Hey, kia tuatahi, me karakia ai tātou. So, firstly, I'd like to open up with a karakia, and also thank David, the leadership team, and also the board for allowing me this time to be able to address you in our native tongue, te reo Māori, and to open with our karakia. Mai e, te tipua, mai e, te tawhito, mai e, te kāhui o Ngā Ariki. Mai e, tāwhiwhi atu ki ngā atua. Oi, ka tākina te mauri, ko te mauri e āhua noa mai. Ki runga ki wēnai taura, ki runga ki wēnai tauira. Kia tau te mauri ki runga ki wēnai tangoe tukuna no, o te whai ora o Tāne te wae ora. Tēnei te matatau kia eke. Whakatū tārewa ki te rangi. Uhi, wero, tau mai te mauri o Haumi e, hui e, tāiki e. Otirā, tuatahi rā, ka hoki ngā mihi ki tō tātou nei hunga ora, nā te mea kei konei hoki kōtai i mua i a tātou i tēnei wā. So firstly, I'd like to acknowledge our Creator, for He or She is the beginning and the end of everything. Secondly, I'd also like to acknowledge our mountains that surround us, our seas that also surround us. I'd also like to mihi, or to say, pay special acknowledgement to all of those that have gone before us. Otirā, i runga i tērā, ka hoki ngā mihi kia kōtai katoa, huri no ki tō tātou whare, tēnā kōtou, tēnā kōtou, kia ora tātou katoa. So thank you very much, and have a good day. Kia ora, Whitney. Kia ora, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Mōrena, and welcome to Comvita's annual shareholder meeting. My name is Brett Hewlett, and I'm the chair of the board. Beautiful day. I'm so grateful that the weather has played its role. So grateful that this is our first in-person shareholders meeting for three years, so it's great to have you here. Today's meeting is being conducted both in person and online. We're very pleased to welcome those of you participating online through the virtual meeting platform provided by our share register Link Market Services. I'll provide you with further instructions as we progress through the meeting, but if you encounter any issues, please refer to the virtual meeting online portal guide, or you can phone the helpline. For those of you here in attendance, make sure I've got the right slide there. I firstly have a few points of housekeeping to cover off for you. So, first of all, can you please make sure you got your phones off? I've made sure I've got mine, left it down there. Toilet facilities are located in the entranceway when you first came in, so just out and to the left. And if the fire alarm goes off, there is fire escapes here and here. But if you also just make your way out that door and just follow the staff and the team and, in an emergency, we congregate and meet out the front, at the entrance here. I'd like to welcome here today my fellow directors, and I'll be and the executive team, and I'll introduce them more appropriately shortly. I'd like to welcome Trevor Newland from KPMG, our company's auditor, who joins us online today, and to the team from our share register, Link Market Services. They'll help conduct the voting on the formal business later in the meeting and also act as a scrutineer. During the meeting, anyone in the room or online will be able to ask questions and vote, and I definitely encourage you to do so. For those of you online, you can send through your questions at any time through the online portal by clicking the Ask a Question button within the virtual meeting platform. Select the items of business, type in your question, and click Submit. I would encourage you to do so as early as possible, as this will allow us to answer these questions at the appropriate time of the meeting. The company secretary has confirmed that for me that the notice of the meeting has been sent to shareholders and other persons entitled to receive it, and have been advised that there is a quorum present, and so I declare the meeting open. Proxies have been appointed for the purposes of this meeting in respect of approximately 29.5 million shares, representing 42% of the total number of shares. My fellow directors and I intend to vote in all discretionary proxies we have received in favor of the resolutions as set out in the notice of meeting. The financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2023, and the auditors' report for the period are available under the Investment Center on the website. The annual report was made available on our website on the 22nd of August, on the same day as we announced our annual results. Hard copies are, of course, available either through Link Market Services or by contacting our customer experience team. And of course, for those present here today, copies are also available. We're incredibly proud of our annual report. It's a comprehensive document with something for all stakeholders. Very pleased to confirm that our FY 2022 integrated annual report has been awarded the Best International Annual Report and the World's Best Non-Traditional Annual Report at this year's Global ARC Awards. The ARC Awards are basically the Oscars of the annual report world. So a pretty proud moment. Very, very pleased. So please, do us a favor and take some time to read that document. I'd like to thank shareholders for the level of participation in today's meeting as well. We have about another 30 online and a reasonably good crowd here in the room. It's such a pleasure to be able to return to holding these meetings in person. And of course, it's still good to maintain the inclusiveness and the convenience of virtual meetings. So, you know, we've got a best of both worlds, hopefully. So after my short address covering the performance highlights for our fiscal year, I'll hand you over to our CEO, David Banfield, who will take you on a deeper look into Comvita's operations, our strategies, how we are engaged in multi-stakeholder communities, and lastly, provide some insights into our future ambitions. We'll then complete the formal business of the meeting, including the resolutions. We'll then take questions before finishing with general business, which will include a thank you message for our departing directors. Let me start with an introduction of my fellow directors. So, we have David Banfield, along here, beside me, Julia Hoare, Bob Major, Bridget Coates, and then at the end, we have our CFO, Nigel Greenwood. Perhaps a bit strangely for him, we have Luke Bunt, who was a presiding director through the last fiscal, but today he sits in the crowd as a guest and as a shareholder, of course. And we'll hear a little bit more about that later. Also in line with us today, we have Guangping Zhu, dialing in from Shenzhen in China, and we have Alfred Luk, who is Yaowen Wu's alternate director. Also, she's from Chi-- he's from China Resources, based in Hong Kong, online with us today. Apologies have been received from Yaowen Wu, of China Resources, and also Alan and Linda Bougen, our co-founders. And also have apologies from Sarah Kennedy, a previous director, also last-minute apologies. On the board. Let's go back to the board, actually. Well, we have made several changes to the board over this last year. As mentioned, in March, we said farewell to Sarah Kennedy after seven years with us. She was succeeded in her role as chair of the Safety and Performance Committee by Director Bob Major. At the end of September, Luke Bunt officially signed off after nine years on the Comvita board. Luke's role as Chair of Audit and Risk was taken up by Director Julia Hoare, who joined the board in March this year and stands for election today by you, our shareholders. We'll take the opportunity at the end of today's meeting to officially thank both Sarah and Luke. After serving for over a year on the Audit and Risk Committee, and upon Julia's appointment in March, Bridget Coates has moved on to the Safety and Performance Committee. Her breadth of experience in governance of sustainability and climate change-related matters has proven invaluable, and it's, I really appreciate that, that, Director Coates was able to show that flexibility to move. Worth mentioning also is that for the calendar year 2022, we also had a young emerging director, Jerome Ng. He joined us, and it's been our intention to have another emerging director in the 2024 calendar year. Later today, we'll be introducing you to our newly appointed director, or newly nominated director, I should say, sorry. Michael Sang, who also stands for election today. Mike's governance career is still relatively new, but he has over 20 years of corporate experience, including the CEO of Ngāi Tahu Holdings and CFO of PGG Wrightson, where he's developed a strategic growth mindset across a variety of primary industry sectors, including, of course, apiary and forest development, and managing multi-stakeholder interests, including Tangata Whenua. Unfortunately, Mike is not able to be with us in presence today, but he has provided a video for us to look at when he stands for election. The board are committed to a process of continuous review and succession planning when it comes to the selection appointment of new directors. We take a forward-looking view on matching director skills and board culture with the evolving needs of the business. I'm very proud to be serving on the board of Comvita with such a capable and wise team of governance professionals. Comvita comes with its fair share of challenges and complexity, probably the understatement of the decade. I want to thank my fellow directors for their loyalty and ongoing commitment to the cause. Now, to company performance. The global wellness industry has experienced strong growth in recent years, with consumers increasingly seeking natural solutions to help build their immunity. The impact of COVID has accelerated this trend, and the industry has shown resilience through the global economic slowdown. Comvita's product offering with high-quality Mānuka honey, propolis, and olive leaf extract, coupled with our premium brand positioning, positions us nicely to take advantage of growth in the health and wellness sector. 