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

Good afternoon. This is Gomi, Head of Investor Relations for Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings. Thank you for joining us today for the Full Year 2023 Earnings Presentation for Analysts and Investors. Today, we have President, Calin Dragan; CFO, Bjorn Ulgenes; and Coca-Cola Japan CMO, Su Choi. We are also joined today by Executive Officer and Chief Supply Chain Officer, Andrew Ferrett; and Executive Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer, Yuki Higashi. And joining us today, our Executive Officer and President of the Retail Company, Alex Gonzalez.

[Foreign Language]

As well as Executive Officer, President of Food Service Company, Chief Business Strategy Officer, Maki Kado. Nice meeting you. Who both have assumed responsibility for the commercial organization in January. Following prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. Simultaneous interpretation in both Japanese and English is being provided for both today's call and the Q&A. Before we begin, let me remind you that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements and should be considered together with cautionary statements contained in our presentation. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Calin Dragan. Calin, please.

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Calin Dragan. Please turn to the Slide 3 of the presentation for today's highlights. To begin, 2023 was a fantastic year. As the year of focusing on profit, we committed to business activities focused on profitability, pushed forward with transformation and implemented a range of important initiatives. These actions achieved a great deal. Business income was up significantly by JPY 16.5 billion versus the previous year, driven by strong sales revenue growth. We are very pleased to have achieved our 2024 target of returning to full year profit a year ahead of schedule. 2024, the first year of our strategic business plan, Vision 2028 will be a year to strongly build up profits. We will accelerate the strong current trends aiming to overtake the significant profit growth achieved in 2023. To reach this ambitious target and realize sustainable growth for the future, we will execute a top line growth strategy emphasizing profit maximization and pivotal transformation initiatives now entering a new stage targeting profit growth and a strengthened foundation. Please turn to Slide 5, where I will once again touch upon our achievement and outcomes for 2023. As you will see, business income improved by JPY 16.5 billion from the previous year, exceeding the original plan by JPY 7 billion and achieving a greater result compared to the plan we revised upward in November. This result was made possible in 2023 by contributions from the key measures we focused on to improve profitability. Sales volume increased by 3% year-on-year, driven by successful key initiatives and favorable environmental tailwinds, including the heat wave. This strong volume growth has achieved as price revisions improved wholesale revenue per case. We are pleased with the solid results price revision have produced with large wholesale revenue per case improvement in all channels. Transformation efforts have also made a significant profit contribution. These initiatives produce results ahead of schedule, delivering cost savings of JPY 3.7 billion exceeding our initial projections. We are confident we have made significant progress towards achieving the sustainable profit growth outlined in our strategic business plan. Now, let me hand over to CFO, Bjorn Ulgenes, to provide you with detailed results for the full year.

