Molson Coors Beverage Company (TAP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Great. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Eric Serotta from Morgan Stanley's Beverages and Household Products and tobacco team, and I'm very pleased to welcome Molson Coors back to our Global Consumer and Retail Conference. Before we begin, please see the Morgan Stanley research website at www.morganstanley.com/researchdisclosures for important disclosures. And if you have any questions, you can reach out to your Morgan Stanley sales rep. So joining us today, we have Molson Coors' new CEO, Rahul Goyal; and CFO, Tracey Hubert. While Rahul just became CEO on October 1, he's a 24-year veteran 24 years at Molson Coors was a key architect of TAPs beyond beer and overall strategy in his prior role or his most recent role as Chief Strategy Officer. So Rahul, Tracey, thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you.

Thank you, Eric. Thanks for having us.

Great. So Rahul, you've stepped into the CEO position at a challenging time for both Molson Coors and the U.S. beer industry. Industry volumes are on track to decline 4% to 6% this year. Big picture, what do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities ahead? And what advantages does Molson Coors bring to the table to navigate this difficult environment?

Yes, it's a great setup, Eric. So if you think about it, I mean, there's a lot written about the challenges. So I'll just touch upon that just for context, but more about the opportunities ahead of the way we think about the business. So -- there's a lot about the category and the headwinds in the category, whether that's all of alcohol, whether it's beer, that's definitely something we think about if you think about the cost side, inflation relevant to us in our business, we have the Midwest premium. We think about that. Those, I would say, are the big things that are outside our control, right, than the macro issues that every other CPG companies are dealing with. So those are the big macro issues. But I think the opportunities is what we try to focus on is what can we control and what can we do. And I break that down for us in our business is 1 around our portfolio. So if you look at our brands and our portfolio, right, we have a pretty broad portfolio that meets the needs for different consumers. So I think that's a great opportunity. And I know we'll talk a little bit more about that in the context of core brands, what those mean. And when I say core brands, I mean, like Coors Light, Miller Lite, banquet, economy category. So our economy category is an important aspect, especially in light of what's happening with the consumer and making sure we have an offering for them. We have so much runway in above premium, both in beer and beyond beer. So the portfolio overall, I think, is exciting. The other aspect I'll call out as opportunities for us is our capabilities and our infrastructure in some of the best profit pools of the world, right? So if you look at our global footprint, we are in markets that we have very good profit pools. And we have a big infrastructure and capabilities that we can weight in that infrastructure, right? So we have our distribution network, brewery infrastructure, supply chain, commercial capabilities, so I'd look at that as definitely in a strategic advantage as we think about the category and the challenges. And then the third thing I'd call out is our balance sheet, right? So if you look at us as a business, free cash flow yield in terms of cash, our leverage ratio. And our balance sheet is in a much stronger place today than it has been previously that allows us to go into this next chapter in a strong way. So yes, external context is hard, category is hard, some of the things are outside our control, but we've got so much opportunity to lean into the places that we can drive our business forward.

Great. And then as we've look ahead in the context of the whole cyclical versus structural debate, which we're not going to solve here, but -- how are you thinking about growth for the industry next year and over the midterm? And then realizing you haven't come out with your full strategy yet and address the algorithm, but sort of how does this tougher industry outlook and competitive environment kind of play into your midterm plan?