2023 has been somewhat of a watershed year for Comvita. We had to demonstrate that even while operating under the dark clouds of global recession and lagging economic recovery, that we could continue to build momentum and that our focus strategy to drive demand for our premium brand positioning was paying off. The board are extremely pleased to see that Comvita has been able to increase market share and grow top and bottom line in all of the markets where we operate. And that's at the same time when many companies that we see in those markets are going backwards or even failing altogether. Company performance in the second half was especially impressive. We finished the year with a record NZD 234 million of group revenue, up 12% on the prior year. While recovery was slow in our biggest market, China, we grew 12.5%, surpassing the milestone of NZD 100 million revenue in that market for the first time. Comvita's performance in the China market, in fact, all of the APAC regions, continues to impress. This is testament to the commitment and agility shown by our teams across the region. This also provides confidence that increasing the level of investment into brand and marketing, to this year, more than NZD 30 million we spent in that area, especially during the tough times, is the right thing to do. Our operating profit of NZD 24 million was up 18.7% on the prior year. EBITDA, after our ERP expenses adjustment of NZD 33.5 million, was up 11.5% on the prior year. Our net debt position at the close of the year was NZD 57 million. The cost of service that debt has weighed on our net earnings result compared to the prior year, given prevailing interest rates, of course. We are confident that the strongly positive cash flow trends we saw in the second half of the last fiscal will continue, and that we will be able to reduce our net debt position over time. Reported NPAT of 11.1 million or 13.1 million after adjusting for ERP, on the surface, indicates a relatively flat year on our net earnings. However, underlying trends on net earnings growth remain strong, driven by higher gross margin and revenue growth. We're still working our way through a number of investments and business transformation initiatives, including a comprehensive upgrade to our ERP system. We also had one-off impacts from stock write-offs related to Cyclone Gabrielle and material negative Forex adjustments. We remain on track with our plan to realize our objective of NZD 50 million EBITDA and an NPAT of over NZD 20 million in FY 2025. That confidence in underlying trends enabled the board to announce a fully imputed dividend of NZD 0.03 per share, bringing the total dividend for the full year to NZD 0.055 in line with last year. At Comvita, the directors take responsibility to act as guardians of the founding principle and our cause in a sustainable way for the benefit of all of our stakeholders. We take seriously our environmental, social, and governance responsibilities, and we act accordingly. In so doing, we'll make balanced choices for investment. We'll make balanced choices in how we spend our time and resources, and balanced choices in terms of how we think about success. Our Harmony Plan is both a roadmap and a commitment to perpetuate positive impact for people, bees, and the planet. For us, it captures our determination to leave the world in a better place. We celebrated a number of material Harmony Plan outcomes throughout the last year. We signed a partnership agreement with Olé, one of China's largest premium supermarket chains, premised on a shared commitment to long-term ESG initiatives and outcomes, and Dave will talk a little bit more about this later. Under our 1% EBITDA commitment, we donated more than $300,000 to a multiple of community initiatives in New Zealand, Australia, United States, Korea, and Africa. Ninety... I'm very proud to say that 91% of our global Comvita team are now shareholders. We launched a Bee Welfare Code across Comvita apiary branches, and last year, more than 44 million bees were rescued from extermination. We launched our Time to Heal program for our global team, with 1,008 employee hours volunteered in support of environmental and community causes. Comvita was founded with long-term views around balancing purpose and profit. Becoming a certified B Corp company is in line with those founding principles, and we are truly proud of this achievement. This was made possible when at our ASM in September last year, Comvita became the first NZX-listed organization to change its constitution to reflect the importance of all stakeholders when making investment and strategic decisions. This was a requirement of our B Corp accreditation. Thank you, all shareholders, for supporting us to make this change. B Corp certification is an internationally recognized designation that a business's high standards and verified performance, accountability, and transparency across the spectrum of ESG factors. It is my firm belief that it would become increasingly difficult to gain access to discerning European and Asian markets if your organization does not have sustainability accreditation, such as B Corp. Furthermore, international capital markets are placing a premium value on B Corp accredited companies. Let's. I think we've got a nice little video here which says it probably a lot better than I am. Kia ora. I'm incredibly proud to say today that Comvita is a certified B Corp corporation. Last October, our shareholders voted in favor of changing our constitution to reflect the importance of all stakeholders in our decision-making. Nearly a year on, we have now been awarded that B Corp certification, and we join a group of companies globally who are determined to leave the world in a better place. It's an incredibly proud moment for Comvita. I hope you, as shareholders and stakeholders, are as proud of this moment as we are. So at B Lab, we're incredibly excited to welcome Comvita to the global community of B Corps. Comvita is a well-recognized brand and a Kiwi success story in purposeful business, and the B Corp community is united in common cause to see businesses create an inclusive, regenerative, and equitable economy. All B Corps meet incredibly high standards for social and environmental performance and are verified by B Lab to meet those standards. For a business as large and complex as Comvita to do that, it's a really significant measure of success. I want to thank the team globally for the hard work that's gone into making this happen. Also, my thanks to consumers around the world who continue to choose Comvita as the best quality product to enhance their lives. And just to echo my thanks to, David and the team at Comvita for their diligence and tenacity, because it took a lot of that, in pursuit of this very, very significant achievement. Thank you, guys. The tragic events of Cyclone Gabrielle and other major weather events around the world have brought a climate change into devastating focus. Comvita recognizes the critically, the criticality of long-term environmental readiness and risk mitigation for the future of the business and our planet. We remain committed to being carbon neutral by 2025, and we are setting near and long-term science-based carbon reduction targets. We have completed our second global GHG, or greenhouse gas, inventory, capturing end-to-end business activities across our global value chain. This extensive process has been audited by Deloitte, and we passed our second audit with flying colors. Details can be viewed in our annual report. Our financial year 2023 climate action performance has been assessed as follows. If I summarize some of the key highlights. Our global greenhouse gas inventory showed a 9% increase in gross emissions compared to last year. The rate of increase is at less intensity than our sales growth of 12%, showing an overall improvement in ratios. It does, however, highlight areas for focus in the future. The total estimated removals from sequestration of all Comvita forests increased by over 90% last year. However, a number of those forests have now been registered under the Emissions Trading Scheme, ETS, requiring them to be excluded from our reconciliation. It seems that we cannot have our cake and eat it, too. On a like-for-like basis, our greenhouse gas removals position is therefore 12% improvement versus what we have achieved last year. 92% of our packaging is recyclable, reusable, and/or compostable, up from 89% last year. We diverted 171 tons of waste in the landfill, with 60% of that being recycled. We are in the foundation stages of our sustainable procurement journey. Last year, we put in place a sustainable procurement policy and a supplier code of conduct, as well as developed a significant supplier pre-screening framework. Comvita is committed to ensuring health and safety is integrated into daily operations. Ultimately, we are empowering all Comvita people to be safety leaders in the workplace to ensure all return home safe and well every single day. It has been very pleasing to see the sharp reduction in number of motor vehicle accidents over the year, as this has been a critical risk issue associated with the seasonal work by arborists. We have also seen a welcome increase in near-miss reporting and a jump in Safety Culture Maturity Index, two significant lead indicators of workplace health and safety culture. Our unique business model includes positioning teams in our core markets. Our team now totals 559 people, or 630 if you include the team members that joined us following our recent acquisition in Singapore. 60% of those are based in seven markets outside New Zealand. As we approach the milestone of our 50th year, we're writing the next chapter for Comvita. For Comvita to be at our best, we need to create an environment that enables our team to perform, create an aspirational, inclusive, and connected workplace where our team can thrive as, can thrive as crucial to engagement and performance. We are encouraged that our net promoter score from the team increased to 21 during the period, but we recognize we've still got a lot of work to do. One of the great challenges of all corporations today is attraction and retention of talent. The board have been extremely supportive of the management's multiple initiatives to stay at the top of the game in this increasingly competitive world of talent. That includes providing a pathway to making team members shareholders. Our shareholders should feel very comforted by the lineup of leadership and talented teams that we have at Comvita. On behalf of the board and our shareholders, I want to thank everyone at Comvita for their commitment and loyalty to our cause. Congratulations on another great year for the company. I'd like to summarize the year with the following: This was a good result in a very, very tough environment. We've really demonstrated resilience and the ability to be agile in our response to take risk as they evolve. We're clearly a cause-led organization. We're very well positioned and responding well to additional ESG and reporting requirements expected of a sustainable global company. We are maintaining ongoing evolution of the board to meet our future needs, and we feel we are very well poised for takeoff. Before handing over to David, I'd like to introduce members of the leadership team. I mentioned we always have David and Nigel at the front table. Andy Chen, our Deputy CEO and Regional Chief Executive Officer for Asia Pacific, is at the front of the room here. Holly Brown, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer. I think Holly's not able to be with us today, unfortunately. Dr. Jackie Evans, our Chief Science Officer and our moderator for today. So she'll be in our questions later. Kirsty Dent, Acting Chief Purpose and Transformation Officer at the front here. Tracey Brown, Chief Operations Officer. Adrian Barr, Chief Business Development Officer and undertakes M&A work. He is also absent today, unfortunately. And Chris France, our Chief Technology Officer, down the back there. Welcome, Chris. And of course, Jessica Sanders, sitting in the booth at the very back there, keeping us all together and keeping on course. I'd really like to thank the executive team for, as I said, a great year under very, very difficult and challenging circumstances. You know, I know they're so committed. The hours they work, the time they put in, it's humbling. So I'll now hand you over to David Banfield, to take you through the next part. Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. No mauri hari maie. Good morning, ladies, gentlemen, fellow shareholders. I'm delighted to also welcome you, to this year's ASM, and also to welcome the majority of the global Comvita team, joining our shareholders, as, as Brett has just highlighted. It is particularly nice to see a number of you in person at today's, hybrid meeting. We have got a, as I say, group joining us online, which is brilliant, and stunning that the weather has turned up in the way that it has, today. So, back in 2020, when we last had a meeting, I shared with you our plan to deliver NZD 50 million in EBITDA by 2025, the year we turn 50 as a business. I shared our purpose, I shared our business model, 60% GP, 15% marketing to sales, and 20% EBITDA target, and I shared our plan to stabilize performance, transform the organization, and build long-term resilience and growth. I'm delighted and incredibly proud that we've delivered three and a half years of consecutive results in line with our plan, and remain on track to deliver that NZD 50 million EBITDA target in 2025. I also shared our focus or our target to put consumer at the heart of our thinking and our intention to double down in line with our primacy of market focus. I shared how our unique, vertically integrated business model differentiated us from our competition, and how I felt that this was a significant differentiator versus pure exporters. I shared our plan to become a global leader in ESG, along with the three-part plan I mentioned earlier. We also talked about our stages of organizational development that we entitled Crawl, Walk, and Run, and what this would mean for long-term development of Comvita. Finally, I shared our intention to become carbon neutral in 2025 and net positive by 2030. I'm delighted with the progress we're making on all aspects of the plan and have included an updated traffic light system, red, amber, green, to show where we're ahead and where we still have work to do. We are unashamedly focused on creating a true performance culture, and I'd like to thank the whole team for the huge effort that's gone into delivering performance at Comvita, creating connection to our purpose and with consumers around the world, and building our own legacy during this exciting chapter. We remain focused on product categories that will enable and facilitate the natural health and wellness transformation that we're aiming to deliver. We have some really exciting product categories and are developing new areas that will further differentiate Comvita from the competition and open up new, highly targeted usage occasions. It should be noted that these are absolutely aligned to our focus around bee products and olive leaf. As Brett shared, our Harmony Plan captures our determination and our intention to leave the world in a better place. I'm delighted by the reaction that we get to this plan from consumers, from team members, and from governments around the world. Our plan starts with our determination to advocate for and protect bees through education, action, and awareness around the world. As I'll share shortly, our Mānuka forests are a wonderful example of the virtuous business model, whereby the more successful we are, the more native Mānuka we plant. In fact, we're committed to planting one tree per pot of honey sold. We're also committed to ensuring that we understand the impact on biodiversity of our forests, and again, I'm delighted to share the positive impact that we're showing. We aim to be a global leader in ESG, targeting to be carbon neutral by 2025 and net positive by 2030. Finally, we are proud to invest 1% of our annual profits into causes that support both social and environmental goals. In FY 2023, we reported record sales of NZD 234 million, an increase of NZD 25 million or 12% versus the previous year. All our segments showed double-digit revenue growth, with Greater China reporting revenue of over NZD 100 million for the first time. Our gross margin was in line with our plan that we shared earlier, and we invested a record of NZD 30 million in our brand. Our EBITDA after ERP costs was NZD 33.5 million, plus 11%, again, in line with our plan. Our net debt finished the year at NZD 53.4 million, with inventory at NZD 136 million. While inventory and net debt reduced in half too, they are above our long-term targets, and we are targeting further reductions in both by 2025. Looking at our segments, Greater China delivered revenue of NZD 109 million, plus 12.5% versus the PCP. It is important to remember, if we look at last year, the Greater China was actually pretty materially impacted by COVID right up until the early part of December, with lockdowns in place. North America delivered NZD 35.6 million, +12%. Rest of Asia, NZD 31.8 million, +16%. ANZ, NZD 40.8 million, +17.5% versus the previous year, and EMEA, so Europe, Middle East, and Africa, NZD 5.9 million, +14% versus the PCP. Second half growth across all markets was 17.4%. Our business model continues to prove successful, with a combination of high quality people on the ground and here in Paengaroa and in New Zealand, and investment in our brand helping us to increase share. In Hong Kong, we grew our share to 75%, in mainland China and Korea to 60%, rest of Asia to 25%, ANZ to 46%, and finally, North America to 25%. In the recent 6.18 Festival, so that's on the 18th of June in China, we were number one on Tmall, number one on Tmall Supermarkets with a 69% share, number one on Tmall Global in the candy segment, with propolis lozenges up by 110%, number one on JD, number one on TikTok and Hema, which is an Alibaba format, with the latter improved by 82% year on year. We were also delighted that our collagen drink was awarded a Silver New Product of 2022 in the prestigious iSEE Awards. I was proud to represent Comvita on the recent Prime Minister's trade mission to China. I was particularly proud to sign an MOU with one of the largest trading partners, Olé, who is the largest premium wellness retailer in China, and was particularly pleased that they want to develop a new category approach based on the principles that we capture in our Harmony Plan. And it's this level of engagement, again, that only Comvita can deliver, and it puts us at the forefront of some major trends in China. We feel real momentum in our business. On screen, you can see we've grown our revenue from NZD 171 million in FY 2019 to NZD 234 million in FY 2023. Our e-commerce share of total has grown from 23% to 42%. Greater China revenue from NZD 77 million to NZD 109 million. Gross profit from 37%-60%, and our EBITDA, after our ERP investment, from loss-making to NZD 34 million. We're incredibly excited about our opportunity to deliver significant long-term growth. The total addressable market for honey is forecast to increase from $9 billion-$15 billion by 2030, with household penetration currently of less than 1% in our active markets, and yet we know if we get the distribution and activation right, we can deliver household penetration of over 3%, as we have seen and delivered in Hong Kong. And finally, we know as consumers become more engaged in our brand through our direct-to-consumer business, we can grow lifetime value by over 300%. Given the exciting long-term growth opportunities, it's also important that we secure long-term quality supply and have a business model that enables us to weather events outside our direct control. We continue to partner with New Zealand landowners with the aim to establish Comvita-managed forests around Aotearoa, New Zealand, increasing the quality of honey, reducing the cost of production, and ensuring secure supply. Our supply model targets the highest quality product with the lowest relative cost, and positions us as the most sustainable operator in our sector. With us aspiring to be the best partner for landowners, focused on health and safety and bees' health. Our harvest model was proven successful again in FY 2023 for the fourth consecutive period. We're targeting to deliver 20,000 hectares of forests by 2030, and again, our forest hypothesis was proven in FY 2023. Our model is a 40% improvement in yield through our forests, a 60% improvement in quality of yield, and a 20% reduction in cost per hive. We're in active discussions with external partners to fund and accelerate our forest expansion. As our forests grow, you can see on the chart here how the share of supply that we get from those forests continues to grow. So in FY 2022, 3.6% of our total supply came from our forests. In FY 2023, that was at 4.3%, and that will grow to just under 11% by FY 2024, as forecast to for FY 2024. As you know, Mānuka is a native species that supports the creation of a diverse habitat that, in return, allows our native flora and fauna to thrive. We've developed a framework which monitors our sequestration rates, waterway health, land stability improvements, and removes predators. We believe that this focus makes us a long-term partner and a great use for land, across New Zealand. We are absolutely focused on understanding what we call the science of nature, uncovering the secrets that nature offers, and putting these secrets into products that help heal and protect the world and enable Comvita to be truly differentiated versus our competition. For nearly 50 years, we've been at the forefront of world-leading expertise in Mānuka honey. We invest more in science and research than the rest of the industry combined. We believe that nature doesn't hide its intelligence. We just need the wisdom, and sometimes patience, to see it. We've put together a world-leading panel of gastroenterologists, health researchers, to help guide our thinking and our understanding, including experts from Australia, New Zealand, New Zealand and Australia, America, Hong Kong, and the U.K. In a while, you'll hear from some of those experts with some of the work that we're doing as we speak. We are determined to ensure that we protect our inventive discovery with IP and patents to give Comvita long-term competitive advantage. We currently have 44 patents granted and have an additional 21 pending. Actually, we had one granted yesterday, so now 45, which is really good news. At our stakeholder day, back in May this year, we shared the discovery of Comvita Leptosperin, a unique natural compound found in Mānuka honey, in Mānuka nectar and honey. We believe this offers multiple clinically relevant health benefits. It's highly heat stable and also stable in gastric and intestinal simulation. It inhibits a key biological pathway within inflammatory digestive orders, and importantly, it's patent protected. Our clinical trial, part in partnership with HVN, is underway. We're expecting results right at the end of this calendar year or early into 2024. And we look forward to sharing those results. I thought to try and give you a sense of the work that's going. I'd now leave some words to our experts to share some of the work that is ongoing. Hopefully. The study is about people, their symptoms, but when you look inside them, you don't see a cause, if you like. We call those symptoms functional symptoms, which means people have the symptoms, but we can't observe an underlying pathology that's there. This is a huge group of people in the population, many, many people. So if we can provide relief to those people by using a treatment that is safe and effective and enjoyable, that's gonna be a really fantastic outcome for them. That's why I'm excited about doing this research on Comvita, because it enables us to potentially identify a treatment for a large group of people that is safe and effective. Often when we speak about this type of research, people say, "Oh, yeah, I have people in my family that have got issue, and they're trying different approach, and it does work sometimes. Some other time, it has some side effects." So I think if we can provide evidence that Mānuka honey can improve digestive health, in particular around indigestion and functional obstruction, that will be a good outcome for them, and also a good outcome for Comvita having scientific evidence beyond their product. We're also part of clinical trials looking at the effect of Mānuka on a healthy New Zealand diet on metabolic health, propolis on immunity, Mānuka honey for atopic dermatitis, and finally, the impact of Mānuka honey on antibiotic resistance. Again, I'll hand over to an expert who can tell you a little bit more about our work there. Hello, I'm Dr. Jonathan Cox, Associate Professor of Microbiology at Aston University. Currently, around 700,000 people a year die of antimicrobial