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

[Interpreted] Good afternoon. This is Gomi, Head of Investor Relations for Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings. Thank you for joining us today for our full year 2024 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 by Executive Officer and President of the Retail Company, Alex Gonzalez; Executive Officer, President of the Food Service Company and Chief Business Strategy Officer, Maki Kado; Executive Officer, Chief Supply Chain Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer; Andrew Ferrett; and Executive Officer and Chief Human Resource Officer, Yuki Higashi. Following prepared remarks, we will be happy to take 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-san, please?

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Calin Dragan. Thank you for joining our earnings presentation today. First, let's go over the highlights of today's presentation. Please turn to Slide 3. I am pleased to share that 2024 was a great year with many significant achievements. We achieved JPY 12 billion in business income, 6x higher than the previous year, exceeding the upwardly revised plan during the period. As the year of strong profit buildup, we have achieved a significant increase in profits that continues from the previous year and remain on track to achieve Vision 2028. Revenue grew 2.8%. Sales volume exceeded our initial forecast driven by Ayataka's success and other factors, leading to strong growth. The series of price revisions improved wholesale revenue per case and revenue growth outpaced the volume growth. As the October price revision is contributing to earnings growth, I'm confident it will lead to elevated profit levels over the mid to long term. In line with Vision 2028, in November, we announced a comprehensive shareholder return program. This is an unprecedented shareholder return program, including an ambitious dividend increase plan through 2028 and the share buyback of up to JPY 30 billion and shows a major step forward towards maximizing shareholder value as set out in our Vision 2028. In 2025, we will continue the profit growth momentum, and as a year of achieving both profit growth and strengthening foundation, target JPY 20 billion in business income, 1.7x greater than the previous year. At the same time, we will work to improve profitability and invest in growth from a mid- to long-term perspective to build a structure that can generate sustainable and stable profits. As one of the measures to further improve profitability, we will implement further price revisions in major categories within 2025. Now let's move to the next slide for our full year results for 2024. Before going into the full details on Slide 5, I'd like to highlight our progress towards Vision 2028. First, please look at the graph on the left. Over the past 2 years, we have achieved a remarkable earnings recovery. In August 2023, we have announced Vision 2028 and delivered significant profit improvement, returning to positive business income ahead of schedule. And in 2024, we further increased profits by JPY 10 billion. Despite the rising cost pressures we are seeing now, we have improved profits by more than JPY 26 billion over the past 2 years, and we are very happy about this achievement. It demonstrates that our key initiatives and business performance are progressing steadily, keeping us on track to achieve Vision 2028. On the right side of the slide, you will see our key performance indicators for 2024. Business income grew sixfold from the previous year, while ROIC, one of our key metrics, improved by 1.1 points from the previous year. EBITDA, which indicates the profitability that it's the source of cash, reached JPY 57.5 billion. In addition, under our comprehensive shareholder return program, we increased dividends for 2024 and executing a share buyback program of up to JPY 30 billion. These results demonstrate a strong start towards achieving the goal of Vision 2028 with a focus on profitability and capital efficiency. Now I will hand it over to CFO, Bjorn Ulgenes for a detailed review of our results.

