Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings Inc. (2579) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Good afternoon. I am Masaomi Gomi, Investor Relations Department Manager for Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings. Thank you for joining us today for our full year 2022 earnings call for analysts and investors. Today, we have President, Calin Dragan; CFO, Bjorn Ulgenes; and Su Choi from the Coca-Cola Japan Company. Also joining us today are Executive Officer and Chief Commercial Officer, Costel Mandrea; Executive Officer and Executive Business Manager, Maki Kado, and Executive Officer and Chief Supply Chain Officer, Bruce Herbert. Following prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. Simultaneous translation in both Japanese and English is being provided for both today's call and during the Q&A session. Before we begin, let me remind you that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements, including statements concerning annual and long-term earnings objectives, and should be considered together with cautionary statements contained in our presentation. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to President, Calin Dragan. Calin-san.

Good afternoon, everyone. Calin Dragan here. Thank you for joining us for our earnings call today. I'd like to begin by summarizing our full year earnings for 2022. Please turn to Slide 4 of the presentation. We are pleased that in 2022, many of the key initiatives we focused on produced positive results. We achieved 3% volume growth by capturing demand sparked by the heat wave and recovering traffic, achieving strong growth in volume and revenue despite the impact of price revisions as a result of efforts to strengthen our growth foundation. In addition, the price revisions we implemented in May and October are significantly improving profitability. We took the decisive action to revise prices despite the difficult environment, and we put all our efforts into a strong market execution. This was reflected in the results with the price revisions exceeding the initial expectations and resulting in a raise in a wholesale revenue per case. In the fourth quarter, including October, small package price revisions, wholesale revenue per case greatly improved for all channels. Total channel value share grew by 0.5 points compared to last year. Value share growth in our important vending channel drove overall growth. In terms of profit, we achieved a significant profitability improvement by about JPY 20 billion in the areas under our control, such as volume growth, price revisions and transformation efforts. External factors such as commodities, higher utility costs and yen depreciation had a significant impact. However, business income exceeded the previous year's level as initially planned. Transformation efforts are steadily producing results. Annual recurring cost savings achieved JPY 6 billion in 2022, exceeding our original target. Please see the next slide. Slide 5 is the 2022 review. Here, we have summarized the key initiatives and major results. In 2022, while COVID impact eased, we had to navigate our business through a difficult environment as external factors significantly impacted costs. Despite the circumstances, the major initiatives implemented to achieve future growth have produced solid results. As mentioned earlier, we achieved both volume and value share growth by maximizing marketing activities based on the growth foundation we have built to date. We maximize opportunities to capture increased demand from the traffic recovery and the heat wave. In addition, the revamped S&OP process has transformed the service level of product supply during times of volatile demand. Although this was previously a challenge, S&OP has supported volume growth by ensuring a stable supply through the record-breaking heat wave in 2022. The initiative also helped reduce operational costs. Price revisions implemented ahead of the market were successful through strong management decisions and market execution. They have contributed significantly to higher wholesale revenue per case and improved profitability. In addition, transformation cost savings as well as efforts to optimize the balance sheet are making steady progress and producing results. We have learned that the key initiatives implemented for future growth are steadily generating results. We are convinced that the direction of our strategy is the right one. Now let me ask our CFO, Bjorn Ulgenes, to take you through the details of the full year earnings.

