambon, Nuvo, and also Henkes. The addition of Pallini, of course, also drove the increase in revenue with the brand performing in accordance with the plans that we set when we took over the U.S. distribution earlier this year. There are also brands in the regional liqueurs and spirits portfolio where growth was less obvious in the first half. First, there is the domestic Genever and Vieux portfolio that experienced both the continued market decline and the impact of the Prevention Agreement, which was implemented in the Netherlands in July 2021 and puts serious restrictions to promotional activities on alcoholic beverages in the country. Secondly, there are brands that are hampered much by COVID-19 restrictions still, mainly our Delft Blue Houses that we sell to KLM and our experiences, the visitor numbers of which are largely driven by international tourism. The gross margin for the brand portfolio declined 330 basis points, but that is fully reflecting the addition of Pallini, which as I mentioned, is a distribution contract and has much lower gross margins by nature. The next slide 27, again deals with revenue and gross margin, but now it is split across the three market clusters, in each of which very strong growth was realized. In the sophisticated cocktail markets comprising of North America, revenue grew 226% on the back of a 73% growth in depletions. Importantly, revenue also grew substantially versus pre-COVID-19. It was 65% growth organically. The U.S. clearly stands out, demonstrating the strength of our growing Lucas Bols USA distribution platform. Revenue there even grew almost 60% versus pre-COVID-19 levels, fueled by the reopening of the on-trade, but also the launch of Bols Liqueurs with natural botanicals, large distribution gains for Passoã and Galliano, and again, the successful addition of Pallini Limoncello to their portfolio. Puerto Rico showed excellent growth on Passoã, and on Canada we saw slightly lower shipments, but expect that to be a phasing matter which should recover in the second half of this year. Despite the addition of Pallini to this market cluster, gross margin went up by 580 basis points quite a lot, which is indicating the further premiumization of the portfolio, but also the selective price increases we put through and the reopening of the on-trade. The developed cocktail markets, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, saw depletions increase by 15%, leading to a revenue growth of almost 30%. This growth is lower than in the other market clusters, but that is because Japan stayed in a strict lockdown throughout most of the first half year. Other markets, such as Southeast Asia and travel retail, also continued to be impacted by COVID-19 severely too. In addition, as already mentioned, the domestic Genever and Vieux portfolio, which has sales in this market cluster, suffers from the ongoing declining market trend and the implementation of the Prevention Agreement. There's quite a lot of good news, too, in this market cluster. Australia continued its accelerated growth, and not only through Galliano, but also on Passoã. Western Europe also benefited from the strength of the Passoã brand a lot in the first half year, and saw Bols Cocktails return to growth, too, as soon as the on-trade reopened. Last but not least, Galliano performed very well in Scandinavia. Despite the ongoing struggle in Japan in the first half, gross margin for the developed cocktail markets grew by 40 basis points. The last market cluster, the emerging cocktail markets, consists of Eastern Europe, Asia, apart from Japan, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. Revenue increased by over 150%, with promising continued growth in China, Russia and Poland, but also in Western Africa, driven by the ongoing popularity of the Henkes brand and Vaccari, which is gaining ground again in Mexico. In Southeast Asia, where on-trade and tourism dependency is high, and South Africa, we face a much slower recovery to date. The margin for this market cluster has declined. That is largely driven by the growth of Nuvo, which has a different margin profile, which is lower than average, and also by relatively lower shipments to Argentina, which is a royalty agreement country, which comes in at almost 100% gross margins. On page 28, we make a deep dive into our operating profit, which more than doubled from EUR 5.3 million to EUR 11.5 million in the first half fiscal year. This growth is fully driven by our business recovery, resulting in an additional EUR 10.6 million of gross profits. The gross profit is then in line with our expectations, I must say, offset by the various cost elements in operating profit. Although we keep on investing in a very focused manner, as I mentioned, total advertising and promotional expenses have returned to pre-COVID-19 levels now that our business is recovering and growth should be invested in. Total brand investments amount to 13.6% of revenue versus 13.1% in our pre-COVID-19 comparative numbers. Logistics costs have almost doubled compared to last year, and a large part is, of course, simply driven by the recovered shipment volumes. We also experienced a different shipment mix. As you've seen, the U.S. is booming, which is a relatively expensive shipping line to undertake. On top of that, the global impact of supply chain disruptions is also affecting us both through pricing and the availability of containers. Commissions have increased somewhat, too, which