Hello, and welcome to the Lucas Bols Full Year Results Call. 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, and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand over to your host, Floor van Maaren, to begin today's call. Thank you. Thank you so much. Welcome all to this bit of a hybrid meeting. We have one of our analysts in the room and a number of people on the call, and also some attendants on the webcast. Well, thank you all for joining, and I will now hand over to Huub van Doorne to start the presentation. Thank you, Floor, and welcome to our presentation for our fiscal year 2021-22 results. Maybe to start off with, I would like to take you to page number 5, where we will briefly discuss the Fit for Growth projects which we announced our operating model, which we successfully implemented during our fiscal year 2021-22. Basically, there were four points of attention for us. First and foremost, our focus on our brands. We redefined our brand portfolios in global cocktail brands, Bols Cocktails, Galliano, and Passoã, and our regional liquors and spirits. We are more than ever focused on everything around cocktails and the growth of the cocktail market. We're also putting a lot of emphasis on our innovations and of course, are following closely the trends which seem to accelerate every day. Last but not least, we inspire our community, to start with our bartenders on-premise, of course, where we have a strong position, but also consumers. In our market approach, we have redefined our market clusters, which are based on the cocktail culture maturity. We have the sophisticated cocktail markets, which is North America, the developed cocktail markets, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and then the emerging cocktail markets. Three different clusters. We continue to work on a brand market unit basis, also linked to A&P investments, allowing flexibility in our investments behind our brands. We have further worked on and improved the in-market activations behind our brands. The way of working on our asset-light business model, we have long-term partnerships and JVs, and during the fiscal year, we have extended a number of important distribution contracts. This is stabilizing and reinforcing our route to market. The smart use of production assets and also working with our distribution partners, extremely important in the difficult supply chain environment we're in today. By the creation of Maxxium Belux, we now have control of sales and marketing in key markets, so the U.S. and the Benelux. In total, 40% of our revenue is now more or less directly under our control. The company is innovation-led and continues to be entrepreneurial. As I always say, a more than 445-year-old startup still trying to conquer the world with a small team. That brings me to the organization. We revised our decision-making and created an even flatter reporting structure. We integrated more our teams, our brand focus and market approach are more integrated and more focused on the distributors and the end user. We're stimulating teamwork and more forward-looking and results-oriented. Now, if we go to the highlights for this fiscal year. Or sorry, last fiscal year, 2021-2022, is a revenue of EUR 92 million, which is a very strong year-on-year growth of 61%. We are very pleased with the 10% growth versus pre-COVID, so versus 2019 and 2020. Most markets showed strong recovery and growth, except for Japan and travel-related markets. There has been an excellent growth versus 2019-2020 in the U.S., with more than with 53% growth. The U.K. with 62% growth and Australia, 62% growth. These are really growth engines for our company. The depletions were up 28% versus last year, but also plus 7% versus the pre-COVID year. It reflects a solid performance of also our global cocktail brands. The operating profit increased 140% to EUR 20.6 million, while net profit came in at EUR 14.7 million versus EUR 3.3 million last year. The free operating cash flow of EUR 15.6 million and very important milestone also for the Lucas Bols Company, a debt reduction of EUR 31.7 million to EUR 60.7 million. The leverage is below the three, so 2.74. That is an important achievement for our company. The Fit for Growth operating model has been successfully implemented, as I just told you. The acquisition and the integration of Tequila Partida has been completed, and since April first, we are in charge of the brand in terms of the distribution in the U.S. That will be contributed to the growth in the fiscal year 2022-2023. We are not proposing a dividend for the 2021-2022 financial year. We intend to return to the dividend distribution of next fiscal year, also with an interim dividend. On page 8, quickly you see the growth, the significant growth of revenue and growth profit on the global cocktail brands. Growth of 65% to EUR 66.2 million. Also the regional brands, the regional liqueurs and spirits, had a growth of 50% versus last year. Also is showing the potential of the brands. You see Damrak, Pisang Ambon, Nuvo, Henkes, and Vaccari. Of course, the genever is also part of this, but you see clearly that this is also contributing to growth. On the gross profit level, EUR 39.9 million, which is up 78%. For the regional liqueurs and spirits, 8.6%, which is up 51%. Now, as you all know, we are truly a global company. Here you see the global stage. The world is our stage, as we always say. The three cocktail markets or clusters, the sophisticated part, which is North America. There you see that from the total revenue, 28% is coming from North America, which is higher than I think that is the record high in terms of the percentage of the revenue for North America, which shows that we are truly on a growth path in that important region. The developed cocktail markets, 57%, versus last year, 68%, and the emerging markets, 15%. That is, those are the three clusters. The depletions, which is, let's say, as we always say, the sales by our distributors were up 38% in the sophisticated market, North America. This shows you the strength of the North America market, of course, led by the U.S. market. also in Western Europe, Japan and Australia, New Zealand, it's great to see that we are on par versus 2019, 2020, despite the difficulty in Japan. That is also a performance we are pleased with. Last but not least, in the emerging part, depletions up 51%, almost to the level of 2019 and 2020. That's mainly Southeast Asia, which is still down in that region. Quickly move to the brands. If you follow me to page 12, on Bols Cocktails, the world's first cocktail brand. We're talking about the liqueur range, vodka, Genever, and the Ready to Enjoy. That is a total represents the Bols Cocktails brand. We have launched innovations and also a relaunch of Bols Vodka with a new and more appealing design. The relaunch of the liqueur range with the natural botanicals, which is now fully visible in all the markets around the world. It took us more time due to COVID, of course, but now you see it reflected on the shelves and in the bars and the restaurants. Last but not least, the Bols Ready to Enjoy Cocktails launch in the U.S. and the Netherlands. We had a very strong performance with revenue up 65% versus last year. A major rebound of the Bols Cocktails, not yet fully at the level of 2019, 2020, but that's due to only one market, which is the important market of Japan. Excellent performance in the U.S. Double-digit distribution and depletion growth, both well ahead of 2019, 2020. It's important to state here that we have achieved with Bols Cocktails over 50,000 accounts where we are listed in the U.S., and that is a milestone which we have never achieved before, even you know just in the after the COVID time. Growth in the European market is coming from the reopening of the on-trade. We see an acceleration of growth in Europe on the southern part, for example, so Italy, Spain, where the markets truly have reopened. So that's very positive. But also Scandinavia is really doing well. The Netherlands is with the on-trade which reopened, we see important growth in our home market, the Netherlands. Most markets are back to pre-COVID levels, except for Japan and travel-related markets, but we expect gradual recovery in 2022, 2023. The Bols Ready to Enjoy Cocktails, it's an innovation which is fully in line with our long-term cocktail strategy. It is an increased focus on in-home cocktail consumption and retail distribution, an area which is growing. We have launched now in the U.S. in 25 states in the United States and in the Netherlands. It is very well received by trade partners and consumers, and we see an acceleration now of the points of distribution in retail and on-trade suppliers, and especially in the U.S. This is an additional business, because we still have a lot of opportunities for growth in the retail segment of the market. We have a successful and impactful, magically simple digital consumer campaign, and we expect the Ready to Enjoy cocktails to be an important growth driver in 2022, 2023 with related A&P