Yes. No, I think it is -- I know that is a question on everybody's mind, right? Cyclical structural, what does that mean? And the way I'd contextualize this is, if you go back just even COVID years and pre -- around that time frame and 10 years before that, the beer category has been in the minus 1, minus 2 space, volume-wise, right? The last few years has been in the minus 3-ish number. And then this year, it's in the minus 4, minus 6 range, right? So the minus 4.7 from minus 5 range. So there's definitely something happening this year. Now is it consumer health? Is it Hispanic consumers? Is it folks pressured under just generally what's happening in the macro environment, all of that is true. So we do believe that, that this cycle will pass, right? This cycle will pass, and we need to get our -- this category back into a place where back into the 3-ish range in terms of what the category can do. Now there is a responsibility on us and the category as a whole to make sure we are investing in the category and making sure we talk about beer in a way that is meaningful and engages consumers. I was talking to some folks earlier today, beer and alcohol gets a little bit of a bad rap, but I'm sure you guys have all seen the studies that something affecting younger population today bigger than anything else is isolation, right? And that's 1 of the issues. And then if you think about beer, it is the choice of moderation. It is way of bringing people together. So I think there's a category thing that we need to lean in us as a company and us as a category. But then to your question of, for us, Molson Coors, if you break down our portfolio, we have good core brands, that we need to make sure are healthy and winning share. We have economy portfolio that we haven't talked about a lot in the recent times, but we just need to make sure we're keeping that healthy. There is a consumer that loves those brands. We need to make sure they are relevant. Our brands are relevant, and we just got to stop the leaky bucket in a way. And then above premium beer is just opportunities for us. So while we have made good progress in Canada and the U.K. we have more work to do in the U.S. So for us, all of that is upside. And then beyond beer is, again, new vectors of growth that we did not have previously. So with that combination, once the category gets a little bit more settled, I think we can find our way getting back to our growth of top line and bottom line.

Great. And then so digging into your portfolio segments as you laid out, looking at the U.S. So your core brands, Miller Lite, Coors Light, Banquet, huge progress in terms of brand health and market share if we take a multiyear horizon. But in the past year or so, we are seeing some heightened competition some improved market share trends from ABI, whether it's Ultra, whether it's [ Light ]. So I guess what's the playbook from here to improve the core brand market share and eventually top line?

No, no, I think that's a great question. And I think you're right. If you look at our share performance this year compared to last year as a total company, we have lost share. But if you break that down, the 2 areas that we've lost majority of our share is the economy portfolio and flavor. We've lost some share in core brands, as you said, Coors Light, Miller Lite and banquet. And if you go deeper into that, but that's a very small part of what we've lost share. But if you look at that place, Coors Banquet is doing really well. We're gaining share. Even Coors Light is pretty strong if you compare to Coors Light, right? I mean we have to do some work on Miller Lite in particular regions. But we have -- this is part of the portfolio that we just have to win share. I mean that's the thesis. So I think we're pretty excited as we turn the corner this year going into next year. If you look at Coors Light, we have, I think, 30-plus college affiliations in terms of sports and how we bring the brand to life. With Miller Lite, we have, I think, 19 NFL partnerships, we're excited about some of the new campaigns we're going to be bringing forward starting next year around sociability and how do we make sure we bring people together, using our big brand. So -- so while we have work to do in our total portfolio, I think it's important for these brands to be healthy, it's important for these brands to be gaining share. And again, our regional execution and the way we're going to do things will help make sure we address some of the gaps we have in things like Miller Lite in a particular region. So overall headline is these 3 brands, obviously super important to us. Very focused on it being sure, we have the right level of investment, change a few things on execution, but feeling good about our ability to keep -- keeping the share and gaining share in these 3 in the core.

Good. So turning to your above premium portfolio. You've had some successes like Peroni. Other areas have been a bit more mixed, Blue Moon progress, some signs of progress, but a little bit slower than I think we'd all like. Some ups and downs with your flavored offerings, which not unlike the category. So can you talk a bit about what you're doing to accelerate the growth for the above premium business and sort of how that fits with your target to increase your global premium mix from was it 27% to about 1/3 over the next few years?