Thank you, Calin. Hello, everyone. This is Bjorn Ulgenes. Please turn to Page 6. Sales volume grew by 3% and revenue growth was 2.7%. Steady growth in vending business with high wholesale revenue per case and the effect of price revisions resulted in sales revenue growth that was in line with volume growth. Business income was a loss of JPY 14.4 billion, but this is an improvement of JPY 0.2 billion on the previous year. Factors behind this change will be explained on the next slide. Operating income improved by JPY 9.5 billion on the previous year. This includes the continued balance sheet improvement efforts such as the gain from the sale of fixed assets. Net income decreased by JPY 5.6 billion, this was mainly due to the cycling impact of a JPY 12.5 billion gain on the sale of shares in our subsidiary, QSAI being included for 2021. On Slide 7, you will see our primary business income drivers. From the left, volume, price and mix. This shows the year-on-year change in marginal profit from commercial activities, an improvement of JPY 9.4 billion on the previous year. Traffic recovery and the heat wave contributed significantly to the increase in volume growth as well as the effects of price revisions. This includes the impact of higher variable costs due to volume growth and increased rebates from promotional activities to respond to the severe competitive environment. Next is manufacturing costs. The analysis excluded the large impact of utility costs with a rise in energy prices. The analysis excludes the impact of a large increase in utility costs due to higher commodity prices. Here, the main contribution came from improved manufacturing efficiency with increased production volume, resulting in a JPY 4.8 billion improvement over the previous year. The impact of utility cost is shown as a total in the commodity and utility cost bar on the far right. In other costs, we saw an improvement of approximately JPY 5.1 billion compared to the previous year. Labor costs increased with the cycling of last year's temporary leave. However, contributions from improved S&OP, lower logistics costs, leveraging the Mega DCs and controlled CapEx resulted in a decreased depreciation. This also includes JPY 8.3 billion of earnings improvement from the change in the useful life of sales equipment. Marketing expenses decreased by JPY 0.8 billion from the previous year. We implemented marketing activities, emphasizing a return on investment by strategically investing in the first half of the year to maximize recovering traffic and capturing demand during the peak season with a view to controlling it from the third quarter onwards. As you can see, the elements under our control explained so far from volume, price and mix to DME have significantly increased their business profits from the previous year. Next, our commodity and utility costs, which were significantly impacted by external factors. Cost increased by JPY 19.9 billion from the previous year. The impact of commodity prices, including ForEx was JPY 15.2 billion, impacted by the higher prices of materials such as PET resin and aluminum as well as the yen's depreciation. In addition, utility costs increased by JPY 4.7 billion due to higher energy costs caused by the higher oil and natural gas prices. We have worked to reduce procurement costs by all possible means and have achieved a certain degree of success, but the impact has been substantial and has offset the factors contributing to improved earnings, as I have just explained. These are the main drivers of business income. Please turn to Slide 8 for volume performance by major channels and categories. Channel total sales volume increased by 3%. I will now provide the channel details. In vending, despite the volume impact of price revisions for small packages from October, the market share base built to date and the campaigns through the Coke ON smartphone app contributed to a 3% increase. In retail food, volume grew by 18%, benefiting from the recovery in traffic at restaurants. Online also continued its strong growth, capturing at-home demand even during the traffic recovery phase. Supermarkets, drug stores and discounters, and CVS were impacted by the price revisions and severe competition. Wholesale revenue per case are on an improving trend, in particular, looking at the fourth quarter alone for small packages after the price revisions, there was a significant improvement in all channels. With vending improving more than JPY 100 from the previous year and supermarkets, drug stores and discounters, and CVS improving more than JPY 60 from the previous year. Please refer to the appendix for the fourth quarter-to-date details. By category, all categories achieved growth, except tea category that was significantly impacted by the price revisions. This growth was achieved despite the large PET and small package price revisions. Sports and water grew with a recovery in traffic, the resumption of various events and the heat wave. Coffee grew with the launch of a new Georgia Black as well as the expansion of the Costa Coffee lineup. Slide 9 highlights market share trends. Total channel value share for the full year grew by 0.5 points from the last year. This is a result of vending value share that sold 2.3 points growth in value share. Also, while the volume share was impacted in OTC channel with the price revisions, value share was maintained at an almost flat level compared with last year. For OTC retail prices, large PET achieved growth for the full year with price revisions. We were able to increase the premium to market for large PET from the previous year. OTC retail prices were flat for the full year. But looking at the data for the fourth quarter since October when the price revisions for small packages was implemented, the OTC price has increased by JPY 12 from the previous year. This indicates that the price revision has been reflected in OTC prices. Please look at Slide 10 for updates on our ESG activities. We were accelerating various initiatives towards sustainability management. We are strengthening our information disclosure based on the TCFD's recommendations, and we intend to do so in line with the TNFD's efforts, which we have endorsed. Through our business, we are also committed to working with local communities and customers. As an example, as well as working with our customers, we have also signed an agreement with the Saitama Prefecture for the development of global talent. Our efforts to achieve a world without waste are progressing well. For further recycling and utilization of resources, we have newly established a CAN to CAN system for horizontal recycling of aluminum cans and started manufacturing and selling products using collected aluminum cans. As a result of these ESG initiatives, we have been selected as a constituent of the DJSI Asia Pacific, a leading global ESG investment index for 5 consecutive years, and have also been highly evaluated by external organizations. Now I'd like to ask Mr. Su Choi of the Coca-Cola Japan to take you through the marketing initiative updates. Su, please .

