Thai Beverage Public Company Limited ($Y92)

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining the Thai Beverage 1H 2026 Results Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand over the call to the presenters, Ms. Namfon Aungsutornrungsi, ThaiBev's Head of Investor Relations; and the members of ThaiBev's senior management team. Thank you.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to ThaiBev Financial Results Conference Call for the 6 months ended the 31st of March 2026. For the call tonight, I will begin with a summary of our results, then we will open the line for Q&A with our management team here. For the summary of the first half results, total sales revenue of the group for the first half was THB 173,219 million, a decrease of 2.5% compared to the same period last year. This was due to a decrease in sales revenue from the beer and nonalcoholic beverage, while there was an increase in sales revenue from Spirit food and others businesses. EBITDA from normal business operations exclude a nonrecurring impairment loss from discontinued operations of a joint venture was THB 33,273 million, an increase of 6.9% compared to the same period last year. This was due to an increase in EBITDA from Spirits, Beer, Food and others businesses, partly offset by a decrease in EBITDA from the nonalcoholic beverage business. The net profit from normal operation was THB 19,162 million, an increase of 7.8% compared to the same period last year. This was due to an increase in net profit for Spirits, Beer and others businesses, partly offset by a decrease in net profit from Nonalcoholic beverage and the Food business. The Board of Directors have proposed an interim dividend payment of THB 3,770 million or THB 0.15 per share, the same as last year. In the first half of 2026, the Spirits business reported a 1.3% year-on-year increase in sales revenue to THB 65,373 million, driven by a 1.4% increase in sales volume. The performance was supported by growth in the first quarter of 2026, despite slightly softer domestic consumption in the second quarter, while the international business continued its growth momentum, supported by a decrease in key raw material costs as well as effective brand investment and marketing activities. The net profit increased by 6.4% year-on-year to THB 12,345 million. The Beer business reported sales revenue of THB 62,639 million, a decrease of 5.4% year-on-year with total sales volume declined by 0.6%. The decline in sales revenue was driven by weaker first quarter amid subdued market conditions in Thailand and severe weather in Vietnam and unfavorable exchange rate translation. However, sales revenue rebounded strongly in the second quarter. In terms of cost, lower key raw material and net finance costs in the first half 2026 resulted in net profit rising to THB 4,430 million, representing a big increase of 40.5% year-on-year. The Nonalcoholic Beverage business reported 5.5% year-on-year decline in sales revenue to THB 31,596 million in the first half. This was driven by a decrease in total sales volume of 2.9% amid softer consumer demand and geopolitical uncertainties. Additionally, increased brand investment, loss on foreign exchange and higher income tax expenses led to 22.4% year-on-year decline in net profit. For the Food business reported sales revenue of THB 11,325 million, represent a 1.6% increase year-on-year, supported by growth of KFC amid cautious consumer spending and economic uncertainty. The increase in marketing and promotion expenses, together with higher depreciation from restaurant expansion led to a decrease in net profit to THB 69 million. For the others business, which is comprising publishing and the printing business reported flat revenue to THB 2,445 million, while net loss narrowed to THB 98 million. The improvement was mainly driven by the Education and Print segment, supported by higher orders and recurring orders from sustainable packaging business. In addition, the improvement was supported by a lower cost structure resulting from cost control and business restructuring initiative. This is the summary of our first half 2026 financial results. Now we will open the call for any questions for our results. Operator, please help open the line for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Ms. Zheng Feng Chee from DBS.

Good set of results and congrats on that. So maybe 2 questions from my side. Firstly, on Thailand operations. So maybe can you share a bit of sensing how the consumer is doing on the ground, especially after this Iran war, fuel oil spike and of course, the government is promoting work from home. Maybe a bit of color on the ground after that Iran oil spike probably from March onwards until now. That's the first question. And second question would be in terms of raw material costs, how should we look at it? Is it largely hedged for the financial year? And are you guys also have started hedging for the upcoming year? And probably what type of level can we expect for the next fiscal year? Maybe these 2 questions.