investments. We will invest behind the Ready to Enjoy initiative. Passoã. Excellent year for Passoã. Revenue growth of 64% versus last year, but also important, the depletions were of double digits year- on- year and well above pre-COVID in all key markets. Passoã is and has been a great addition to our portfolio. The relaunch of the brand to premiumize is really paying off and is more and more seen as a cocktail brand led by the Pornstar Martini cocktail and the boom of cocktail consumption at home. Of course, the reopening of the on-trade is strongly supporting Passoã's performance. Really a growth driver for us. The U.K., the Netherlands, and the USA were the biggest growth engines compared to 2019-2020. In the U.K., a significant growth across all trade channels. It's that's behind. On-trade retail, e-commerce at the time, but also the Netherlands, a successful relaunch with more focus on cocktails and the U.S., where we doubled our volume due to distribution gains, tastings, and cocktail activations. More importantly, good performance in historical top markets. It's not only new markets, but it's also historical markets like France, Belux, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Puerto Rico. The brand is truly called the second life. Importantly, the strategy is working and we see growth from this brand also moving forward. In Australia, where we started only two and a half years ago, starts to be a market which is really contributing now to the growth of the brand and the popularity of Passoã is increasing there. Galliano. The Galliano brand had a good year with a revenue growth of 5% after a double-digit growth versus 2019-20. For this premium brand of Galliano also, this is great to see this brand's return to growth. Key drivers are the signature serves which we are promoting, the Galliano Hot Shot, primarily in Scandinavia, and now the Espresso Martini, which is becoming a more and more popular cocktail. That we will put more focus on moving forward. In Scandinavia, double-digit growth. Also here we see a How you say that? Acceleration of the Galliano Hot Shot, which used to be in the '80s, a very popular cocktail. Now you see the revival, which is in this industry, great to see the new generation. Also we are very present in the high-end outlets. This is very good news and growing. Also double-digit growth in the U.S., driven by distribution expansion and particularly the change from Galliano Ristretto to Galliano Espresso. It's what's in a name, but the Espresso name links it easier to the Espresso Martini. That will have a positive contribution to growth on the Galliano brand. Australia and New Zealand, we managed to keep the higher COVID base. We mean in COVID, we have been growing fast because people were entertaining at home, and we kept that high base, which is good news. We have launched a new digital platform. Moving to the regionally grown spirits, page number 17. Also our beautiful Pisang Ambon. The relaunch, both from a liquid, packaging point of view, is paying off. Also here we play the premiumization route, and that starts to generate good results also in a challenging market like for example, France. We see that the banana liqueur as a segment and also as a base for a cocktail is now showing new opportunities for this brand. Also the important factor which will benefit the brand is the creation of Maxxium Belux, because Belgium and Luxembourg is one of the historic important markets for Pisang Ambon, which now is more in our own hands. This brand, we are putting more and more emphasis on a few key markets. The Genever and Vieux in the Netherlands. As we presented previously since July 1, 2021, the National Prevention Agreement is operation in the Netherlands, which means that you cannot go below 25% price of. That is limiting the competitive environment. We have taken action and adjusted our pricing and promotional strategy, and that clearly is paying off in the second half also of our fiscal year, because we are now outperforming the total category by the strategic brands, Hartevelt, Bokma, and Hoppe. We have activations going on with retailers, and of course, we support more than ever the specialty and the high-end aged products. Of course, they are still smaller versus the big young Genever category, but here we see that new life also is coming into this category. Damrak Gin. We had a good recovery. Damrak is very dependent on the on-trade still. With the reopening of the on-trade, we saw also a recovery of Damrak both in the U.S. and the Netherlands, although not yet at the level of pre-COVID. The Virgin, Damrak Virgin, was exploited during the Dry January period. A great campaign in the U.S. where we reached 1.5 million consumers with the campaign. We were the number 4 brand at a key retailer in the Netherlands during Dry January, winning market share. We are also promoting the brand with a cocktail booklet. We expect further recovery here when the on-trade is fully open. I think that is also good news for Damrak. Nuvo, here we continued the growth. We were rolling out to a few international markets, in selected markets in Latin America and Middle East, some e-commerce activation, and we have launched a rosé vodka spritzer on the Nuvo brand. That is also playing into the category, the more high-end premium ready-to-drink propositions that has been launched in the fourth quarter, but only at the very end of the fiscal year. There is not a lot of revenue there, but that's something which will, let's say, contribute to growth in the fiscal year 2022, 2023. Vaccari Sambuca, also very dependent on on-trade. Very pleased to see that the declining trend has reversed. The brand is now back to growth, especially also in Mexico, which is a key market. Now we see growth coming back in the Netherlands, in Ireland, which are the historical markets for Vaccari. Reopening of on-trade and activation on-trade is driving the growth, and we expect more growth there as well in 2022, 2023. We will roll it out to some other markets, still with the position that the on-trade only needs one Sambuca. Let it be Vaccari, as we always say, and we have a new social media campaign. The last brand, but certainly a beautiful brand, is Pallini Limoncello. As you know, we have put that on our Lucas Bols USA distribution platform. When you take over a brand, we're always a bit nervous that you can then still immediately achieve growth? Yes, we did it. The brand is growing even in the full year of the transition. Very pleased with that. The on-trade, as we have always said, it's more of a retail brand. We show the on-trade strength of Lucas Bols USA. That's a testament to our position in the on-trade. Also here on e-commerce, we are activating the Pallini brand. This is in a nutshell and quickly an overview of the life of the brands and the highlights. Now I would like to hand over to Frank Cocx for the financial highlights. Frank. Yes, of course. Thank you, Huub, and good morning, everyone. I would like to start the financial part of the presentation with a quick comparison between the last time we spoke, which was the outlook that we provided in November, and then compare that to the actual results we've achieved over the 2021-2022 fiscal year. The first outlook statement that we made is that we would expect the strong H1 post-COVID-19 recovery to continue into the second half of the year and indicating that we would even expect some growth on revenue compared to pre-COVID-19. In the end, what we've seen in the actuals is a net revenue growth of 11%, which is in spite of, as Huub already mentioned, some markets such as Japan and the travel-related markets not being back to pre-COVID-19 levels yet. The second outlook statement dealt with the global disruption on the supply chain that we already experienced in the first half, and we expected that to continue as well. Unfortunately, also that became reality because we have seen some adverse impact of the global supply chain disruptions in the full year and also in the second half of the year. I think as a consequence of the measures taken that we'll get back to shortly, we've been able to limit that to the maximum extent possible, specifically in the gross margin. The third outlook statement commented by saying that our overall objective was to achieve an operating profit of the full year that is very close to the 19-20 operating profit. The actual that we achieved there is actually an improvement of 20% in operating profit compared to pre-COVID-19, which clearly indicates that the strong growth of the business as well as the ongoing cost control have more than offset the increased input and logistical costs. The last specific outlook statement that we made dealt with net debt and also cash generation, commenting that, of course, it's very high on the radar to further reduce net debt in the second half, but also that we would not refrain from putting additional investments in our inventory, specifically to counter the longer lead times in the supply chain. Now, if you look at the numbers that Huub already