Thank you, Bjorn. I'm Su Choi from CCJC, the newly appointed CMO since last November. To provide a brief background of myself, I have lived and worked in both U.S., United States, and Korea prior to coming to Japan and have been working in the Coke system for 17 years, in which 13 of those years were marketing across different categories. I'm excited to be a part of the gray system in Japan and hope that I can add value and support for the continuous growth of Japan for today and for tomorrow. Today, I would like to take you through a recap of 2022, the marketing strategy for 2023 and the highlights of our marketing initiatives in the first quarter of this year. If you could go to Slide 12. Let's start with a review of 2022. Last year, despite the competitive market situation, the Coca-Cola system successfully grew the value share by plus 0.5% points. The soft street market, leveraging robust Coke ON platform with 43 million downloads. Our last year's success can be contributed to the following 3 key strategic pillars. The first pillar was pivoting to the core. And we focused on revitalizing the core brands, starting from the Coca-Cola brand, and we continue to leverage the real magic global platform as the main communication message and strengthen the key occasion of meals and breaks. Next, Georgia. We launched a new campaign, The Coffee That Makes You Glow with a variety of promotions to expand the user base. Next, is Ayataka. We implemented a major core restage and evolve the brand value of Ayataka. Based on the new concept, we renewed all packaging graphics and advertising campaigns to attract a wider range of users. Next, I LOHAS we nationally rolled out the new iconic bottle last December. This was the first full renewal bottle for the brand history in 13 years. Initial results showed very positive start with top line growth and user base expansion. Moving on to second pillar, fewer, bigger innovation. We launched selective strong new innovations as well as successfully nurturing second year innovation to build them to become the next core brand. In terms of the new innovation, we launched Ayataka Café Hoji-cha Latte as the second flavor from Ayataka Cafe series to strengthen the brand. Real Gold X&Y is a new energy drink tap into the profitable energy drink category; and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, the artist, Marshmello's Limited Edition as one of the Coca-Cola creation series to recruit and engage Gen Z. Georgia Zero Coffee series was launched to offer an attractive new healthcare option, which also showed positive potential for further growth. For second year innovation, we successfully nurtured Ayataka Café Hoji-cha Latte as Ayataka's second pillar through offering seasonal drinking style along with a hot product launch in the fall. Yakan Barley Tea expanded market share and sales revenue, thanks for the strong marketing support with strong in-store execution. Chill Out successfully increased trial and created a profitable new relaxation category. And Costa Coffee grew by capturing RTD and NRTD dual coffee users and is establishing its unique brand edge, which is authentic cafe quality taste and premium coffee brand as a mass premium positioning complementing the total KO portfolio with Georgia. Moving on to the third pillar, stay at home. Coca-Cola trademark 100% recycled labelless 350-milliliter PET bottle was launched to accelerate both the brand and reducing the amount of plastic use. At the same time, across the