We will start with Spirit and then come to Beer, okay? That's the 2 main...

This is Songwit from Thailand. I'm taking care for the Spirits market in Thailand. So I understand you have 2 questions. The first one, what is the sentiment of the Thai consumer. So I would say that everyone knows that the situation what really happened for the first quarter. We have challenging for the Queen passed away in the early of the Q1. And then for sure that we have some challenging for the situation in the Middle East. So probably right now more of the [indiscernible]. But I would say that for the sentiment in Taiwan, right now, we have some positive factors. Point number one, in the second quarter, the government has released, the allowing timing window for selling alcohol. So we can sell alcohol from 11 a.m. until the midnight and that creates more of the consumption in the tourist area, and also including for the on-trade and also [indiscernible] and hotel. And then second one, our people. I think our people or the Thai domestic people buy obviously less comparing to the previous period. So they have traveling in the country more comparing to last year. So all in all, I think overall sentiment of the domestic consumption that's point number one. And then for the second question, you're talking about the raw material price. I would say that we already see chaos price of the main raw material, meaning the molasses for the price [indiscernible]. And due to the contract we have that we secure before the country [indiscernible] is happen that for the inventory, I think we can secure that price until for the next 12 months.

This is Nongnuch from Beer Thailand. Yes, I think Khun Songwit has already mentioned about the overall sentiment. It's not -- it's quite similar in terms of the overall sentiment from the consumer, okay? As far as you can see, our performance, actually, we are okay. We don't have the experience on any slowdown, maybe a bit in the first quarter because of the mourning and other metrics, but we catch up in the second quarter and because of the festive and everything, I think we still run order program events and activity. And luckily, this year, during like festive, every festive, with our activities and also the national activities and events, our performance are okay. We are happy with the situation, even though the overall sentiment might be a bit weak, but we are okay with that one. In terms of the cost, actually for Beer, main ingredient raw material is on the malt. I would say that for our malt, we have secured it already until the end of the year. So it should be fine. Thank you.

Okay. So maybe on the [Spirits] I think more about the packaging cost, your cans and your bottles.

Okay. No. Actually, the aluminum can might have the increase in terms of the cost. But again, on the aluminum cost, we have secured it until the year-end also, okay? And for Thailand, majority of the packaging is on the bottle, and we have a lot of recycled bottles. So I think that helps a lot.

Next question, Divya Gangahar from Morgan Stanley.

My first question is just on the domestic Thai Beer business. If you look at the volume growth trends, I mean, first quarter was weak, second quarter was very strong. So the overall first half is still flattish. How would you describe your outlook for the second half of this year? Do we go back to the single-digit kind of volume growth? You did comment that the consumer sentiment is still okay. And maybe if you can also comment a little bit on how trans market share has evolved during the first half? Are we seeing further market share gains? So that's my first question on market share gains and outlook on volume growth specifically for Thai Beer. Should I pause here and then ask the second question later?

Divya, in terms of -- if you ask what will happen for the second half in terms of the growth and the volume. For us, we cannot give the guidance, but Khun Nongnuch can give you more color on what we are planning to do for the second half, but not guidance for the volume in terms of figure.

Thank you for the questions. For the rest of the year, I think you have heard about the -- actually the government will also have the copay, okay, which will launch by next month, 4 months consecutive. So I think this will help the overall market will be more active and people have more spending to -- more money to spend, okay? And for us, what we are going to do, you know that the Football World Cup is coming soon. So we will ride on this activity. So it will create more -- I mean, active and a lot of activities coming on will improve and hopefully, it increase our consumption, okay? We also have another activity internally that will launch by Q4. So all in all, we believe that we can maintain -- keep the momentum.

Can you comment on the market share as well for Chang.

Okay. For market share for Chang, we are clearly #1. We have been #1 in Thailand beer for 13 consecutive months, our market share total is 13.3% based on the latest number in March.