mentioned, it has come down significantly, our net debt, to just north of EUR 60 million, which means the leverage is well below three. Of course, two reasons for that. First one, yes, is the equity issue that we did in December 2021. Let's not forget that out of the EUR 32 million reduction achieved in this year, about EUR 11-12 million also stems from the cash that we generated from the business activities that we did. It's also that part that's driving down net debt further. If you follow me to the next slide, this is a full profit and loss statement. It's normalized for one-offs that I'll get back to separately later in the presentation. The numbers for 2021, 2022 are compared in the table, both in last year, i.e., the COVID year, but in my view, more importantly, compared to 2019-20, the pre-COVID-19 year. All of the analysis that I'll be doing in the next few slides are compared to the pre-COVID-19 year. Starting with revenue, the 11% growth, there's two key drivers. First of all, we've seen depletions go up by 7%, specifically when the on-trade reopened. More importantly, seeing growth in our key markets and also organic growth on the core brands, as Huub just commented on. The second reason being the further premiumization of our brands. Part is through depletions, but another part is by being able to achieve higher average case rates for the products that we've sold to our distributors. From a gross profit perspective, we've gone up by 9% compared to pre-COVID-19, which means that we've seen a minor loss in gross margin. In our view, that's limited because it's 80 basis points only and still achieving a gross margin of almost 56%. Countering adverse impacts, such as the increased input costs, but also the addition of Pallini, which is a distribution contract. As we explained in previous webcasts, it carries, by nature because it's a distribution contract, substantially lower margins, so it brings down the average margin. Of course, the mix plays an important role there because Japan has not returned to pre-COVID-19 levels of trading yet, and the margin in that market was above average. How did we counter those adverse impacts? Specifically by putting through price increases and also through the premiumization that I mentioned earlier. Operating profit improved by almost 20%. Of course, supported by the solid trade recovery in growth, but also supported by one of the commitments we made, which is that we would go for a structural reduction in overhead costs and in the end, for the current year, achieving a saving of EUR 1.7 million compared to pre-COVID-19. We've done substantial brand investments during the year, and as we'll see in a bit more detail later, specifically, the logistics costs have had an impact on operating profit because those have increased in keeping with the industry as a whole. EBIT improved even further by 24%. Apart from the operating profit, we've seen very positive impact of the strong performance of our joint ventures. Our profit share from Maxxium has gone up to EUR 1.6 million. There were in the last year, but also in the year prior to that, Avandis was not contributing to our EBIT. It is now contributing by about EUR 600 thousand. That really helps further driving of our EBIT. Net profit has gone up by 34%. Net finance costs approximately in line with pre-COVID-19 numbers, indicating, however, that I would expect that to go down in the near future because we've reduced net debt substantially. Income tax, in an absolute amount, has gone up by 20%, of course, reflective of the profit before tax going up. The effective tax rate has gone down to just below 25%, which is below the nominal tax rate in the Netherlands, predominantly because the profits that we generate through the joint ventures are exempted from tax in the Netherlands, in participation exemption. Very happy with the earnings per share number that we can report. It comes in at EUR 1.11, and that is even on a higher weighted average number of shares because we've done an issue of shares throughout the year, and it compares to EUR 0.90 prior to COVID. The first deep dive on the profit and loss statement deals with revenue and gross margin, and then split by the two brand portfolios that we operate, which is the global cocktail brands and the regional liqueurs and spirits. The waterfall on the left indicates how we've bridged the gap and actually got to an improvement of revenue of about EUR 8 million through each of these two brand portfolios. First, the global cocktail brands has shown an organic growth of 10%. As already mentioned, depletions have gone up by 7% there. Specifically, Bols Cocktails, when the on-trade reopened, and most specifically in the United States, drove up this growth number significantly, held back by Japan and the travel related markets. Also for the global cocktail brands, Passoã and Galliano overall contributing to the strong growth of 10% compared to pre-COVID-19. The gross margin for the global cocktail brands has decreased from 61.8% to 60.2%. Two key factors substantially driving that. The first one is, as I mentioned before, the temporary loss of some of the business in Japan, which is higher than average when it comes to margins. The second one is that the FX impact of the U.S. dollars has also hit our gross margin for the global cocktail brands rather significantly. The regional liqueurs and spirits has also shown growth at EUR 3.4 million higher revenues than two years ago, of course, to a very large extent, driven by the addition of Pallini, which forms part of this brand portfolio. More importantly, also our brands that we already carried, such as Pisang Ambon, Nuvo, they've also shown growth. Vaccari, as already commented on, has definitely reversed the declining trend with promising numbers in the last quarter and also heading into the next fiscal. Genever and Vieux, to summarize what Huub just said, yes, for sure, it's a category that remains under pressure and also fueled by the National Prevention Agreement, it has become even more under pressure. But a big change compared to what we've seen in the years prior to the last fiscal year is that now we've actually not lost market share, but we've gained a bit which definitely helped in strengthening the category leadership that we've already had, that we now continue to have within this still important category in the Netherlands. On the next slide, similar waterfall for revenue, however, now not split by brand portfolio, but split by market cluster. To start with the sophisticated cocktail markets in Northern America and Puerto Rico, where we've seen growth compared to pre-COVID-19 of over 60%. Even if you exclude Pallini from that, we're still talking growth north of 40%, for this set of markets. Here you see the gross margin decline from 54.8% to 53.5%. That seems significant, but if you exclude the impact of Pallini, we actually see gross margin growth. Specifically driven by the premiumization within this group of markets. The developed cocktail markets, the second market cluster that we know, which is the Western Europe, it's Japan and Australia and New Zealand. It's the only market cluster that did not show growth. Here, if you adjust for the impact of Japan and travel retail, also here, there's very solid growth, specifically in Europe, but also Australia and New Zealand, which was able to maintain the high performance levels of last year. Not unimportantly, we also see strong growth on key brands in the Netherlands. We've already pointed out, for example, Passoã. Here we've seen a minor decline in gross margin, and again, fully driven by the impact of Japan having a lower share in the total revenues for this market cluster. The last market cluster is the emerging cocktail markets, which is Eastern Europe, it's Asia, other than Japan, and it's Africa, Middle East, and Latin America. We see that we've gained some revenue here, and depletions have remained almost stable, with specifically Eastern Europe and China doing really well, but also Africa, Middle East on the back of Henkes Passoã and Latin America, specifically, Vaccari and the fact that we've expanded Nuvo into that area also noted double-digit growth. The two specific markets that have remained behind, but in our view, have further recovery potential for the future are Southeast Asia, very dependent on tourism, of course, and South Africa, where on top of extended COVID-19 impact, quite some political turmoil has also hit our performance in that market in the past year. The last deep dive from the profit and loss statement focuses on operating profits. That's a waterfall that's bridging operating profits from pre-COVID-19 to the year under review, so 2021, 2022, and of course, indicating the same improvement, the EUR 3 million or the 17% improvement, which means it's even up 140% versus last year. The biggest contributor to this growth is the gross profit, where we've seen that we were able to offset increased input costs and adverse mix effects by the higher sales, but also the premiumization and the price