Libstar Holdings Limited (LBR.JO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the interim results presentation of Libstar Holdings Limited for the 6 months ended 30 June 2025. A special word of welcome to our Board members, the investment community, media and our colleagues joining us via the webcast this morning. This presentation will follow our usual format. I'll begin with an overview of our results and strategic progress. Terri Ladbrooke, our CFO, will then take us through the financial review in detail. After that, Executive Director, Cornel Lodewyks will unpack the performance of our categories. I'll then close by highlighting our focus areas for the second half and the group outlook before we take questions. We are pleased to present a solid set of first half results. FY '25 is not just another year. It marks a turning point for our business. These results show clear progress on the path of our broader transformation. We are responding with sharp execution, transparency and a steadfast commitment to delivering sustainable value. Over the past 2 years, our strategy has reduced complexity and fragmentation through a series of decisive actions. Growth is being unlocked through focused category wins, supported by innovation across our own brands and private label offerings in both existing and new product segments. Our sustainability efforts extend beyond traditional ESG projects, embedding resilience directly into our operations. Each pillar is underpinned by measurable outcomes, ensuring transparency and accountability. To place our results in market context, in the retail channel, the total defined market for our products showed a weakening value growth trend, as shown by the blue line on the slide. This reflects ongoing food inflation pressures and constrained household incomes and spending patterns. By contrast, the wholesale market shown in green on the slide has proven more resilient. In response, Libstar focused on safeguarding and growing market share for Lancewood, Denny, Goldcrest, Cape Herb & Spice and private label products across local and international markets. Gross profit margins were enhanced through effective raw material procurement, improved capacity utilization, strategic pricing and rigorous cost management. Our innovation pipeline continued to drive the growth of our categories and channels with a notable expansion of our Red Lion branded offering in the wholesale channel, among other range extensions. Finally, we remain focused on strong sustained cash generation, achieved by normalizing dairy inventories and applying disciplined capital allocation. Against this market and consumer backdrop, the group achieved meaningful progress across our simplification, growth and sustainability objectives with a notable shift in focus towards growth, aimed at accelerating earnings momentum and long-term stakeholder value creation. Overall, these results reflect improved operational and financial momentum, driven by customer and channel growth as well as ongoing operating model and portfolio simplification. Our ability to intensify our growth focus was enabled by the further streamlining of our portfolio and operating model in line with our strategy to operate in value-added food categories. We completed the establishment of a shared service structure in the Wet Condiments cluster during H1, which is already driving stronger trading, customer development and procurement outcomes. The integration of the Rialto Meal Ingredients Retail division, Ambassador Foods Snacks division and Cape Coastal Honey Spreads division also progressed in line with schedule and will be completed by year-end. As a reminder, these businesses serve the same retail customer base. Therefore, the integration is aimed at providing improved customer alignment and accelerated category growth, driven by a unified management team. Our focus on growth extends beyond categories and channels. It is equally driven by building team capabilities and fostering a high-performance culture. This includes focused programs to sharpen performance management, clarify team ways of working and reinforce our values, brand and customer promises. We are particularly proud of launching our Edge Leadership program in June, a 12-month course for middle and senior managers in critical functional areas. The Ambient Products category once again delivered a standout performance. This was driven by excellent growth in Wet Condiments, supported by strong demand for contract