Sorry, can you repeat that number? So we were used to the 40% number. Are we looking at the same thing? Overall for ThaiBev, what is the beer market share now?

Yes, we are about 40%. Sorry, I missed that.

So basically, there's no change in market share overall in the last 1 year. It's still the same ratio.

No. we maintain, but clearly...

My second question is...

Divya, this is [indiscernible]. Just to clarify, I think it's -- when we look at branded beer, right, we're #1 brand. So when we look at the producer market share, then the 2 largest producer market share combined doesn't actually shift much over the past year. But then our competitor have 2 major brands. It used to be #1, #3. Now they become #2 and #3, combined. And we moved from #2 to #1 as a brand. So I think I hope that clarifies.

Okay. Yes. That's very helpful. And my second question was just when we look at the first half, overall, the selling expenses were a bit lower than what it was last year. So is this a little bit of phasing and we should expect the selling expenses, given all the activities that you said on the World Cup, et cetera, to increase like BeerCo also mentioned that they will be spending more on A&P in the remaining part of the year. Would that be also valid for the Thai business?

Divya, you mentioned about which segment, sorry?

Yes, I'm talking about overall also. I mean, if you look at Spirits and Beer together, but if you look at Beer as well, the selling expenses were lower year-on-year in the first half. So I'm just trying to understand the advertising strategy for the second half. Is it more the phasing, or do we expect that the first half is reflective of how the full year should be and there's no phasing impact on the lower A&P spend.

This is [indiscernible]. Well, I think in terms of the remaining of the year, we're cautious in terms of spending. I think estimated rise in consumer -- well, the cost that the consumer are spending on energy probably bite into their potential spend consumption. So going -- looking out, we are planning to tighten up our spending because I think we believe that the return on spend will be affected. So you asked us because the first half, we're not really spending. So we try to maintain that. And the second half is actually a low season. second half for our group, which is starting -- April is still high, considered high season, but once you shift into May to September, these are low season and rainy season as well. So I think general spending are much less during the season.

Perfect. And maybe one last question from me, just on pricing. Has there been any changes in pricing for the domestic Thai beer business? We already know about the Vietnam part, but how about for Thailand beer? Have we raised prices this year and any changes in Spirits as well?

Yes. We actually have the price increase very minimal over the -- only one SKU last month, but it's not impact the real consumer.

So that's for Beer, right? For Spirits?

Yes, this is beer Thailand.

This is Songwit. So for the Thai Spirits, we don't have any price adjustment for the first half.

Next question comes from Selviana Aripin from HSBC.

I do have questions, maybe a follow-up, I guess, on pricing from what Divya is actually asking. How would you think about pricing outlook or rather price raising opportunities in the next 6 months. I do hear you that when it comes to your cost, you're probably well covered until sort of the end of the year. But -- and the consumer wallet is probably a little bit tight because of rising demand on -- sorry, because of the sort of rising wallet share on energy demand. But how -- do you -- does it mean then that pricing will be sort of not a priority over the next 6 months? But how would you think about that, especially going into the months after that, the following financial year, would you actually consider raising prices in advance in anticipation of higher prices down the road? So that's my first question. My second question is, I guess, a little bit more on A&P. So I do hear you about the fact that the return on the spend, particularly on advertising will actually be impacted in this sort of environment, but what will actually sort of lead you to change your mind when it comes to sort of advertising changes?

I go back to the first question first. I think the pricing outlook is really, really sensitive. And normally, we can't give you any guidance on that. We also don't want our competitor to know our pricing strategy as well. For the second quarter, you're talking about our return on marketing spend? What is your question again? You're talking about...

Sorry, the question is what -- -- the question is what will lead you to change your mind? Because it does sound like the downward trajectory is going to be maintained. But what circumstance will actually lead you to change your mind?