Thank you, Calin. Hello, everyone. This is Bjorn. Please turn to Slide 6 for the full year P&L. In 2024, achieved strong growth in revenue and profit following last year. Revenue increased by 2.8% year-on-year, driven by higher sales volume and a series of price revisions, leading to improved wholesale revenue per case across all channels. Sales volume grew 2% year-on-year, successfully capturing increased demand from the heat wave and other factors. Gross profit increased 4.7%, outpacing revenue growth. Improvements in wholesale revenue per case from price revisions and manufacturing efficiency led to an approximate 1 percentage point improvement in gross profit margin from the previous year. Business income increased by JPY 10 billion year-on-year, driven by top line growth and cost savings from transformation. Factors contributing to this change in business income are detailed on the next slide. Operating income exceeded business income to reach JPY 13.4 billion, an increase of JPY 9.9 billion from the previous year. This was due to the booking of other income from fixed asset sales as part of our efforts to optimize the balance sheet. Net income rose JPY 5.4 billion year-on-year to JPY 7.3 billion. EBITDA was JPY 57.5 billion, an increase of JPY 9 billion from the previous year. Please turn to Slide 7 for our primary business income drivers. Business income grew sixfold year-on-year to JPY 12 billion, driven by top line growth and transformation savings. On the lefthand side, we have volume, price and mix. These represent a year-over-year change in marginal profits of JPY 8.5 billion from commercial activities on top of sales volume growth and contribution came from higher wholesale revenue per case following price revisions. Transformation benefits totaled JPY 5.7 billion, with initiatives across all areas generating benefits as planned. Marketing expenses increased by JPY 4.3 billion from the previous year, fully leveraging the strong performance of Ayataka while implementing ROI-focused marketing investments, which had been restrained in the year prior. In manufacturing, higher sales volume led to increased manufacturing volume and improved production efficiency. In addition, cost-saving measures at plants reduced manufacturing cost per case resulting in a JPY 2.5 billion decrease in total manufacturing costs compared to the previous year. Other costs increased by JPY 2.3 billion from the previous year. While labor costs decreased due to cycling previous human capital investments, we continued executing necessary growth investments at appropriate levels for sustainable growth. Additionally, rising logistics costs impacted. Commodity and utility costs remained flat year-over-year despite a continued challenging cost environment. Some of the raw material and energy cost controls helped offset the impact of the weaker yen. Please turn to Slide 8 for volume performance by channel and category. Sales volume for the full year 2024 increased 2% year-on-year, driven by the success of Ayataka and effective commercial strategies despite the impact of price revisions. Following the series of price revisions, wholesale revenue per case improved in all channels. In Q4, wholesale revenue per case increased by double-digit yen or more across all channels following the price revision in October. In Supermarkets, volume remained impacted by the decline following the price revisions. In Drugstores and Discounters, volume increased 4% due to efforts to capture market expansion opportunities. In Convenience Stores, volume increased 3%, driven by new products and effective customer-focused marketing activity. In Vending, while price revisions and unfavorable summer weather affected volume, declines were minimized by leveraging a strong market share base and executing digital marketing through the Coke ON smartphone app. Price revisions contributed to wholesale revenue per case improvement of more than JPY 50 from the previous year. In Retail and Food Service, volume increased 4%, reflecting our response to increased demand from restaurants and tourist locations, along with the steady acquisition of new customers. In Online, volume increased by double digits, driven by an enhanced product lineup and measures to acquire recurring buys through customer collaborations. By category, sparkling volume grew 3% year-on-year from increased Coca-Cola sales in restaurants and online along with contributions from Sprite. In tea, Ayataka saw strong volume growth of over 15% year-on-year, contributing to a 9% overall increase in the tea category. Sports, water and coffee declined due to the impact of the price revisions. Juice growth was led by Minute Maid primarily through restaurants. Slide 9 covers market share and retail price trends. Our profitability-focused commercial activities have driven volume -- value share growth and contributing to expanding price premiums. Total channel value share increased by 0.4 points from the previous year. Vending value share continued to grow strongly, gaining 0.9 points. OTC channel value share turned positive in Q4. However, the lasting impact of the previous year's large PET price revisions on the volume share affected the full year value share. OTC retail prices for our products continue to maintain a price premium over the industry average. Following the October price revisions, small PET bottle OTC prices have improved in recent months, while large PET bottle prices have continued their upward trend through the series of price revisions. Slide 10 highlights our sustainability and human capital enhancement initiatives for sustainable growth. As part of our environmental and community efforts, we have worked to develop products that minimize environmental impact, including expanding our label-less product lineup and promoting horizontal recycling of aluminum cans. We also introduced manufacturing lines optimized to reduce water and energy consumption. We focused on initiatives to further strengthen our human capital. Approximately 25% of executive meeting time is allocated to active discussions on human capital strategies, and we ensure steady implementation of these strategies by setting KPIs linked to executive officer bonuses. On the next slide, Calin will present our full year business plan for 2025.