increases. Where we've stepped up significantly is in our spend, in order to invest in the brand. Compared to last year, we've stepped up by almost 40%, not completely back at pre-COVID-19 levels, still, but that, again, is driven by Japan, where, of course, with the current sales levels, we have limited our investments. We're now back at 14%, just over 14% of net revenue that we've spent on advertising and promotion, with further increases planned for the next year. Logistics costs, as I already mentioned, that's probably the biggest negative hit on our operating profit because those have gone up by 71% to almost EUR 7 million. Four key reasons for that. First of all, which I think is a solid reason, is the fact that we've been able to increase our sales, of course, also requiring higher shipment and logistics costs. The second one is an important dimension that's in line with the industry as a whole, but we have seen a general increase in rates, sometimes even three to four times the rate of pre-COVID-19. The third reason is more Lucas Bols specific. If you look at the markets where we've shown excellent growth, it's those markets that take a bit more logistical costs than average. For example, the United States, but also Australia, on average, has higher shipment rates. Last, we've also, in a few incidental instances, decided to put air freight to work to make sure that we were not going to be out of stock in certain markets. Limited number of cases, and I think very well-balanced decision, but important to mention here as a reason as well. Commissions have gone up as well, reflecting basically the stronger sales of Nuvo, but also performance in the United States and emerging markets where we work with agents, for example. Overhead costs. This is, as I already mentioned, where we made a specific commitment to look for structural savings. If you look at the numbers, we've been able to save EUR 1.7 million. That needs to be adjusted, however, for about EUR 300,000 of an extended U.S. government grants, not in the Netherlands, but in the United States. If you put it on a like-for-like basis, we've still been able to achieve EUR 1.4 million or 10% overhead cost savings on the higher trading levels that we currently have. This is one that definitely we try to maximize keeping into the future P&L as well. The last one that hits operating profit is depreciation has gone up slightly compared to two years ago because between that period and the current year, we've done an ERP implementation that, of course, had to be capitalized on the balance sheet and subsequently be depreciated. From the P&L to the balance sheet, and here we do compare with last year, so this is not compared to two years ago because it makes more sense, in my view, to compare it to the last year. The non-current assets, the biggest movement there is the addition of Tequila Partida that we, of course, have to put through a valuation exercise, which in the end led to almost EUR 8.8 million increase in tangible assets, and I'll get back to that later. Our joint venture has also gone up about EUR 1.3 million. For Maxxium and our founders, that is the undistributed part of our profits by which it has to rise. On top of that, we have set up a Maxxium Belux during the past year, which means we also increased the carrying value of joint ventures from that angle. Other current assets have gone down by EUR 1.4 million, which is pretty much in line with the depreciation of property, plant, and equipment. Net working capital, that's the one where we've seen quite a significant increase in absolute terms. We've increased that by EUR 5 million, a completely deliberate decision. Four specific points I think are very relevant there. First of all, this includes the working capital that we acquired under the transaction with Tequila Partida, so that's about EUR 1.5 million. That adds to that increase that we see there. The second one is that compared to last year, we of course ended last year with a relatively low balance reflecting the cash measures that we had in place and the lower trading levels, as opposed to this year, where we have and better trading levels, but also, as mentioned before, some deliberate decisions to invest in inventories to make sure we are able to counter the longer lead times and the challenges in the supply chain. To put it into perspective, as a percentage of revenue, this still means that we are below 19% of our revenue in terms of what we carry in working capital, comparing to 25% before COVID-19, and the 25% was already well below the industry average that you would observe with our competitors. On the other side of the balance sheet, non-current liabilities, we have brought both the loans and borrowings short- and long-term down, all together by about EUR 25 million. Of course, now that we've got a better cash and debt position, the ultimate aim of doing this is to minimize the interest, cash and interest costs. The deferred tax liabilities have gone up by EUR 2.8 million. First of all, we have further utilized the deferred tax assets for the Netherlands tax loss carry forward, from memory, about EUR 1.4 million. The other reason I'll get back to that in the one-offs is that, as opposed to what I promised you last time that we spoke, we have had to do another remeasurement of our deferred tax liabilities because the Netherlands authorities again changed the future tax rate. I'll get back to that shortly. Our other non-current liabilities go up by EUR 1.2 million. Specifically here, we have included the earn-out payment for Tequila Partida, EUR 2.7 million gross and discounted EUR 2.4 million. That one is partly offset by a one-off pension plan curtailment gain that I'll also get to that shortly. The current liabilities other than the decrease in loans and borrowings that I already mentioned, what we've done under the current liabilities also include a financial liability in regards to a one-off in Bols Kyndal in India, which I'll address separately as part of the one-offs later in the presentation too. Below the balance sheet, there's the overview of net debt for the past three years. As mentioned, we have reduced it significantly by EUR 32 million in the past year to just north of EUR 60 million. Combination of the focus on cash management and the ongoing solid operating cash generation, and of course, also assisted by the equity issue that we've done in December, which was predominantly meant to fund the Tequila Partida transaction. On the cash flow, also comparing to last year, similar to what we did for the balance sheet, the free operating cash flow improved substantially. We've seen an increase close to 40% and is stable compared to what we saw in the pre-COVID-19 fiscal year. Operating profit, of course, has gone up significantly, specifically compared to last year that was hit by COVID rather heavily. As opposed to the upside impact of that, there's a downside impact of the working capital investments that we've made. Again, please bear in mind, it's both to support the current business and the business growth, as well as to support what we are anticipating and already seeing in the supply chain. We've got slightly lower income tax paid over the year and some of that was spent on capital expenditures as well, in the end, resulting in a free operating cash flow of EUR 50.6 million. It means that from a cash conversion rate perspective, we've achieved 70%, which we believe is quite a solid performance if you realize that we've done those significant working capital investments. If you look at the cash that we generated through these operations, but also through the joint venture dividends, which amounted to EUR 1.1 million in the year under review. We've mainly used that for three things. Again, the working capital investments, we've done income tax payments in France, not yet in the Netherlands because of the carry forward tax losses. We've done, albeit a limited amount, we've spent something on capital expenditures. One of the topics that we're probably most proud of in the past year is the acquisition of Tequila Partida. Why are we so proud of that? We are so proud of that because tequila is one of the fastest growing spirits categories in the United States, but also a key ingredient to the leading margarita cocktail. Apart from it being drunk in cocktails, it's also increasingly popular for being drunk neat, and that's where the ultra-premium tequila brands come in. Tequila Partida being recognized as one of the world's highest rated tequila brands. The two ranges that they operate is La Familia and Roble Fino, and they are, as we speak, already supporting the Lucas Bols USA platform in being able to have an even stronger portfolio of brands, but also to be more explicit on the cocktail claim that we make in that cocktail-dominated market. Some facts about the acquisition. We signed and announced the deal in December 2021. We closed it in February 2022. That's also when we did the first payment, and it has an effective date of 1 January. You'll see some costs heading into