Okay, Selviana, this is Ueychai. I just -- we can't be specific, but let me tell you, in general, in terms of policy, we know that cost push is coming. First thing we'll do is do cost management. We'll do our best. And as you can see that both Beer and Spirit, we have the main raw materials covered until the end of the year. So that is managed. So we don't need -- we don't have any problem on that. And [indiscernible] already mentioned about the bottles and the can, so that we have no issue. And then, okay, we probably look into our A&P first. What I mean is the price increase will be the last one because it's quite sensitive during the difficult period in terms of economy, but we will consider SKU by SKU. That will be the third thing, okay? First, cost management, second, A&P. We -- actually, we already sort of identifying 30 provinces out of 76 provinces that we have to send over 75%, and we will focus our A&P spending on that 30 provinces, which means that the total A&P could be managed down, okay? And that's the general policy, but we cannot tell you whether the Beer will increase or the spirit will increase, but all the team here are focused on defending bottom line, okay? Thank you.

Next question from Meghana Kande from CGS International.

I just have a couple of questions. So firstly, just coming back on the beer volumes, right? So it was recorded outside of Vietnam, so [exAadico] beer volumes were up about 9% in the second quarter. But when you see Thailand industry data, overall, it's down -- volumes are down 1%. And you've also just mentioned that market share has stayed stable. So just wondering where is this 9% growth in your Beer volumes for second quarter coming from mostly? So that's my first question. Second question is on Beer segment packaging. Sorry, just a housekeeping question, trying to understand how much of the packaging cost for Beer is aluminum versus glass? Yes. And then thirdly is on nonalcoholic beverage segment. So the packaging for NAB, is it mostly plastic? And if it's plastic, I'm just wondering until when are you protected for your packaging costs for NAB? And have you started seeing any increase in those costs because of oil price, petrochem product price increases. So yes, those are my questions, please.

I will respond on the NAB question first, they're still packing. The main -- for NAB, the main cost is packaging and then it's the resin. Of course, the resin price increase, but we have secured the old price resin until the end of this month. The new price will be impact on from June onwards. But luckily, because our sales during the past month, and I'm sure that it could be like this, has been increased because not everyone can secure the resin in this country. And then this month -- in the past 2 months, we are running our factories at 100% capacity. I mean, in the past, it used to be about 60, with this kind of additional volume, the feed cost help to offset the incremental price of the resins. I think we'll probably be able to manage this going forward by selling more, produce more, so the feed cost going down to offset the resin price. Right now, we are looking into securing resin from June forward, okay?

This is from Nongnuch from Beer Thailand. According to the Beer volume that you've seen improvement in the second quarter, mainly it's -- I would say that it's because of the timing because it's a stock up and also later on, it will reflect the consumer, which we can't say. Yes, basically, the second quarter because of the timing. And your second quarter, our can, it's about 20% and the bottle is almost 80%.

Got it. And just one last question on Spirits. Sorry, my line previously wasn't clear. Just wondering, can you please repeat how much -- I mean, how are the molasses prices trending now? Because we've seen sugar prices have spiked since the U.S.-Iran war. And has any of that started flowing through to molasses? And when will you start securing your molasses inventory for 2027?

This is Prapakon, Group CFO. Molasses is the main raw material for spirits sector in Thailand. Normally, molasses crop harvesting December to April. Pricing negotiations start in August all the way through to February and April. And for this crop, we have contracted enough molasses for the season, and we have started contracted since -- started contracts since August 2025 and completed most of our contracted February 2026. So those are before the crisis in the Middle East took place. So contracted molasses price that we have and these contracts are at our multiyear lows. So -- and the price probably what 40% lower than a year earlier, which has continued to decline for the past 2 years. So that's where we are. In terms of our current stock for molasses that cover our production for the next 12 months. New contracted, price is unknown for the season because sugar refinery mill will not negotiate and start contracted until August and September this year. So -- and then by then, I think the situation in the Middle East would probably be resolved and would be more reasonable pricing negotiation take place.