Thank you, Bjorn. This is Calin again. Slide 12 outlines our strategic direction for 2025. We have positioned 2025 as a year to achieve both profit growth and strengthening our foundation. Building on the strong performance and achievements of 2024, we will promote simultaneously both profit generation and strengthening our foundation for sustainable growth, aiming to achieve Vision 2028. Based on this direction, we will focus on profit growth driven by top line expansion and accelerated further transformation. Our 2025 targets include a 1.5% revenue increase and business income of JPY 20 billion, 1.7x higher than the previous year. For top line growth, we will execute a strategy centered on maximizing profits with a mid- to long-term perspective. On the transformation front, we aim to generate JPY 5.2 billion in total cost savings this year. And we will also leverage technology and establish new business processes to help build the foundation for sustainable profit growth. We will continue to improve capital efficiency this year by optimizing our balance sheet and appropriate control of CapEx. To enhance shareholder value, we plan to increase 2025 annual dividend by 8% under our progressive dividend policy. Slide 13 presents the P&L for the full year 2025 plan. Our goal is to continue increasing both revenue and profits year-on-year. We expect revenue to grow by 1.5% year-on-year, supported by profitability improvement measures, including price revisions, which will raise the wholesale price and the revenue per case, while sales volume is expected to grow by 0.5%. Our sales volume plan also accounts for the cycling of the last year's heat wave and price revision impact on volume. A key takeaway is that the revenue growth is expected to outpace the volume growth and gross profit growth is projected to exceed the growth rate of revenue. While cost pressures remain this year, we are committed to improving profitability despite these challenges. Business income is forecasted to reach JPY 20 billion, about 1.7x higher than the previous year. Factors contributing to this change in business income are detailed on the next slide. We also expect operating income and net income to increase for the year, reflecting the improvement in our business income. Please refer to Slide 14 for the primary drivers of business income in 2025. We aim for JPY 8 billion in year-over-year profit growth. On the left, you will see volume, price and mix. While we expect price revisions to be the main driver of profit growth by improving wholesale revenue per case, we are also factoring in channel mix impact for an improvement of JPY 12.7 billion year-over-year. Furthermore, the effects of further price revisions scheduled to be implemented in major categories within 2025, are factored in at a certain level. Cost savings from transformation will be generated in all areas, including commercial, supply chain, back office and IT, with a target of JPY 5.2 billion in total profit contributions. Transformation initiatives are progressing as planned towards our Vision 2028. DME is planned to increase by JPY 4.5 billion from the previous year. To achieve Vision 2028, we will strategically invest in marketing focused on ROI, driving mid- to long-term growth and further strengthening our growth foundation. In manufacturing, we expect to reduce costs by JPY 0.2 billion through improved efficiency and cost management at production sites. Other costs are projected to increase by JPY 2.5 billion. Overall, costs will raise as we invest at an appropriate level to support further profit growth. Logistics costs are expected to increase due to factors such as raising per unit costs though we have partially controlled this through various initiatives. We expect commodity and utility costs to worsen by JPY 3.1 billion year-on-year, mainly due to raising raw materials and package prices. This includes the slight cost increase due to the depreciation of the yen and rising energy prices. And by working with the Coca-Cola system, global procurement organization and leveraging our own unique procurement strategies, we believe we can partially control this cost increase. However, we will continue to monitor the situation and take measures to minimize external impacts on our business. The severe cost environment is expected to continue in 2025, but our profit level remains on track with the Vision 2028 plan. We will continue to drive efforts across all areas to ensure we achieve our business income targets. Now Slide 15 outlines our commercial strategy for 2025. In commercial, we will implement a top line growth strategy centered on maximizing profits. Our commercial strategies are enhancing portfolio edge, further vending transformation and profitability-focused commercial activities and strengthening customer management. And from the next slide, details of the commercial strategy will be shared. First, Su from Coca-Cola Japan Company will explain enhancing portfolio edge. Su, please go ahead.

