Libstar Holdings Limited (LBR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the annual results presentation of Libstar Holdings Limited for the year ended 31 December 2025. It's a pleasure to have our Board members, the investment community, media and colleagues joining us via the webcast this morning. I'll start with a brief overview of our key performance highlights and then reflect on our strategic progress. Terri Ladbrooke, our CFO, will take you through the financial detail, after which, Cornel Lodewyks, Executive Director, will unpack category performance, all being returned to close with our outlook and priorities for 2026 before we move to questions. Overall, we are pleased with the progress we made in 2025. These results represent a materially improved outcome for the group and reflect consistent execution of our simplification, growth and sustainability strategy. Momentum built in the first half was sustained through the remainder of the year, supported by disciplined operations portfolio optimization and improved channel execution. Retail market conditions remain subdued throughout the year with low volume growth and moderating inflation and some pockets of deflation. Against this backdrop, the group focused on the matters within our control, protecting market share, improving margins, maintaining innovation momentum and strengthening cash generation. Group revenue grew by 8.2% for the year. Ambient products delivered growth of 7.4%, while Perishable Products grew by 9.2%. Volumes increased by 10.6%, although it is important to note that a portion of this was driven by extraordinary items, including raw milk on sales in the dairy subcategory of perishable products. Excluding extraordinary items, group revenue increased by 7.2% and group volumes increased by 3.2%, a particularly pleasing outcome in the context of limited volume growth in the market. The group's gross profit margin improved from 21.6% to 22%. Both the ambient product super category and perishable products super category delivered higher margins at 25.9% and 17.5%, respectively. These improvements reflect better capacity utilization, disciplined procurement and improved mix. Turning to the next slide. I want to spend a moment on what we see as the most important performance indicators of the year. Because taken together, they speak to both improved earnings quality and balance sheet resilience. Starting with earnings. Normalized EBIT increased by 11% to ZAR 726 million, and normalized EBITDA grew by 6.6% to just over ZAR 1.07 billion. This reflects a year of steady operational execution with improved margins, better capacity utilization and tighter cost discipline across the group. Normalized HEPS increased by 21.7% to ZAR 0.76 while basic EPS rose by 22.7% to ZAR 0.545. That improvement was driven primarily by a stronger underlying operating performance and lower finance costs. Cash generation was another key highlight. Our cash conversion ratio improved to 95%, up from 80% last year and well above our target range. This was supported by disciplined working capital management, particularly the normalization of dairy and bulk tea inventory positions. Net debt-to-EBITDA reduced to 0.9x from 1.5x last year. That puts gearing at the lower end of the target range and gives us greater strategic flexibility both to absorb volatility and to deploy capital where it can generate the best long-term returns. On returns, adjusted ROIC increased to 10.9% compared to 8.6% last year, while still marginally below our weighted average cost of capital, the gap has narrowed meaningfully and we expect further improvement as the benefits of simplification and capital discipline continue to mature. Finally, this progress is reflected in our capital returns to shareholders. The Board has approved a cash dividend of ZAR 0.28 per share, representing an increase of over 86% on the prior year. This decision reflects confidence in the sustainability of earnings and cash flows while remaining consistent with our disciplined approach to capital allocation. Taken together, these metrics signal a business that is more resilient, more focused and better positioned to deliver sustainable returns not just in 2025, but also over the medium term. During the year, the Board undertook a strategic review with a clear objective to ensure that any course of action pursued would deliver meaningful value creation for stakeholders. As part of that process, the Board and management conducted a robust and disciplined evaluation, incorporating both internal analysis and independent external perspectives to assess Libstar's intrinsic value relative to the expressions of interest received. Following careful consideration, the Board concluded that the proposals put forward did not reflect Libstar's fair value, particularly when viewed against the structural progress already delivered this year and the group's medium-term outlook. Put simply, the value gap was material. Importantly, throughout this process, our focus did not shift. Execution of the strategy remains the priority and the business continued to operate with discipline, momentum and clear accountability. Our simplification growth and sustainability strategy launched in 2023 remains firmly in place. Our objectives are clear: to deliver a sustainable, profitable growth improve cost effectiveness, enhance earnings quality and drive sustainable improvements in ROIC. We are executing this through a focused approach by simplifying the portfolio and operating model growing value-added categories and under-indexed channels and sustaining performance through cash discipline, balance sheet strength and responsible ESG practices. Since mid-2023, we have significantly