Thank you, Calin. Hello, everyone. This is Bjorn. Please turn to Slide 6 for the full year results. As Calin shared with you earlier, sales volume grew by 3%, while sales revenues grew strongly by 7.6%, partly due to price revisions and other contributions. Gross profit increased significantly by 9.2%, outpacing revenue growth. Despite the challenges of rising commodity and energy costs, as well as a weak yen impacting cost of goods sold, improvements in wholesale revenue per case, driven by price revisions and other factors led to an overall enhancement in gross profit margin. We achieved JPY 2 billion in business income, a substantial increase of JPY 16.5 billion from the previous year, just behind the change in business income are provided on the following slide. Operating income and net income have likewise experienced significant improvements and have returned to profitability. Please turn to Slide 7, where I will go into our primary business income drivers. On the left-hand side, you will see volume, price and mix representing the year-on-year change in marginal profit from commercial activities. This shows a remarkable improvement of JPY 32.8 billion compared to the previous year. It includes major contributions from volume growth due to traffic recovery and the heat wave, as well as improved wholesale revenue per case from price revisions. Our profit focused commercial activities produced results that exceeded our original plan of JPY 30 billion for the year. Moving on to transformation, accelerated implementation of key initiatives generated recurring cost savings of JPY 3.7 billion, exceeding the original plan. This progress primarily stems from efficiency improvements in supply chain operations, including the leveraging of mega distribution centers. Marketing expenses saw JPY 1.8 billion reduction from the previous year, reflecting the successful implementation of cost-effective marketing activities during the heat wave. Turning to manufacturing, while we benefited from enhanced manufacturing efficiency due to the increased production volumes, cost rose by JPY 2.4 billion. This increase was due to a shift in consumption trends towards larger packages from small packages following the price revisions. Other costs rose by JPY 11.2 billion from the previous year. This increase is primarily due to the resumption of investments at appropriate levels for future growth, which have been curtailed during the COVID period. It also includes investments in human capital. Additional cost saving factors are accounted for here, particularly in logistics, where reductions in transport distances per case has led to decreased logistics costs. For commodity and utility costs, significant impacts from commodity prices and the devaluation of the yen led to an JPY 8.1 billion cost increase. Please turn to Slide 8 for volume performance by major channels and categories. In vending, despite the impact of price revisions from small PET and can products, sales volume increased by 1% year-on-year. Market share foundation established to date, along with promotions via the Coke ON smartphone app, contributed to demand capture. Wholesale revenue per case for vending improved significantly by JPY 162 for the year. In convenience stores, despite the continued challenging competitive environment, initiatives to secure self-space, such as expanding the introduction of CORE products to client stores and enhancing customer engagements begin to yield results from the third quarter onwards, contributing to a 5% volume growth for the full year. In the retail food sector, volume increased by 10% year-on-year with a rebound in demand for dining out and entertainment. Online sales volume saw a 12% year-on-year increase, reflecting successful efforts to strengthen product lineups and implement effective collaborative promotions with online customers. Most categories experienced growth except for tea and sports, which were significantly impacted by price revisions. Sparkling beverages saw a 3% growth centered around traffic recovery and strong sales of Coca-Cola in vending and restaurants. Water saw a substantial growth of 13% due to increased demand during the heat wave, and the contribution of seasonal flavored waters. Coffee grew 2%, particularly with the Georgia brand renewal and the launch of Georgia THE Black, as well as contributions from medium PET targeting at-home demand. Slide 9 highlights market share and retail price trends. Total channel value share for the full year grew by 0.2 points from last year, despite the impact from price revisions. This was led by a continued value share growth in vending that grew by 0.4 points from last year. For OTC retail prices, the benefits of the price revisions are materializing, with both small and large PET exceeding the previous year's levels. Both small PET and large PET have maintained their price premiums compared to the industry average. Slide 10 gives an update on price revisions. We have implemented a total of 4 price revisions since 2022, and these have steadily contributed to improved profitability. In addition to prompt market implementation, the thorough execution of disciplined commercial activities such as maintaining shipping prices has resulted in a favorable trend in retail prices following the price revisions. The left-hand graph illustrates the trend in retail prices for large PET bottles in the OTC channel. 3 price revisions were implemented for large PET bottles in May 2022, May 2023, and November 2023. As a result, OTC retail prices have shown a consistent upward trend. The graph on the right displays retail prices for small PET bottles in the OTC channel. Price revisions was implemented for small PET bottles in October 2022. Subsequently, OTC retail prices have maintained a higher level post revision despite the impact of quarterly mixed trends. Retail prices in vending machines have also experienced an upward trend following price revisions. Now, I would like to invite back Calin for an overview of our plans for 2024.