our annual report for the year under review and no revenue yet. Effective date is 1 January. We acquired the company fully debt-free, so not just from a long-term loans, but also short-term. No single liability is in there, and the price that we negotiated is inclusive of just over EUR 2 million of net working capital. Now, the purchase price in euros is EUR 8.6 million as an upfront payment, one that we've already made. That's already included in the net cash generated. The second part is that we have put an agreement into place in terms of an earn-out arrangement, where we estimate that to be EUR 2.7 million to be paid in two equal parts in June 2023 and June 2024. We funded this transaction through an equity issue, 2.5 million shares issued at no discount, a very successful equity issue that was under the accelerated bookbuild offering. The growth proceeds amounted to EUR 29 million, as mentioned, used for the Tequila Partida acquisition, but important to note, also for the completion payment of Nuvo, which we expect to do in June 2023, and to further delever the company, so to get to a better net debt position, where we've already taken massive steps in the last year and the year before. The integration and transition is fully completed, which also means, and I think we've already mentioned it, that our U.S. team is now fully responsible in taking care of the entire distribution in the United States. Reports where it hits our financial reporting. First of all, the total purchase price of about EUR 11 million had to be allocated to assets under the purchase price allocation. About EUR 8.4 million is allocated to the brand value. We've got some goodwill, which is about EUR 400,000, and the remainder of just over EUR 2 million is mainly net working capital, and within that, mainly inventories that we purchased as part of the deal. The earnout payment is included in the financial statements. At the discounted rate, it's EUR 2.4 million. As mentioned, the impact of the trading, the business, has been very limited, and the impact that we have had is a bit of a loss because we did already take care of the expenses, such as the people on the payroll in Mexico, but we didn't generate any revenue yet because we're only doing the distribution from the first of April 2022 onwards. Last slide for my part of the presentation is some relevant other matters. First of all, the supply chain. In keeping with the industry, we have also faced, of course, a lot of global challenges here. Raw material pricing, raw material availability, when it comes to shipping, the availability of containers, but also, as mentioned, the increase in shipment rates. I think we've been quite successful in terms of countering that. We've put through general cost control measures to offset it where possible. We've increased prices with our customers, but we've also taken into account relatively longer lead times in terms of planning and making sure we get our products in the markets on time. We've made investments in inventory, as mentioned, and very important to mention here, this is where the partnerships have come in, but continue to come in, because there, where there were shortages or production issues, we were relatively quickly able to shift to another production location or use one of our contingency suppliers to make up for that. Does this mean we've seen no impact? That's not the case. We have seen some impact. Impact on gross margin, higher logistics costs, increased working capital, and albeit limited, we've seen some short-term distributor out of stocks also during the year under review. The second other matter deals with bank covenants. I think in the past, years, quite a tense topic, but now we can comfortably conclude that that is no longer the case. We had to comply with a minimum EBITDA covenant of EUR 8 million, and what we have achieved is close to EUR 23 million. That's well in excess of the minimum covenant level. From a liquidity level perspective, we guaranteed a minimum of 12.5 in the covenants, but actually ended up with having almost EUR 57 million. Again, much headroom. What I've done here, just for completeness sake, is also listed the upcoming covenant requirements. I think we can comfortably conclude that that should not be an issue in terms of meeting those requirements. A separate section here on the 2021-22 one-offs. Altogether, the impact on net profit of those one-offs is EUR 2.9 million. On operating profit, that's much less. It's only EUR 200,000. Start with the ones that are in operating profit. We've seen some one-off expenses in relation to the Tequila Partida acquisition. Also the setup of Maxxium Benelux and the implementation of Fit for Growth altogether amounting to EUR 0.6 million, which in operating profit is partially offset by a one-off gain relating to the defined benefit pension plan curtailment. In simpler words, in anticipation of the new pension law, but also because our current pension plans expired, we've set up new pension plans, asked our actuaries to do some valuations on the liabilities that were still there. We concluded that there were no more liabilities. As a consequence, we had to release this, resulting in a non-cash one-off gain. The most significant one is a one-off expense that relates to the financing of Bols Kyndal in India, one that we've already commented on in prior annual reports that we've got a guarantee issued in regard to that financing. The local bank that provided the financing to Bols Kyndal in India informed us, I think it was in January, that they were ceasing business in India as a consequence of which the loans had to be repaid. Together with our joint venture partner there, we agreed that, as part of an overall financial restructuring, we will be repaying this part of the debt in the entity, and they will be repaying a similar part in Bols Kyndal as well. That's leading to a one-off of altogether just under EUR 2 million. The last one, as I said, I promised that this one was not coming back, but it did, unfortunately. We've gone up again in the future tax rate in the Netherlands for three years already, going through changes, and it led to a one-off tax loss in this instance of close to EUR 1 million. Important to also reflect the cash impact that is, in the year under review, EUR 600 thousand negatively impacted our cash flows and about EUR 1.6 million, mainly related to the Bols Genever one-off, is expected to adversely impact future cash flows. Probably the year that we're currently in, so 2022-2023. Heading into the next year, a bit of a balanced message. On the one hand, there's the growing geopolitical and macroeconomic instability, which will for sure impose challenges on top of the challenges that we already saw. Direct from a business perspective, the loss after our decision to completely cease business with Russia is relatively limited. Growing market important, but altogether just over 1% of total revenue. Now, what is the more substantial risk here? The more substantial risk is indirect, specifically to further increases on, prices of important raw materials such as, glass, grain, but also paper, for example, and indirectly through increased energy prices, but also putting additional pressure on the availability of raw materials. Of course, we will continue where needed and where possible, the mitigating actions that you've seen us do in the last two years as well. important to end this part with saying that we are very optimistic about the future still. Why? Because we've got a good starting position from an inventory level perspective, agile supply management, and as mentioned, with some examples, strong partners in the chain. We will all but step down on brand investments. There's specific plans to grow further and then of course, specifically aim toward the three global cocktail brands. There's further room for recovery in the on-trade, Japan and the travel-related business that we hope to see in the next year. Last but not least, this is also the first year where Tequila Partida will be under our wings, and that should directly and indirectly also contribute to the optimism that we see for the year that is ahead of us. Huub, handing back over to you for something exciting on our new corporate identity. Yeah. Thank you, Frank. As you've seen maybe already in our presentation, we also have worked on a new corporate identity. This is reflected in also the visuals. We did this because we have worked a lot on our brands. We have our brand image of both Bols Cocktails, Passoã, et cetera. Of course, the company is the Lucas Bols Company. We have also worked now a little bit more on our corporate identity, calling it the Lucas Bols Company. Actually, the four pillars of the Lucas Bols Company is that it gives heritage and credibility to its brands since 1575. It's all about craftsmanship and expertise. It's the creative spirit of Amsterdam. The Amsterdam is more linked now to the Lucas Bols Company, a little bit less to the brands, but more to the company itself. The quality, semper idem, always the