I believe is a good sign because it evidences the growth of Nuvo, but also the accelerated trade in the United States and Africa. Lastly, but importantly, overhead costs in this waterfall seem to have increased by EUR 1.1 million. However, if you adjust both years for the government grants that we received under COVID-19, it was EUR 1.6 million last year and EUR 0.4 million in this half year, we can actually report a further saving. That also means that versus pre-COVID-19, 2019-2020, we have more than achieved the structural cost-saving targets that we communicated before. It also means that at this stage of this first half year, only 13.6% of our revenue is spent on overheads, which was 15.4% of revenue prior to COVID-19. On the next slide 29, I believe it is, that presents our balance sheet, including working capital and a specification of the net debt position. First, on non-current assets, not much has happened there. The intangible assets are materially unchanged, and that is, of course, following the impairment we put through at the end of last fiscal on our Dutch brands. We did see an increase in our investments in joint ventures reflecting two positive movements. First of all, we started Maxxium BeLux, where we did a capital contribution of EUR 78,000 to support that incorporation. On top of that, there has been an increase in the share of profit for Maxxium, the Netherlands, that we've accounted for here on the balance sheet. Other non-current assets in our instance are mainly property, plant and equipment. The movement there, a decline, reflects the fact that our depreciation exceeds the CapEx we spent in the first half. Current assets consists of cash, but more importantly, in this instance, of net working capital. Net working capital remains stable despite the strong business recovery. I believe there's two factors that are driving that. First one is that, as I communicated half a year ago, we deliberately invested quite some cash in increased inventory levels for 31st of March 2021, which was not only to phase production at a fullness, but more importantly, to prepare for the market's reopening and the supply disruptions that we anticipated. The second reason for having a stable net working capital despite the strong business recovery is that we did not let go of the focus, among others, on debtor management and specifically our overdue debtor management. It does mean that in the first half year, our inventories have decreased following strong market demand, which I will get back to at one of my last slides. Non-current liabilities, one of the key positions there is our deferred tax liability. That one increases, which doesn't have a lot to do with the deferred tax liability, but more so with a deferred tax asset that is netted off in this liability position. That one went down because of the further utilization of the Netherlands tax loss carryforwards that we have, which of course are now offset by the profits that we made in the first half. Current liabilities, just important to stress that under the current loans and borrowings is included EUR 2.5 million repayments that we are contractually required to do in March 2022. Potentially most important on this slide is the specification of net debt that I've put at the bottom of this slide. Two reasons why we were able to put through, which I believe is a record reduction in net debt of almost EUR 9 million. Of course, the business recovery did help a lot, but as mentioned, we also did not let go of a focus on cash. It means that at the end of this half year, we have a net debt position of EUR 83.5 million. From net debt, I think it's an easy bridge to cash flows, which is discussed on the second last slide of my part of this presentation. First it shows a waterfall for free operating cash flow, demonstrating that it improved EUR 1.8 million or almost 20% compared to one year ago, when a lot of the cash generation took place through working capital reductions. More importantly, it's also an increase of EUR 2.5 million or almost 30% compared to pre-COVID-19. If you look at the improvement versus last year, of course, it is predominantly driven by the growth in operating profits, but we also paid somewhat less in income taxes. We took control over CapEx, resulting in reduced CapEx, and we received a bit more dividends from our joint ventures. To a large extent, these improvements were offset by higher working capital investments. Important to stress out here, the EUR -5.2 million does not mean we have invested EUR 5.2 million in working capital in the past six months. It simply means that last year we generated a lot of cash from working capital, and we didn't do that this year. This year it remained stable. It's the difference between what we generated last year and what we made stable throughout the first six months of this year. Cash conversion, we again report a number that is well ahead of industry and also market indices trends. We have a cash conversion rate of 91.2%, which is well above the pre-COVID-19 64.5%. If you look at the cash that we generated, which we did through operations, joint venture dividends, and interests, we predominantly used it for some of our limited working capital investments to facilitate the business growth. We did, of course, income tax payments, and we still spent something on capital expenditures. In line with tradition, my last slide deals with a variety of other matters, starting with our