Thank you, Bjorn. Calin, here again. Please turn to Slide 12 for the strategic direction of 2024. For 2024, we have set an ambitious target of a significant increase in profits compared to 2023, where we have already experienced strong growth. Building upon the strong results of 2023, we aim to further enhance profit growth. As outlined earlier, 2024 is the first year of our strategic business plan, Vision 2028, designated the year to strongly build up profits. We will work to implement top line growth strategies centered on profit maximization, reduce cost to transformation across the entire organization and further strengthen our business foundation. Specifically, we plan to achieve 1.6% revenue growth, exceeding the volume growth to realize top line growth with an improved mix. We plan to increase business income by JPY 10 billion, 5x that of the 2023 result, representing substantial JPY 8 billion year-on-year growth. The transformation benefit, a key profit driver, is expected to generate savings of JPY 6 billion, about 1.6x versus last year. Please see Slide 13. Here is the full year profit and loss plan for 2024 anticipating robust profit growth. Revenues are expected to grow 1.6% from the previous year, driven by capturing the expected continued demand increase from traffic recovery, as well as an improved mix and price revisions. Sales volume is estimated to grow by 0.5% from the previous year. While accounting for the cycling impact of last year's heat wave and impact of price revisions on volume, we expect steady volume growth to support our profit focus strategy. Business income is forecasted to reach JPY 10 billion, an improvement of approximately JPY 8 billion from the previous year. Primary drivers of business income will be explained on the next page. Slide 14 highlights our primary drivers of business income. By focusing on top line growth and leveraging the benefits of transformation, we are targeting ambitious business income targets, aiming for an JPY 8 billion increase, which is 5x higher than the previous year. On the left, under volume, price and mix impact, as in 2023, the primary driver of profit will be the contribution from the top line growth. By engaging on profitability-focused commercial activities, including mix improvement and price revisions, we aim to achieve a JPY 12.9 billion improvement from the previous year. Recurring cost savings through our transformation are expected to increase 1.6x from the previous year, reaching JPY 6 billion driven by our accelerated efforts. This growth will stem from vending transformation, supply chain efficiency enhancement and streamlined back office operations. Direct marketing expenses are slated to raise by JPY 3 billion compared to the previous year and we will strategically allocate marketing investments to foster mid- to long-term growth while cycling impact of last year's heat wave benefits. For manufacturing, we expect a decline of JPY 1.6 billion influenced by our flexible manufacturing structure and package mix impact. Despite a slight increase in manufacturing volume from the previous year, the actual decline will be approximately half of this amount when factoring in the cost savings from our transformation efforts. Other costs are expected to increase by JPY 5.2 billion. Overall costs are expected to increase as we will make the necessary investments at appropriate levels to achieve sustainable growth and at the goals of the strategic business plan. We plan to reduce the total logistic costs, including the logistic contributions from a flexible manufacturing structure. Commodity and utility costs are forecasted to raise by JPY 1.2 billion from the previous year, reflecting ongoing uncertainties, especially due to the impact of foreign exchange rates. We remain committed to minimizing the impact of external factors on our business and proactively monitoring the environment. Slide 15 presents our commercial strategy for 2024. This year, we will implement a top line growth strategy centered on maximizing profits. Top line growth is essential in achieving a strong profit increase in this year's earnings plan. Our commercial strategy revolves around 4 key pillars: enhancing portfolio edge, vending transformation, profitability focused commercial activities, and strengthen the customer management, all aimed at maximizing profits generated from commercial activities. For enhancing portfolio edge, we will concentrate on growing our CORE categories and sizing growth opportunities such as increased consumers by introducing appealing new products tailored to consumer preferences and consumption occasions. We will also implement strategic marketing initiatives while strengthening our partnership with Coca-Cola Japan. Su will explain this shortly. Under vending transformation, we will further enhance transformation efforts by leveraging technology in our pivotal vending channel to grow profit and strengthen the foundation for future expansion. Our transformation efforts to date have significantly improved our market share based on operational process in vending. This year, we will leverage these foundations and take on the challenge of new initiatives. In our profitably focused commercial activities, we will strive to engage in even more profitability-focused commercial activities. We will implement various measures to improve profitability and conduct disciplined commercial activities that led to profitable top line growth. In strengthen customer management, we will work to build a strategic partnership with our key customers. In addition, since January, we have transitioned to a sales structure tailored to the characteristic of each channel to accelerate decision-making within each division of the commercial departments, as well as to robustly promote growth strategies for each channel. From the next slides, we will share key activities within the strategic pillars. And now, I would like to ask Su from Coca-Cola Japan to share strategies on 1 of the key pillars, enhancing portfolio edge. Su, please.