portfolio, we accelerate the label-less product as well as half [ case ] selling. To capture at home occasions in alcohol, we launched a new product, Lemon-Dou, which were a lemon, tapping into growing lemon sour concentrate market, and Lemon-Dou Tokubetsu Jikomi, a limited product offering. At the same time, we successfully tapped into a nonalcoholic beverage market with Yowanai Lemon-Dou, the system's first nonalcoholic brand. Now let's go to Slide 13, the marketing strategy for year 2023. We will continue to do what is working and accelerate some changes needed in the marketplace with the consumers. We will continue to build a strength -- to strengthen the core which is critical for sustainable growth of our business. We will continue to focus on fewer, bigger innovation and to continue to innovate our innovation. We will work on transforming the way of marketing to stay relevant, close to our core consumers and to become more effective and efficient. Marketing transformation includes an evolution from exposure to experience, shifting traditional media to become more digital-centric and building advanced CRM capabilities and digital experiences. We will also leverage the global network to drive more efficiency and effectiveness in working with our agency partners and building marketing capabilities. To deliver the marketing strategy and plan, the Coca-Cola system will further strengthen the partnership to work as 1 Coca-Cola system in order to win together in the market. Please go to Slide 14. Now I'd like to share with you the key initiative highlights for the first quarter of this year. Let's begin with the core brands. To start the year strong, we launched Coca-Cola Zodiac design bottle to bring good fortune in the year of the rabit. Consumers are able to participate in new year fortune telling and lucky draw, which can be unlocked through the QR code in the pack label. Next, Georgia. In January, we launched a new tie-up campaign with popular anime, Urusei Yatsura and are conducting attractive closed promotion for all channels utilizing Coke ON platform, aiming to capture trials from a wide range of people. Next, Ayataka. On February 6, we just started Sakura campaign under a new key message. Actually, it was Ayataka. Along with the Sakura design, bottle launched for Ayataka Core and Ayataka Café series aiming to capture wider generation and seasonal drinking occasions. Next, Lemon-Dou. We're implementing tie-up campaigns with Samurai Japan and World Baseball Classic to drive trials, tandem with launching 6 can multi-pack with Samurai Japan designed to capture at-home occasions. Moving on to the innovation. Georgia Clear Blend was launched in January 23. This B2 coffee offers clear coffee mixed by a blend of premium quality beans to win in market share at one of the most profitable segments. Next, Fanta Premier Melty Peach was launched on January 30, which offer superior taste experience by stronger viscosity and texture to deliver eating experience of peach in RTD format to recruit new users. Last but not least, Ayataka Koi-Green tea was launched on February 6. This was upgraded to an FFC product with the effect of reducing both visceral fat and subcutaneous fat to meet the consumer health needs, especially for adults and seniors. And that closes my part of the presentation. With a mission to Refresh the World and Make a Difference, we will continue to strive to deliver refreshing moments and make positive difference through our brands. Thank you.