Thank you, Calin. This is Su Choi from Coca-Cola Japan Company. Today, I'm pleased to share our key marketing strategies and highlights, underscoring how we are enhancing our portfolio edge. Our core strategies revolve around 3 key pillars: first, driving our core categories; developing strategic and purposeful innovation; and connecting with the consumers through technology and data-driven experiences. Starting with building the core categories. Last year, Coca-Cola trademark returned strong growth, thanks to our focused efforts on core priorities. As we move forward, our goal is to reinforce its growth by attracting new users, particularly through meal occasions. We're evolving our successful Coke with Meat campaign into the Coke with Chicken campaign, named Coke [Foreign Language], implementing it through a comprehensive and holistic approach to build consumer habits. For Ayataka, following a complete brand renewal last year, Ayataka trademark continues to build momentum. In its second year, we aim to strengthen the brand edge and solidify our portfolio to attract new users. Georgia Coffee, our top priority in the coffee category, is going -- is an ongoing enhancement of Georgia to ensure it provides the best possible brand and product experience. The brand focuses on recruiting and engaging coffee lovers, especially during the winter season, to drive profitable growth in this category. In strategic and purposeful innovation, we have launched and upgraded several products to meet the growing health and wellness needs of our consumers. First, Yakan Koi Barley Tea. This product launched last year. It includes ingredient for body fat reduction and addresses daily hydration needs. And Aquarius ORS launched last June, we renewed the packaging and communication for Aquarius ORS, which now carries an official food for medical use label, catering to health-conscious consumers. To connect deeply with our consumers, we initiated a new campaign pairing Ayataka with onigiri, a popular Japanese soul food, to drive greater consumption of the refreshed Ayataka. For continuous improvement in digital engagement, we'd like to share that our Coke ON app has surpassed 60 million downloads as of January. We remain committed to evolving this platform to offer value, convenience and fun for consumers, and we'll continue to enhance our platform for better consumer experience. In summary, we continue to prioritize driving core category growth, implementing strategic innovation and leveraging technology to connect deeply with our consumers. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you for the presentation, Su. This is Bjorn again. Slide 17 covers further vending transformation. We will advance our vending business by leveraging technology and improved processes. For top line growth, we will further utilize the Coke ON app to track loyal users. In addition, we will implement usability improvements, such as expanding QR code payment options and enhancing the digital capabilities of vending machines, creating more sales opportunities. Furthermore, we will optimize our vending machine assortments with profitability focus. Until now, our product assortment strategy measures focused on revenue growth. But going forward, we will adopt a balanced approach that considers both revenue and operational efficiency to drive profit growth. While aiming to increase revenue, we will also improve visit frequency and product filling rates at vending machines, leading to higher route productivity. We will make this initiative a reality by leveraging technology, including AI, and fundamental review of our processes. Additionally, we will further improve efficiency of our vending business and enhance capital efficiency. We will improve productivity through end-to-end process transformation. Our efforts include optimized vending machine life cycle costs, strategically placing vending machines with a focus on ROI and expanding online connectivity based on effectiveness. We will work to improve investment efficiency and capital efficiency. We will also ensure that the commercial activities remain profitability focused and accurately assessing the profitability of each location and optimize costs accordingly. Through these efforts, we aim to improve route productivity by more than 15% year-on-year in 2025 while also growing our value share. Slide 18 covers profitability-focused commercial activities and strengthening customer management. We will implement the profitability-focused growth strategy for each channel while also reinforcing our future growth foundation. To achieve sales volume growth and improved product mix, we will expand sales space by strengthening core products and categories. Additionally, we will develop products and packaging tailored to consumer needs for each channel and customer, aiming for profitable sales volume growth. In previous years, we will follow a flexible pricing strategy to maximize profits. Given the current cost environment and our profitability, we will implement further price revisions in major categories within 2025. We will apply learnings from past price revisions to strengthen profitability. In addition, we continue to explore further measures, including additional price revisions to improve profitability. For growth investment and marketing expenses, we will prioritize ROI-driven investments with a mid- to long-term perspective. At the same time, we will optimize cost to improve profitability. Our marketing strategy will shift towards digital channels with a high return on investment such as app-based promotions and retail media. We will also refine profit management accuracy at the account level to support better decision-making in marketing activities and cost assessment. We will implement these initiatives through strong partnerships with our customers. Our products, pricing and marketing strategies will be tailored to the characteristics of each customer. Through a cross-functional commercial structure, we will provide comprehensive solutions to customers and build lasting partnerships. Slide 19 shows our supply chain initiatives for this year. We will continue to further optimize our end-to-end supply chain network by leveraging technology and building more advanced data-driven processes through DX. This year, we will continue to advance the "local production for local consumption model", manufacturing products at plants near to areas of consumption. Our sales and operational planning process is running smoothly, and we will further improve its accuracy to ensure a stable, cost-efficient supply while optimizing and reducing product inventories. This year, we will launch a new integrated distribution center, allowing us to further enhance inventory consolidation and optimal product placements to move forward with further strengthening our logistics network for the future. The integrated distribution center, or IDC, is a large-scale distribution facility with a hub warehouse function, offering capabilities beyond the traditional distribution or delivery centers. By strategically locating IDCs in optimal areas, we can integrate multiple sales and distribution sites, streamline inventory management, reduce transportation distances and number of touches and improve end-to-end process. In logistics, especially, we will strengthen our collaboration with other companies, implement cost savings and address issues facing the logistics industry as a whole. Through these initiatives, we aim to ensure a stable and cost-efficient supply while improving ROIC. Key measures include consolidating locations, maximizing the use of existing facilities and optimizing product inventory management. Slide 20 highlights our back office and IT initiatives. We are implementing various measures to achieve further data-driven management as set out in Vision 2028. In 2025, we will further accelerate the fundamental review of our operations, standardize business processes and expand automation by leveraging technology. We will reduce operating costs by making appropriate use of the capacity created through increased operational efficiency and bringing outsourced work in-house where appropriate. Strengthening collaboration with our partners is also key to promoting transformation. One example is NeoArc, a joint venture with Accenture, established in January 2024. Its initiatives are progressing as planned. By combining our knowledge and experience with Accenture's expertise, we aim to further increase efficiency through a strong collaborative framework. Through these initiatives, we expect to generate JPY 1.5 billion in benefits from the transformation of our back office and IT functions in 2025. In addition, initiatives are also underway to strengthen our digital infrastructure for the mid to long term. Alongside efforts to strengthening development of digital human resources, we are working to integrate various IT systems and data across the company and are building a new technology foundation that will lead to sustainable growth. Slide 21 outlines our initiatives to improve ROIC and increase shareholder value. In 2025, we plan to invest JPY 35 billion, keeping it within the range of depreciation, as stated in Vision 2028. With a focus on return on investment and ROIC, we will prioritize investments that drive mid- to long-term profit growth. This includes a JPY 5.3 billion increase from the previous year, mainly from sales equipment and IT-related areas. We remain committed to optimize our balance sheet. We will achieve optimal product inventory allocation and reduction -- and fixed asset reduction through transformation. We will also work to make effective use of existing assets. We will appropriately allocate the cash flow generated through commercial activities and balance sheet optimization to growth investments and profit returns. Towards increasing shareholder value, we will strengthen shareholder returns based on the comprehensive shareholder return program announced last year. For dividends, we plan to increase for the second consecutive year. This year, the planned annual dividend per share will rise JPY 4 to JPY 57. Our share buyback program has been progressing as planned since the November announcement. By the end of January, we have repurchased JPY 7.4 billion in shares and the remaining JPY 22.6 billion will be acquired by the end of October 2025. As part of our comprehensive shareholder return program, we have decided to introduce a shareholder benefit program. By using Coke ON drink tickets, we will provide shareholder benefits at a lower cost, controlling shipping fees. We will work to increase our corporate value by expanding our investor base and attracting more fans to our company. Calin will now share his summary. Calin, to you.