reduced organizational complexity. We now operate 2 focused super categories supported by 7 coherent subcategories. We've reduced management layers, exited noncore and subscale operations, completed key integrations and applied disciplined capital and working capital management. This has created a far more focused and executable operating platform. On the previous slide, I spoke about simplification at a structural level. This slide brings that to life by showing what simplification has actually meant in practice over the past 3 years. Starting with Dry Condiments. The bulk tea business of Khoisan Gourmet has been successfully integrated into Cape Herb & Spice, strengthening scale, focus and operational leverage in that part of the portfolio. At the same time, we deliberately established a coherent wet condiment subcategory, bringing together Montagu Foods, retailer brands, Dickon Hall Foods and Cecil Vinegar. Further simplification in this category will follow in 2026 as we integrate the Dickon Hall Foods manufacturing operations with that of Montagu Foods. These businesses now operate as an integrated platform with shared capabilities, aligned leadership and clear accountability rather than a separate fragmented operations. Moving to what was previously referred to as meal ingredients, snacks and spreads. Over the period, we completed the integration of Rialto, the Retail division, Ambassador Foods and Cape Coastal Honey. Importantly, this is no longer a collection of adjacent businesses. It's now a single-focused subcategory, which we refer to as select products with a unified strategy, operating model and management team. Alongside these integrations, we made a number of decisive portfolio exits, the closure of Chamonix Water and the disposals of Umatie, Denny and Chet Chemicals were not easy decisions. but they were necessary ones. Each of these actions remove complexity, management distraction and capital drag from the group. The outcome of all of this is a far simpler structure fewer categories, fewer moving parts, clearer accountability and an operating model that allows management to spend more time driving performance and less time managing complexity. This simplification is not an end in itself. It's the foundation that enables better execution, stronger returns and more sustainable growth going forward. Before looking at where the business is today, it's important to remind ourselves of where we started. When we embarked on the One Libstar journey in 2023, we were not starting from a position of strength, between FY '19 and FY '22, the business showed decline. Over that period, normalized EBITDA declined at a compound rate of over 4% per annum. Normalized EBIT declined by over 8% per annum. HEPS and normalized net declined at close to double-digit rates. At the same time, returns deteriorated. ROIC declined from 15.6% in FY '19 to 10.4% by FY '22. Operationally, the group was fragmented, 5 categories, 17 divisions, 18 managing executives, effectively operating as a collection of business islands rather than a cohesive group. By FY '22, the indicators were unambiguous. -- earnings quality, returns and balance sheet resilience had eroded. This is the context in which the strategy was conceived. What this slide shows is what changed and why the improvement we are seeing is meaningful. Between FY '22 and FY '25, the trajectory of the business shifted. Over this period, normalized EBITDA returned to growth, normalized EBIT stabilized and began to recover, HEPS and normalized HEPS moved back onto a positive trajectory. Capital intensity moderated and ROIC recovered to above FY '22 levels, reaching 10.9% in FY '25. This didn't happen quickly, and it didn't happen without cost. FY '23 and FY '24 were transition years during which profitability remained under pressure, while difficult decisions were being taken. What makes FY '25 different and why it matters, is that this represents an important inflection point. The rest of a multiyear decline and the first clear evidence that the simplification discipline and execution are translating into sustainable financial outcomes. This is not the destination, but it is a fundamentally stronger platform, one that allows us to focus FY '26 on further simplification, margin protection, disciplined capital deployment and accelerated growth from a far more resilient base. A key enabler of this progress has been our people. We've embedded a performance-driven culture through clearer accountability, regular engagement surveys and the edge leadership program, which has strengthened the execution capability across the group. This slide captures how the business now operates. Over the past 3 years, we've materially strengthened capital discipline and cash generation. Working capital has been normalized, particularly in dairy and bulk tea and accountability across the operating model has improved. That discipline is reflected in cash conversion, which increased to 95% in FY '25 and in the balance sheet with net debt-to-EBITDA reducing to 0.9x. This restores balance sheet optionality and gives us flexibility to invest, absorb volatility and return capital responsibly. On the right-hand side of the slide, you can see the progress we've made on ESG. Energy, water and emissions intensity have improved, and we continue to move toward greener energy sources with clear medium-term targets. These initiatives support cost efficiency, resilience and risk reduction while positioning the group sustainably for the longer term. Taken together, this reflects a business that is more disciplined, more resilient and better positioned to deliver sustainable returns. I'll now hand over to Terri to take us through the financial detail.