Yes. No. So if you look at our above-premium agenda, I think your 27% is the right reference point now. I think we were 23%, 24% when we started this journey 4, 5 years ago. So we have been making progress. And most of our progress, frankly, has been in countries outside the U.S., right? So in Canada, we've done a great job of premiumizing U.K., we've done a great job of premiumizing. But yes, we've been in the U.S., that's been a challenge. And if I break it down into 3 buckets for premiumization. It's about premium beer, it's flavors, as you said, and then call it pure-play non-alc, if that's the third bucket. And if you look at beer, Peroni has done well. We have so much runway, so much opportunity in that brand with the green bottle and really winning in the United States. But Blue Moon's been hard. And frankly, we have work to do on that. If you look at Blue Moon as a brand, the innovation is starting to show some progress. So if you look at non-alc, if you look at the high ABV brand, high ABV Blue Moon. That stuff is starting to put some support for the total brand family. But our core brand needs some work. And if you look at Q3 numbers, I mean, if you go back to Blue Moon, Blue Moon was built on-premise, right? It was built with the orange and Q3, our on-premise trends for Blue Moon got better. So we have work to do on Blue Moon. It is something we're going to be super committed to. It is taking more time. So I think that is true. We have a new campaign now at Colin Jost coming in Jost, sorry, I missed announced his name. But we're excited. It is a brand that is important to us. It's a brand that we're going to stay committed to. But yes, you're absolutely right. We have work to do on the core Blue Moon brand. It's just taking a little longer. To your question on flavors, flavors is a volatile category. I mean, we had some good success with Topo Chico. We had some good success with Simply initially got some scale, but this category is volatile. And we got to stay fleet of foot and make sure we're winning in a way that the consumer pivots in this category. And I think we've been able to do that with Topo Chico, how we pivoted firms, Seltzer to more full flavor of beverage, the margarita, but we have work to do on Simply. Simply is where the majority of our drag is in the flavor side. We have some new launches with higher ABV products, smaller packaging. But flavor is volatile, and it is something we have to make sure we're not overproliferating in terms of flavors, et cetera, but it is something we'll have to continue to work on. And there are some gaps in solving in the RTD space that we need to lean in on. And then just the last part and above premium is, I would say, non-alc beyond beer is you're making progress. I mean this year, we have Fever-Tree. It adds to our premiumization effort. It's complementary to our portfolio. It works well between non-alc and alc. So it is an execution and we can execute it well within our business, within our infrastructure. So I think all of those 3 things will help us move the journey on the premiumization piece. Again, go back to if you look at the consumer today in our core markets, it's a bifurcated consumer. You got top end of the consumer that's doing well. And our brands like Peroni, like Fever-Tree are relevant to that consumer. On the other hand, we need make our economy portfolio and other parts of our portfolio are relevant to the rest of the consumer.

Yes. It is a good segue into my next question at the other end of the portfolio spectrum. You said on the third quarter call, a few times that all segments matter, which I don't think I've heard from Molson Coors in a few years, maybe back when Gavin was CFO, I heard some talk about that. So you also said that you'll be increasing investments behind a few economy brands like Miller High Life and Keystone Light. So I guess what's driving the change here and what's the goal for the economy portfolio within the U.S. business? Are you just trying to hold share? Are you trying to go back on the offensive?

Yes. No, I think that's a great question. And I would ask you to think about it in the context of the consumer first, right? Again, I go back to the U.S. consumer in Canada and to some degree in U.K., you do have a bifurcated consumer, right? You have folks that things are going pretty well for them. And that's why Peroni sells well. That's why Fever-Tree sells well. And -- but then you have a consumer that is under economic pressure. And our economy portfolio is a sizable part of our business. I just use this as a frame of reference. If you just look at our economy portfolio, we probably be fourth or fifth largest beer company in the country. So it is an important part of our portfolio, and we need to make sure we're giving it the right -- it's important to us, it's important to our distributors. So it is relevant from a consumer perspective. It is relevant from our business perspective. And now we need to find a way to win in that space, right? We have been leading share. We've been leading volume there. And I would say there's 2 goals there. 1, this is a very regional business, right? The economy portfolio is very regional. There's a few brands that work in very specific geographies. High Life and Keystone are big brands that are more national, but even those have a very different geographical footprint. On how these brands show up. So we got to win with these brands. Again, I think I shared this anecdote with folks. Anybody here heard about the Hamm's convention in Minnesota? No and you probably didn't hear about the Hamm's convention in Minnesota, but Hamm's, for some of you who may be Hamm's is a great brand and -- but it's sold in 4 states. And you have consumers that love the brand. And by the way, we don't sponsor that convention. They just make this stuff up on their own. But it is -- I talk about the love for these brands, right? It's relevant. And now it's on us to make sure we can bring that relevancy for those folks in a way and engage them on this. So it is both a play of making sure we meet the consumers where they are. But then also making sure we have the right investment. These are not -- we're not talking about big national campaigns around sports, et cetera. We're talking about very localized focused efforts around economy portfolio and where these brands are relevant.