manufactured sources, retail channel gains across Goldcrest, Denny, Safari and private label sauces, pestos and vinegars as well as the continued improvement in baking aids distribution, service levels and procurement. In dry condiments, international listings across multiple geographies fueled growth of more than 40% for the Cape Herb & Spice brand. And in meal ingredients and baking, resilient food service demand, particularly for wraps in the QSR channel contributed to a strong top line performance. Turning to perishable products. In dairy, Lancewood gained further retail market share and grew volumes in pre-packed hard cheese, soft cheese and yogurt. A more balanced milk supply demand dynamic helped to normalize inventories. Production costs were well controlled, but lower production volumes due to the higher opening stock levels led to some under-recoveries. In addition, a downward revaluation of cheese inventory, which is linked to the milk price, weighed on margins and the bottom line. With inventories now normalized and milk pricing stable, we expect a stronger margin performance in the second half. In value-added meats, growth was supported by strong demand for fresh and frozen chicken products in both retail and food service channels, although this did place additional pressure on our capacity as highlighted in our June trading update. Our capacity constraints are being addressed through targeted capital investment in the second half of the year. Finally, improved yields at our Gauteng facility contributed to a stronger top line performance from our Denny Fresh Mushrooms business. A resilient trading performance, combined with lower working capital investment delivered a cash conversion ratio of over 100%. This further strengthened our balance sheet with reduced gearing, improved interest cover and further flexibility to support the group's growth initiatives. On the important theme of sustainability, we expanded our use of green energy and initiated a project to cut scope 2 emissions through wheeling arrangements. Lancewood's water treatment project marks the beginning of our long-term strategy to enable water reuse. This initiative enhances cost efficiency, decreases dependence on municipal infrastructure and reduces operational risk. In addition, procurement initiatives remain on track to deliver ZAR 10 million in annualized savings by year-end. In summary, group revenue increased by 6.7%, driven by a 4.1% rise in volumes and a 2.6% contribution from price and mix. Our volume figures are shown after adjusting for extraordinary items related to bulk milk, water and vinegar sales. Specifically, group volumes grew 7.1% due to the on-sale of raw milk to industrial channel customers, which helped balance inventories, but impacted margins in the category. This was offset by a 1.7% decline from lower water sales following the closure of Chamonix Spring Water last year and a 2.8% decline from reduced industrial vinegar sales in Q1. Gross profit margins expanded to 21.6%, up 90 basis points on the prior year. Normalized EBITDA rose 7.5% while normalized HEPS and basic HEPS increased by 15.4% and 23.7%, respectively. The gearing ratio reduced to 1.3x and as mentioned earlier, cash conversion exceeded 100%. Adjusted return on invested capital for the 12 months to 30 June came in at 9.1%, reflecting the weaker second half performance in the prior year FY '24, but on track for a better full year performance. Importantly, this is the group's strongest first half performance in EBITDA, gross margin, cash conversion and gearing since H1 2022. A result, we are proud of and attribute to the disciplined execution of our simplification growth and sustainability strategy. This marks the beginning of our transformation, and we remain committed to demonstrating meaningful progress with every step forward. At Libstar, innovation remains at the heart of what we do. Some exciting H1 launches include dine-ins ready-to-heat soups, CANI's rebrand and special Easter range, Red Lion's value-driven range for the wholesale channel as well as a number of new retail offerings from Rialto. We are also celebrating 21 award wins so far with a standout achievement from Cape Herb & Spice and Lancewood at the inaugural South African Food and Beverage awards in partnership with the Aurora International Taste Challenge. These prestigious wins are a testament to our unwavering commitment to quality, innovation and delivering exceptional flavor experiences across our brands.