Thank you, Calin. Hi. This is Su Choi from CCJC. Allow me to take you through the key marketing strategy and key highlights as a portfolio edge. The 3 key strategies of driving the CORE: developing the strategic and purposeful innovation and connecting with their consumers through experience-driven marketing by technology and data will continue. Starting with building the CORE categories. Coke trademark and continues to show strong growth through reinforcement of our growth strategy of recruiting new users through key occasions of meals and breaks, activated through strong implementation of holistic campaign of building habit with Coke and meat, building strong trial and engagement with youth through Coke Studio. Also, Coke Zero had a strong growth last year with system focus as one of the CORE priorities and will continue to be supported through dedicated campaign of Coke Zero emphasizing the great taste of Coke Zero through product pure communication endorsed by new genes as one of the most influential ambassadors for Gen Z recruitment. For I LOHAS brand, we were sharpening the brand edge by reinforcing the sustainable action through clearly delivering sustainability commitments and agenda through packaging and communication by tapping into the insights of the new generation. We will continue to focus on growing our top priority category of coffee through sustained improvement to provide the best brand and product experience of Georgia. We will renew our core PET coffee lineup to recruit and engage coffee users who expect more coffee feeling in PET coffee through more coffeeness and aroma, while maintaining clear aftertaste and drinkability in order to accelerate the profitable growth in the coffee category. As for innovation, we are committed to building the strategic and purposeful innovation to drive profitable share in the market. Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola was launched last April as Coca-Cola's first RTD alcoholic beverages that mixes Coca-Cola and Jack Daniel's to expand and recruit RTD alcoholic beverages option for those who regularly drink whiskey highballs. This was an incremental share and revenue for the market to drive growth in the ARTD market. In January, we've launched COSTA Caramel Chocolate Latte aiming to strengthen cafe credentials as a distinctive brand edge to capture mass premium segment. To capture health and wellness need, Ayataka Koi Green Tea, launched in last February was upgraded to an FFC product, which stands for the food with functional claims with the effect of reducing both visceral fat and subcutaneous fat. In addition, Karada Sukoyakacha W will also be upgraded with strengthened functional claim. These product upgrades and renewals addresses the wide range needs of health conscious consumers in a profitable FFC segment and FOSHU segment. We're continuing to evolve in how we do marketing to stay relevant and connected to our consumers. Last summer, Coke Studio campaign was successfully launched as an experience-driven holistic marketing plan leveraging consumers' key passion point of music. In October, consumers were invited to join the Coca-Cola's Coke Studio SUPERPOP Japan, an exclusive Coke branded concert with collaboration with top tiered local and global artists to demonstrate the magnitude of globally scaled campaign, amplified to engage the Japanese audience. In 2024, Aquarius brand has initiated a new project in collaboration with NEXZ, a global group born from an audition program to embody the brand theme "By Your Side As You Progress" to strengthen our brand edge through holistic campaign. To drive the full relaunch of Georgia brand in last March, we launched [ My Dorabo ] as the first user participation experience content for the Georgia brand. This became one of the most engaging consumer promotions we have done in Georgia, generating significant buzz, especially among Gen Z. We will continue to drive trial to create habit with new experiences. Last year, we conducted Coke with Meat campaign throughout the year, delivering the message of great taste of Coca-Cola [ Gozo's ] meat as a key occasion leveraging a strong partnership with influencers, digital, TV and consumer experiential sampling. We will continue to build on this platform to provide renewed experiences. That's it from my end. Thank you for listening, and over to you, Bjorn.