Great. And then your performance on-premise over the past couple of quarters has been notably stronger than off-premise. So a little surprising, given, as we talked about that consumer bifurcation or at least the low-end consumer weakness. So what's driving this? And how sustainable is it as you look to 2026 and beyond, when you win TAP Handles, how sticky is that real estate?

Yes. And I think I go back again a couple of points is about sociability, right? I mean, beer is the product of sociability. Beer is the product we're bringing people together. It is about celebrating moments together. So to your point, as an industry, on-premise in Q3 was slightly better than off-premise trends, I think, about 2 plus points. And then our performance, I think, was a little bit better than that in the on-premise. So if you look at on-premise for us, obviously, we have the big brands that matter Coors light, Miller Lite. But the things I'd call out is Banquet, right? Again, it's a 150-year-old brand and is 1 of the most popular brands with Gen Z. It's 1 of the most popular brands with Hispanic consumers. So it is -- you've got to find the right connection of these brands with consumers. And I think Banquet has done a phenomenal job of -- of making that connection. And I think you saw that in the on-premise numbers. And then I go back to Blue Moon, right? I mean we have work to do on Blue Moon as a core brand. But on-premise trends in Q3 got better than Q2. So I do think on-premise is important. I think generally, consumers want that connection want to find a way of coming together and sociability. Obviously, beer plays an important role in that. And then our job is to make sure our brands are front in that game, right? And I think -- we've been able to do that with our core brands, but we need to keep doing that with a bunch of other brands in our portfolio.

Great. So turning to your international operations. You've had a nice round of market share improvement in Canada despite a soft industry, although I think I read earlier in the week, WallStreet Journal article about the industry picking up a bit in Canada. And then you've had some continued momentum from Madrid in the U.K. despite a soft industry there and some pretty tough competitive activities. So how are you thinking about the outlook for your international business over the next 12 to 18 months? And then over the medium term given these cross currents?

Yes. No, I think, again, if you think about our business, right, I mean we are operating in a set of geographies, U.S., Canada, U.K. and a few countries in Central Europe. And I, again, go back to this is -- these are great profit pools to be in. In Canada, you rightly said the category has not been as volatile as the U.S., which is surprising, right? Usually, Canada is a lot more volatile than the U.S., but Canada has been volatile month by month, but generally, it's been much healthier than the U.S. this year. And we've been growing share. We've looked at different provinces. We've been growing share. So -- we're making good progress. Canada, again, Coors Light is the #1 brand. We keep fighting for that spot, but it is the #1 brand. So -- and the Canadian trade bank has done really well in Canada. To your point, in the U.K., it is a competitive market. It is a super competitive market, but we've continued the journey of premiumization. Madrid continues to grow. We have some work to do in our core in calling, but we're doing the right things in terms of winning in U.K. And then in Central Europe, I would say, just pockets of growth in places, where we have a big footprint, right? Croatia, Romania, I think we've done a good job of making sure we can both keep our core brands healthy, but also premiumize. Central Europe has a lot of other solid macro issues around geopolitical concerns in that part of the world, energy pricing, et cetera. But if you step back and look at our business, premiumization, we've done a good job across most of our markets, except the U.S. If you look at our European business and the growth profile we've had on that business since even pre-COVID, right? I mean we have bigger business, top line and bottom line. The growth rates have been comparable or better than Americas business. So those parts of the business are doing well. Now I also say that recognizing that we have work to do, right? And if you look at our European business, we have work to do on improving our ROIC. We have work to do in making sure our margin structure and really making sure we can get a good margin structure that's comparable to our peers. So there is definitely more work to do, but good progress, good progress in making sure our brands are showing up in the right way, both in Europe and in Canada.