Good morning. Before moving into the detail, I would like to provide context to the restatements on the prior period numbers. The successful sale of the Chet Chemicals division in 2024 has resulted in the comparative information being restated to reflect the operation as discontinued. Secondly, the follow-on impact of the reclassification restatements done at year-end 2024 had a final limited impact on the comparable results in the current period. As was the year in reclassifications, there is no impact on profitability, earnings or cash flows. Finally, the group made an enhancement to the face of the income statement in 2024, removing capital items from operating expenses, other gains and losses and other income to reflect on its own line. Moving to the face of the income statement. Revenue is up 6.7% on the prior year, with price/mix improvements up 2.6% and volume up 4.1%, excluding the impact of extraordinary items previously noted. The group's gross profit margin increased by 0.9 percentage points from 20.7% to 21.6%, reflecting improvements in both super categories. Capital items include gains and losses on the disposal of property, plant and equipment, insurance proceeds and impairments. In the current period, 4 customer contracts with a book value of ZAR 14.3 million were impaired within the Ambient Products category after the reassessment of their respective carrying values. These customer contracts related to Dickon Hall Foods as well as bulk tea customers following the integration of Khoisan Gourmet into Cape Herb & Spice. Operating expenses increased by 9.4% on the prior period. This above-inflation increase was driven by investments in our brands through marketing and promotional activity and investment in our people structures specifically in Wet Condiments, which is driving the outperformance of the subcategory as well as in the snacking division to address operational inefficiencies. Additionally, the operating expense line includes additional costs associated with our Edge Leadership Program, enhanced internal communications function and culture rollout program. Central office costs have been well contained and are expected to end the year in line with the prior year, reflecting a less than 1% year-on-year growth rate since 2021, notwithstanding the additional strategic initiatives driven by the center around culture, training and procurement efficiencies. The group's normalized operating profit and normalized earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, increased by 16.7% and 7.5%, respectively. The growth was underpinned by positive operating leverage and an improvement in margins. Net finance costs increased by 7%. Finance costs on interest-bearing debt decreased by 10.8% due to lower average debt levels and the decrease in the group's average lending rate during the period. This was offset by finance charges incurred on lease liabilities, which increased by 34.1% due to renewal period remeasurements of 2 major leases in H2 of 2024. The group's effective tax rate was 30.7%, driven by one-off deferred tax adjustments related to intangible assets. Moving to the balance sheet. The net working capital information is shown for continuing operations across all periods for comparability. Net working capital decreased by 1 day to a total of 68 days. As a percentage of revenue, this decreased from 18% to 17.6%. The decrease was driven by improved debtor days as well as creditors days, which increased by fewer days in inventory. The increase in inventory days was driven by an increased stock holding in dry condiments due to the uncertainty around shipments in the U.S. This was offset by the reduction in inventory days in the dairy subcategory due to the significant efforts put into balancing the milk supply. The group's target remains between 16% and 18%, with projects currently underway to reduce inventory holdings of bulk tea and spices in the dry condiments subcategory. Moving to the right-hand side of the slide. The group increased its capital expenditure by 4.1% to ZAR 83.7 million at 1.4% of revenue. This is below the group's target of 2% to 3% of revenue. However, the group expects to be within the range by year-end with the current pipeline of projects approved. Capital projects included a ZAR 23.6 million investment in capacity-enhancing projects consisting of ZAR 7.7 million in Baking to increase capacity in the Parbake facility and Hot Cross Bun lines. ZAR 7.5 million in facility upgrades in the Wet Condiments subcategory, ZAR 3.9 million in facility upgrades and new lines to increase chicken capacity in the Value-added Meats subcategory and ZAR 2.9 million in additional generator capacity and facility upgrades in the dairy subcategory. Additionally, ZAR 41.7 million was invested in replacement and maintenance projects with a further ZAR 19.1 million spent on quality and improvement projects. Looking at our key ratios, the group's gearing ratio improved from 1.6x to 1.3x and the interest cover ratio improved from 5.1x to 5.7x. The continued downward trend in gearing and the strengthening of interest cover underscore the group's ongoing financial resilience and capacity to support future growth. The group's return on invested capital reduced from 9.6% to 9.1%, impacted by the weaker H2 performance in 2024. However, showing improvement on the year-end ROIC of 8.6%, with further improvement expected for the full year result. Whilst the group's long-term target remains WACC plus 2%, the first hurdle is to achieve WACC, which the group expects by 2027. We achieved an exceptional cash conversion ratio of 110%, significantly exceeding our 65% target underpinned by improved trading and the release of working capital. As emphasized by Charl, this is the group's strongest first half results in EBITDA, gross margin, cash conversion and gearing since 2022. This strong financial performance underscores the meaningful progress we are making in executing our strategic priorities. Thank you.