That's very, very clear. So just to confirm, when you say 12 months that you covered, it's from Feb 2026 to Feb 2027. Is that correct?

I'm just saying 12-month stock coverage, I mean raw material inventory for distillation, 12 months has been -- like as of April end for the next 12 months. So -- but we get new molasses delivery starting in December. So normally, we don't run down our raw material stock. So it's just new crop will get delivered in December, but price is unknown until August, September.

Okay. So the new molasses that we get in December, the price you only know in August?

For December '26, right. But when I say we have stocked for 12 months as of April this year, meaning the stock for what we have taken delivery and the stock that's going to be delivered in the next 6 months -- next 5 to 6 months, which have been contracted in price. So that firm price for delivery.

Next question from Permada Darmono from UBS.

Sorry, I think I had some technical issues. So my first question is, can you comment on the discontinued joint venture that ex the discontinued joint venture, the earnings was up year-on-year. What was that joint venture? And then the second question is, given that the NAV year-on-year is down, I think a lot of that was due to Fraser and Neave and the outlook in terms of FNN, at least the comment from Berhad was saying that near-term earnings remain under pressure. With the change in the new CEO in Berhad and so forth, are there any strategies to mitigate that and to also to speed up the breakeven point for [AgriValley]?

Permada, this is Prapakon, Group CFO. The discontinuing -- well, I think on the impairment loss for discontinuing operations in the JV, it's an investment that we own effective interest of 25% in an e-commerce platform that announced for closure in January, the platform called [indiscernible]. So this is a one-off provision for discontinuing, and it's a noncash item for us.

Permada, this is Rahul Colaco...

No, I was just going to ask Khun Prapakon earlier. So the [indiscernible] is no longer operational. Is that correct?

That's right. The platform operators actually managed through the JV and then that's announced for closure in January 2026. So these are a full impairment and the business has been wind down.

So answering your second question on NAV. Firstly, the performance in our core markets, in our core domestic markets, key markets of Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore have been fairly robust and resilient. In fact, we've held or, in some cases, consolidated our market share position with our key brands. We have been challenged because of the Thailand-Cambodia border issues. We are resetting that business at the moment. As you know, we have operations now on the ground in Cambodia. So that's being rebooted as we speak. On the dairy farm, you've heard about that probably from the Berhad results sessions as well. But essentially to reiterate, it is one of our largest investments. It is one of the largest integrated dairy farms in Southeast Asia. We are actually already producing significant volumes of world-class milk from the farm. And in the coming weeks, we will be significantly ramping up our branding operations. And this milk is going out in various channels, so both retail and foodservice, across both Malaysia and export markets. And we're also looking at multiple formats, so it's not just fresh pasteurized milk, but also UHT milk, butter and cream. And it's primarily going to be under the Magnolia brand. So very much focused on driving that business over the coming months.

Would it be fair to say that for Magnolia, currently, the strategy is market share build-out? Because if we observe the pricing on the ground, it's pretty aggressive.

I think our intention when we invested in this dairy farm is to build self-sufficiency from Malaysia. That's one of the big drivers. We believe that this is going to help grow the category. We want more Malaysians to be drinking more milk and also in the region, and we want to provide fresh milk -- world-class fresh milk at the lowest possible cost. So we are focused on producing this high-quality world-class milk in a tropical climate at a low cost and which is why we have an integrated dairy farm, right? We grow our own crop. So that's really the driver. So I think in the longer term for us, this is more a category building game than necessarily a market share game. But for sure, we also want to grow our market position.

Next question from Xuan Tan from Goldman Sachs.

My first question is around Beer. Given that second quarter volume growth was high due to stocking up, should we -- do you typically see a weaker volume in the following quarter historically? And second question is on Cambodia. Can you share what was the contribution from Cambodia in terms of top and bottom line for FY '25?

This is Nongnuch from Beer Thailand. Yes, it's no more happen. But as you know that we have the festive season, like in Songkran. So it helps sell out a lot, okay? And we also will have the campaign on football World Cup in next month, and we start shipping by the end of this month. So we believe that it will continue the momentum with the volume.