supply chain. The first supply chain message is relatively positive. Although we most definitely faced impact of the global disruptions, the impact on our H1 numbers has been relatively limited. We did see, both in practice and in our financials, an increasing impact of raw material issues, mainly pricing and availability. On production, our three key production sites, being Avandis in Zoetermeer, Rémy Cointreau in Angers, and Brown-Forman in the United States, we have geared those up towards full capacity again, and where needed and possible, we use our contingency plans under which certain products can be bottled at more than one production site. Our logistics remain fully operational, but they come in at much higher costs. As I mentioned, partly driven by the global increase in container prices, but also a Lucas Bols specific matter where our mix changed more towards the, what I call westward shipping lines towards North America and the line from Singapore to Australia. Both these have, in the past 12 months, faced by far the most significant price increases. Happy to report that the in-market out-of-stocks to date have been very, very limited, and I think that was also due to the fact that we built additional inventory per the 31st of March of last fiscal year. On the bank governance, you'll probably recall that we extended the amendments that we made a year prior to that with the banks, and that was not just to address the prolonged COVID-19 impact, but more importantly, to facilitate the growth strategy. In other words, that we would have sufficient headroom to also invest in the brands. We then agreed that for the three upcoming test periods, we would not test ratios, but we would test levels instead, minimum levels, both of EBITDA, measured on a last 12 months basis, but also on liquidity headroom. That only per the 31st of March 2023, which is 1.5 years ahead of us, we would return to ratio testing, albeit at higher levels than in the original bank agreements. I can comfortably report that as of the 30th of September 2021, we fully comply with the governance in place. Our last 12 months EBITDA, which carries six to seven months of COVID-19 impact still comes in at EUR 17.2 million, which is versus the bank minimum of EUR 4.5 million. Our liquidity levels per 30th of September 2021 came in at EUR 36.5 million versus the minimum requirement of EUR 12.5 million. Strategic matters, Huub touched on most of these. Fit for Growth is an important one, as is the start of Maxxium BeLux. Important to add there that the strengthening of the distribution partnership with Edrington, which is a 50/50 joint venture, again, we've already done the capital contribution in H1, but the actual distribution under Maxxium BeLux only starts in the second half of this year. Similar logic applies to the very innovative Bols Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails. We've done quite some investments in the developments here and already accounted for those in the numbers of the first half year. While the uptick in terms of trade and profit is only going to phase in the second half of this year because the launch in the United States and the Netherlands is taking place as we speak. My final note will be on a matter that we thought we had already left behind us. First, as a matter of outlook, I think the more general guidance is that we expect a continuation of the strong recovery, and that we will definitely also invest in that continued growth. As you've mentioned, we believe we do that on a strengthened foundation. It is, however, almost a matter of fact too, that the global supply disruptions will impose heavy headwinds on our H2 results. Increased costs, both on input costs and logistics, will most likely put pressure on profit margins, more so than in H1, and that is in spite of the mitigating actions that we undertake, for example, through price increases, cost control in other areas, but also looking out for alternatives of certain ingredients to our products without jeopardizing the consistent quality. Moreover, out of stocks could increasingly be a risk. To that extent, and in line with how we did that at the end of last fiscal year, we will definitely not refrain from investing cash into additional inventory levels to limit any out of stocks to the maximum extent possible. As I mentioned, I've got a final note, which is on a matter that I would have actually thought and hoped we'd left behind us following that we had dealt with it in the three consecutive prior years already. Again, after having announced totally different changes in the last three years, the Dutch government recently announced an increase in the future corporate income tax rate. In this instance, that is an increase from 25% to 25.8% effective 2022. In line with prior years, we are then required to remeasure our deferred tax liability position, which given the increase in the rate, results in an increase of those positions and hence in a tax loss. It is important to mention that this loss is a non-cash loss and consistent with how we did it in prior years. Also, when it was a gain, we will treat this as a one-off. Back over to you, Huub, to summarize today's key messages and provide a somewhat more detailed outlook. Yeah, Frank, thank you very much. We are now on page 33 for a summary. We believe that our H1 2021-2022 confirms Lucas Bols's COVID-19 resilience, but also an effective introduction of our new strategy, Fit for