Good morning. Starting with the underlying margin performances for the half year against the group's stated targets for 2025, the Ambient Products category achieved a normalized EBITDA margin of 11.7%. This performance aligns towards the midpoint of the group's 2025 target range of 11% to 13%. This improvement compared to the previous year reflects the effective implementation of production efficiency initiatives, increased demand and favorable product mix, especially within the wet and dry condiments subcategories. We expect the full year margin to be within the stated target band. The Perishable Products category recorded a margin of 5.6%, remaining below the revised target range of 7% to 9%. Results were primarily affected by the carryover impacts of cyclical pressures in the dairy sub category and the impact of foot-and-mouth disease from FY '24. However, it's important to note that historically higher EBITDA margins are achieved in the second half of the year due to seasonality and favorable changes in product mix. We expect a full year margin of between 6.5% and 7%, slightly lower than the stated target band, but a significant improvement on H1 margins. The household and personal care category closed the period with a margin of 5.5%, down from 8.1% in the prior year. This performance continues to reflect heightened competitive intensity in household cleaning products and ongoing cost pressure. The HPC category remains under active performance review. Turning our attention to the Ambient Products category, which contributes 50% of total group revenue. Highlights include strong performance in the Wet Condiment subcategory, supported by robust demand across both retail and industrial channels. Retail volumes grew by 7.5%, with notable gains across Denny, Goldcrest, Safari and private label products. Gross margins improved, driven by operational efficiencies in Wet Condiments and the continued growth of the Cape Herb & Spice brand in the Dry Condiments export channel. As for key challenges, following a period of operational challenges in the Snacking subcategory, this year marks a structural reset for the Meal Ingredients, Snacks and Spreads divisions, which will be integrated into a single business by year-end. During the period, the margins in the group's snacking operations were adversely impacted by timing delay in recovery of input costs from market pricing. We expect lower full year margins from the business as a result. However, management is confident that the renewed focus on product innovation from H2 will support sustained, improved margins from FY '26 onwards. In the Wet Condiments subcategory, capacity constraints in bulk vinegar supplied during Q1 impacted the industrial channel. Production has since improved significantly and further capacity expansions is planned for H2. In the Dry Condiments subcategory, private label volumes in the U.K. and Australia were negatively affected by the nonrenewal of certain discounted retailer tenders. Looking at the category performance, there was improvement across all metrics. Revenue grew by 6% to ZAR 2.95 billion, supported by a volume growth of 8.9%, this was partly offset by a 2.9% decline in price and mix, driven by as strong as our currency in the import and export businesses. Gross profit margin improved to 26.7%, up 1.5 percentage points. Normalized EBITDA increased by 10.6% to ZAR 343.8 million, reflecting positive operating leverage achieved. EBITDA margin improved to 11.7% from 11.2% last year. RONA improved by 1.9 percentage points to 17.7%. Looking at the subcategories in more detail. The Wet Condiment subcategory delivered revenue growth of 16.8% with an EBITDA increase of over 100%, this significant performance was supported by a strong demand in both retail and industrial channels as well as improved procurement and production efficiencies. Revenue in the Meal, Ingredients, Snacks and Spread subcategory increased by 2.1%, reflecting volume growth across retail and food services channels. However, EBITDA decreased by 13.8% as margin pressures in snacking impacted profitability. Dry Condiments revenue declined by 2%, though EBITDA grew by 4.9%, supported by a positive product mix change, driven by new own brand listings and expansions into new international markets, as previously mentioned. The Baking subcategory recorded revenue growth of 11.3%. Despite the strong retail and food service performance, EBITDA declined by 8.3% due to the production inefficiencies in the Parbake and artisanal factories. These inefficiencies are being actively addressed through a combination of strengthening management structures, improved ways of working in teams and focused capital investments. Overall, the Ambient Products category reflects positive operational and trading momentum. Moving now to the Perishable Products category, which contributes 49% of group revenue. Highlights included continued growth in core dairy categories. Volumes of cheese, butter and yogurt increased by 2.3%, with the Lancewood retail brand gaining 1.3% market share in the cheese category and 0.6% in the yogurt category. The value-added meat subcategory delivered revenue growth of 12.2% in the retail channel with strong performance from fresh and frozen chicken products. Challenges include lower volumes of retail fresh milk and industrial whey powder. The impact of foot-and-mouth disease and on-sale of raw milk, which had a significant impact on margins in the Dairy sub-category. Although an improvement in the prior year, fresh mushrooms remains loss making. Looking at the category