Good. So Tracey, turning to costs. You noted on the last earnings call that the Midwest premium was at sort of the upper end of your third quarter expectations and slightly above it in October. So I know you're not giving guidance yet, and you don't give guidance by line item. But how are you thinking about COGS pressure as you close out 2025 and then inflation in your commodity basket into 2026. Given that you have a pretty extensive hedging program, but then Midwest premium is sort of the outlier there hardest to hedge?

Yes. I mean our biggest challenge is the Midwest premium right now in our COGS line. We've spoken about this extensively -- at the beginning of the year, the Midwest premium was trading around $0.20. October, it hits an all-time high, and now it's trading around $0.86, $0.87. I mean there's no reason for that. We've spoken about the fact that the Midwest premium price is basically set by 1 entity. There's no -- it's not a liquid market. It's not transparent. We do hedge it, but one of our lease-hedged commodities. And the reason for that is because it is difficult to hedge. It's difficult to hedge it just far out. I mean some of our commodities, we hedge out in 3 years. We can't do that with the Midwest premium. It's difficult hedge. It's very expensive to hedge. And because it's so volatile, it makes it expensive. So as I said, we do hedge it, but it's difficult. So at the levels that it's at, it will continue to be a headwind for us, a big headwind. We spoke about the year-over-year impact for us this year, just the Midwest premium we said in Q2, it was going to be $40 million to $55 million will kept on climbing. And so we guided to at the high end of that range. But if it continues at this level, it's going to continue to be a big headwind for us. So what do we do? We mitigate that as much as we can through cost savings programs, a lot of our cost savings programs are focused on the COGS line. With our breweries with our network. So we have made some difficult decisions, closing some smaller underperforming breweries in Wisconsin earlier this year. But we've also made investments in the past couple of years that have helped us to keep our costs low. So capital investments that we've made in our breweries. And we've built new breweries in Canada. We just completed the modernization of our golden brewery that was hundreds of millions of dollars over multiple years, but we're starting to see those cost savings and those efficiencies come through as well. And then the other thing I would say is all of the other commodities, we know how to hedge and they're easy to hedge. And I think we do a really good job. If you look at our COGS per hectoliter, you'll see it's well below inflation. And so all other commodities, I think we do a really decent job. It's the Midwest premium that continues to be a big challenge. And we're not sitting back and not doing anything. We're trying to shine a spotlight on this as we have for a while now, trying to get people to look at it and really try and understand like what is driving this because there's no apparent reason. And then just as we touch on some of our European operations, obviously, the inflation is a little bit higher as it has been since COVID, and there's a lot of geographical political turmoil in those areas. So inflation is still a little bit high there, but we again mitigated through cost savings and really having a look at what efficiencies we can drive through our breweries.

So moving down the P&L, and I guess this would be for both of you. Are you running currently at the right level of marketing and brand support? Or do you see any need for any kind of a step change going forward? And then as you look a bit more holistically at capabilities and investments, whether it's the breweries that Tracey mentioned or supply chain, digital, are there areas where you need a further step up? Or are you comfortable with the level after the big increases under the revitalization plan?

Yes, I can take the initial part Tracey. I mean if you look at our brands, I mean, I know we talk a lot about the category. We talk a lot about what's happening cyclical structure. But I think what we're going to stay focused on making sure our brands are well supported, right? Again, your question about, do we think we need a significant increase in spend. We probably don't need that. I mean we -- I think we're doing the right level of spend. We need to optimise our spend. We have some new brands that we've added on to our portfolio like the non-AC portfolio like Fever-Tree. So we will spend the appropriate marketing to really lean into some of those brand things. On the G&A front, I think there's a little bit of just -- if you think about this year and next year, there's a little bit of recycling of things. I mean, this year, we're going to end up with low to no incentive for our teams, and therefore, there's a little bit of cycling. But as we think about capabilities and investment in capabilities, we always think about what is it doing for the business? Is it driving some sort of a bottom line impact? Is it driving top-line impact? There is definitely areas of technology, et cetera, we want to lean in on -- but in terms of -- I know this is probably a question in the context of what does '26 look like. But if you look at it, I mean, there will be -- we're going to keep looking at ways to optimize things. But nothing significant, I would say, is the way to think about it.