resistant infections, and if that's left unchallenged, antimicrobial resistance has the potential to kill 10 million people per year by 2050. My research has shown that Mānuka honey can kill resistant bacteria independent of their resistance status. I therefore believe that nature has kind of already provided us with the solution to antimicrobial resistance a long time ago. I've gone on to show that using an artificial lung model, that we can kill deadly respiratory tract bacteria by nebulizing Mānuka honey directly into the lungs. The next fundamental step is to translate this into clinical application, and that requires a company partner with a clear research vision. Comvita's vision to work with nature to heal the world is exactly what's needed to transform antibiotic resistance. Together, we can transform and revolutionize the treatment of respiratory tract infections and make the world a safer place for future generations. I have to say, when we look at the experts we're able to bring together and their passion to deliver, to take our products that we're growing here in New Zealand, and come back to our ability to heal and protect the world, you know, it really does set us forward to really set us up for a great opportunity in the future. Finally, oh, sorry. Finally, I'm also pleased to share our first biodiversity and ecological improvement results. Our findings included that we benefited invertebrate density and diversity, native bird and bat activity, and freshwater health and clarity in our forests. A five-year Comvita Mānuka forest supports comparable ecological system health to a regenerated mature forest of over 30 years old. Our business model is designed to ensure that as we become more successful, we're able to invest more to tell our incredible founding story of Comvita and our ongoing transformation into a global leader in premium natural health and wellness solutions. Our investment in marketing and brand building in FY 23 is the equivalent of the top seven or seventh or eighth brand's annual turnover. We see this as another virtuous model, whereby the more successful we are, the more we share the magic of Comvita Mānuka honey with discerning consumers around the world and increase household penetration or our total addressable market further. This, in turn, means the more we invest in planting trees for long-term quality supply. Our target consumer is female. She's 30-50 years old. She seeks healthy, natural ways to maximize life and energy. We call her our ideal she. We engage and interact with our ideal she at targeted events around the world. Here you can see Times Square, New York Fashion Week, Auckland Marathon, and through some super premium activation moments. Our progress and brand profile is best evidenced by two specific events that both relate to CIIE in China in 2022. Behind me, you can see our stand at this most prestigious of events. I hope you're as proud of this execution as we are. Secondly, the local government near our office in Shenzhen were asked to recommend three international brands who they felt were exemplars. They chose BMW, Anheuser-Busch, and Comvita. Again, a fantastic accolade for the work that's being done by the team. We aim to ensure that our ideal she is able to interact with us in high quality, experiential environments, at moments where she is able to give herself some quality time. In the images, you can see our wellness lab in Auckland, our Haymarket execution that Andy will talk more to shortly, and with both Korean Air and Cathay Pacific. Andy and I both share a background in retail and as such, share a passion for world-class execution. I'm now really pleased to hand over to Andy to share some of the magic that we're creating in markets around the world. Thank you. Thank you, David. Kia ora, everyone. Thanks for coming today and the support all the way. Last time, I got too excited and gave out too many details. I got a meticulous instruction from the top today. I will try to stick to it, sort of. Okay. As David pointed out earlier, Comvita is the absolute market leader. We do have all sorts of unique commercial advantages, and retail excellence is one of them. So thanks to the support and trust from all of you, especially our board members, our investment, our telling a good story. And back to 2001, we started our premium retail journey in Hong Kong. After two decades, good efforts, we are now all over Hong Kong, and I believe Alfred Luk, our board rep from China Resources. Yeah. Yes, then you are seeing us in Hong Kong, everywhere. Actually, as David mentioned earlier, the key bit is the nuance, the true understanding, good understanding of the details in the market. This further differentiate Comvita from others. Just a few pictures from here, you if you look closer, lots of good details that those copycats cannot copy. Sorry, copycat competitors. For example, the picture on the right, the bright side is Comvita. The dark side is everyone else, other honeys. And Comvita brand is the only brand name allowed on the shelf across the whole store. This is the most premium retailers, so shop in Hong Kong. Everyone else just falls under generic category. I cannot disclose the details how we achieved that. Such retail excellence quickly attracted some retail partners and potential partners from other side, investment side. Mr. Chu helped us open our first store in Shenzhen, and look at our consistent and powerful displays like this. Who will say no to Comvita? And more and more premium shopping malls, they are even giving us main central art room at prime location to talk about Comvita stories. During important festival, like five-floor high at prime location, normally only the luxury brands can get it. So Comvita, this is how good we are. And then we quickly gain good spots across Guangzhou, another mega city in China market. So with nearly 20 million people, continue our storytelling journey in China market. Of course, we don't forget about Shanghai as the commercial hub of China, so a city with 13 million consumers. Again, it's the nuance and the details that differentiate us from others. For the pictures here, you can see, notice the difference of the look of our shop display again, even from other Chinese cities. Our team of the 200 strong on the ground, they are good enough even to tell the subtle differences among Chinese consumers, city by city. So this is something copycats cannot copy. When we look at Beijing, the capital city of China, the consumers there are different from Shanghai again. That's why this. It looks and feel different again. And that's why even the business, the very busy Prime Minister and the trade delegation to China back in June, they particularly stopped at a Comvita counter and study on us. They, and they really like what we are doing there. And some of you have heard of Hainan Island in China. Beijing is now determined to develop Hainan Island into a world-class free trade port. Of course, Comvita as the absolute market leader, we have moved again faster than others. At the moment, I think only Fonterra and Comvita have a set up, so a subsidiary in Hainan Island, and we are all over the island now. Look at David. This, that was April, and David was engaged and happy there, and hopefully, he will be very happy seeing this. As Brett mentioned earlier, our retail excellence and success in Greater China region is helping us to grow faster into more and more markets. In Singapore and others, so Asia hub, local consumers and potential partners, they look around, and then so they quite like us. And then, so back in July this year, the biggest local honey retailer in Singapore decided to become part of Comvita to continue our storytelling journey. Pearline, the founder, she said a very impressive notable remark to me. She said, "I didn't realize that so many other products, they are not qualified at all." So compared to Comvita, only Comvita has the good science to look after the natural health and then at the end, look after the health of the consumers. That was one of her, her key decision factors to become part of us. Now, since July, so the integration is going really, really well, and then David will not allow me to talk about numbers. But anyways, it's going really well. Retail expertise from both sides are now making us even stronger in Singapore. That's why our market shares are way above 50% now. 50%, okay, but I think that was off. Okay. Way above, I cannot be more specific. And that's helping us to engage more and more quality partners, especially like the authentic channels, the local pharmacies. We need them to endorse our product quality and science. And from the picture on the left, you can see that, so a gigantic local pharmacy chain, they even tailor-make some shelving space for us to help us to stand out from the rest. And now they are giving us end cap and then sidekick, cross merchandising, so you name it. That's helping us to extend our retail excellence into retailtainment across the whole Asia region. From time to time, we are organizing the retailtainment activity to look after the target consumer and their loved ones, especially family activities. As David mentioned earlier, ideology is very important to us, and we want them to feel that we care for their loved ones as well. Such retailtainment activities further reinforce our consumer engagement and our brand affinity, echoing David's message about premiumization. Brett and Board, thank you for your trust and the investment. Hopefully, you're happy with our energy levels. Since 2020, we have doubled down our efforts to further premiumize Comvita brand. That's why now we are becoming more and more resilient, and we can ride through all kinds of bumpy waters. I will not repeat the results from last year. Now, so across the whole region. More and more consumers are seeing Comvita, so, and hearing Comvita brand stories. And South Korea definitely is another, a very important economic body across the region. We have a talented, strong team based in Seoul. They pioneer modern retail in that market. Actually, Brett, I think we, we, there are a lot to say. So Comvita established the whole industry business in South Korea, right? And then, so now so look at these fine details. This is our execution on the ground. Again, no chance for others to copy. And such retail excellence is now inspiring even non-retail customers in South Korea. So to use a bit of our world-class execution and retail excellence to grow other channels, for example, pictures on the right. So it's non-retail customer. It's a giant hotel group, Grand Hyatt. Grand Hyatt Seoul, they are now so launching Comvita afternoon tea, using a bit of our retail execution power to design a healthy and tasty lifestyle with Comvita to inspire their customers. You may now ask about the ANZ market. So David, so talk about the Haymarket. Yeah, then, so when Brett and David entrusted me, ANZ market with me last year, I asked myself as well. So this is our home, so New Zealand and Australia, we should always be very strong here, super, super strong. And last year, we engaged a customer with retail ability in Sydney and opened our first, shop in shop in the fully packed Haymarket. And look at the execution of details again. So this is how we sell our lollipops. Such good details and quick successes are now lining up more and more prime location across Sydney, including Sydney International Airport. Sorry, this is Sydney, Sydney International Airport. So we've removed four coffee shops to get this space on the main aisle. Then, New Zealand, our home, definitely strategically important. So thanks to the former leadership team, so we started our travel retail at