Thank you, Charl, and good morning. Before I start with the income statement, I'd like to briefly contextualize the comparatives and highlight an important portfolio milestone achieved during the year. During 2025, the group successfully disposed all of its fresh mushroom operations effective 1 December. This disposal represents a decisive and positive step in simplifying the group's portfolio, particularly given that the Denny Fresh Mushroom business had been structurally underperforming for a number of years. The disposal sharpens our focus on priority value-added food categories with sustainable growth potential and improves the quality of the group's earnings profile. As a result, the prior year has been restated to reflect Denny as a discontinued operation, providing a like-for-like comparison of continuing operations. It is important to note that the disposal related specifically to the fresh mushroom operations and associated properties in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The Denny brand itself was not disposed of and has been licensed to the purchaser for use in the fresh mushroom category only. The group retains the Denny brand and will continue to produce and market value-added Denny branded products most notably within our wet condiments and subcategory. For completeness, the Chet Chemicals business, which was disposed of in 2024, continues to be reflected in discontinued operations and therefore, does not impact the year-on-year performance of continuing operations. Against this backdrop, the income statement you are about to see reflects a more focused group that is increasingly aligned to our strategic priorities. Moving to the face of the income statement. As noted by Charl, revenue is up 8.2% on the prior year, with adjusted volumes up 3.2% and price/mix improvements of 5%. The group's gross profit margin increased by 0.4 percentage points from 21.6% to 22% in the current year. Capital items include impairments, gains and losses on the disposal of property, plant and equipment and insurance proceeds. Capital items for the year amounted to an expense of ZAR 251 million compared to the expense of ZAR 420 million in the prior year. The current year includes an impairment of ZAR 200 million related to the Ambassador Foods business unit reflecting continued margin pressure and operational inefficiencies experienced over the past 2 years as well as smaller impairments relating to goodwill and customer contracts following the reassessment of carrying values. Group operating expenses increased by 9.8% year-on-year. Approximately 1.2 percentage points of the increase reflects costs associated with organizational realignment driven by provisions raised ahead of the planned wet condiment and site consolidation in 2026. This is a once-off forward-looking cost to enable the next phase of operational simplification and efficiency. The balance of the increase reflects targeted investments in brand support, marketing and promotional activity as well as people and capability investments, particularly in wet condiments where we are seeing strong operational and financial outperformance and in snacking, where interventions were required to stabilize performance. The group's normalized operating profit increased by 11% to ZAR 726 million, with the margin improving to 5.9%. Normalized earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization increased by 6.6% to ZAR 1.07 billion, with the EBITDA margin remaining resilient at 8.7%. Net finance costs decreased by 11.3% to ZAR 186.8 million, driven by lower average debt levels during the year and a reduction in the group's average lending rate. Finance costs on interest-bearing debt decreased by 17.5%. This was partly offset by an increase of 6.6% in finance costs on lease liabilities, primarily as a result of IFRS 16 lease remeasurements. The effective tax rate for continuing operations was 48.3%, primarily impacted by impairments on intangible assets. The effective tax rate on all operations, excluding the effect of impairments, was 27.1%, which is more reflective of the underlying tax position of the group. Moving to the balance sheet. Net working capital improved by 7 days to 68 days, equivalent to 18.1% of revenue, driven by lower curing cheese inventory levels in dairy and reduced bulk tea inventory in dry condiments. The group's target range remains 16% to 18%, and we are encouraged by the structural improvements achieved during the year. Moving to the right-hand side of the slide, capital expenditure increased by 24.2% to ZAR 241.1 million, representing 2% of revenue, in line with the target range of between 2% and 3%. Capital projects included an ZAR 84 million investment in capacity-enhancing projects, consisting of ZAR 44.7 million in facility upgrades which includes a ZAR 35.9 million investment in the water recovery and effluent treatment plant project in the dairy subcategory, ZAR 20.9 million in facility upgrades in wet condiment and subcategory, ZAR 9 million in baking to increase capacity in the parbaked facility and hot cross bun lines and ZAR 5.4 million in facility upgrades and new lines to increase chicken capacity and value-added needs. ZAR 125 million was invested in replacement and maintenance projects with a further ZAR 32.1 million spent on quality and improvement projects. The group has a number of integration initiatives and targeted growth projects planned for 2026. As a result, capital expenditure is expected to be at the upper end of the group's target range by the end of 2026, reflecting disciplined investment to support operational efficiency and sustainable growth. Turning to our key ratios. The group's gearing ratio improved significantly to 0.9x, well below the group's debt covenant of below 2.5x. Interest cover improved to 7.4x, comfortably ahead of the debt covenant of greater than 3.5x. Looking ahead, the group will enter into a refinancing process during 2026, aligned with the maturity profile of the group's term debt, which was extended to 1 January 2026, following the corporate activity during the year. Adjusted return on invested capital improved to 10.9%, reflecting the benefits of improved operating performance, capital discipline and working capital management. This aligns to the group's weighted average cost of capital of 11%. Cash conversion strengthened to 95%, significantly ahead of the group's target of above 65%, supported by strong operating cash flow and working capital normalization. I will now hand over to Cornel to take us through the category performance in more detail.