Last year number, can you wait one moment? We'll just take it out from our part. One moment for the Cambodia.

This is [indiscernible], Group Controller. The total revenue for the Cambodia for the group impact is about THB 3 billion, about 1% of total group in terms of the revenue side. For the profit itself, if you dial to at the net profit level, it's about THB 300 million or just very small impact in terms of the total group perspective.

Next question from Hussaini Saifee from Maybank.

Can you hear me?

Hi, we hear you.

Just one question because all of my questions are being answered. That is on NAB business. So just trying to understand the outlook for the business, maybe more in qualitative terms for the second half of this year. And just from the point of view of Rahul's comment earlier in terms of ramp-up of your dairy products. So just wanted to understand how should we see this particular business ramping up in the coming quarters?

Hussaini, maybe if you can sharpen your question because I've already shared broadly what our intention is with the farm, so -- and Magnolia. So can I understand a bit more what exactly you're trying to understand?

Yes. So my question is more from the point of view of how that will translate into revenues and growth in the coming quarters?

So I'm unable to share with you specifics on the coming quarters, but I think what I can share with you is the bigger picture. So the intention with the farm specifically is we have -- as you have probably heard from Berhad presentations is that in the first phase of the farm, we intend to essentially produce 100 million liters of milk a year. And we are already in the ramp-up phase. So we are producing somewhere -- anywhere between 2 million and 3 million liters a month at the moment. So that -- we are in that ramp-up phase, and you can, therefore, extrapolate that we're going to be growing this about 3, 4x from the current base. So I think that's the plan over the coming years. And if everything progresses well, we will then eventually move to a second phase where we will seek to ramp up that 100 million to potentially 200 million liters. Hopefully, that answers your question. And I think the key takeout is that we really want to grow this category, as I mentioned earlier, and we want to play across multiple categories, multiple channels and multiple markets.

There are currently no questions. [Operator Instructions] Question from Divya Gangahar from Morgan Stanley.

I just had a follow-up question on Spirits. I wanted to get your views on how you're thinking about structurally volume growth in this segment given there's been a global decline in Spirits volumes across various geographies. How are we diversifying that portfolio? And then if you can also comment a little bit on the trends in white spirits versus brown spirits, how that shift is happening over the last 6 months? And then finally, any comments on the Myanmar business? How is that doing? And how big is that now as a percentage of your total?

This is from Sopon from Spirits Group. Thank you for your questions. On the question and concerning whether this is the structural change of the industry. We don't see this is coming to that obvious situation yet because the situation of oversupplying across the globe in many major markets, I think it's due to -- I think you already understand that after the COVID -- during the COVID time, I think the space is selling so good, so people keep pumping up the liquid to the market and then suddenly it's become an oversupply. So it's actually a cyclical kind of situation that we are facing. And also, I think we have to face a little bit of changing in terms of the demand behavior because, again, coming out from the COVID, people may drink differently. But we still see that there is a growth in some of the markets, and there is an opportunity for us to actually try to capture that. And for example, in Thailand, we know that there is a change in terms of the -- when the younger people coming out from the COVID, they may concern mostly about the health and wellness. But we changed our strategy to become a lower alcohol, bringing RTD into the market. And it's really a good opportunity for us, and we did that and then the result is quite good. But we are selling okay with the RTD that we introduced several SKU already. So again, we don't see this is a structural yet, it is actually a cyclical kind of problem that we are facing.

Hi, Divya, are you still with us?

Yes, yes. I was just wondering if you could also comment on the white spirits and brown spirits in Myanmar.

Can you repeat that question again?

Yes. I just was interested to know what is now the split between white spirits and brown spirits? And are you seeing any change in that as well given all these behavior changes for your portfolio? So that was just on the mix between white spirits and brown spirits. And the last question was on Myanmar. Like how big is Myanmar in your overall portfolio now? And what has been the growth trends there?