I mean I think anything that I would add, and it is true for this year as well, despite it being a difficult year, I mean, we're not going to cut our marketing to hit the bottom line targets. We'll continue to put pressure behind the brands, our core brands, in particular, behind Peroni as we've seen, Peroni is growing close to 30%. We're going to put continued pressure behind Fever-Tree -- we'll have it for a full year next year, that brand still got a lot of awareness gaps that we need to go after. And so we'll put the right amount of pressure behind our brands. And then as Rahul said, certainly capabilities is something that we're focused on right now, whether it would be in the AI range, around insights and tools, et cetera, whether it would be systems work, with ERP systems, et cetera. It's really important for us to continue to stay maybe not ahead of the curve, but with the curve in terms of technology.

Turning to M&A. Rahul, since -- on the third quarter call and since then, you've really sounded much more open about the role of M&A going forward. Calling out portfolio gaps like spirit-based RTDs implying that transactions could be larger than the former String of Pearls approach. So can you talk a bit about the strategic and financial criteria for evaluating potential M&A? And then the question I get from people is, well, how big theoretically, are they willing to go? Is this going to be transformative or somewhere in between string of pearls and something much larger. And relatedly, how central is this to the -- to your beyond beer aspirations?

Yes. No, that's -- so I understand the context of the question, right? So I'd break it down into 2 parts. So first is portfolio. what problem are we trying to solve in our portfolio. And if you look at our portfolio, we have a great beer portfolio. We talk about core, we talk about economy, we talk about above premium. We're always going to look at beer, but we have a good beer portfolio. And that has to be healthy and strong for our business to grow period, right? That has to work. So a lot of energy in time is going to be around that piece. Now we also recognize where consumers are going, and this is why you have the beyond beer approach, right? And in that, we need to solve some gaps in our portfolio. We're not talking of 10 different brands. We don't need 10 new brands. We have some gaps we need to fill like an RTD spirit, as you said, right? And flavor is a very volatile category, and we need to make sure we get an asset that makes sense to us, and we can execute well on. So we will look at deploying capital in terms of gaps we have in our portfolio in a very measured way. I think second part of your question was in the context of capital deployment and size. right? So if you look at our business, our balance sheet is in a very healthy place. We are a pretty strong free cash flow yield company. And we're going to keep disciplined about how we -- what we've done over the last few years. leverage ratio and the debt paydown is an important criteria. We're going to keep making sure we have that as a key criteria returning money to shareholders through a stable dividend and buyback is important. And then thinking through capital investment and M&A. That's where it needs to make sure it has the right return, whether it is CapEx and investments we make in a brewery, Tracey talked about, some of the investments we made in our brewery is really delivering bottom line benefits, right, whether it is labor capabilities or variety packing, things like that. So -- so we will definitely look at an ROI approach to all that investment. In terms of your question of size, I know we haven't shared any specific metrics around this, and I look forward to sharing that down the road. But think of our business the $11-plus billion revenue. We need to have brands that move the needle for us, right? If it's too small, it doesn't do anything. It just -- it's a lot of energy, a lot of just institutional work to take care of them. So it has to be brands that move the needle for us. It has to be in a way it's disciplined for top and bottom line. And I emphasize that because it's easy to chase sometimes assets for top line. And I don't think we're going to be in that mode, right? We're going to be disciplined about being sure we can get top and bottom line. It needs to fit the portfolio piece I talked about. And it needs to fit how we execute these brands. And again, use Fever-Ree is a great example. We know how to get it on trucks. We can probably drive -- we are driving a bunch of around that in terms of execution. But then we see a path in the next 12 to 18 months of localizing production in the United States, right? Instead of getting it from the U.K., and that's going to drive a lot more on the bottom line. So I know folks -- the way I would best characterize it disciplined capital allocation, definitely need to fill some gaps in the portfolio, but we'll do that in a prudent way for both the top and bottom line, Eric, at this stage.