Growth. Our revenue year-on-year growth of 70% has been achieved mainly as a result of the reopening of the on-trade, positive brand momentum, and a favorable comparison base. Strong on-trade recovery in most markets and enhanced retail performance. In a number of key markets, we are even ahead of pre-COVID-19, and the U.S. performance is a testament to the strength of our distribution platform. It's something we have been working on during many, many years, and here you see now the results coming through in accelerated growth in our number one market, the U.S.A. Our revised operating model Fit for Growth implements increased strategic focus of global cocktail brands, but also refined market approach based on cocktail culture maturity, as explained before. This, combined with a new way of working and strict financial discipline, effectively reducing net debt, creates a solid foundation for future growth. The integration and turnaround of Passoã is an excellent example of this refined focus. Intensified efforts on direct to consumer engagement initiatives are being taken with, for example, the company's online presence and also the recent launch of the Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails. This leads to our outlook on page 34. The Fit for Growth strategy and stronger balance sheet provide a solid base for the future. Now that the vaccination rate is steadily increasing and assuming the global recovery of the on-trade continues and restrictions are gradually lifted, we expect a strong second half of the year. With a sharpened focus and increased A&P investments in our global cocktail brands, we expect solid revenue growth in H2 2021- 2022 versus last year, and even some growth versus 2019- 2020. Going forward, we target a yearly revenue growth of 4%-5% for the global cocktail brands. As explained, headwinds on our input and logistical costs are likely to continue in the second half of the year. Although mitigating actions are taken, these headwinds are expected to pressure margins and profit in the second half of 2021- 2022. Nevertheless, overall, we aim to achieve a full year operating profit that is close to the pre-COVID year 2019- 2020, demonstrating the strong recovery of our performance with foreign currencies expected to have limited impact on EBIT. We aim to further reduce our net debt, and our focus on cash management remains in place to continue strengthening our balance sheet. Where relevant, we will invest in additional inventory to avoid out of stocks in key markets due to the ongoing scarcity of raw materials, production capacity and logistics. Given the ongoing uncertainties related to the COVID-19 situation, we have decided not to pay an interim dividend. However, we intend to resume dividend payments for the full fiscal year 2021-2022, but we will need to assess that in May 2022 based on the actual situation at that point in time. Last but not least, we will have a continued focus on further growth and leveraging our scalable distribution and production platform through partnerships and or acquisitions. This is the end of our presentation, and now we would like to give you the opportunity to ask questions. Yes. Operator, can you open the Q&A? Of course. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please ensure your line is unmuted locally as you will be advised when to ask your question. Once again, that's star one, if you would like to ask a question. The first question comes from the line of Christophe Beghin from Kempen. Please go ahead. Yes. Good morning, all. First of all, I think the reprofiling to more which is more aligned with the current trend, I think is a very good choice. That's a big positive. Of course, congrats with the good results. I have three questions. First one is, can you dive in a bit more into detail of what the potential of cocktail at home in general is according to Bols? It may be a very abstract question, but can you elaborate there a bit more? Then I have two other questions, but let's take them maybe one by one. Yeah. Thank you for the question. The potential for cocktails at home represent an important opportunity for us. Of course, this is for the moment, mainly in those markets which we have labeled as more sophisticated markets. This would be primarily an important opportunity in the U.S. market. Maybe if you follow the U.S. market at the moment, there is a fast-growing trend of the spirit-based Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails. That market is growing very fast. Last year it was 16 million cases. It is projected to grow to 20 million cases, and this is exactly where we play now with our Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails. In that sense, it is a fast-growing market, so we see the potential. Of course, it's early days, but for Lucas Bols, it means that we are actually for the first time also have the opportunity to be listed at important retailers in the U.S. In that sense, it is an important step for the company. In the Netherlands, our home market, also cocktails at home is a growing category. Also there we expect growth. There are some other markets which maybe could follow. Definitely, cocktails at home, but it's not only the ready to serve cocktails, it's also people are making more cocktails at home. A good example of that is the growth of our Passoã brand in the U.K., which is also based on cocktail making at home. In general, we see a positive trend there. Yes, that's clear. Maybe