performance. Revenue increased by 7.6% to ZAR 2.93 billion, with price and mix contributing 8% and volume down slightly by 0.4%. Gross profit margin improved to 16% compared with 15.6% last year. Normalized EBITDA increased by 4% to ZAR 165.6 million. EBITDA margin softened slightly to 5.6% from 5.8% in the prior year. RONA reduced by 1.1 percentage points to 9%. The dairy subcategories revenue grew by 6.4% with an EBITDA decrease of 4.2%. This performance was supported by core category growth. However, cyclical pressures, cost under recoveries and the impact of foot-and-mouth disease affected margins. It's important to note that the restrictions and the surveillance for foot-and-mouth disease in the Eastern Cape disease management area have been lifted since 4 July 2025, with no infections reported since October 2024. No production inefficiencies or costs related to the outbreak experienced in H1 are expected in the second half of the year. Value-added Meats achieved revenue growth of 10.3% with EBITDA up 13.9%, supported by increased demand for value-added chicken products in both retail and food services channels. Convenience meals grew revenue by 1.9%. However, EBITDA reduced by 12.9%, reflecting higher operational costs, mainly a function of timing despite resilient retail sales. Fresh mushrooms recorded revenue growth of 7.6%, with EBITDA up 42.7%, supported by improved yields at our Gauteng facility. Whilst management expected a better performance from the dairy subcategory in H1, a number of factors supported expectations of a significantly improved H2 performance, including a stable supply dynamic with limited further price movements and optimal stock levels. Overall, the Perishable products categories, profitability is expected to recover in the second half, driven by favorable seasonal trends and improved supply dynamics. Finally, turning to Household and Personal Care, which now contributes 1% of group revenue. The retail and wholesale channels revenue declined by 0.1%, and the industrial and contract manufacturing channel by 3.1%, whereas the export channel grew by 5.1%. Looking at the category performance, revenue declined by 0.1% to ZAR 76.1 million with a volume increase of 4% and a price/mix of minus 4.1%. Gross profit margin improved by 3.8 percentage points to 34.4%. Normalized EBITDA decreased by 32.7% to ZAR 4.2 million. Our focus for the remainder of the year will be to stabilize the financial base of Contactim whilst continuing to evaluate exit options. In conclusion, the group delivered a strong performance, reflecting decisive progress against our strategic priorities, outstanding growth across core food categories more than offset isolated headwinds in selected subcategories, reinforcing the strength and the resilience of our portfolio. I will now hand over to Charl to take us through our H2 focus areas as well as the group outlook.

As I emphasized earlier, this is just the start as we make further progress in our strategy execution. In the next section, we will outline the most significant levers at our disposal to sustain and build on the momentum created in the first half of the year. The most significant elements of our portfolio and operating model simplification will be delivered by year-end. Firstly, following extensive efforts to divest the fresh mushroom operations as a going concern in Gauteng, Cape Town and KZN, no viable transaction has materialized. Accordingly, to stem further losses the Cape Town Phesantekraal facility will be closed towards the end of the year. The group will unlock the value from property assets in Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal while maintaining operations at the profitable Johannesburg Deodar site. Secondly, at the start of H2, the group divested at 60% shareholding in Umatie, a producer of fresh and frozen baby food as we continue to sharpen our focus on categories and channels with meaningful scale and stronger value creation prospects. Thirdly, a significant contract manufacturing arrangement in Dickon Hall Foods will terminate on 31 March 2026. As a result, the Board has approved the relocation of the remaining business of Dickon Hall Foods into the Montagu Foods business by 30 June 2026. The business will benefit from a leaner shared service structure. This decision furthermore, is consistent with the group's strategy to continue to drive sustainable growth in the Wet Condiment subcategory. We will continue to explore exit mechanisms for our remaining HPC asset, Contactim while ensuring the delivery of an improved and sustainable financial base. Finally, as previously noted, the integration of Rialto Meal Ingredients Retail division, Ambassador Foods Snacks division and Cape Coastal Honey Spreads division will be completed, establishing a single business, unified management team and a shared service structure. Through a series of purposeful actions over a period of 2 years, Libstar will, by year-end, have transformed from a 5 category multi-unit group into a significantly streamlined 2 category subcategory focused business, led by a smaller leadership team with greater strategic alignment, sharper operational execution and a more efficient cost structure. Various growth initiatives are well underway underpinning the positive momentum reflected in these results despite a tough consumer landscape. These include the continued rollout of international listings of our Cape Herb & Spice brand across both Dry and Wet condiment subcategories. I'm also pleased to announce that Libstar has been appointed as a trusted partner