Great. So Tracey to dig a bit deeper into capital allocation. So you ended the third quarter net leverage in the low 2s, I think it was 2.3 versus your 2.5 target. You had just under $900 million left on your 5-year $2 billion repurchase authorization. So can you discuss the capital allocation priorities from here, further buybacks even beyond the existing authorization? How could that fit in with the aspirations around M&A in the portfolio?

[ Sure. I mean, where we are today is obviously in a much stronger position with our balance sheet. So we had this target to have our leverage below 2.5x. And as you rightly say, we achieved that much earlier than we thought. But that gives us a lot of options around the rest of our capital allocation. And so Raul has spoken about M&A and investment in our business. We plan to keep that leverage ratio. We think it's a perfect spot for us. The rating that we've got, the investment grade is important to us. And so it's important for us to keep the strong balance sheet. And then other than the investment in M&A and our business, the third bucket is returning cash to shareholders. And as you rightly say, I mean, we've got this $2 billion share buyback program. We're well ahead of where we should be if you just divided it over 5 years. We have got $880 million left on that. We will continue to execute behind that share buyback. We do believe that our share is a compelling investment. And so we'll continue returning cash to shareholders through buying back our own shares, but also paying a dividend. And when we reinstated our dividend during COVID, we did say that we want to sustainably grow our dividend over time. And you can see over the last couple of years, that's exactly what we've done. We want to make sure that we do return cash to shareholders through a dividend. But -- but truly, the share buyback has been a big program for us. And yes, we will continue to execute the program that we've got in place.

Great. So to wrap up, I want to turn back to Rahul with a broader question. Certainly bring unique perspective is new to the CEO role, but long-term executive with the company. So what do you think is sort of the most misunderstood or underappreciated part about Molson Coors story today?

Yes. No, thanks for that. That's a good question. I would call again go back into probably 3 ways to think about us as a business, right? 1 is our portfolio. And I know folks sometimes look at our portfolio saying it's too broad, it's too big. But all segments do matter. And then I ask you to look at that from the context of the consumer, right? The top end of the consumer is driving it. I mean premiumization has been an important factor in our category in alcohol. And we have so much runway that we can go after, right? Because we are underrepresented in that part of the consumer. Our core brands and the economy portfolio matters because it matters in all consumers, right? So I -- what excites me is the fact that we do have brands that matter in all segments. And obviously, our job becomes how do we make sure our brands resonate with the right consumer in the right places in the right channels. So the portfolio is an exciting part for us, right, especially in the context of the consumer and where they are. I wouldn't underestimate the capabilities and the infrastructure we have in the biggest profit pools. I go back to that. I mean big plants, our ability to get product to 500,000, 600,000 outlets, twice a week, 3 times a week. I mean this is a capability that I think is an important factor, right, in the business we are in. And you're seeing that play out with brands like Fever-Tree and in terms of scaling them -- so it is, I think, another exciting part of making sure we can leverage our infrastructure, leverage our capabilities to really drive scale. And then the third aspect is I would call out is our free cash flow and our balance sheet, right? So if you look at our balance sheet, I think we've been pretty diligent about it and really disciplined about it. If you look at our free cash flow generation, that's a pretty strong story. So that's what I would leave you guys with is our portfolio, our capabilities and our balance sheet and cash flow. I think those are the compelling reasons for Molson Coors.

Great. Well, not quite Miller time yet, but I'm sure we're going to be enjoying some of your products at the reception tonight. So with that, I want to thank you Rahul and Tracey. And...

It is Miller time any time by the way. Thank you.

Thank you so much.