Thank you, Su, for the presentation. This is Bjorn again. Slide 17 covers the vending transformation. We consider vending to be a very important channel and with the understanding that business as usual is not an option, we have been implementing fundamental transformations to stay ahead of market changes. Through our transformation efforts thus far, we have established a solid user base, market share base and low-cost operating foundation. In 2024, we will build on our current achievements and leverage technology to embark on further transformation. First, we will utilize technology more extensively in our top line growth strategy. We will accelerate digital initiatives such as the use of Coke ON and expanding QR code payment options to increase consumer engagement, thereby growing sales revenue per vending machine. We will also enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our data-driven activities to strengthen vending machine assortment and new installation efforts. As part of our efforts to fully leverage technology for future online vending machines, we will be installing second generation smart modems with a more sophisticated and functional than previous models. We anticipate that this will positively impact both user experience and the operational efficiency. In addition, we will also move forward with measures to enhance operational efficiency and further strengthen profit management. Next, we will turn to profitability-focused commercial activities that underpin profitable growth. Please turn to Slide 18. In the face of continued highest costs, we will implement comprehensive profitability improvement measures and disciplined commercial activities at an even higher level to achieve this year's ambitious profit target. First, our focus this year will be on mix improvements. We will prioritize highly profitable small package products and aim for profit growth through steady volume expansion and mix enhancement. This entails strengthening the development of high value-added and premium products as previously outlined by Su. We will implement a flexible pricing strategy adapting to prevailing market conditions. Our primary objective here is to maintain and enhance wholesale revenue per case, which was greatly improved in 2023. To achieve this, we will execute disciplined commercial activities and carefully explore every opportunity for improvement. We have announced additional price revisions for some of our products starting in May, the fifth price revision since 2022. We will continue to consider further price revisions as an important component of our comprehensive profitability improvement plan. For strategic marketing, we will realize profitable top line growth through cost-effective marketing investments. In addition, we will collaborate with customers and utilize digital technology to actively promote the introduction and expansion of mainstay products and revitalize the sales floor. By implementing these initiatives on a channel-by-channel basis and operating a more precise profit management process, we will further solidify profitable top line growth. On Slide 19, I will explain the new commercial structure we have revamped to effectively execute these initiatives. In January of this year, we introduced an organizational change centered around 3 channels of vending, OTC and food service. Each of these channels possesses distinct characteristics, including customer types, drinking occasions, retail pricing, value chains and future growth prospects. Each channel necessitates a different approach to maximize profitability with different key strategies to focus on. Against this backdrop, we reorganized our organization and shifted to a structure that aligns with the characteristics of each channel. This shift aims to speed up decision-making within the commercial departments and enhance our ability to drive growth strategies tailored to each channel. Under this new structure, we will execute growth strategies appropriate to each channel. This entails offering consumers and customers appealing products and quality services in a manner that aligns with their preferences and needs, as well as improving our competitiveness and profitability. Slide 20 outlines our supply chain strategy for this year. We aim to capitalize on our established strengths to deliver high-quality products and services at the lowest possible cost. To achieve this, we will promote the local production for local consumption model, manufacturing products in the factories close to their intended markets. Additionally, we will enhance the accuracy of our sales and operations planning process to optimize the entire end-to-end supply chain process. In manufacturing, we will build a flexible system that can accommodate high mix, small lot production, enabling the local production with local consumption model. Although high mix, small lot production can be less efficient than continuous production, we will control increasing costs and expand manufacturing capacity through productivity improvements at each plant and production line. In 2023, our productivity improvements resulted in a 14 million case increase in manufacturing capacity at our existing facilities. We will continue to focus on energy efficient improvements to realize further cost savings. In logistics, we're taking advantage of our flexible manufacturing system to reduce transportation costs by minimizing product transport distances and the number of touches. Our efforts in 2023 led to a 17% reduction in average transport distance per case and a 6% decrease in the number of touches compared to the previous year, resulting in significant logistic cost savings despite the challenges posed by the summer heat wave. In 2024, we will continue to push forward with all these initiatives, also enhancing inventory allocation through stable operations of the sales and operational planning process. Please see Slide 21. I will now discuss our transformation efforts in the back office and IT areas. We have been implementing operational reforms and optimizing various IT systems within the company, but we believe that there is much room for improvement when looking at the entire value chain. In addition, the vast amount of data that we hold within the company, with its various possibilities, has not yet been fully leveraged, and we believe there is still room for overall optimization of the various IT systems. Therefore, we intend to focus on building a foundation that will enable us to make the best use of this data and promote true data-driven management. Major future initiatives include the use of technology to further standardize, streamline, improve quality, and automate business processes. We are also in the process of developing a technology master plan aimed at digitizing our entire value chain. By 2028, we will sequentially implement measures based on this technology master plan to build a foundation and process for advanced decision-making that fully utilizes the vast amount of data we possess and the insights we gain from it. In January of this year, we also launched NeoArc, a joint venture with Accenture to support the establishment of a foundation for the further promotion of data-driven management. Please refer to Slide 22 for efforts to improve capital efficiency and increasing shareholder returns with the aim of increasing ROIC. CapEx will be limited to what is truly necessary with JPY 33.9 billion planned for 2024. To optimize our balance sheet, we will continue our efforts to improve capital efficiency. In 2024, we will work to reduce product inventories during periods of highest demand, which will also improve asset turnover and cash flow. For dividends, we plan to pay an annual dividend of JPY 50 per share, same as the last year based on the principle of placing the highest priority on stable dividends. We will continue to implement financial strategies to create shareholder value while exploring all possibilities. Next, I would like to ask Head of HR, Yuki Higashi, to explain our updated HR strategy. Yuki, please.