same, means that we are still guided by quality. I think I mentioned on our ready to enjoy cocktails, what we hear back from the U.S. is that the quality which we have created is truly standing out versus others on the market. Quality is a great driver. These are the four pillars or values of the company. The Lucas Bols promise is we are the masters of taste. The taste is what we create. We're powering our brands with craftsmanship and heritage since 1575 from Amsterdam. This is the Lucas Bols Company. Visually, you saw it in our presentation, we have worked a lot on that, which means that we have renewed into our website. Hopefully when you've looked at it, you've seen some improvements. If you see a small mistakes, don't hesitate to let us know. We hope we have covered most of it. Our annual report is just published. I hope that's correct. It just came out. Also the Lucas Bols annual report, if you talk about the brand section, the company, the visuals, you see it reflected more extensively. You can read about it in the annual report. Of course, we're going to use this in presentations as well. Proud of that part of the Lucas Bols Company. Importantly, for the outlook then, this is my last slide. Building on our 2021, 2022 achievements, we remain optimistic about the future, despite the impact of the growing macroeconomic and geopolitical instability. It's not on the sheet, but what we have put also in our press release. We continue to see increasing headwinds on input and logistical costs, as explained by Frank. Mitigating measures we take by supply chain management, price increases, and disciplined cost management. I think during the pandemic, also, we have shown that we are a flexible company. Our asset-light business model really allows us to react quickly. Our BMU structure with A&P allows us to quickly react. This is something which we know how to deal with that. Of course, this is done in the most responsible manner. We are positive about the growth momentum of our brands, particularly Bols Cocktails, where we still expect further recovery from the pandemic, because let's face it, in 2021, 2022, not all on-premise on-trade accounts around the world were opened. Omicron was also there, so we still expect there is a part of the recovery to go on the Bols Cocktails brand. While on Passoã, we expect that brand to continue to grow because it has still potential for strong growth. The growth driver in the U.S. with our own company, Lucas Bols USA, we expect that to continue. As I said, further recovery of the on-trade in Europe and certainly in other areas will help the revenue part of Lucas Bols. Gradual recovery of Japan and travel-related markets. It's not fully back, not even today, but we expect that month- after- month, that it will further recover. As mentioned, we will step up our A&P investments, especially to support the growth of our global cocktail brands and particularly the ready to enjoy part of it. Tequila Partida will contribute to revenue and profit growth. On the foreign exchange, we have hedged more than 60% of our expected 2022-2023 cash flows. That is, I think, also an important factor in today's currency world, which sometimes changes, but here we have already hedged more than 60%, which is in line with our policy. This is the total of our presentation, and now we open for questions. Yes. Thank you, Huub. Richard, you can start first if you have any questions. Yeah. I've got a couple of questions. Let me ask three questions, please. First of all, on the ready to enjoy cocktails, maybe Huub, you can share some feedback from consumers or customers, whether you have that. You know, what is the status of the rollout in the Netherlands and the U.S.? You know, what plans do you have for 2023 to further roll out in those markets? And are you also planning to roll out in other markets? Let's start with that question, if that's okay. Yeah. The Ready to Enjoy is indeed an important initiative. We have two different types of packaging. I think that's also important to stress in the Ready to Enjoy. It's the bottles which are the 70 cl, which is mainly in the Dutch market, aimed more at the on-trade. In the U.S., we have the 375 ml, so that's going into the retail as well. Then separately, the exciting new packaging form, which is the tubes. These are two different things. Both are very well received in the U.S. packaging, but also, as I said, and I mentioned, the liquid is truly convincing, which is an important factor because people will try it and hopefully then come back. Why are we enthusiastic about it? Because in the January-March period, we obtained a few important listings in retailers. These were the launching customers. Within a few weeks, we sold a significant amount of both tubes and also bottles, and that has been also a base for further expansion. On that basis, and also the availability, because we have to produce and we deliver. The moment we have done the production, it's already gone. It's a positive factor. As I said, we have now made shipments to around 25 states in the United States, and which means that these distributors are now going to the retailers and the on-trade to build on that. We also got a listing in one control state, which is the difficult control state to convince, which will be operational in April, May, and that shows also the potential for the brand. It's on trend. It's where the growth is at the moment as well in the U.S. Lucas Bols participates, and we are actually one of the first also to move with this exciting new packaging. We are optimistic about that. The Netherlands, we are also expanding now our distribution. The bottles are well received for the on-trade. The on-trade, as you know, have difficulty also to find personnel. So if they then. There are a few outlets which are really pleased by what we provide them now because then it's ready-made, and it's a very good quality. The tubes is revolutionary, and that takes some time to build up distribution and find new ways. We will step up the communication also behind it. Your question on the rollout, definitely, the rollout also to the BeLux, so Belgium, Luxembourg, and we are looking at a few other markets potentially to roll it out. It will be on a market-by-market basis. Yeah. For 2022, 2023, the main markets remain the U.S. and the Netherlands. The second question I have is on Tequila Partida. You say, you know, the integration has been completed. Does that mean you have both the back end and the front end? The sales teams are all instructed, they know what to do, they know how to sell it. Also there, you know, what is the distributor reactions to a, yeah, a new owner of the brand? Last part of that question is, you know, how are you marketing the Tequila Partida products in the U.S.? Are you marketing it neat? Does it go into a cocktail? Is there any combination with the Bols Cocktails range that you can make at some time for the margarita, for example? Shall I take the first part? Yeah. I want you to do the regulated part. On the integration and the transition, Richard, we spent a lot of time doing that. It is both the Salesforce and the back end. We spent time even in Mexico with the local team there, six colleagues that we've now welcomed to the Lucas Bols family, as we call it, and spent quite some time in the supply chain there as well, so in the fields, speaking to the parties and the partnerships there that supply the agaves, but also the distillery there, that is very important. That's all integrated. From a sales perspective, the same actually happened. We've brought out the sales force from the United States to Mexico to be introduced to what the Tequila category and specifically Tequila Partida is, and to also make sure that we can beef it up from a brand and marketing perspective. We've even hired a new colleague in the United States team to make sure that we also focus on this beautiful brand that we expect to grow significantly from a brand and a marketing perspective. Absolutely fully completed, both from a back office and sales perspective. On the brands, probably Huub more for you to comment on. From the distributor point of view, the reactions have been very positive. They have said that this is a great brand with potential. It takes, of course, the passion and the support which we will provide. The good thing in the U.S., as you very well know, is this three-tier system. If you look at our site, which we call where we are at our distributors, they don't have a lot of high-end tequilas in their portfolio. It will allow them to be more competitive against the others. I think they, when they start putting their weight behind it, that could be a positive contributor. Your question on how we promote it's, as we say, the celebrity is in the bottle. As you know, tequilas are a lot owned by celebrities or pushed by celebrities, and we say the celebrity is in the bottle, and that's on purpose, because the quality is undisputed, is one of the highest rated tequilas. That is what we're going to exploit from the aged version. Roble Fino, et