Thank you, Terri, and good morning, everyone. I will now take you through our categories, starting with Ambient Products and the Perishable Products, highlighting what drove performance and the resulting financial outcomes for the year. Starting with Ambient Products. This slide summarizes the key operational and commercial drivers across the various subcategories. In wet condiments, performance was underpinned by improved capacity utilization driven by increased retail and contract manufacturing volumes in sauces and in vinegars. This was supported by continued private label and own brand innovation, including brands such as Red Lion and Denny. In dry condiments, volumes were lower following the outcome of certain private label tender cycles. However, this was partly offset by a favorable mix shift towards higher-margin own-brand products, supporting margin improvement. Select products delivered growth through retail principal brands and food services packaging, supported by range expansion. During the year, we implemented a deliberate reset of the snacking category, including a balance sheet cleanup and operational stabilization with performance improving in the second half of the year. In spreads, performance was supported by the launch of new Syrup products. Finally, baking delivered revenue growth driven by QSR growth and retail innovation. Although production inefficiencies and operational complexity continue to place pressure on margins. The RAS category benefited from improved capacity utilization. Turning to the financial performance of ambient products. The category contributed 51% of group revenue in 2025. Revenue increased by 7.4% to ZAR 6.27 billion, supported by volume growth of 5.5% and price and mix improvement of 1.9%. Looking at the channel performance on the right-hand side of the slide. Retail and wholesale increased by 8.8%, driven mainly by wet condiments. Food Services increased by 9.1%. Exports declined by 3.3%. Industrial and contract manufacturing increased by 14.9%. Gross profit margin improved from 25.4% to 25.9%, driven by improved capacity utilization in wet condiments partly offset by margin pressure in the snacking and baking subcategories. Normalized EBITDA increased by 3.1% to ZAR 724.7 million, with the EBITDA margin declining slightly to 11.6%. RONA remained stable at 16.1%. Turning now to the subcategory performance within the ambient products. Wet condiments was again the standout performer, delivering 15% revenue growth, supported by strong retail and industrial demand for sources, improved capacity utilization and increased contract manufacturing volumes. Select products delivered revenue growth of 5.7%, supported by volume growth in both retail and food service channels and the onboarding of a general small brand. Within snacking, we undertook a deliberate category reset during the year, as previously mentioned, including a balance sheet cleanup and approximately ZAR 20 million in 1 half operational costs. Operational performance stabilized in the second half of the year following improved service levels and new product launches. Dry condiments recorded modest revenue growth of 0.8%, with export volumes declines following private label exits in Australia and Asia, partly offset by improved price and mix. EBITDA declined due to increased input costs and tariff impacts despite the favorable shift towards own brand products. Finally, Baking revenue increased by 9.1%, supported by improved food services volumes and resilient retail demand, although margins were impacted by ongoing production inefficiencies. Moving now to the Perishable Products and the key performance drivers for the year. In Dairy, the year was characterized by a more balanced milk supply and demand dynamics, improved inventory levels and market share gains in core categories. This was supported by disciplined management of product input costs. I would now like to briefly touch on foot and mouth disease. We currently have 1 FMD positive supplying farm, where milk is fully segregated and processed under control conditions. There are no food safety concerns and no operational disruptions. Export certification is expected to be maintained, although milk from affected herds remain within the local market. Broader industry risk related potential export restrictions or wider supply impacts, which continues to be actively managed. In value-added meat, we saw strong volume growth in both retail and QSR value-added chicken products. Despite ongoing pressures from reduced volumes and capacity constraints. Convenience meals benefited from continued growth in private label and own brand fresh and frozen products, supported by ongoing category innovation. Turning to the financial performance of Perishable Products, which contributed 48% of group revenue. Revenue increased by 9.2% to ZAR 5.9 billion. Excluding the sale of excess raw milk, volumes were largely flat, with growth driven primarily by a 9.1% improvement in price and mix. Channel performance was as follows: Retail and wholesale increased by 5.9%. Food services increased by 9.5%, exports increased by 15.8%, and industrial and contract manufacturing increased by 24.7%. Gross profit margin increased from 16.8% to 17.5% or 18% excluding the sale of raw milk. Normalized EBITDA increased by 12.5% to ZAR 421.8 million, with the EBITDA margin improving to 7.1%. RONA improved by 3.1 percentage points to 12.3%. Finally, looking at subcategory performance within the Perishable Products category. Dairy revenue increased by 8.3%, with EBITDA up 14.9%, driven by volume growth in core categories such as cheese, butter and yogurt as well as improved margins. The Lancewood brand gained 0.6% market share in cheese and 1% in yogurt. Value-added meats delivered revenue growth of 11.5%, supported by strong volume growth in value-added chicken products across both retail and QSR channels. Convenience meals, revenue increase by 9.4%, driven by private label and own brand growth and continued innovation in fresh and frozen meals. EBITDA growth was partly offset by higher operational and brand investment costs. That concludes the overview of our category performance for the year. I will now hand over to Charl, who will take you through the group outlook for 2026. Thank you.