Hello, everyone. This is Chief Human Resource Officer, Higashi. I will now explain our renewed HR strategy. Please see Slide 23. Our vision of human capital is a stronger organization in which each employee can develop their own skills and career and enjoy taking on new challenges and growth based on the diversity of each individual's strengths. We will further strengthen human capital management by positioning employees and people who are the implementers of management strategy. Through our people, culture and organization, we will contribute to sustainable business growth and achieving of our strategic business plan, Vision 2028. Please turn to Slide 24. This illustrates our efforts to realize our human capital vision. We will strengthen our human capital by implementing policies in line with the 5 key areas of the people strategy shown on the left. Diversity, equity and inclusion, which is widely associated with the people strategy's focus areas and underpins the people strategy, will be discussed in relation to some of the key performance indicators. With regard to the gender wage gap, we have achieved results by introducing an equal wage system regardless of gender, but we will work to further improve this situation. As for the female director ratio, we have exceeded the target of 30% or more by 2030, which is required of TSE prime companies as of 2023. However, we recognize the need for significant improvements in areas such as ratio of male employees taking childcare leave and ratio of female managers. We have already published our targets for the ratio of female managers of 20% by 2030, and for the ratio of male employees taking childcare leave, we have now set an ambitious new target of 100% by 2025, and we will accelerate our efforts to achieve these targets. In addition to these measures, we are currently in the process of setting targets for measures related to priority areas. For human capital strategy discussed today, we have been actively discussing it, devoting about quarter of our executives meeting time to this. Based on the recognition that human capital management is an important management agenda, we will continue to push forward with companywide efforts to realize our human capital goals. Thank you. I will now hand it back to Calin for today's summary.

Thank you for your presentation. To summarize today's presentation, please see Slide 25. 2023 was a fantastic year in which we achieved a return to profitability ahead of schedule through a significant increase in profits. Our commitment to transformation initiatives even during challenging circumstances, and our focus on profitability-driven business activities have significantly contributed to the increase in profits. This leap forward established a solid foundation for sustained profit growth and instilled us with great confidence for the future. In 2024, we will further accelerate this strong momentum. Under our direction of strong profit buildup, we will focus on profits even more than last year and in our top line growth strategy. We will implement greater measures to improve profitability that have been successful to date. In addition, our transformation efforts will now move into a new phase. In addition to capturing the effects of our past measures, we will embark on new initiatives such as the use of technology, which is a theme in our strategic business plan, Vision 2028. Through this concerted efforts, we aim to achieve an ambitious business income target of JPY 10 billion, 5x greater than the previous year. This year is the first year of our Vision 2028 and we believe we are entering this critical first year in the best possible shape. Last year's strong performance and the results of the initiatives we have been moving forward have been given us the momentum and confidence to achieve this goal. We will start Vision 2028 with strongly to achieve 2 consecutive years of significant profit growth following last year's success and for this year. That concludes our presentation. Thank you very much. Now, let me invite back Gomi-san to take us through the question and [Technical Difficulty].

Thank you, Calin. The following Q&A session is for analysts and investors only, so members of the media are asked to refrain from asking questions at this time. We will hold a separate media Q&A session later on today. Simultaneous interpretation is provided, so please ask your question in the corresponding language of the participating phone line and please limit your question to 1 at a time. So, operator, please begin. [Operator Instructions]

[Operator Instructions] Ihara-san from UBS Securities.

This is Ihara-san from UBS Securities. I have one question. So looking at the COGS, it's JPY 1.2 billion is your assumption. And looking at the competitor it's like JPY 5 billion or like JPY 7 billion impact. But you are lower. So does that mean do you have special like background that is lowering your COGS impact? And, for example, are you using the global supply chain involving CCJC? And is that one of the reasons you're able to keep the COGS level low? And if that is going to be the background of the price revision in May, I think that would be very positive. And if the COGS is a background to do the price revision in May, that would be your strength. And the competitors probably they need to raise their price in order to kind of offset the high commodity impact they are like really experiencing. So my question is, why is your COGS impact lower than the competitors? And what is that related to the price revision going to do with May?

I think there were a couple of questions in your 1 question. So starting from the [ commentary ] or the COGS impact, it seems that the impact is lower than the competitors was your question. So Bjorn-san would like to answer that question.

Very good. First, I can't make too many comments on the cost of goods increases for the competitors because, of course, we have no insights into that one. But what I can tell you maybe give some flavor to it is, overall, there's 2 factors, potentially 3, that impacts our cost of goods bundle increase for this year. First and foremost, we buy all our raw materials, packaging materials, et cetera, under global procurement consortium together with the Coca-Cola Bottlers and The Coca-Cola Company globally. That, of course, gives us very good pricing on these key inputs to our production and our products. Secondly, we are also, as you know, a franchisee of The Coca-Cola Company and we buy the concentrates or the flavor parts from The Coca-Cola Company in yen. And by doing that we have a natural hedge on some of the key commodities like coffee beans, like tea leaves and also raw milk. So these 2 factors together means that we can manage our cost of goods input well. Thirdly, we also use normal hedging activities. We have hedging policies in the company that we follow to make sure that we can take benefits and smooth the impacts of some of these swings that you naturally see in commodities and in currencies. So overall, I hope that answered your question.