Thank you, Su. Calin here again. And from Slide 16, I will explain our full year business plan for 2023. First, I would like to share our strategic direction for 2023. As I mentioned before, in 2022, we implemented action plans that targeted return to growth and improved profit structure, and we have achieved a great deal. That said, we expect further cost pressures in 2023, which we believe will require additional measures. Therefore, we set 2023 as a year to focus on profit and to place the highest priority on improving profitability. We will leverage the accomplishments and lessons learned in 2022 to implement the recently announced additional price divisions and continue implementing commercial strategies that focus on profitability and efficient investments. We will promote further transformation to achieve stable and low-cost operations. Please turn to Slide 17 for the 2023 P&L for our earnings plan. We plan for a 4.9% year-on-year increase in sales revenue, mainly due to demand driven by traffic recovery as well as the implementation of price revisions. This plan includes the effect of price revisions for cans and large PET bottles to be implemented in May. Sales volume is expected to decrease by 2% from the previous year, accounting for the price revision impact on volume. We plan to improve business income by approximately JPY 10 billion on the previous year. Although cost pressures from commodities and other factors are expected to remain severe, we are aiming for a significant improvement in profitability through our initiatives. Turning to Slide 18. I will explain our primary business income drivers. From the left, our volume price mix. We are projecting an improvement of JPY 30 billion from the previous year with market growth on a value basis and our commercial initiatives, including the price revisions. We believe that the market will recover on a value basis. However, it remains in a fluid condition, and therefore, it is necessary to respond accordingly by closely monitoring market trends. With transformation, we expect to generate recurring cost savings of JPY 3.3 billion for 2023, we expect the benefits from supply chain as we leverage our Mega DCs. DME is expected to increase by JPY 1.6 billion from the previous year, but the ratio to sales revenue remains unchanged. We will continue to make marketing investment at appropriate levels that will lead to mid- to long-term growth. As for manufacturing, we expect a deterioration of JPY 1.7 billion, mainly due to an increase in the unit production cost per case from the decrease in production volume. In other costs, we predict an increase of approximately JPY 7.8 billion compared to the previous year. Despite the expected reduction in logistic costs with our improved distribution network, the increase in depreciation expenses due to the change in the useful life of self equipment in 2022. The increase in personnel expenses is mainly due to the recycling of the temporary leave we implemented last year. For commodity and utility costs, we expect a deterioration of JPY 12.8 billion on the previous year. Market conditions related to commodities and foreign exchange have shown some stability since the end of 2022, but compared to last year's procurement price levels, including hedging positions, the situation is expected to continue to have a significant negative impact. Slide 12 is our commercial strategy for 2023. As the main pillars of our 2023 strategy, we are prioritizing enhancing portfolio edge, growth through vending, profitability-focused pricing strategy, and strong market execution. Towards expanding portfolio edge, we are preparing marketing plans for 2023, focused on our core categories. We will introduce delicious new products and maximize their marketing at launch. We are also planning to propose new occasions to take advantage of opportunities for further recovery of traffic. The vending channel will become an increasingly important sales channel during the traffic recovery phase. Our value share has steadily increased every year, and in 2022, we expanded the number of vending machines in operation by more than 10,000 units. In 2023, we will enhance this growth base by strengthening new installation activities and strengthening our product lineup. We will also improve the user experience and operational efficiencies to Coke ON and further DX promotions. Profitability focused pricing strategy means we will focus on market execution of the newly announced May price revisions as well as monitoring trends following the last year's price revisions. In addition, we will strive to totally implement profitability focused commercial activities and marketing investments. The final pillar, strong market execution means that we will work to strengthen relationships with customers by conducting multifaced customer management through our cross-functional commercial structure. We will also further enhance our S&OP process to meet customer needs through the stable supply of products and an improved quality of service. And as Su-san explained earlier, we will further demonstrate our strength as the Coca-Cola system in Japan by enhancing our collaboration with Coca-Cola Japan. On the next page, I will explain more about the recently announced price revisions. On Slide 20, I will share more on yesterday's price revision to be implemented in May this year. Although commodity prices have been on an upward trend worldwide since 2021 and have regained a certain degree of stability, the negative impact of commodities and ForEx on our business this year, including higher utility costs, is expected to be approximately JPY 13 billion, which points to a particularly challenging