Turning now to the outlook. As we look ahead into 2026, the consumer environment is expected to remain challenging. Inflation is moderating. And in some categories, deflation is already evident. However, cost of living pressures remain elevated and continue to influence purchasing behavior. While interest rates are expected to ease gradually any demand recovery is likely to be incremental rather than immediate. On the supply chain side, volatility remains a defining feature of the current environment. Geopolitical tensions, particularly in the Middle East, will likely impact port activity and transit times. At the same time, fluctuations in oil prices, freight rates and tariffs, continue to influence logistics and packaging input costs. We also remain mindful of the operational risks and costs associated with foot and mouth disease and ongoing currency volatility. Against this backdrop, our focus for 2026 is very clear and the liberty disciplined. Firstly, we will continue to simplify with 2 large footprint rationalization projects to be completed in the wet condiments and dry condiment subcategories. Secondly, margin protection is a priority in a lower inflation environment. As pricing tailwinds fade, performance will increasingly depend on cost discipline, mix management, capacity utilization and operational efficiency rather than price recovery. Thirdly, we will deploy balance sheet optionality responsibly. With gearing at the lower end of our target range, we have flexibility. But that flexibility will be applied selectively and with clear return thresholds, whether toward capital investment or shareholder returns. Finally, we will accelerate growth initiatives from a structurally stronger base. innovation, channel expansion and category development will continue, but from a business that is simpler, more focused and better aligned operationally. As a result of our planned integration activities, particularly the integration of Dickon Hall Foods into Montagu Foods, we expect earnings to be more weighted towards the second half of the year than in prior periods. While this integration phase may create some short-term disruption, it is a deliberate investment that positions the business for meaningful efficiency gains, improved scalability and stronger earnings momentum over the medium to long term. In summary, while the external environment remains uncertain, Libstar enters 2026 as a fundamentally stronger business. with improved cash discipline, a more resilient balance sheet and clearer strategic focus. We are not yet at the destination, but the platform is materially stronger than it was just a few years ago and that positions us well for the next phase of execution. Without speaking to each of the short- and medium-term targets shown on the slide, let me briefly explain how we view the direction of travel as we continue to execute our strategy. Our focus is on progression over time. These ranges on the slide reflect how we think about the shape of the business as it becomes simpler, more cash generative and more disciplined in how capital is deployed. They are intended to keep the organization around aligned around balance between growth, returns, cash generation and balance sheet resilience. In practice, the rate of movement across these various measures will not be uniform. What matters to us is that the underlying trajectory remains intact, improving earnings quality, strengthening cash conversion, maintaining balance sheet flexibility and lifting returns in a measured way. The intent of this slide is simply to be clear about where we are heading and how we govern the business as we move forward with discipline, consistency and an emphasis on sustainable improvement. This slide brings together the practical tools we are using to translate a stronger operating and financial platform into enhanced stakeholder value. The first pillar is our dividend policy. As earnings quality and cash generation have improved, the Board has revised the dividend cover range to between 2 and 3x normalized HEPS. This reflects confidence in the sustainability of cash flows while maintaining discipline and flexibility. Supported by our strong balance sheet, improved cash generation and our confidence in the intrinsic value of the business and the growth trajectory ahead, the Board has approved a share repurchase program as the second pillar of enhanced stakeholder value creation, providing a disciplined and flexible mechanism to complement dividends and reinvestment in the group. The third pillar is focused capital allocation to channel and category growth. This remains the priority use of capital. Investment will continue to be directed towards areas where we see sustainable volume growth margin resilience and attractive returns. The emphasis is on fewer but higher-quality opportunities. We'll unpack these at the Capital Markets Day. Taken together, these 3 pillars reflect a balanced approach to value creation, returning capital where appropriate, retaining flexibility on the balance sheet and continuing to invest in the parts of the business that will drive longer-term returns. Before we move to questions, I want to briefly touch on our upcoming Capital Markets Day, which we see as a natural next step in the journey we've outlined today. Over the past 2.5 years, management and teams across Libstar have focused relentlessly on execution, strengthening operational foundations, reducing complexity and improving commercial and cost competitiveness. The improvement in recent performance reflects that discipline and consistency. The Capital Markets Day provides an opportunity to engage more deeply with stakeholders on what comes next. Through a series of presentations, we will unpack our strategic priorities, key growth drivers and road map for sustainable value creation and provide greater insight into how the business is positioned to accelerate priority initiatives from a structurally stronger base. The program will run over 2 days. The first day will focus on strategy and performance, and the second day will include a manufacturing site to visit to Montagu Foods within our wet condiment subcategory, offering a practical view of the operating platform underpinning our strategy. The event will be hosted in a hybrid format allowing participation either in person or via webcast. And all presentations, recordings will be made available on our website. We see this as an opportunity for transparent, constructive engagement to demonstrate the progress made, explain how the business now operates and outline how we intend to continue building long-term value with discipline and consistency. Thank you for your time and for joining us today. Please stay on the line. We will now have a short break before we move on to our Q&A session. [Break]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for staying online for our Q&A session, which we will now open. Please submit your questions via the chat function. I will read them out to management who will address them accordingly. We have some questions already. I'll start with Matthew Robots from Blue Quadrant. Congrats on a good set of results. You mentioned the offer was below management's value of the group. I imagine the current share price is as well. Now that the debt is reduced, our share buybacks in the above context, not highly attractive. Charl, would you like to take that question?