Auckland Airport, ages ago. And our strong footprint in Auckland Airport, so sitting on both sides of the main aisle, connecting the security point and the boarding gates. And so, we will share exciting updates very soon, not today. So to make us even more stronger, so none of the travelers in and out of New Zealand will ever miss Comvita brand. That's further enabling our international growth everywhere. By now, you may have realized our global strategy, group total company strategy, underpinning all these retail successes across the Asia Pacific region. We are building and reinforcing our winning position across the whole region and then further replicate such successes in other markets. By now, some of you may want to ask questions about China economy. I will leave that to David later. So but, but what I, what I share here, we have a team of 200 strong on the ground. They always have the first-hand and comprehensive information about the markets, and they're way better than the journalist, journalist report, and they are passing back confidence to continue our test-and-learn journey in China. While we are speaking, our teams are in East China. They're testing ideas to build Comvita brand under the new concept of responsible living, which is joint attention and support from gigantic shopping malls and retail, so retailers, they who are giving us good locations at good cost to test out ideas. Such retail excellence lays a very solid foundation for us wherever we go. That's why normally we do not talk about coffee kits. It's more about ourselves. We have another unique advantage to amplify that. For example, this is our WeChat Store. We own our WeChat Store. With our, we are our own comprehensive and the meticulous understanding of local consumers. Let's hear it more from David about our digital abilities. Thank you, everyone. Thank you very much. Thanks again. Thanks for that, Andy. Look, I really hope when you see some of the images of how our brand turns up in markets around the world, you get a sense of both the quality of execution, the premium nature of our products. And, you know, at a time when there are global recession and inflationary impacts, people are making choices that when they have discretionary spend, they choose the best product for them to consume. And that's what we see coming through in our market share figures around the world. But as I say, it can only happen with fantastic execution in markets, so we're at the right place, at the right time, with different products for people to consume. So look, understanding our consumer needs and purchase habits is really crucial for long-term profitable growth. We like to think of it in three ways. The first one is about activity that helps us build household penetrations, so the number of households that are using our product. The second one is having got people, households using our products, how many times they use our products, and there we think of formats, we think of day parts, we think of things that make it easy to bring wellness into everyday life. Finally, we think about activities that drive brand affinity and loyalty, so that Comvita consumers say, "I choose Comvita because they deliver these solutions to my life, and I trust Comvita to be my partner for my personal wellness journey." We do believe that data is key to us delivering moments that matter for our ideal she, and that's why we shared our FY 2025 target to deliver 50% of our total revenue through e-commerce. In FY 2023, we delivered our strongest digital earnings and share of revenue, with e-commerce accounting for just under 42% of our revenue, or NZD 98 million at accretive margins. Our three-year revenue in e-commerce is at 27%. We ask consumers to join our movement, to create a world where bees and people thrive in harmony. Here you can see our Ideal She program, designed to recognize, and reward, and build long-term brand loyalty. In FY 2021, we we recognized the opportunity that would come through the emergence of the metaverse and created our very own wellness lab. This lab is designed to bring functionality, information, and services to our consumers as we deliver an unparalleled experience. Here you can see how we bring together our philosophical beliefs, our virtual reach, and our sensory experience to deliver harmony as we launch our special reserve honey recently. Here's a short video to show how that experience comes together. Nurture an untouched piece of Aotearoa, New Zealand, and unbelievable things happen. Sleeping soil awakens, and native Mānuka welcome their first flower, a delicious sight for millions of bees. Give nature the time to work together in harmony, and something incredibly precious is created. Our limited edition Special Reserve Mānuka Honey. Enjoy every moment of harmony. I hope you enjoyed that snippet of the video about how we create that integrated experience. Ultimately, we believe that when we give nature the time to thrive, incredible things can happen. In FY 2023, as I can summarize, as I've shared also already, we delivered record revenue of NZD 234 million. We saw momentum building through the second half of the year. FY 2023 earnings were in line with our plan. We're growing share in key markets. In FY 2024, we're forecasting double-digit EBITDA growth, positive operating cash flows, revenue and earnings growth weighted to half one, so we're maintaining that guidance. We're excited by our Leptosperin clinical trial results. We're excited later this year by the launch of our Caravan honey range. We're excited with HoneyWorld coming into the Comvita group and what that brings. We remain on track to deliver our FY 2025 plan of NZD 50 million of EBITDA. We operate in a global honey market that's forecast to grow by 67% or $6 billion by 2030, with consumer trends showing strong growth in premium health and wellness solutions. Ultimately, we believe that we are poised for takeoff. Before I hand back to Brett, I'd like to thank Brett and the board for their support and challenge, and the whole of the Comvita team for their huge commitment and focus on us writing an incredible chapter together to add to Comvita's rich history. As Sir James Henare, when asked what's the most important thing in the world, he replied, "It's the people, it's the people, it's the people." Kia ora, thank you. Thank you, David, and thank you, Andy. That's a great presentation. Hope you enjoyed it. On that last note around people, I was remiss to me, I forgot to welcome a couple of special people to the meeting today. First of all, Hannah Bougen, who's representing the Bougen family. Linda, as I said, they unfortunately had travel plans already pre-arranged and couldn't make it today. And the Bougens, of course, were, Al and Linda were, you know, in our nearly 50-year journey, they were the founders. In the first 30 years of Comvita's journey was, the foundations were laid by the Bougens. Of course, with their good friend, Paul Stratford. Also welcome, Neil and Cheryl Craig, snuck in the side there. Very much welcome, too. So, Neil, of course, as you may or probably be aware, for 15 years, he was the, the Chair of this, this company through a very important and growth period of ours. And of course, hiding in the back there somewhere, I saw, Chris Fleury, who is, of course, was our, Company Secretary, for that same period, so also a really important part of our, our, our story. So welcome, guys. We now come to the formal part of the business. So matters requiring resolution, which are outlined in the notice of meeting. There will be an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions on each of the matters, put to shareholders. For the sake of good order, shareholders' questions raised should relate directly to the matter being considered, please. When I call for questions, can shareholders present in the room, sorry, please raise your hand and wait until a microphone is provided to you. Then please clearly state your name, because I'm probably going to forget it, unfortunately. And also state whether you're a shareholder or a proxyholder. As previously instructed, online attendees can submit questions by clicking the Ask a Question button on the virtual meeting platform. I propose to call a poll on each of these resolutions. Sorry, guys. So those are just the instructions. No, sorry, that's this one. Shareholders joining us here today would have been given your paper shareholder voting card or will be voting using the LinkVote+ app. Does anybody have the app? Excuse me. Early adopters? If you're a shareholder and did not register on arrival and wish to vote, please make your way to the registration desk outside the room and start from Link Associate. So that's just around the corner here. Please either mark your voting intention for each resolution on your paper voting card, which will be collected at the conclusion of the meeting if you're using the LinkVote+ app. Vote on each resolution using the electronic voting card and click Submit Vote. Shareholders joining online will be able to cast their vote using the electronic voting card received when online registration is validated. So please mark your voting card in the way you wish to vote by clicking For, Against, or Abstain on the voting card. Once you've made your selection, please click Submit Vote. Important step, otherwise your vote won't be acknowledged. Please refer to the virtual meeting online portal guide or use the helpline specified if you require assistance. Voting will remain open until five minutes after the conclusion of the meeting. Results of the vote will be announced by the New Zealand Stock Exchange. The outcome of the proxy votes will be displayed for information after voting, and we'll do that here on all of the resolutions. Each resolution set out in the notice of the meeting is to be considered as an ordinary resolution, and as such, must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on the resolution. Hopefully, that's all clear. Let's go to ordinary resolution number one, appointment and remuneration of auditors. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following ordinary resolution: That the meeting record the reappointment of KPMG as the auditors of the company for the current financial year, ending 30 June 2024, pursuant to Section 207T of the Companies Act 1993, and authorize the board to fix KPMG's remuneration. Quite a mouthful. Are there any questions for the board concerning the motion from shareholders? Do we have some online questions? No, there are questions on the call from shareholders online. Okay, any questions from the room? So please now either select For, Against, or Abstain for resolution one on your voting card. Oh, thanks for that. Now, resolution two, as I'm the subject of this resolution, I'll hand over to my colleague, Bridget Coates, who will just take over chairing the meeting temporarily. Thanks, Bridget. Sure. Ordinary resolution number two, director election, Brett Hewlett. To consider, and if thought fit, pass the following ordinary resolution: That Brett Hewlett, who retires by rotation and is eligible for reelection, be reelected as a director of the company. I would now like to invite Brett to speak to his reelection. Thank you, Bridget. Look, I'll be very brief, but look, serving on the board of Comvita for the last six years has been an absolute privilege. My relationship with this company obviously goes back more than 17 years. Comvita has many, many layers of complexity. We have been pioneering on so many fronts in so many different ways across our vertically integrated business model. There are no rules for how to grow a company like Comvita. Our board needs to be vigilant to the risks and those complexities in the constantly changing environment we operate in. Doesn't matter whether it's our agri business or being on the ground in market, in complicated markets like China. We have to be agile in how we respond to the many, many challenges, and we have to be brave in making the big calls when needed. I think given those, that experience, it's important that we maintain continuity in the board, but it's also important that we evolve the board to stay relevant to, you know, what's ahead of us. This will be my third, and I have to say, my last, term as a director, so I'll announce that now. So I'll be working with my fellow directors, over the next three years to find the most appropriate person to take over the chair role. I thank you for your ongoing support, and I look forward to receiving a positive vote. Yeah, I think I, yeah. I think there might be, yes, there's some detail there, which is essentially about, Brett's, CV, if you'd like to have a quick look at that. Are there any questions for the board concerning the motion from any of our shareholders here? Thank you. Are there any questions from any shareholders online? There are no questions on this matter from shareholders joining online. Thank you. Would you please now select either for, against, or abstain for resolution two on your voting card? Thank you. I'll now hand back to Brett. Thank you, Bridget. Let me go to the next resolution. Resolution three, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following ordinary resolution: that Julia Hoare, appointed by the board as a director from effect from the first of March 2023, be elected as a director by the shareholders. I'll ask Julia now to come and speak to this. Thank you very much, and good morning. Oh, sorry, good afternoon, everyone. I feel really privileged to be standing here before you all today, and I'm really excited about the opportunity to be part of the Comvita board. As we've seen very clearly today, it's a great company, and it is filled with a lot of really great people, so it's a pleasure to be part of that. But as a director, it's really important to reflect on the contribution that a director can bring to the board and what that might mean to the company, and what it also means in delivering your expectations as shareholders. I'm a full-time professional director, and I do possess a range of skills and attributes that I think can and will add value to Comvita and the board. I believe that I'll be able to use those to enable Comvita to do some of the things that we really are driving to do. I thought I should just touch a little bit quickly on my background. Prior to my governance career, I was a partner with PwC for 20 years. I left PwC at the end of 2012 to pursue my governance career, and I've been really fortunate to have served, and continue to serve, on a number of great boards. I currently chair Port of Tauranga, and I'm also on the boards of, and chair the audit risk committees of both Auckland Airport and Meridian Energy. I also serve on the steering committee of Chapter Zero New Zealand, which is part of a global network of Chapter Zeros around the world. What it's really designed to do is to upskill and equip directors to be able to address some of the challenges associated with climate change and be able to work within their own companies and boards to address these issues. I'm also the immediate past president and past chair of the Institute of Directors New Zealand, and one of my passions is good governance, which is why I spend my time with the Institute of Directors New Zealand, really giving back to focus on good governance. As I mentioned, I've served on a number of other boards as well, and I think that I'll talk a little bit about that, but that has really given me also some skills that I think that I can add, and knowledge I can add, as I sit around the Comvita board table. I've got a really strong commercial and financial background. I'm a fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. I was conferred that in 2009. I'm also a chartered fellow of the Institute of Directors. And from 2014 to 2021, I served on the XRB advisory board, which is the advisory panel that oversees the New Zealand Accounting Standards. Quite a lot of experience there. I've got, I think, very strong understanding of FMCG, and particularly when we look to our Asia Pacific, our China and our U.S. markets. I was on the board of the a2 Milk Company for almost 10 years, and obviously Asian markets to Comvita, so I think I can bring a lot to the table in that respect as well. I've got a very deep understanding of sustainability and climate change. I practiced in the area for over 20 years, and it's a passion of mine, and, and it's wonderful to see David talk today about B Corp and about where Comvita is heading in that respect. Finally, a couple of bits about myself. I've got a lifelong love of learning, so I really enjoy learning. So I'm not too worried about the size of the board pack. And I really enjoy, as I get to know and understand the business. I'm also someone that believes in doing your PhD, so I'm not afraid to roll my sleeves up and really be part of and contribute to the team. So in closing, I'd be really privileged and, and honored to represent your interests as a director of Comvita, and I hope that I'll have your support today. So thank you very much. Thank you, Julia. So, we have... Do we have any questions concerning this resolution? From shareholders, I should say. Are there any, any questions online? There are no questions on this matter from shareholders joining online. Okay, so you can now please open your voting card. Resolution number three, for, against or abstain. Now, we move to resolution number four, Director's election of Mike Sang. So to consider and if thought fit, to pass the following ordinary resolution, that Mike Sang be elected as a director by shareholders. And, I can now invite Michael to speak via the powers of technology, hopefully. Right click, I think I got one forward. Here we go. Kia ora koutou. My name is Mike Sang, and thanks for the opportunity to introduce. An executive career in accounting and finance here in London. My most recent role as Chief Executive of Ngāi Tahu Holdings, and since then I've moved full time into governance and am seeking to join the Comvita board. I'm a believer in natural products, and I'm an eco, especially. I think it's got great potential, and Comvita is all about growing young. Comvita's strategy, including its focus on stakeholder science and sustainability, is a great foundation to realize their potential. The disciplined approach to the transformation program and the progress being made, along with the quality people involved in Comvita, make it very exciting and a key reason why I was interested in the role. My own background is with an owners with a taste for patience in regards to profitability, but also in how we achieve those profits. A long-term, sustainable approach is key, critical to us. As it is as well with Comvita's thinking, and I look forward to enjoying our system there. I'm excited about the opportunity, and I'm excited about the potential. I look forward to meeting you all. Tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou katoa. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I think, if I can just speak on behalf of the board, you know, the nomination committee, we're impressed by Mike's, strategic capability and thinking, growth mindset, and of course, his experience of, working in the agri sector and forestry development and apiary development, and those sorts of things. So during his time with Ngāi Tahu Holdings, and I'm sure he'll be a, a very valued member of, of our board. Are there any questions, from the board? From the shareholders? Anything online? There are no questions on this matter from shareholders joining online. Okay, so you can now vote, please, for resolution four. Okay. Oh, sorry, I was gonna jump to that. But we have, I think, it's around 42% or 42%, is it, of all votes held of all shares held in the company, positively in favor of all resolutions. So the registrar, Link Market Services, will now move through the room to collect any paper voting cards. For those shareholders online or using the LinkVote+ app on your phone, here in the room, you can now submit your vote. Voting will be open until five minutes after the conclusion of the meeting. As we go around and collect those, we're now gonna move, and give shareholders an opportunity to ask questions. So whether related to the presentations, the financial statements, or the management of the company. Shareholders online can continue to provide questions through the portal, and we'll also address questions from the room. So when I call for questions from shareholders present in the room, please wait until the microphone is provided, and then clearly state your name before asking your question. I'll take questions in the room, and then we'll go to people online, but we'll try and manage that between the two. I also ask, in the interest of fairness to all shareholders attending this meeting, anyone wishing to ask questions be as concise as possible and be considerate to other shareholders wishing to ask questions. And any media present, I don't believe there is any media present, but will be given the opportunity to ask questions after the meeting. So, are there any questions? And perhaps if I could ask David Banfield to join me up here on the stage so that we can play tag team. Questions, Neil? Oh. Oh, okay. Put the microphone out here. Is it on? Yeah. Gotcha. I'm Neil Craig. Do I stand or? Yeah, yeah, go on, Neil. Go on. I'll stand up. Okay, perfect. I do remember your name, so I'm lucky, but I'm terrible at forgetting people's names, so... I've got another question, but I'll leave it a little bit later, too. And I have discussed with... this one with you, Brett. So, Yeah. My question, I'll give a bit of background to it. The question is: when are we going to list, dual list in Australia? Or, or even NASDAQ or Hong Kong, which wouldn't be a dual listing, that'd be a total listing. But it seems obvious to me that, over the last 10 years, there's massive decline in liquidity in the New Zealand stock market generally, but particularly anything that's outside the top 50, but in the NZX50. And it's a function of the change in the markets, you know. And I'll read my notes, so I don't forget any of the points. The only serious offshore investors into New Zealand stocks are funds that are mandated to do so. That's index funds, and they buy New Zealand markets, usually only the top 10 or 20 stocks anyway. Outside the top 20, liquidity is very low, and that impacts value. The only New Zealand funds that buy a stock like Comvita are ones that are really mandated to do so. They play around with the little stocks or the little side stocks. The big funds that don't have to buy it won't buy it. So although there, there's a few exceptions, like ACC do buy it, and Milford own the stock, but generally, it's, they don't, they ignore it. Research by brokers like Craigs is, we cover it. I think there's one other, but two others cover it to some extent, but the research isn't there. The OIO rules make it really difficult for offshore investors to buy a stock like Comvita. I guess overseas investors, indicatively around 20% of the register, collectively. I don't know what the number is, Dave, but in that order. So if you happen to buy the stock, and you're offshore, you can tip over, and then it's deemed to be an overseas-owned company, over 25%. So there's no real reason why they'd buy it. And actually, investors out of Singapore and Hong Kong don't like the New Zealand market. They deal with the Aussie market, it's a lot easier for them, a lot bigger, a lot more liquid. They can get in, they can get out if they want to. The final reason is that the private wealth advisors, like we have, you know, 100 or 200 advisors around the country. We are mandated by law, FMA, to look after our clients in the best way possible. The market, the home market for us is, is not New Zealand. The home market's the world now. Research is available anywhere. You know, we would happily buy a U.S, stock as Comvita, and we're supposed to look after in the best way possible, consistent with risk profile of individuals, the best, you know, look after their interests primarily. So Comvita really doesn't feature in a portfolio of stocks when you have the world as your oyster, if you like. So my question again is: when are we gonna do it? 