Thank you, Bjorn. And Calin here again. Let me conclude today's presentation, and please turn to Slide 22. Once again, 2024 was a great year for us. Many key initiatives delivered results, and we achieved business income 6x that of the previous year. This was a major step forward in reaching our profit targets for Vision 2028. This year, we will further progress towards our goals for Vision 2028. As a year for achieving both profit growth and strengthening foundation, we will build on the achievements and strong results of 2024, aim to generate JPY 20 billion in business income while further reinforcing the foundation for sustainable profitable growth. And as part of this effort, we will implement further price revisions in major categories within the year. Beyond short-term business improvements, we focused on sustainable profitable growth through strengthening our growth foundation, driving transformation and implementing measures to improve profitability such as price revisions. Furthermore, we now have structures to allocate management resources to measures aimed at improving capital efficiency and strengthening shareholder returns. This represents steady progress in our efforts from a mid- to long-term perspective. We stay fully committed to achieving the Vision 2028 profit target which emphasize profitability and capital efficiency. We will continue this trend beyond 2025 and increase confidence in reaching our goals and taking further steps towards maximizing shareholder value. That concludes our presentation today. Thank you very much. Now I would like to invite Gomi-san back to take us through the question-and-answer session.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Calin-san. This Q&A session is for analysts and investors. For members of the media, please refrain from asking questions at this time as we will have a separate session later today. Simultaneous interpretation will be used, so please be sure to ask questions in the language of the participating line, and one question at a time. Now I would like to start the Q&A session. Operator, please begin.