to General Mills to grow the Haagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Pillsbury and Old El Paso brands in South Africa. This represents a significant win for our principal branded portfolio, and we are proud of the confidence placed in our capabilities to drive growth of these iconic brands. Our innovation pipeline remains strong across all categories with clear growth priorities in the wholesale channel through the Red Lion brand expansion, in the food service channel with approximately ZAR 20 million in annualized sales from the balance of the Ambient Products category and in the retail channel through the continued expansion of our brands and private label portfolio. Our procurement drive has yielded 2 important benefits, the unlocking of over ZAR 10 million in annualized savings on common spend items and the strengthening of our preferential procurement credentials in line with our ESG strategy. More projects will follow in H2. Finally, a few comments on the U.S. tariff situation. As a business exporting approximately ZAR 350 million worth of finished goods annually to the U.S., we have been working closely with our trading partners to navigate the impact of 30% tariffs. Our mitigation strategy is multipronged, expanding our rest of world distribution through new listings, including the continued growth of our Cape Herb & Spice brand, while also supporting our U.S. partners through a mix of product reconfigurations, shared tariff burdens and selective pricing adjustments where unavoidable. Through these initiatives, our expectation is to limit the adverse bottom line operating profit impact of these tariffs to less than ZAR 10 million in the current financial year. The situation remains fluid, and we continue to work tirelessly to retain and develop our U.S. market exposure. The region remains profitable, and we will continue to investigate mechanisms through which we can protect our market presence. As an update on our value unlock initiative and as announced this morning with our results, the group has received nonbinding indicative expressions of interest from parties interested in acquiring 100% of the issued share capital of the company. The Board wishes to emphasize that these engagements remain at an early stage and that there can be no certainty that these engagements will ultimately result in a binding offer to shareholders. I wish to also emphasize that the execution of our strategy, including our capital allocation priorities and the day-to-day running of the group remains wholly unaffected by this process. As a team, we remain fully committed to delivering a strong H2 performance through the execution of the plans we shared with you this morning. In closing, in a global environment shaped by ongoing trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainty alongside a persistently constrained local consumer market, Libstar remains steadfast in our focus on resilience, operational simplification and long-term sustainable growth. Notably, the downward value growth trend that we spoke about earlier in the presentation in the group's defined retail product basket has persisted beyond the reporting period. Whilst we do not operate unaffected, our full year path to growth on the prior year remains intact. Given this continued consumer pressure, the group will focus on driving operational efficiencies across our manufacturing footprint to counter rising input and logistical costs. An example of this includes incorporating our gifting production lines at Westlake into our maintenance production facility, saving additional cost in the Dry Condiment subcategory. We will accelerate our innovation and develop value-added products that meet evolving consumer needs while reinforcing price value relevance. Examples include the launch of the Red Lion stock powders and jellies in wholesale and expanding the Denny range into dry product ranges. We will also expand our export market presence by continuing to roll out the listings of the Cape Herb & Spice brand and partner with new distributors for the brand in the Middle Eastern region. We will improve our supply chain agility and resilience through enhanced sourcing strategies, an example of which includes, firstly, the pooling of sugar procurement across the group for cost saving and deeper supply collaboration. And secondly, the new packaging configurations being explored for vinegar products in conjunction with an automated packaging line to be installed in 2026. Finally, we will continue to invest in our people, sustainability and digital capabilities to strengthen long-term competitiveness and deliver responsible, sustainable growth. We are also standardizing and centralizing critical functions and systems where possible, including the implementation of a standardized payroll processing system in H2. In conclusion, despite prevailing macroeconomic headwinds, Libstar remains confident in the strength of our brands, our customer partnerships and our operational fundamentals. The group is well positioned to manage short-term volatility while continuing to build for sustainable, long-term value creation. Thank you for listening, and please stay on the line for our Q&A session. [Presentation]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for staying online for the Q&A session, which we will now open. Let's start. We've got a question from Matthew from Blue Quadrant. Here it goes. Regarding the cautionary announcement, I'm sure price is still at early stages. What do you feel is fair value that you would recommend shareholders accept?