'Cause we just need greater liquidity in this stock, and we've got 10 times the market in Aussie, we've got New Zealand. It costs virtually nothing to do on an ongoing, but relatively speaking, it's not a lot. There's a lot of value sitting out there. And as you know, Brit, I used to say, for goodness sake, "Don't list on Australia, because the stock you place over there will beat you home on the plane." And that's what, the way it was, but it's not that way now. Mm-hmm. You can buy Aussie stocks as quick as you can buy New Zealand stocks. I'll leave that one for you to think about. Excellent prompt. Thank you very much, Neil. Look, the board have been given this consideration. It's probably been over the last year or so. We've been getting advice, getting involved with different people that could provide some recommendations and advice. And look, I think, you know, your words are very sage, Neil, very timely and very relevant to our current times. You know, the New Zealand Stock Exchange is really under some challenges. And we do recognize that, or we do feel anyway, that there is quite a significant value gap, the way CVT is currently trading versus what the analysts view and what our own view of value is. Which I think is a result of liquidity challenges and the like. So look, I thank you, Neil, for asking that question. That's puts us probably on the front foot as far as getting on and working together as a board to review our options there. But you know, we have an interest in moving to the ASX or to another foreign bourse. Dual listing probably would be our preference, rather than a straight change. But I don't know, Dave, if you wanted to... I know as CEO, we've had lots of conversations as the board as well, so. Actually, I talk with a CEO hat on, but my focus is on delivering performance. Look, I recognize the issues that you raise, Neil. The team and I are just absolutely intent on delivering NZD 50 million of EBITDA by 2025, and with that delivery, believing that that will be reflected in value. I'll probably keep it at that for now. Yeah, look, that's to be expected, I guess, from the CEO. Look, and we're also very lucky to have Julia Hoare just join us on the board. She's got the experience through A2 and Meridian, in fact, of dual listed entities. So, you know, she's navigated through that world, so there's some familiarity there, which will be helpful, I hope. Okay, we'll leave it at that. Thank you very much, Neil. Any, any other questions? In the back there. Oh, there's two. Roger Houghton, shareholder. I was wondering, with the increase in tourism these days, is the information center going to reopen? Welcome, Roger. Good to see you again. I will hand that back to David to answer. Roger, unfortunately not. Look, we had the wellness lab in Auckland, which is our experiential environment. One of the biggest things, the most important things for us is about food safety, and we have to manage and control people coming onto site in Paengaroa, and we are absolutely focused on making sure that our Paengaroa site is, has the highest food safety, and that is best as a closed site. Our investment. When we talk experiential, our investment will be in Auckland. It will be in places where we get, we have the same tourism footprint across the world, but that will be the focus. Neil, got a question as well? It's just a comment, really, and it's a view, and I just wanted to express that, to be honest, Look, it's very good to concentrate on keeping inventory levels under control, but I've always had the view, as you know, Brett, that the cost of borrowing will be way less than the cost of holding inventory. 'Cause it's a really big strategic advantage for Comvita to hold high levels of inventory, to take advantage of the market when it's right to buy wholesale from the out of it, and storing it in high-class, appropriate facility that Comvita has got is a huge advantage to the business. 'Cause as you know, if you do it properly, value accrues on, I'd say, significantly faster than the cost of debt. So I'm not worried as a shareholder that you have debt of that magnitude, as long as it's in inventory or covered significantly by inventory. So it's just a comment, really, and I know I've heard analysts and I've heard investors say, "Oh, they've got too much inventory." But actually, inventory is good. Within reason, inventory is good, and using borrowings to do it is good because that is an advantage that Comvita has over its competitors. The ability to buy when it's right to buy, and the right quality. So it's more a congratulations rather than anything else. Yeah. Yeah, look, a good comment, Neil, and David may comment if you want. But look, I, I've, you know, I'm sort of torn a little bit, 'cause I, you know, I understand the longevity of our... We're privileged that the raw material lasts. It doesn't go off, it doesn't perish. And as long as we've got growth and demand, which we clearly do, 'cause we've invested in it to make sure that we do, then, you know, we can be rest assured that that inventory will move in time. We've got a really keen focus on quality, so we don't have any stuck in the cupboard that we can't sell or has a problem to sell. So there's a lot of comfort there. But look, you know, having too much inventory can also be a burden. It's a huge tie-up of capital. So if we can manage it, in a better way, we should. You know, we should continue to pursue that. But like you, I'm not worried about it, neither should you be. But it's something that we want to get down because it's just better capital management to run, lower inventory and, and have less debt, if possible. So perhaps we'll leave it at that. I think that's probably... We could probably have a debate here philosophically for, for hours. Perhaps just jump now, are there any questions online? And then I've got to come back. Dave, at the back there, was going to ask a question here. Yeah. So we have received a question from Russell James Hamilton, and the question is: "Are the lands where the beehives are located in good condition? Are there any pests and diseases? And do you have people who can recognize pests and diseases and get rid of them? Straight to David for that one. Perfect. Yeah, look, one of the massive advantages that we have of our forest developments is... if I just try and paint a bit of a picture of old model versus new model. So, when we have smaller areas of forest development, we have, let's say, 30 or 40 hives on that site, and a beekeeper goes to that site, he or she then tends to the needs of bees and honey and the extraction, or not extraction, the bees, bees and, honey on that site, and then gets back in their car and travels for their van, and travels for a long time, an hour, sometimes between sites. If you think about our biggest forests, our biggest forest would be circa 2,000 hectares. If you think about we have on average one hive per hectare, what that means is our beekeepers are on site and fully occupied on site, so we don't get the travel loss where they're moving between. We have them available to react to any weather events, or we have them available to react and make sure the hive health is good. So this is why the forest part is just such a great outcome for bees, honey, bee disease, any disease that's there, because we're on top of it, because we have the scale to be able to deal with anything as it happens. We talked earlier about our code of practice, and, you know, that really captures the essence of us making sure that we really understand hive health, and we really understand, and we're monitoring how that's progressing, and we're able to react appropriately. So all of those things give us real confidence about our quality programs and our ability to get the best outcomes. Let's go back to the... Dave Burnett was at the back there, looking to ask a question, I believe. Thank you, Brett. Dave Burnett, shareholder. As China is Comvita's largest market, could you give us some commentary around the current trading conditions, in China? Particularly, we've seen Fonterra around the global trade option have some issues over the last few months. Hmm. Just a bit of, a bit of a brief update, Brett, in terms of China. If I've been a betting man, I would have guaranteed that would have been one of the questions. David, do you wanna? Look, China, I mean, obviously, economically is a huge market, and I think we need to consider our footprint in terms of the size of that market. You look at all the local consumption data through July and August, that was soft. In terms of consumption, you look yesterday at the first reports for September from Bloomberg and Reuters, and they pointed to a more positive year-on-year picture between the two. And also one of the things that we had to put into our view is that when we're looking year on year, last year, Mid-Autumn Festival was about five weeks earlier than this year, so it's too early to say. The biggest thing I'd say is that when you think about our performance in China, it's really driven through four cities. There are another 123 cities that we have zero distribution in. So if there is a softness in immediate demand in markets, actually our ability to extend our distribution footprint and the conversations that Andy shared of where we're testing and learning, actually is way bigger opportunity than any short-term impacts. Yes, we have a question here in the front here. Thank you. Marianne Stanaway, shareholder and representing NZSA. I'm interested, I see in your report that your North American growth, what was expected to be flat over the next year. So many New Zealand companies want to grow in America. I'd just be interested to hear a little bit from you about your prospects there, why you would be there, what you're expecting from it. I guess just a bit concerned about the overwhelming focus on China, which is not all that stable at the moment. Please. It's, it's perfect timing because I came back from North America on Sunday. So, but having just returned, I think the, the reason that, that we believe there's such a big opportunity, it's structurally, there's no reason why North America shouldn't be the same size as our China segment. So from the start, we set out a plan to focus on China as a market, and our second focus market was in North America. If we look at consumption in the market, consumption's good. If we look at our share growth through the natural channel, it's good. But I guess for us, we look at opportunity cost, and if we think today we're currently circa $35 million U.S. business, and we believe we should be a $100 million U.S. business. We believe we've got the products, we've got increasing capability in market, and you've got consumers following that natural wellness trend that we're seeing around the