[Interpreted] [Operator Instructions] I have one request, so we would like to move on to the Q&A session. I will call out the person's name. The first question is from Ihara-san, UBS Securities.

[Interpreted] This is Ihara from UBS Securities. So I have one question to ask. 2025 and your sales strategy is what you have explained. And this year, what are you going to do to win? That's my question. And from my perspective, for your company, I think this year is going to be a really important year. You must win. And looking at the competitors, they are dealing with the commodity challenges. That's all the challenges. It's very difficult for them to invest in the marketing and market itself. But different from the other companies, I think you have the procurement ability and you are able to deal with those issues, but also invest in the market as well. In 2023, 2024, you have increased your share. By 2025, if you're able to increase your share again, I'm sure that everyone, like investors, everyone thinks that, oh, the company has really changed. So therefore -- so what are you going to be the strategy for this year in order to grow your share? And what is your pillar in your sales strategies? That's my question.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Ihara-san. So this year, the sales strategy and how we're going to deal with the growing shares. I would like to ask Alex to respond.

Ihara-san, Alex here. As it relates to the 2025, certainly it's a year of building a balanced growth of volume while building and strengthening our foundations. Our strategy largely remains driving profit growth according to the 4 pillars that were outlined in the prepared remarks. We will continue to enhance portfolio edge. Second one, we'll continue to drive our vending transformation. We will further drive profitability-focused commercial activities. And lastly, strengthening customer engagement and customer management. This strategy largely is behind accelerating our profitable growth while strengthening our foundations.

Maybe, Ihara-san, it's Bjorn, just a quick build on that. You will also see from our prepared remarks and the waterfall, we are, rightly, as you say, investing in commercial strategies focused around the pillars that Alex just laid out. So we believe investing now for the future, especially from a customer and consumer standpoint, will pay off according to our Vision 2028. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Ihara-san, that is our response.

[Interpreted] Yes. And may I continue?

[Interpreted] Go ahead.

[Interpreted] So what is the type of investment are you going to make? And what is the return that you're going to enjoy? I want some specifics. And this year, in order for you to grow your share, I think one is Ayataka, but other than Ayataka, you need to be able to enjoy growth, but can I ask about the brand strategy? How you're going to increase your share, with like which brand growth?

[Interpreted] Well, thank you for your additional questions. So what is the investment, the type of investment? And also what is our brand strategy to capture share? So who would like to answer?

Ihara-san, starting with Ayataka, as you know, we had a strong growth of Ayataka in 2024, and the growth momentum is continuing in 2025 as well, too. And we do have holistic and strong plans in place to continue the growth of Ayataka starting with, one, which is to continue the brand edge growth of Ayataka, but at the same time, to build habit with the consumers providing Ayataka with onigiri as a ritual to drink Ayataka together with the soul food of Japan, which is onigiri. So by creating habit, we not only recruit new users, but we also build habit for a long-term sustainable growth. So that's the plan against Ayataka: to maintain the strong growth momentum. At the same time, we have identified our top categories. We will continue to focus further to support the non-Ayataka brands such as Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is definitely our competitive edge as a company and we'll continue the growth momentum on Coca-Cola through doing 2 things, which is building meals occasions and building uplift as a brand credential to give consumers a reason to drink Coca-Cola. So that's our second big priority in our top categories. And then also in coffee is a category where we have the right to win, and we'll continue to focus on the growth of coffee through Georgia. I hope that answers your question.

[Interpreted] From JPMorgan Securities, Fujiwara-san is on.