you have a next question. Second. Yeah, that's clear. Thank you. Second question is related to the comment you made on the regional liquors and spirits, where you foresee to maintain revenue but optimize profits. You have said some things on how to optimize profit, but can you go more into detail? Optimizing chain profitability and is one of them, but what are other elements that you see ample room for improvements? Frank, maybe you can take this one. Yes, absolutely. Thank you for asking the question, Christophe. I think it's important to start with what Huub already mentioned, is that if we look at the regional liquors and spirits, there's roughly two categories. There's the international liquors and spirits, and then there's the domestic portfolio. Now, it's no secret that the domestic portfolio in terms of volumes is in decline. So the strategy is basically bi-fold. On the one hand, on those international liquors and spirits, there are a few brands that we actually do invest in the growth, and we even think about one, two, or three of these brands potentially becoming a global cocktail brand in due course as well. In the end, if you look back five to 10 years ago, you could have argued whether Passoã would have been a global cocktail brand under the current definitions. I think no one would argue that definition and that conclusion now. It's definitely growing some of the brands to become international cocktail brands there. On the other side, in the domestic portfolio, the investments that we need to do there and the efforts that we undertake are less focused towards growing the brands, but is more optimizing the profitability, which, for example, comes in at optimizing the way we do our promotional activities. A lot of volume is being sold through promotional activities, which is not only restricted now by the Prevention Agreement, but also from our own side, we are continuously monitoring, optimizing profitability there, and not necessarily growth of volumes. Moreover, also as we control the supply chain to a certain extent there, it's also about making sure that we produce these products at the lowest possible prices without jeopardizing quality. For example, at our founders, we look at the number of production runs that we do, but we could even talk about, for example, the size and fittings of the bottle that we use. On the brands, it's more about the actual brands as opposed to the domestic side of the portfolio. It's about optimizing everything in the whole value chain of those specific products. Okay, that's very clear. To conclude, question on the future. Passoã has been and is still a great story. Of course, I can imagine after COVID and when leverage is going down, what is the next step? Are you looking at a similar type of deal, or do you prefer to invest today in some smaller brands where one could take off and highly accelerate as we sometimes see in the spirits industry? What is the approach or the strategy there? Yeah, that's of course an important question which we have actually dealt with in the following way that we say that there are two possibilities, of course. It is a brand, Passoã type brand, but it could also very well be a relatively smaller brand which has equity and a lot of potential for growth. As you recall, we say, okay, this is also something we're looking at, specifically in a market like the U.S., where we have our own distribution platform, so brands which would fit our distribution or production platform. That is something where we are actively looking at. I think we have now a proven growth capability of revitalizing and making a brand back to growth because Passoã, as we mentioned, is now back to double-digit growth after all the work we have done, both on the liquid, the packaging, the positioning, etc. The same we did on the Nuvo brand. It is a capability of the Lucas Bols company, and we feel that besides organic growth, we could accelerate growth by maybe adding another brand to the portfolio. If I can just please add a few words. I think, regardless of which of the two options we could go for, whether it's, you know, the specific one or the Passoã-like, it's definitely without saying that it needs to be a premium proposition, and it needs to have a very close link to our cocktail proposition. Those are two dynamics that whatever we do in terms of acquisitions, that will have a very prominent place in there. Okay. A very small follow-up, if I may. Is that something you referred to the U.S. market and that it needs to fit to the distribution channel you currently have. What do you mean with that? Is that it should fit with the current end markets you are serving today or what do you...? No, what I mean by that is that we have, of course, when it would fit, let's say the U.S. market or the Netherlands or the BeNeLux now, that is where we have our control also in terms of our distribution. That would be, of course, immediate synergy, as also Frank just mentioned in our cocktail proposition and our route to market. It's only one argument. It's not necessarily that it only needs to fit the U.S., of course. No, no. Okay. Fully understood and thanks. Thank you for the answers. Okay. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Richard Withagen from Kepler. Please go ahead. Yes. Good morning. Thanks for the questions. I have a couple as well. First of all, on the Fit for Growth plan, can you talk a bit about, you know, what you believe are the main differences in the ways of working of the new strategy compared to the previous operational model? Yeah. The most important thing is, of course, I think the definition and the focus on the one hand on the global cocktail brands and the regional liquors and spirits brands. If you look on an internal basis, also the organization has been transformed, and we have more integrated our regional responsibility and our brand responsibility. In that sense, it's a more efficient and effective organization structure. Secondly, we have, by changing the definition of the markets, I think we can even target much better our A&P investments and link it even more to the stage of where the cocktail culture is moving. It will lead to improved allocation of A&P, but more importantly also the execution of programs. Last but not least, in terms of reporting lines, we have simplified the organization, which means that, for example, I lead personally the U.S. market. I'm leading the Eastern European and Asia market because that is future growth. Frank is leading the liqueurs and spirits part of the business besides, of course, all the other responsibilities he has. In that sense, we have, I think, improved a lot in terms of, let's say, an integrated organization, agility, decision-making, and forward-looking part of the organization. Those are the most important elements, I believe, which leads to accelerate growth looking forward. Will that then lead to a substantial change in allocation of resources, Huub? You know, whether it's marketing or well, I guess, basically, specifically marketing, is there going to be a big shift between brands? It's maybe not a big shift, but it will be the moment we see brands, of course, growing, we will invest more behind the brands. A good example, I think, is Passoã in the U.K., where we can see continued growth. There we are fueling the growth by more investment in consumer communication, social media, presence in the market, on public relations. We do the same in the U.S. Where we see growth opportunities, we would invest more behind the brands to accelerate the growth or to continue the growth. It's not a major shift, but it's more focused, I would say, and more linked to accelerated growth. Yeah. Very clear. Maybe continuing on this, I mean, there's probably a lot of new organic growth opportunities that you have identified as part of the new strategy. I'm just wondering, you know, is it? Are you still very eager to add new brands to the portfolio, you know, in the next year or two years? Would you focus more on building what you have today first before adding new brands? Are you still eager to acquire? I would say, first and foremost, of course, the Fit for Growth strategy is made for the organic growth. As you say, there are multiple, let's say, opportunities we see for this growth. Of course, all in the uncertain world of COVID. Let's say that, put that apart. I think that's clear for everybody. Nevertheless, I think the Passoã acquisition has shown that that can also be an accelerator for growth. We definitely look at acquisitions. As you know, we are very critical and we look at the right brand at the right moment and the right market, of course. That is something which we definitely see as another element for growth. Clear. Just one question on the U.S. market specifically. Could you talk a bit about the growth drivers in the U.S. from a channel perspective? What has happened and what you are targeting? Yeah. From a channel perspective, what is, of course, very important is the fact that the on-trade has reopened and that the consumers are going back to the on-trade and spending more than they did before COVID-19 in the on-trade. That is a positive uptick. Of course, what you see for brands that is really beneficial for ourselves. As you know, we are very much on-trade driven. Other companies which are more dependent on retail, they go up against high comps in the U.S., which of course for us is not the case because we are more an on-trade company. However, having said that, you see that all the things we do and have done on the Bols brand is really starting to pay out in terms of the premiumization, the botanicals, the flavors. We see more and more of the bigger accounts, regional on-trade accounts or even national on-trade accounts are looking at the Bols brand, the Bols Cocktails brand, as part of their menu and cocktail listing. We see an expansion and growth of the number of accounts in the U.S. We see number of accounts growing, we see the menu listings growing. Last but not least, of course, with the ready-to-enjoy, we see now that also retail is very much interested in the Bols brand. In that sense, we are actually working on all the cylinders in the U.S. That looks, yeah, pretty positive in terms of trends and in terms of support. That, in turn, generates more support from our distributor wholesale partners who see the brand growing and then put more of their efforts behind it. Then the wheel starts to turn, as I always say. Very clear, Huub. One last question before I pass it on. A very simple question, I think. What is the response in the U.S. to the tubes that you're launching? Because, I mean, typically, these propositions are launched in slim cans, but you're obviously using the tube. What's the response there? The response initially has been very, very positive. Not only because it's a tube, it's also because the quality in the tube is very important. Let's face