And Ihara-san, you have the second part of your question. So due to controlling the cost level, how did that impact your price revision plan in May? And Bjorn-san, would you like to answer that question?

I'll address the second part and then I'll ask Alex Gonzalez to supplement it. So, of course, again, stepping back, our overall core objective Ihara-san is to grow profitability for the company, and we have many levers that we push and pull to achieve that objective. Pricing is one of them, but it's just 1 of several measures that we implement to again increase our profits. By managing our cost of goods, of course, naturally, we also put less pressure on the top line, again, enabling us to manage price and mix in a smart way as we go into 2024. But I'll ask Alex to give some more flavor to the pricing decisions.

Alex here. Obviously, as Bjorn called out, pricing is very important and remains a very important lever in our flexible RGM strategy. As Calin said, we have positioned 2024 as a year to strongly build home profit 5x versus 2023. We have shown, and we have taken price 4x in the last 24 months, and price revisions have made significant contributions to our profit growth. We will be taking the fifth price increase in May, and this decision evidently was made on the back of comprehensive assessment of the market and competitive dynamics appropriate to deliver our profit target. We will continue to consider further implementations of price revisions. I hope that answered the question.

Ihara-san, sorry, may I add another question? So in your case, I'm sure that you're able to offset the impact of commodity with that structure, but still you are going to do the price revision. Is that going to be like a continuous area to study?

So your question is, you are able to offset the commodity impact, but are you going to continuously consider the possibilities of price revision? So this question will be taken by Alex-san. Alex-san, please.

As I said, pricing is and will continue to be an important lever. So we will continue to monitor and seriously consider any further price revision.

[Operator Instructions] Next person is Saji-san from Mizuho Securities.

I would like to ask about the convenience business, convenience store business. Please go to the Page 30 of the slide. So in December term, I think you have a solid performance. But then since October you have struggled -- you have been struggling with the small PET because of the price hike. So I believe that there was a negative impact to the wholesale price for the per case. So can you give me some background to this -- your last results and then the price hike impact?

Your question is about the fourth quarter volume and the unit price of the Q4 performance. And then you would like to ask about the evaluation of the performance and what we are going to do about it going forward? Alex, please pick it up.

Evidently in convenience there has been some one-off impact on cycling effect of the year before. However, I want to stress that particularly for convenience, we continue to work on building the foundations, expanding and renewing our core big PETs portfolio, focusing on the releasing of their main brands, particularly with Georgia renewal. And we have in the outlook of the plan, very strong focus behind convenience. We expect, however, the competitive environment to remain severe. We see a very high increase in impact on and shift of consumers moving to low-price brands and PVs and aggressive promotion of competitors. But we will continue to work and collaborate with our customers to drive value beyond pricing and currently, we are working against initiatives on promotions, product and basket incidents.

One more question. Like we saw in the past, you have like BOGOF, like Buy One, Get One Free kind of promotion in the past, and then you see this what the practice in your industry. But when it comes to price promotion like this, BOGOF, are you going to continue this kind of practice?

You're asking about whether or not we are going to see the continuous move like BOGOF in the future. Alex, would you like to pick it up, please?

For the question, evidently it's something that we have seen in convenience as mechanics that are from an industry is not definitely our preferred way of going. What we are looking into our outlook is to actually gradually are moving away and focusing our commercial activities on -- with a focus on profitability and investment efficiency. We are driving and working with our customers to again, as I said, drive expandable basket incidents and beverage incidents in the channel and we're working collaboratively with them to evolve the playbook in this channel.

[Operator Instructions] Morgan Stanley MUFG, Miyake-San.

This is Miyake from Morgan Stanley. I also want to ask about the domestic consumption environment. So the price revision is my topic here again. In your company, you are aggressive in taking this action. And due to the cost increase, you are pushing this price revision once again and you are trying to change the industry. And that is your stance, I believe. And on the other hand, the price revision details, finally, we heard it yesterday. And in the industry, I know that there's like a competitive environment or there's lots of situation around the products, and maybe there were some things that weren't following the assumptions that you're waiting until the last minute to announce the plan. Maybe that was the case. And another thing, there's a private labels and there's some trade down, there's a shift towards the PVs, and this was happening from last fall. So it's not a new trend that you had to wait for. And now probably you are waiting for the last minute to make the decision. So what was keeping you from making the decision? What were you worried about? And in the future, maybe not this year, but next year, the following year, if you're going to do more price revisions, what's going to happen? So in this May, you're going to do the price revision, and maybe you are able to comfortably raise the price because you have a strong position in certain categories, and that's a selection that you have made. So is that going to be the case in the future as well, or the environment going to allow you to -- for you to make more price revisions freely? I would like to hear about the future as well.