business environment. In addition to hedging strategies on the procurement side, extensive efforts have been made to reduce costs and improve productivity throughout the business, but it has become difficult to absorb cost increases to corporate efforts alone. It was a difficult decision, but we have decided to implement price revisions for some of our products, such as can and large PET bottle products from May 1 shipments in all channels. We will continue to monitor the commodity situation and business environment closely and are seriously considering further price revisions. On Slide 21, I would like to share our work around the supply chain for this year. For manufacturing, to strengthen the supply capacity of high value-added products such as Costa Coffee and Ayataka Café series, which are driving sales growth, we will introduce a production line equipped with state-of-the-art manufacturing technology for the first time in the Kanto area at our Ebina plant in April. Through the stable supply of high value-added products in the Kanto area, we will promote consumption model of local production for local consumption. In addition, the use of automated distribution centers or Mega DCs is in full swing and company-wide improvements through the logistics network are underway, including the early launch of the Akashi Mega DC. As an example, in 2022, we were able to reduce the total distance traveled by more than 15% from the previous year, while increasing logistics volume. This year, we will continue to focus on the stable operations of the Mega DCs as the foundation for our optimized logistics, and we'll continue to promote cost saving initiatives. We are also committed to further improving our S&OP process. Last year, the revamping of S&OP made a significant contribution to achieving stable supply in the peak season. Our product supply service level has been improving year-on-year, and the amount of product disposal in 2022 improved by about 20% compared to 2019. This year, we will work to deepen our S&OP process, including further improving demand forecasting accuracy with the aim of realizing a stable and low-cost product supply. Please look at Slide 22. This is an update on our current focus on good stewardship of capital. I would like to touch on 3 areas: Good allocation of capital investment, balance sheet optimization and shareholders' returns that emphasize stable dividends. For capital expenditures with cash outflows given the uncertain business environment, we intend to control them while continuing to strengthen those that will lead to a mid- to long-term growth. Our total CapEx plan is lower than the previous year's level. Depreciation is expected to be slightly higher than the previous year, but this is due to the effect of the change in the useful life of sales equipment in the previous year. We will continue our efforts to optimize the balance sheet in 2022. We fixed assets by approximately JPY 10 billion from the previous year by controlling new investments and assessing existing assets closely. Excess assets identified in the process of transformation were promptly sold and we gained JPY 4.6 billion from the sale of such assets in 2022. We have also continued to reduce cost -- reduced cross-shareholding in accordance with the Corporate Governance Code, selling down approximately JPY 2 billion equivalent of shares during the year. We intend to continue these efforts to reduce assets and generate cash in 2023. As for dividends, we plan to pay an annual dividend of JPY 50 per share the same as last year, striving to pay stable dividends even in difficult business environment. We will continue to explore all possibilities and implement financial strategies to create shareholder's value. So for today's summary, please see Slide 23. I believe that the results achieved in 2022, such as the strong volume growth created from the growth foundation build to date and the profit improvement of about JPY 20 billion from areas under our control, demonstrate that we are heading in the right direction with our strategy. In 2020 and 2021, we have focused on resources on protecting our business, giving the huge top line impact from COVID, including strict cost controls. During that time, we have continued to focus on the mid- to long term, maintaining a foundation for growth and accelerating transformation, while maximizing our focus on the business at hand. In 2022, we were able to maximize the opportunities for traffic recovery and achieved strong top line growth. The price revisions implemented ahead of the industry were a difficult management decision in a challenging competitive environment, but we acted decisively and focused on our efforts on market execution. These actions are showing positive results. Transformation efforts started from 2020 have reduced fixed costs by about JPY 28 billion. We have also worked to build an agile and resilient business model that can flexibly respond to changes in the environment. I strongly believe that these wins, learnings and achievements will lead to a mid- and long-term business growth. In 2023, we will continue to promote our business under our strategy of placing the highest priority on improved profitability. Although the impact of commodities puts pressure on profitability and will increase costs by about JPY 13 billion, we will improve business profit by about JPY 10 billion from the previous year. We have set our performance goals for 2023 and will make significant progress towards achieving profitable growth in the future. That concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention. And I would now like to ask Gomi-san to open the question-and-answer session.