[Interpreted] This is Fujiwara from JPMorgan. So I have a couple of questions. First question, it is about the achievement of Vision 2028. So you are planning to hit the JPY 20 billion. So you have to fill the gap in coming 3 years. So I believe that you can ensure the cost reductions through the transformation. But not only this year, but going forward, you are likely to get through those like channel mix deterioration. So from next year onwards, JPY 20 billion to JPY 35 billion gap is to be closed by which kind of driver and strategy is the kind of things that we would like to understand.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Fujiwara-san. In order for us to achieve the Vision 2028, I would like Calin-san to explain about which kind of driver we have to fill that gap.

Fujiwara-san, thanks for the question and the continuous interest in our business. Before I'm going -- before going to talk about the future and the continuation of our Vision 2028, I just want to say a big thank you to the shareholders that trust in us. And as well, I want to say a big thank you to the people who understand and appreciate our business performance to date. I just want to remind everyone, and I'm sure that our shareholders appreciate that, is the fact that this business 36 months ago was making minus JPY 15 billion loss, while we are targeting now a plus JPY 20 billion. So it's a swing of JPY 35 billion in 36 months, which I think is an unprecedented exponential recovery for any type of business, let aside beverage business in Japan. This is a trajectory which make us extremely, extremely proud, and it gives us confidence that we are working and we are leveraging the right things on our journey towards our Vision 2028. Now going on for our Vision 2028, we laid down a plan going up to JPY 45 billion to JPY 50 billion. So yes, there is a journey to go through it. And just this vision, we are fully committed to it. And it's our North Star. It's our guiding route every moment and in every action that we are performing. So we have various levers to drive growth. We definitely bet to, if you want, the future because we consider that it's very healthy for the industry. We bet on pricing. We are seeing our consumer willing to pay the price for bottled beverages. As an industry, the industry is facing challenges from yen devaluation, from commodities pressure, energy as well. So it's only logical that pricing, it will be a tool to mitigate and to create value within the industry, not only for this year but for the years to come. And we announced this at the beginning of our journey on this Vision 2028 that pricing is an important element. The second big element of it, it is the portfolio edge which, as mentioned explicitly in our plan for 2025, that will stay for the following years of the vision. And in close collaboration with CCJC, we will drive that pillar as an extremely important element of our journey. I just want to remind everyone that Coca-Cola system in Japan have generated billion-dollar brands, as we call them, over decades, and is sustaining the pace of innovation and as well the growth. And an example being Ayataka that we launched it last year. We have as well announced further transformation. And we have moved from just simple reorganization of the 12 bottlers system or, if you want to call it, more than 100 legal entities containing that bottling system in the past. We are moving from capturing synergies in that segment to capturing now real value and growth from transforming from a good bottler to call it like this, to a world-class bottler. So all what we are working on is on commercial processes re-engineering, on supply chain processes re-engineering, on back-office processes re-engineering, all of them supported by digitalization and investment in technology. And you can see that explicitly, and we are happy to share our mix of investments in technology and our commitment to it to be used in the future. Let aside the pillars for growth of the business, I would want to highlight our continuous focus on returning value to our shareholders. We have started this year, and we have announced for the journey of Vision 2028, a progressive dividend policy, which will significantly add value to our shareholders; as well for this year, share buyback program of about JPY 30 billion, which is in a full swing of execution this year. So that's something that we are considering for the future as one of the tools. And we are going to keep an eye continuously to make sure that we are returning to shareholders as we are progressing the business. I'm very happy to say that having in mind our recent track record, we are very confident with our future. And again, in the closure, I want to say thank you to all of you for the interest in our business and of course, looking forward, working together for the years to come of our Vision 2028.

[Interpreted] I have one follow-up question. With regard to the Vision 2028, by 2028, you said you're going to achieve more than 5% in ROIC. But in recent days, as you rightly put it, you have reinforced the shareholders' return program. So I believe that you are on that track. But in 2028, how about ROE? The ROE target, what will be the target value of the ROE?

[Interpreted] Thank you for follow-up question. Your question is about the thinking behind the ROE for 2028. So Bjorn, would you like to pick it up, please?

Thank you for the question. Yes, you're absolutely right. In our Vision 2028, we aim to deliver ROIC of plus 5%, and the plus is very important. As you heard Calin and me say many times over in these calls, Vision 2028 is a milestone, but we, as management, do not aim to end there. We want to continue pushing the whole concept of return on investments for everything we do. Return on equity is also important. We're not setting specific targets for that externally. We are solely focused on the invested capital to drive, again, returns, whether that is marketing investments, vending investments, manufacturing investments or people investments for that matter. I hope that answers your question. Thank you.