it, what we do here is we get as close as possible to a cocktail which is being prepared by bartenders, and that is pretty unique, and that's also why we got this award in terms of the gold medals I just talked about. It has been extremely well received, leading us already to listings in big retailers which we are currently rolling out. That looks positive. Of course, it's early days how the consumer will pick it up because the tubes, of course, is a new proposition and people have to get used to it. It is also very good because it's an alternative for cans, and it's a new way of packaging, so recycling, et cetera. There's all kind of advantages. You can take it to festivals, et cetera. There's a lot of things which will work for tubes, but we need to explain it. People need to discover it. The early days and reception is positive. Very good. Thanks, Huub. The next question comes from the line of Eric Wilmer from ABN AMRO. Please go ahead. Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I will ask them one by one. Regarding my first question, I also wanted to zoom in on the U.S. market, which obviously saw very strong performance in H1. I was wondering, could you break down this growth into market growth, market share growth, and the fact that you benefited from a new offering in new categories? I was especially interested in your market share performance during H1. That'll be my first question. Market share is of course, it's in that sense, a bit difficult to measure because we don't have all the data. What we see is that we are gaining accounts from competition. In that sense, you could say we are gaining market share. What we see in control states where we have indication, we are now the number two brand behind the leader, De Kuyper. We have passed the number three, Hiram Walker. We have gained market share there. The new brand, the Ready-to-Enjoy is of course not yet in the H1. That is not yet translating. Yeah. In that sense, that's one element. The second element is that in COVID times, people are making more cocktails at home. In general, you see, we are in a market which is a growing cocktail market, although the U.S. is sophisticated, but is a growing cocktail market. In general, we benefit from those. Last but not least, as Frank has explained, we have managed our inventory very well in the U.S., although it's also a challenge, of course. We have, I believe, managed it a bit better than maybe some of our competitors, which has led to new opportunities in terms of listings in the on-trade as well. Those are the drivers of the growth. Okay. That's very clear. Thanks for that. My second question, and maybe I've missed it, and apologies if I did, but sales of your regional brands business seem very strong from a historical perspective. I think you've shifted some brands from your global to your regional portfolio. I was wondering which brands actually were these, and how much was the impact from this on your H1 sales for regional brands. Am I right that this shift toward regional brands was roughly around EUR 1.5 million in H1? Frank, would you take this one? Yes, absolutely. To be very specific, Eric, first of all, you haven't missed the answer to that question because we didn't discuss it in that much detail. There's three brands that used to be part of what we called global brands, what we now call global cocktail brands. Three brands that left that group, if you like. That's Vaccari, Damrak Gin, and Nuvo. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but also these three brands have grown in the past half year, also compared to last year. The growth that we've seen on the other three brands that remain in that global cocktail brand section have been higher. If we would have done it on the old basis, yes, the global brands would have shown a slightly lower growth percentage. On the flip side of that, it's the opposite, of course, in the regional liqueurs and spirits, because we still only have two brand portfolios. Okay. Understood. Thanks, Frank. Lastly, yeah, I was wondering if you could break down your ability within your portfolio to pass on your higher raw material cost through price increases. Could you take us along the path that you have in mind to do this? How receptive would you think, especially the retailers, will be regarding this? Yeah, maybe we answer that in general. What we're looking at is definitely price increases, which could be staged, which means some markets we intend to increase prices as from January 1. Others will be maybe handled as from the new fiscal year. As you just said, retailers are sometimes taking more time in terms of negotiations, et cetera. That could be up to, let's say, the first quarter of next year. We'll definitely across the board look for price increases. If I can add a few words to that, Huub. That's definitely the case. I think what helps here is that the partnership, as I always call it, has been strong also throughout COVID. It's very good now with on-trade recovering, that we can actually fall back to that partnership that we also maintained throughout COVID. One of the key success factors is to be relatively open and transparent. As Huub mentioned, what we see is that phasing, putting forward of price increases works better than just boldly say, as of tomorrow, prices go up by X%. The phasing of it in two or three phases, that is the best way to go. Thus far, we don't have conversations with, you know, many retailers or other