Thanks for that question, Matthew. The answer is yes. As I mentioned in the presentation, we have a multipronged approach to enhancing stakeholder value creation moving forward. If you look at our capital allocation framework, our first and primary objective is to allocate capital towards efficiency-enhancing projects. There are fewer of those, but more opportunity from those projects. Secondly, we've relaxed our dividend policy. But as you quite rightly mentioned, we will balance that with repurchases, which will commence from this morning.

Thanks, Charl. We also have a question from Heinz from Network 24. Hi, everyone. Well done on some encouraging results I was hoping you could perhaps just add some color on last year's challenge of exports to the USA. How does the year turn out in that regard? And very broadly, was there perhaps export diversification?

All right. I'll take that one. If you look at our universe of export countries, the U.S. is still the most important in our lives. In that regard, we obviously had to contend with the impact of both the strength of the rand relative to the U.S. dollar, which we addressed by implementing quite a disciplined hedging strategy. So to an extent, that allowed us to avert the impact of that, although not completely Secondly, obviously, the tariff impacts during the year. There were multiple changes to the tariff structures. And ultimately, the impact of tariffs was around ZAR 5 million on that category. If you talk about diversification of exports, most definitely, the Cape Herb & Spice brand has grown by double digits year-on-year over the past number of years. And we've seen particularly pleasing market growth in the U.K. and in new regions like Croatia and Switzerland, where we've won some listings in retail environments. So quite encouraging to see the growth of the brand in those regions.