So you're asking about the domestic consumption situation, and based on our comments, what was the trend that we were really looking at in the industry? So, Alex-san, please.

We have announced in our last call, we are -- have been considering extensively all the options at play to look at pricing. In this time around, we have made the selection of immediate consumption packages and strategically selected products that, in our opinion, are an appropriate level and scale to stand and to give us the maximum benefit ahead of the summer peak season to deliver, again, on our objective of strongly building our profit objective.

Will that be okay?

So the industry situation, the consumption trend. So was it matching your assumptions, or was it like worse compared to your assumption? Or what will make you easier to take the price revision in the future? Is there anything that will make you -- make the decision more easier?

So you're asking about is anything deteriorating as a trend in the industry? So, Calin-san, please.

Miyake-san, thank you so much, as always, for your interest in our business. Calin Dragan speaking, and I'm interfering here with an answer for the simple reason that I saw on your reports and as well on your comments and questions today, a lot of interest on the pricing and the pricing initiative. I just want to repeat what you heard a number of times from my colleagues so far from prepared remarks and answers, but we have put the prices up 4x in the last 24 months and we are going to put the prices up again in May and the criteria for the products selected, Alex was just explaining. It's my role to explain again and remind everyone that we came out in August and we communicate in very thoroughly a strategic business plan committed to drive the business to the highest profitability level in 5 years from now. And besides the journey that we have committed to, we have been able to deliver a massive jump-start. Just want to remind all of us that we committed to profitability, we committed to return on investments, and we committed to total shareholders returns. And that's our focus. And all our plans and actions, including pricing initiatives, are there to serve this purpose. I hope that gives you a bit of flavor of how we are going to move on with it and, of course, our stand. It's the fact that for the first time after probably 3 decades in Japan industry, we are able to leverage all the 3 elements of the revenue growth, all the 3 pistons of the engine that moves the revenue and that is volume, price and mix. Until now, at least until 24 months ago, we were not able to leverage the last part. And since we are having available this tool, we are going definitely to leverage it for the health of our business and for the health of the industry. I hope that gives more a broad answer on how we are looking at pricing and how are we executing while we have stand firm on our commitments to put the prices up.

[Operator Instructions] Fujiwara-san.

This is Fujiwara speaking. So, since this is limited to 1 question, let me ask -- we just saw the shareholder return or to increase the value for shareholders in the last presentation. I would like to ask around that. So in coming few years, you are going to look at the CapEx and you're going to limit the CapEx within the range. That's what I believe. And also in past few years, maybe you were in the negative range on the BI, but then you are coming out and I believe that your balance sheets are now pretty healthy. And probably we are seeing the free cash coming out from you. So maybe it's about time for you to think about the returning to shareholders and stuff. So I would like to have your thoughts around the shareholder returns and stuff.

Based on the fact that we can control the CapEx, you would like to understand what's our plan and idea behind the shareholder returns. I would like Bjorn to pick up on this question.

Fujiwara-san, very good question. So let me give you a little bit of context into the question about dividends. First and foremost, what we said before the strategy plan that we issued in August last year was that, we will pay 30% of our profits as dividends. As you all know, and you rightly mentioned, we have been loss-making for a while. However, as we progress towards profitability with a great 2023 and even better 2024, our focus on profitability is then matched with a very clear prioritization on CapEx. And in the end, you can say that is the way for us to maximize our free cash flow. So while we're going through this transformation, consistently improving our profitability, we have maintained our commitment to the market to pay stable JPY 50 dividends until we reach that threshold where 30% becomes more than JPY 50. So until that happens, and we will switch there, of course, as soon as it really happens, we will maintain the JPY 50. So for the moment, our focus is to improve profitability, manage CapEx, and therefore, maximizing our free cash flow, and then convert to a more flexible dividends in the future. So I hope that answered your question.

Fujiwara-san, thank you very much for your question. I hope that answers your question. And I'm so sorry, since we are at limited time, so we would like close this Q&A session. The contents of today's presentation will be available on our website following this presentation. If you have any question or feedback, please contact our IR team. Thank you very much for joining the conference call today. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]