parties where they absolutely don't understand what we're after. It's a diligent process, but if we do it in the partnership type of context, then we definitely think this will reduce some of the hopefully temporary burden of it. Thanks very much for the color. Very helpful. There are currently no questions in the queue. As another reminder, please press star one if you would like to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Paul Hofman from the IDEA! Please go ahead. Yes. Hi. Good morning, gentlemen. Just a question about the introduction of the Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails. You have a very specific target for the U.S., 3,000 selling points. Well, that would be a bit too challenging number for the Netherlands. How do you look at that for the spread across Europe, your plans later on? So far, you didn't communicate these, but yeah. What do you think about your timing to expand it also across this continent? Yeah. We have deliberately said that we would start in the U.S. and the Netherlands. The reason why is that, as you know, we control the distribution there. We are closest to what is happening in the market itself, how consumers react, because it's also learning by doing almost. We want to get it absolutely right before we roll it out to other markets. Of course, when and if it is successful, which we hope it will be, then we might roll it out to other markets in the course of next fiscal year. Okay. Thank you. Perhaps another question on your e-commerce strategy. If you look at the direct to consumer channel, or the channel becomes increasingly more important also in view of that, Ready-to-Enjoy Cocktails, but also other products. What can you say about your position there in online? As far as I know, you never communicated a share of online of your sales. But if I look what's happening in the environment, last summer, there was a that establishment of a joint venture between Campari and Moët Hennessy. So also there you see movements going on. How do you look at your e-commerce strategy about your online initiatives? Of course you have your own web shop, but you can also expand that, but also through other platforms. What can you say about the importance at this stage? Yeah, perhaps you have a specific target, but so far not communicated it. How do you look at that, going forward? Frank, maybe you start with the answer. Yeah, absolutely. No problem. A very valid question, Paul, because I think in general, you know, e-commerce has grown. Then also, of course, with the direct to consumer and in-home cocktail consumption, you see that this is becoming a much bigger question, in our industry as well than it has been in the past. We've been, I think, lagging behind a bit in terms of what you see in e-commerce compared to other industries. We don't have a specific target, and it may sound odd, but that is simply because it's incredibly hard for us to measure what our e-commerce share is. Mm-hmm. Because the majority of what is sold through e-commerce, we don't measure it ourselves. As an example, you know, quite some of our products are being sold online by Gall & Gall, one of the big liquor chains in the Netherlands, but we don't necessarily know all the details about that. The second thing that makes it slightly more difficult, which is also why the online share is much lower in this industry than it is in others, is of course the age checks that you are required to do, which also varies across countries and sometimes even within a country across states. Having said that, we do put a lot of focus on digital. When I was talking about we spent the same amounts on advertising and promotion but have a different focus. One of these differences in focus is that we spend much more on digital media, on digital campaigning versus what I always called a bit more old school campaigning. To me, where huge success can be gained and which is also part of our U.S. launch strategy for among others, the Ready- to- Enjoy Bols Cocktail cubes, tubes, is that we work together with the retailers there. Mm-hmm. If we do, as you've mentioned, zip code-based targeting campaigns, whether it's online or offline, then together with the retailer, we make sure, whether it's Walmart or Costco, that we also attract that traffic to their, not just the physical stores, but also the web stores, the online stores. I don't have a very clear target on it, but that doesn't at all mean that we don't have this in one of our top priorities, and not just e-commerce business, but more importantly, the way we use digital in everything we do. Also digital media, marketing, and campaigning. Yeah. That's, I understand the challenge is to measure it, but yeah. It's important to also, if you look at, let's say the e-commerce as a total part of the business of spirits, then, you know, it maybe gets to 5% at max, at the moment. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It is not yet the dominant thing, but it's growing definitely. Then that is of course what Frank just explained as well. Yeah. No. Very clear. Thank you. There are no further questions in the queue, so I'll hand the call back to your host for some closing remarks. Thank you all for joining the call and participating in this Q&A, and also for the people who joined us through the webcast. Hopefully next time there will be a physical meeting again. For now, thank you all for joining online. Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.