[Interpreted] SMBC Nikko Securities, Takagi-san.

This is Takagi. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Please go ahead.

[Interpreted] So my first question. Talking about the price revisions, in your case, you already mentioned that you are going to implement another price hike this year. But talking about profitability, what is the likelihood of achieving the price revision that comes with profitability or achieving higher profitability? Do you think that you will aim for higher profitability? Because over the past 3 years, Japan has been experiencing inflation. So I think you have various data points about the price revision impact in analysis and so on. So I think that your next price revision will be based on all those insights you've accumulated over the past 3 years in a number of price revisions. And I think -- do you have any aim to take leadership in price revision in the industry? Do you want to become an industry leader in price revision? While you aim for higher profitability, do you think that you will be able to increase profitability with another price revision?

[Interpreted] Bjorn-san, please take this question.

Thank you, Takagi-san, for the question. Let me start, and then I'll hand it over to Alex for some more details on it. But overall, price is implemented for 2 reasons, as we said very clearly in our Vision 2028: one, to make sure we cover inflation, inflation including, for instance, commodity increases; and secondly, to improve margins for us and hopefully also for the industry. So everything we do around pricing is targeted around profitability. It will vary by channel. It will vary by customer. It will vary by package. But all is aimed to increase profitability and 100% consistent with what we set out in our Vision 2028 strategy to improve profitability. As to the different initiatives, as such, I'll hand that quickly over to Alex to help add a little to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Bjorn. Just probably want to go back to, obviously, pricing. When you look at particularly last year, I think pricing is progressing as we expected. Looking at 2024, Q4 shipment prices are going with the new wholesale price. So we are able to drive wholesale price increase. Our volumes are positive for the quarter, which, I think, is a positive thing. We need to remember that we are cycling a low base of volume from last year. Nevertheless, I think, as I said, the wholesale revenue per case is increasing. We're driving revenue ahead of our volume. And we have done so for the last 3 years. So that gives us confidence on our ability to drive price increase. We are taking and we have announced further price increases in 2025 across major categories. And we believe pricing is one of the levers to shape healthier industry dynamics in Japan. And so I hope that answers.

[Interpreted] And what I would like to know is about the future. So I think that I would like to know your confidence level of profitability or better profitability with another price revision. So from this year and beyond, what is your confidence level in profitability while you implement pricing?

So much -- and thank you so much for your continuous interest in our business. Well, let me be bluntly honest and straight to you. Well, we have included, with our best knowledge and best experiences in the past, the forecast of pricing for the following years of 2028. But this is billions and billions of dollars question, as it's said in English, meaning we don't know what the future would bring to all of us because of the macroeconomics realities, global uncertainties. So it's very hard, don't say impossible, to predict things like forecasts, commodity pricing, and we are not gambling. What we can say is that we are committed to do for this year for sure and for next year as well, all the right measures that are healthy for the industry and for our business. And we believe that pricing in Japan, it can be a continuous tool for a healthy environment, not only for the beverage industry but for the economy in general. Hence, assuming that the Japanese economy will improve and move to a healthier pacing for the future, it's to be assumed that this is a very healthy tool and a fair assumption to say that this is going to be around. Now about our commitment and ask your question that if we take leadership into pricing, well, let me just remind you that we were the first one to put the prices up in 2019, in May, in future consumption packages. And unfortunately, nobody in the industry at that time followed. We have continued with our commitments couple of years later when corona crisis was over. And finally, I think the entire industry moved to better senses and understanding of the realities, probably responding to the new pressures in the market. And now we are able to have a healthy pricing environment. We believe that we are a rational industry. We are making rational decisions for our companies and for the future. But speaking about our company, we are staying commitment to our Vision 2028 journey, which we remind everyone that we are on track and in some aspects over delivering. I hope that answers the question. Thank you so much, and looking forward to seeing you around.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. Takagi-san, thank you for your question. So that's all we have for the questions. And now we would like to close the Q&A session. And the contents of today's earnings call will be posted on our website. And if you have further questions, please contact the IR team of the company. Thank you very much for your participation. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]