I'll take that one. Matthew, at this point in time, it would be premature for us to express any type of fair value judgment. The process is still in a very early stage, and we will -- should this -- and there's no guarantee that this may result in a binding offer to shareholders. In any event, should there be a binding offer that will be subject to a fair and reasonable opinion that will be formulating the views of the independent Board, but only in due course.

Thank you, Charl. We've got another question or comment as well from Dirk from Camissa Asset Management. Well done on a pleasing working capital performance. How sustainable is this into H2 and beyond? Second question, is there more scope to reduce this further in Lancewood, Khoisan, please can you update us on the impact of current trends in beef sourcing, pricing and how this is likely to impact Finlar in H2. Also, I understand Denny Fresh is profitable in Gauteng, but is ROIC above WACC? And is this a category you really want to be in long term. A few questions there. I will repeat, if necessary.

I'll take the working capital one. Thank you, Dirk. So yes, we do believe that the working capital is sustainable into H2. We have specific plans around Khoisan and the bulk tea there. And the dairy category made significant progress in H1, and we do believe that they will sustain this and not increase it from there in H2. I think that covers the working capital.

I'll take the question on the beef pricing. So as well documented, I think the values that I've seen most recently, have indicated pricing increases of up to 20% in the base price of beef. It is the expectation that those prices will remain elevated for longer than initially expected. You'll recall that we have a contract manufacturing arrangement, which is unaffected by the price of beef. However, we do obviously work with our customers in order to ensure that menu prices remain as minimally affected as possible. I'll also take the question on Denny. The reality is that most likely the return on invested capital for the Denny Gauteng Facility is below that of the weighted average cost of capital. It is clear that we want to play in value-added food categories moving forward. So we will continue to place that business on performance management as we attempt to find a sustainable solution for the group.

Thank you, Charl. No further questions. We'll give it a minute in case any other questions come through. We have a question from Rene. What factors do you consider when consolidating or simplifying categories?

Good. Thank you, Rene. I appreciate the question. What -- our approach has been multipronged in many instances. We have consolidated businesses with a similar product base in order to achieve operational cost savings, but also not only to do that, but also to grow the categories by unifying the way in which we develop those categories in our NPD teams. An example of this has been the engagement that's currently ongoing within Rialto Snacks and Spreads, where they have the same business customer front-facing business, but we've needed to strengthen our operational execution in those businesses as well as our product base offering to our customers. So it's really about achieving better customer alignment at the end of the day as well as simplifying the portfolio into categories that have a similar market.

Thanks, Charl. We'll give another minute for any other questions. [Operator Instructions] Another question from Dirk. Please, can you elaborate on the dynamics that resulted in significant bulk milk being sold in the half as I haven't seen this before at Lancewood?

Yes, Dirk, it's something that happened for the first time in Lancewood's history. One must also consider the fact that we had an oversupply of raw milk last year. Those production volumes, we've seen a moderation in those volumes, but we did -- and Charl mentioned it in his presentation, we did open in very high inventory levels. So we've been forced to sell milk to industrial customers, which obviously assisted us in our improved working capital and lower inventory levels.

Thanks, Cornel. We'll give a final minutes for some more questions. No other questions at this stage. I think that concludes our Q&A session for today and our presentation. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. And please be in contact should you like to set up a meeting with management over the next few days or if you have any further questions. Thank you for your time.