cetera, and the aged version is more the niche consumption, of course. The quick win, relatively quick win, is those 50,000 on-trade accounts where we are already distributed with our Bols Cocktails brand. In those 50,000, we are with Triple Sec. The combination of Triple Sec, which is the key ingredient for a margarita and a tequila, of course, shows you immediately what the potential is of the combination. It's all about outlet selection. It's about contracting the right outlets. We actually are, I think, well-placed to boost this brand. It will take some time, of course, because you need to take the brand over, get to know it, but everybody is fired up. Very clear. Thanks, Huub. The last question I ask is, yeah, on the gross margin in 2023, what's your outlook for that? I know there's a lot of, you know, ups and downs, but can you provide, you know, what do you believe are the biggest drivers for the gross margin in 2023? Yeah. To put a number to that, Richard, as you already sort of implied in your question, is incredibly difficult. There's not so much about not willing to be able to do so, but it's more because things go up and down. There are so many offsetting factors. I think what we will definitely see is that a couple of things could help, and that's the further premiumization that we were talking about. It's hopefully getting back more and more business in Japan, which is the above average margins. But on the flip side of that, I think a realistic expectation would be that the increased input costs that we've seen hit our margin in the past year will, if anything, intensify rather than slow down as our current expectations. To tie a number to that would be incredibly difficult. We're following the prices almost on a daily basis, and if you see the differences between what the price was yesterday and today, it will be outdated already by any quote that I would give you now. We anticipate that it's going to take a bigger hit on the gross margin than last year. Hopefully, with these offsetting factors, put against that. I think to add to that, as I also mentioned, is that, in general, I think we are confident that the structural increases, so the longer term increases, that we can reflect those into pricing. The longer term margin effect is less maybe than the short term. Yeah. Look at our margin structure today, where we are. We are confident that is more or less what we should be aiming for. Pricing takes a bit of time before you have implemented in the market. Yeah. That is, I think, the short and the longer term. The premiumization. For example, in the U.S., if you look at our premium, if you look at our portfolio and the revenue per case has gone up by 29% in last fiscal year. 29% on the revenue per case. That shows the premiumization component and how quick it is when our model starts to work in the U.S. The reason is we're pushing more the flavors of Bols cocktails, Passoã, Galliano are highly profitable, so that all contributes. Premiumization but is of course to be seen how fast we can do that. Yeah. The way I explained it, Richard, in one of the calls I had this morning is saying that on the top line and the growth thereof, at this stage, we're going full speed ahead. Specifically from a brand investment perspective, from the momentum that we have, from the outlooks, from the trade that we see, we're pretty happy with the growth. We're pretty solid in terms of having the outlook there. The bigger challenge is, of course, the profitability, both in the gross margin as well as operating profit. I think with the strong growth that we've seen, we look at the year ahead with quite some positivity. Very good. Thank you. Thanks. Operator, we can take questions from the call now. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and please ensure your line is unmuted locally as you will be advised when to ask your question. The first question comes from the line of Eric Wilmer from ABN AMRO. Please go ahead. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I've got three as well. First question, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the dynamics in China, and how this may impact your H1 results or your current H1 results. I believe that lockdowns roughly started when your new fiscal year kicked off. If I remember correctly, China was also quite strong in your, let's say, last H1. I was wondering if you could quantify this effect a bit. Thank you. Yeah, China is an important factor. We had a strong year in 2021-2022, so we saw double-digit growth in China. Indeed, at the moment we're looking at, especially in the big cities, a lockdown. That certainly influenced the start of the year, though we have to say that it's in the low consumption period. Normally the period of March, April, May are the low consumption periods in China also for our brand. Yes, it is a short-term question, we hope. What we see now, the message we got is that from June onwards, there will be slowly but surely a reopening. Let's say in the best scenario, this is an impact from March through to June. Hopefully, as it has shown in the past in China, the recovery goes pretty quickly. We are still positive about China for the longer term. We have been growing over the last years in China. We are the number three liquor brand in China, so it remains one of our priority markets. Secondly, you indicated not to be paying a dividend on the previous fiscal year in order to bring leverage down further. Yeah. I was wondering, what is your ideal leverage target that we should keep in mind going forward? Yes. Maybe quickly, Eric, this is Frank speaking. Maybe quickly, to comment on dividend in general. As we've explained it, there's two reasons for not proposing a dividend at this stage. The first one is that we've three and a half months prior to the year end, we've done a capital raise out of which quite a significant amount is earmarked to be paid in the future. That's the move for completion payment and also the earn-out payment for Tequila Partida. The second reason is that one of the joint objectives that we as a company but also our stakeholders, amongst which is Shell, that is to reduce leverage. I think we've taken major steps in terms of getting there. That's why we want to keep it the way as it currently is. Also, given those upcoming payments that we still have. The question about ideal leverage is a bit more difficult, of course, because in my view, it heavily depends on, for example, whether or not we would be doing additional acquisitions. If we would be growing through acquisitive growth too, which is definitely something that, as you know, also from the equity raise that we've done in Tequila Partida acquisition, is always on our radar if a good opportunity arises. I'm pretty confident with a leverage ratio of anywhere between 3x-3.5x. That could be slightly different, if we would be saying that for the upcoming years we will be focusing more on growing our existing brands and investing in those brands, because then your ideal leverage could potentially be a bit lower. To make sure that, you know, the dividend cash stream, sorry, the interim interest cash stream is actually reduced to a minimum there. It depends a bit, but where we are currently, A, is a massive improvement, and B, I think even with those upcoming payments, it's a very healthy level of leverage. Given the strong cash generation in the past during COVID-19 and also for the periods thereafter. Thanks very much, Frank. I think the 3.5 is certainly very, very helpful. Last question, and that's more, a bit more specific in nature on the Dutch market. On the Genever category. You mentioned that you gained share here during a challenging period. I think we've also discussed this one-on-one when the National Prevention Agreement started, Frank. I was wondering, question to you both, what was your approach? And at the expense of whom did you benefit? Was it mainly the more private label type of players or. How did you in the end manage to win? Thank you. Yeah. I think, as you know, we have a portfolio of brands. We not only have the Hartevelt, Bokma, Hoppe, Florijn, so we have multiple brands. What we did actually is to Reposition some of those brands because in terms of pricing and positioning, some of the brands were getting too close. On the Hartevelt brand, we went a little bit down in terms of the ongoing day-to-day pricing. The Hoppe brand, for example, is a leading brand and became the number one vieux brand because it is a brand which has potential. Also with the reopening of the on-trade, that helps a lot. It is also, I think, more of a regional approach because genever in the Netherlands has also regional brands. For example, the Florijn brand is more in the east of the country, Bokma more in the north. We have used more of that part as well. last but not least, of course, we're pushing the aged versions of the Korenwijn lines or the Bokma. It has been, let's say, a review of all those elements. Very honest. Very helpful. Thanks very much. Maybe the last, of course, is what we also say is that the transformation of the Lucas Bols Company to the cocktails, as we say, is that the genever as a total is influencing less and less, of course, the total. As you see on the regional liquor and spirit segment, yeah, the growth of the others is more than compensating the decline of the genever. The next question. Yeah. The next question comes from the line of Christophe Bégin from Kempen. Please go ahead. Good morning, everyone. Question from Adam. First question, do you expect absolute growth and profitability? Christophe, we're not hearing you clearly. Do you hear me now better? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Hello, everyone. I have two questions. First one, do you expect absolute growth and profitability for EBIT for next fiscal year? Sorry, Christophe, it's really that we don't hear the question. The line is really, really bad. Maybe we'll try something else or stand somewhere else. Is it now better? Yes, I think so. Can you repeat the question? Apologies for this. My question is, do you expect growth of EBIT next fiscal year? Whether we expect growth of EBIT next fiscal year? Yeah. That's the question? Yeah. Okay. Whether we expect growth of EBIT in next year, I think it was already included in the answer that I gave to one of the earlier questions. Where we are really comfortable is with the growth of the top line, and the challenge that we expect is going to be in the gross margin and only through those increased input costs. In the end, it will be a balancing game between the two. As I said to one of the analysts that I spoke to this morning, I said, "Of course, the objective is to maintain at least the level of operating profit that we've seen in the past year as well. But more importantly, focusing on that top line growth to make sure we keep on investing in the brands to achieve that. The outcome of EBIT, you know, on the costs that we can control, we'll do the same as what we've done in the past two years. To a certain extent, the unknown is going to be the development of the input costs there. Okay. That's clear. My second question was, it's still the recent years that smart investments, not only in strategy, developing markets, but as well, investing in new brands like Passoã, like Pallini, whether it's via distribution contracts and subsequently further investing in those brands are really paying off. Could we expect more M&A deals, going forward because it proves to pay off? I think that indeed the acquisition of Passoã has been truly a success. If you see how the brand has developed since we took over. That was of course followed by Pallini, which is a bit different, but it's a distribution contract, but also that brand is returned to growth. The Tequila Partida brand certainly we expect a contribution certainly in the revenue and also the premiumization of the portfolio. Yes, as we have always said, the Lucas Bols objective is to combine organic growth for the global cocktail brands of 4%-5%, but certainly with our distribution platform, where we now control 40% of our revenue and being the U.S. as the growth driver, we can successfully put these brands on our platform and give either new life or accelerate and expand. That is certainly part of our strategy. Now, we've also said that first we need also to integrate new brands. The focus is now for Tequila Partida 2022, 2023 is to make sure that we create a success out of that brand as well as we did on the other acquisitions. That's clear. Okay. Question. I'd asked a question. The overall market has been in some different regulation of bottles has nothing. Christophe. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. You have to try or maybe you can send someone else because we don't hear your question. Sorry. Yeah, we'll skip the questions. Answer anything. You said no, you have no further question, or you want to put the question again? No, I will skip the question. Okay. Is there any other question maybe for anybody else? We have just had another question come through. This comes from the line of Henk Slotboom from The IDEA!. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I've got only one, and that is, when I hear the overall story with the pressure on gross margin, at least it's a challenge to fight the pressure on gross margin. I can imagine that smaller specialized players have much more problems with it than you have. Is it, under the current circumstances, to be expected that it's easier to find suitable takeover targets? You also have some room to maneuver. I mean, Frank just said he would be happy with a leverage of 3-3.5 times. It's 2.7 times. The cash flow is good and that sort of thing. You definitely have the firing power. Is it fair to expect more acquisition, more activity on the M&A front? Let me put it in those phrases. Thank you. Yeah. On your question, of course, there has been. There are a lot of, call it brands, which have been launched over the last 4-5 years, most let's say more initiatives. There's not a lack of people starting with new brands, but normally those brands are. The first they go is the on-trade, and that has been very difficult with COVID. Now you see, of course, all the challenges around supply, et cetera. Yeah, it could very well be that there are brands around which on their own can't make it, but which still have a lot of potential for growth. I think Tequila Partida is a good example. It's a beautiful brand, great liquid, owned by passionate people, but then to step up and to grow from where they have put the base to a larger, let's say, volume. You need sometimes different distribution or different people managing it. Yes, indeed, there could be more opportunities from there. Also, don't forget that there are still a lot of existing brands around which have quite some important volume still, but don't get the attention a brand needs. In our hands, I think we have shown that when you do the right thing on the brands, you can give them, call it, new life. there are two different things you look at: smaller brands where you see the potential to fast develop or existing brands which already have some volume, which would help, of course, our platform to become more important with our distributors. our scale increases, and those actually are the two, M&A type of things we would be looking at. Okay. Very clear. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Richard, you. We currently have no questions in the queue. As one last reminder, please press star one if you'd like to ask a question. We have a question here. Richard, go ahead. Yeah. Maybe one more question on the Bols Cocktails. Huub, you said there are more than 50,000 accounts in the U.S. right now. I mean, maybe you can explain a bit, you know, what has been the driver about or behind those account wins, and is part of the idea in 2023 to further expand that number of accounts. Yeah. I think the reason behind it and the success is. One is related to the brand itself. As you know, following us for a longer time, we have been consistently working on the premiumization of our Bols liqueurs range in the U.S. With the new packaging, some of the liqueurs which have improved the botanicals, the communication around that. The brand itself, we have, let's say, put it much more now as a brand, Bols Cocktails brand, than the flavor which is around. I think intrinsically the brand is becoming stronger. The second part is that we have put more emphasis on the flavor side. We have Triple Sec, which is the big volume driver, but other flavors like the blue or strawberry or melon, we have put much more attention on that one. The third is that the on-trade in COVID times have reduced their number of SKU listings. We have convinced multiple outlets to work with the Bols Cocktails brand and focus on that, which would limit their number of stock keeping units. That is just an argument linked to menus. I think because the brand is getting stronger, we get now access to the national accounts or regional accounts of on-trade. All of a sudden you add 100 outlets to the thing. There are multiple initiatives. Last but not least, in some instances other brands had some supply issues, and we were there to provide them and support them because in some cases these outlets had already something on the menu, but they didn't have the product. We, with our agile Lucas Bols entrepreneurial style, we helped them out, and then we are rewarded by saying, "Okay, you helped us out when it was difficult, so now." There's multiple reasons. Maybe also the distributors are realizing the potential of the Bols brand and what it can do for their own portfolio of cocktails, so. Very clear. Thank you. Long answer, but I think those are the drivers behind the success. Thanks. Operator, any last questions from the call, or can we wrap it up? We have no further questions in the call. Okay. Well, I want to thank everybody for attending the call, the webcast, and here in person. Well, we'll hope to see or speak to you with the half year results again. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.