Thank you, Charl. Heinz, I've noted your questions on dairy products in terms of foot and mouth disease. I think Cornel has covered that in his section in the presentation. Should you have any further questions on that, please do reach out to us. I'll now move on to another question from Matthew from Blue Quadrant. The CapEx for 2026 is expected to be on the upper part of the guided range. Is this weighted more towards H1 or H2? What are the larger projects envisioned?

Sure. I'll take that one. And so we have 5 consolidations. As Charl mentioned, the presentation across both the wet condiments and dry condiments. We do anticipate it to be more heavily weighted in H2, although a lot of the projects are kicking off in quarter 2. So those are the most significant projects.

Thank you, Terri. We have a question from Dean from Stan Capital Management. Could you please speak to impact of higher oil prices and weaker rand on costs, prices and earnings. How much were the losses of Denny and other closed operations in 2025 that will not recur in 2026?

Okay. Those are 2 separate questions. I'll take back the first question. We export to the Gulf region. We have retailers that we export to. Obviously, port activity is constrained at this point in time, and we are supporting our customers in terms of airfreight. I think more importantly, the question is around the supply chain and imports from the European region as well as other areas adjacent. And in that regard, we use Atlantic routes mostly. So not foreseeing too much in terms of that. But as you quite rightly mentioned, the rand weakening that impacts the import cost. Although, as I mentioned earlier, our hedging strategy will largely allow us to moderate the effects of that over the short term. We do expect some timing delays. And if the conflict resumes or continues for an extended period of time, that could potentially drive inflation in packaging costs, et cetera, but too early to tell in terms of that.

Can cover the Denny side of the question. So we presented on continuing operations, so you don't see the impact of the sale on our results, although we note a 0.5% improvement in our EBITDA margin with the sale of Denny. If you want any of the details on the disposal, you can look at Note 7.5 financial statements.

From a dairy point of view, obviously, the increase in fuel price will have an impact on primary transport cost of transporting raw milk, fertilizer, increase in fertilizer costs. I suppose those are the biggest impacts. And but we will manage that through price realization, but also efficiency improvement projects at our plants.

Thanks, Cornel. We've got another question from Matthew. With regards to value-added needs, to what extent has the gap of the loss of the beef customer being filled with chicken? Is there still a way to go with other customer acquisitions?

I'll take that question. The reality, Matthew, is that the impact of the loss of beef was very significant. We managed to deliver 7% profitability growth, which was primarily driven by growth in fresh and frozen chicken capacity. We do have some capacity constraints, which will be addressed through a targeted exercise moving forward. So in terms of the gap that Filnar previously or the result that Filnar previously delivered. There is still a significant gap, but it is being addressed through the growth of chicken offerings.

Thanks, Charl. No further questions at this stage. We'll give it a few seconds. Okay. No further questions. Maybe, Charl, in the meantime, can you perhaps expand on how sustainable the cash generation and how you think about balancing dividends, buybacks and reinvestment?

The point we try to convey in this morning's presentation was that the improvement in cash generation was both due to the underlying operating performance of the business as well as the moderation in working capital, particularly on the inventory and bulk tea categories. That is now built into how we run the business, how we operate. So for those reasons, we have the confidence to say that the cash generation profile will remain strong with our medium-term target being above 80%. In terms of priority of capital, I spoke to that earlier the priority being to allocate capital towards fewer but higher-quality projects and then to complement that with the dividend and the repurchases.

Well, we wait to see if there's more questions coming through. This is quite a topical element at the moment, but maybe you can unpack how Libstar is navigating the current Middle Eastern conflict and what are the likely short- and medium-term impact.

I think I spoke to that question earlier. The reality is that over the short term, our hedging strategies and the contingency plans that are in place. Those allow us to address largely the impacts over the shorter term. The larger question is how long the conflict continues and whether that has a longer-term impact on pricing and input costs, as we mentioned earlier.

Great. Thank you, Charl. It looks like we don't have any further questions at this stage. So that then brings us to our Q&A session coming to a close. Thank you all for joining us today. Should you wish to arrange a follow-up meeting with management over the coming days or would like to e-mail us any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Lastly, just a reminder again of our upcoming Capital Markets Day program on the 31st of March, and the 1st of April, please contact myself, [email protected] or [email protected] should you like to participate or require more information. Thank you, everyone, and goodbye.