Thank you, Calin-san. [Operator Instructions] Now I would like to begin the Q&A session. Operator, please?

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Mizuho Securities, Saji-san.

[Interpreted] This is Saji from Mizuho Securities. I have 1 question about vending. And improving the profitability for vending will be my question. So before COVID 2019, you mentioned that the GP -- 40% of the GP comes from vending. And therefore, you mentioned that you have a sustainable vending business is going to be important, and that's what you're going to aim for. And after that, COVID has continued. And I'm sure that you are continuously working on vending. But if we say 2019, vending profit was 100. Last year, what would it be versus 100 , 2019. And in the future, if the business environment is going to improve, will the vending business be able to grow? And would it become a sustainable business for you in the future? This is my question.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Saji-san. So your question is about the possibility of the vending business. I would like to ask Costel-San to answer the question.

Thank you, Saji-san, this is Costel. Thank you for the question on vending. As you know, this is a channel very important for our consumers and very important for us for the last years, we built a new platform for growth. And we see -- we start to see the results in 2022, vending continue to grow in market share. We have a good solid 2.3 points in terms of markets. Also, for 2022, as we got out of COVID, out of restrictions, we see a good recovery for vending with the traffic and normalization of people moving, contributing for it. We grew last year vending with 3%. When we look versus 2019 versus before pandemic, of course, the channel dynamics and the way the consumers are shopping changed significantly. Vending is still minus versus 2019. It is around minus 11. And as we move into 2023 and '24, we expect vending to benefit from this normalization of traffic. How we'll continue to grow profitability in vending? I said we have a good platform, it's delivering, but we'll continue to place profitable machines, and this is a significant focus for our sales force. We will continue to focus on what we sell inside the vending, so stronger portfolio. With higher prices, we increased last year prices and we saw good performance, but also all our efforts on digital transformation of vending are paying back both in terms of consumer engagement with Coke ON digital platform, having more than 43 million downloads, but also in digitizing all our operations for our routes and for our people. So overall, we see vending recovering, being one of the benefiter of traffic recovery and of the price increases. Thank you for your question.

[Interpreted] that be the answer for question. One additional thing I would like to ask. So Page 27. So the revenue per case, you mentioned that it has gone up by JPY 100, which is a great jump. So which means that the price revision is working? And what is the background of that? Can you explain why the price revision is working so well, 1 or 2 reasons maybe.

[Interpreted] Well, thank you very much for the question. And your question was about if the price revision is going well and what's the evaluation is. Costel-san, please?

Indeed, we see the price per case in vending growing. We adjusted prices last year before the critical summer season with our top 5 SKUs and this delivered good profitability. But also when we implemented from October, the price increase for small PET, this was executed very disciplined and again delivered results. Moreover, you will see in 2023 that our announced price increase for can will around 40% of all the volume going into vending. So again, we'll see positive benefits in terms of profitability for vending in 2023, Saji-san.

[Interpreted] operator, can we move on to the next question.

MUFG Morgan Stanley, Tsunoyama-san.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

[Interpreted] I have 2 questions. One is back in Page 18, when you look at the volume, price and mix, you have JPY 300 billion here -- JPY 30 billion here. So I believe in the presentation, you mentioned that you have more benefit than what you expected from the price revision. But I believe that we talk about JPY 10 billion benefits almost for the unit price. So can you tell me what is the driver for this benefit from the price revision?

[Interpreted] Thank you, Tsunoyama-san for your question. For the question is about this year's plan, volume, price and mix. So I would like to ask Bjorn to pick up this question.

Thank you to Tsunoyama-san for the question. Yes, it's correct. Pricing is an element of this. So let me try to give you some details about these drivers. I think though you will appreciate for strategic reasons, we will not be able to provide details around pricing, but I'll give you some directions what's behind this. Roughly of the JPY 30 billion, you see a marginal profit improvement, you can say about 2/3 are coming from price benefits from last year and this year. And that's important to take into consideration. We took 2 price increases in 2022, and we have now decided on 1 more price increase in May this year. So that's the combined effect. However, in addition, you also have to consider other elements of volume, price and mix and especially the mix part because we sell our products in many different channels with different profitabilities. And we also have different categories of products like tea, coffee, sparkling, et cetera, and different package sizes. But all of these combined gave us that lift in performance for this year. And I think it's a strong statement building on what Costel said earlier, we led in the market of taking price increases twice last year, and we're now going out with a price increase again in May. I hope that answers your question. Thank you.

[Interpreted] So initially for the price division, you said that you're certainly considering the further price revision. So can you give me an intention behind this? Because right now, the commodity and raw materials is coming to some stable price range. But what will be the trigger for you to consider the next wave of the price revision? What will be your idea behind the trigger for this?