world, coming forward. I think in addition, in FY 2024, we'll be launching our joint venture products, our skincare products into North America, which gives us a whole another way to talk about the efficacy of our Mānuka honey. So, yeah, we believe that it's more about how we do it rather than if we do it. It's okay? Yes. Any other questions online? Yes, we have received two questions from Graham Edwards. Mm-hmm. So the first question is, "2025 KPIs haven't been updated for Singapore acquisition. Could you please do so? Happily leave that one to David. Look, what we've shared is our business model. So our business model is percentage based, so actually if it's percentage based, we actually don't need to update the guidance because it's still 60% gross profit, it's still 15% marketing sales, and it's still 20%, EBITDA. So, you know, we haven't given revenue guidance, and look, I think that's sensible for us. We aim to be agile in our response to emerging opportunities and challenges. But we are... Look, I come back to our FY 2023 results, where, you know, excluding transformation and investment in our ERP, our EBITDA percentage was 15.4%. So we absolutely believe that we can deliver 20% EBITDA, and therefore that's why we stay as we are. I should emphasize, we're still holding, in response to that, we're also still holding on our 2025 undertaking to meet NZD 50 million of EBITDA in excess of NZD 20 million in PAT. So we're holding firm to that position, and nothing we're seeing on the table with us today is giving us any concern about reaching that. So I think as David says, you know, we have to be agile, we have to be smart. We can't overpromise until we've got some certainty around in the short term anyway. So we have a second question from Graham Edwards, and that question is, "You have given a good description of underlying business drivers. Now, could you however, could you please give 2024 and 2025 forecast targets for NPAT, inventory, and net debt? Well, I think that's going to be a polite no. But anyway, I'll let David respond. It'll be, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, look, we've given guidance, and we've maintained that guidance. The only thing that we have said is, excluding HoneyWorld, that our inventory target is circa NZD 85 million in 2025. So we've shared that publicly. Mm. Any further questions from the room? Yes, Roger. Just a quick one. It's a beautiful venue, but my golly, what a mission to find a car park! We'll make a note of that for future reference. It is a stunning... Oh, the people online, unfortunately, you're missing out on the most beautiful view here we have on Papamoa Beach, so yeah, it's gorgeous. But yeah, car park's challenging. I, too, had to park about a mile up the road. Other questions from the room? Oh, there's a question up here. I'm Eric. I'm the shareholders. I'm holding up as a public investor, and holding, buying Comvita shares since 2017, if I'm not wrong. So when the shares go from a high of NZD 12 something per share, dropped to NZD 5.88, I remember. And then since that is the, I think it's the almost seven years I holding Comvita shares. I never sell any single shares. I keeping buying. And now I holding around 100,000 shares, but I was checking my investment portfolio. I didn't see, I didn't see I'm making money for Comvita shares. And since you taking the leadership, I do, because I don't know, I love Comvita, I think more than, I feel, more than anyone else. I know every product. So I eat it myself and sell myself. I know everything that I checking you, Linda, and I see Andy doing a great job. But for investment point of view, when I spending money buying our shares, I didn't see a good returns. And also, I didn't see a return, that much of dividends that I feel. But since you coming in, everything switched to a positive path. And, Neil, I think you're raising a really good points on the shareholder point of view. So when they're holding the shares for that long, what we can expect from the future, and why? Because I do refer many people, ask them to, "You can buy Comvita shares." I know that it's a fantastic result from the sales point of view. So they, the shares have to be increased, maybe even double back to NZD 10 per share. I didn't see that happens, and I see... I feel that even I, even someone, I think the trade, the network, that we don't have a lot of shares being trading every day. So I don't know on... I know you focus on the performance, which is good, but what is the future for the share investment point of view? Thank you. Yeah, look, thanks, Eric. I appreciate the question. You know, I wish, I wish we could influence and control the share price. We can't. All we can really do is stay focused around performance and delivery of the business. Having said that, you know, the points that Neil's made around the New Zealand Stock Exchange, lack of liquidity and some of those other things play on us, and we do think about it a lot. You know, we owe it to our shareholders to try and put us in the best possible position to fully realize the value that we believe is there. And I think, you know, loyal shareholders like yourself believe it's there, otherwise you wouldn't be with us. Yeah, and look, I think if you just look at some of the projections, even out to 2025, if you look at a prospective doubling of NPAT where it is today. If you look at it, the sort of the PE ratios that we trade at, you know, I think you should take some optimism or some comfort around if we continue to trade at this current PE multiple, then you know that there is growth and share value to come. You know, and our ability as a board and as a company is to just focus on performance and delivering that bottom line result so that, you know, earnings per share can continue to grow, and hopefully that'll be recognized by the market in time. I don't know if any of my fellow directors or David want to comment further. It's frustrating. We're all shareholders. I'm a shareholder, and all the board members are as well, and we're all annoyed and frustrated by that lag in share price. But look, we've just got to focus on what we do. Are there any further questions online? There are no further questions online. Any further questions from the room? Okay, that sort of brings us to the end of our formal part of the meeting. I did just want to take the opportunity, before we close and wrap, to say farewell to a couple of our directors. First of all, Sarah was a last-minute apology as of yesterday, so, it's unfortunate she's not with us here today. I would like to actually, for her to hear these directly from us. Sarah Kennedy resigned from the board of directors, effective first of March 2023, and as we said, that was the same time that Julia Hoare joined us. Sarah joined the company in 2015 and has been an integral part of guiding the company through its transformation program over the last few years, as well as chairing Comvita's Safety and Performance Committee for the last three years. Sarah's passion for Comvita and the health and wellness category really knows no bounds. I don't know if you were aware of this, but in a former life, she was CEO of Vitaco, isn't it? Vitaco. Vitaco, sorry. Vitaco, that's right, and Healtheries. And they were distributors for Comvita. So, even before she joined the board, she was a passionate believer in what we did and was always a great advocate for Comvita, selling here in New Zealand and Australia. She's also been a really valuable contributor to the sort of go-to-market strategy, e-commerce, the digital landscape, and so on. And she's been able to pursue that in many ways. We will miss Sarah. She's highly entertaining, a hell of a laugh, and we had lots of good times with her as well, so she'll be sorely missed. Sarah's now focusing on growing her own health and wellness range, so I can give her a little bit of a plug for her Calocurb product. So you can look that up, C-A-L-O-U-R-B, Calocurb. It's a weight loss natural supplement product, and it's doing very, very well. So look it up, and there might be a good investment opportunity and good time there. We thank her for her contribution, wish her very well, and we do have a gift here for her, but we'll make sure we pass that on in due course. Luke. Luke Bunt joined the board in 2015 and has played a very significant role in guiding the company through some very substantial change over those years, including, of course, as chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and as my deputy chair. I want to thank Luke for a very valuable contributions he's made during his nine-year tenure. Certainly, most personal and significant for me has been the support and the wise counsel that, Luke has been provide, for me as I stepped into chair, and he acted as deputy chair, through some very significant change in the business, both at board and, and management level. So he leaves us at a time when the company is actually in a much more stable position and is performing strongly. So I really thank you very much, Luke, and I just wondered if, you wanted to have the opportunity to come up and say a few words. Yeah. Thanks, Brett. Thank you, Brett. Thank you, everybody. I wasn't actually expecting to speak this afternoon, but I'll take the opportunity now that I've been given it. Look, the, it just seems like yesterday, actually, that I was sitting down with Neil Craig and Alan Bougen, talking about Comvita and its future and everything that was in front of it and the opportunity that was going to be exploited by this wonderful company. And then, of course, meeting Brett, in his capacity as CEO, and I want to thank them in particular, and shareholders, and my fellow directors for the opportunity to be part of this wonderful organization for the time that I've had that chance. That nine years has gone very quickly, and there has been ups and downs, highs and lows. Enjoyed the highs, worked through the lows. Those lows were challenging, but successful outcome was never in doubt. The reason for that was that the fundamentals of this business are very, very strong, and that's been borne out in the last few years under David's leadership. Today, we have a business that is in extremely good shape, is very well positioned, and I leave it in very good hands. I'm very proud to have had the opportunity to play a small part in this company's evolution and development, and I wish it well. Thank you very much. Well, just before you go, I believe we have a gift up here for you, Luke, so I just want to make sure before you go that we don't acknowledge your... Yeah, so maybe I can just meet you down the bottom here. All right. Here we go. Oh, in that form, yeah. Nice piece, too. There's another part to it that isn't here, but this is, hopefully, that's something that you can enjoy with you and your family as you enter your retirement years- Right. Whatever those could look like. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks very much, Luke. Look, that actually concludes the formalities of today. Thank you very much, once again for joining us, and for those online and for those here, and hopefully, when we have it next year again, hopefully you'll be enticed by the beautiful view and the scenery, and we can get a bigger crowd here. There is some refreshments and so on in the back of the room, so please feel free to stick around and continue to ask questions and talk with management and the board as you feel free. We'll just close with a karakia, I think, from Whitney, if he's available. Oh, Nikki is going to give us that karakia. Thank you, Nikki. Yeah. Do you want to come forward, or are you too shy? I'm too shy. I'll stay here. Ka wātea te tatau...