Okay. I'll take the Myanmar first. Myanmar is now double-digit growth to the portfolio. We are doing very good in that country. We are also the largest market share in that country. So -- but in overall, Myanmar sales value in the whole portfolio is only about 10%, so it's still small, but then with the growth that we see over the years, not just only this year, we've been seeing this for many, many years. So I think we have a very good perspective in this country. And then we're going to see that we're going to even continue to strengthen our position in Myanmar. So that's Myanmar. On this question whether white spirit and brown spirit, any conversion or diversion between these 2. I think, again, it's coming to the category kind of explanation. People may drink -- in the previous year, I would say that people drink only those categories that they are used to because white spirit used to be like a functional drink even because people are drinking because they like to drink after the work to get refreshed. But then now more and more people, particularly young people, they may drink across the category. It depends on occasion. But again, we don't see that coming so big in terms of that trend. But this is, again, the demand change the dynamic of our consumer. Yes, again, they keep trying, changing the category. Sometimes they're doing rum, sometimes they doing whiskey, in some occasions, they may drink white spirit, for example.

So could I just confirm that white spirits and brown spirits is still like almost half and half in terms of your overall portfolio?

Sorry, we may not be able to mention about that.

But in terms of the volume, yes, normally, it quite more, it's cheaper.

Next question from Zheng Feng Chee from DBS.

So just one question here. So can you share maybe a bit of color whether the management is thinking about any kind of corporate actions to unlock value? I know there have been rumors on the street about BeerCo IPO, Spirits IPO spinoff and so on. So maybe some kind of thinking of like what would allow or what's kind of like holding management back from kind of proceeding with all this, I would say, very helpful value unlocking activities and maybe a time line if you guys are thinking about this type of activity.

For this, if you track, so far, we haven't made any further announcement to update on any call, any Beer call or Spirits call. If we have anything to update, we will announce on SES first.

Okay. Sure. I guess you cannot share any thinking what needs to happen before you would proceed or are you able to share a bit of color or...

This one is really sensitive to the share price. I'm afraid we cannot. Sorry.

Next question from Meghana Kande from CGS International.

I just have one follow-up on my previous question about NAV, where in context of the recent prices, it was mentioned that the factories are operating at about 100% capacity because you're seeing increase in the volumes. But if we look at the NAV volumes for first half, they were down year-on-year. So just trying to understand if you can help me tie in the previous comment on increased volumes versus what we saw in first half, just to understand a bit better.

Meghana, this is Rahul. So I think the NAV portfolio is very wide. We operate in multiple different categories and multiple different formats. The example that we were referring to earlier was the PET packaging, which is primarily for ice tea and water. We operate in many other categories where the packaging cost impacts have not been so high. The cost impacts are ranging between 5% to 15% for many of the other product formats, but it's the PET resin one, which we used as an example because that's the one which has the highest impact worldwide. I think the good thing for us in our portfolio is because we have a very wide range of price points, formats, and categories, we are able to offer different options to the consumer. We operate multiple brands at different price points. So I think we are quite well hedged in terms of consumer offerings, and we're looking at playing up specific parts of the portfolio so that we can address potential downtrading opportunities or any consumer behavior changes. So that's how we're looking at the portfolio. Hopefully, that answers your question.

Yes, definitely. Very clear. Just another follow-up while I still have you on NAB is on the outlook for the A&P spend, is that -- it was previously mentioned that typically, it's a slow season for the next few quarters, but does that also apply for your NAB promotional spend as well?

I think it would be hard to generalize. Essentially, we are looking at making sure that we ring-fence our A&P for our specific priority brands and markets. So as you heard earlier, we are looking at really ramping up our Magnolia brand with driving the milk coming out of our dairy farms. So obviously, we will continue to invest behind that brand and our other key brands, such as 100PLUS. We've launched some new innovations. So we will continue to invest behind our core brands. But of course, given the overall business environment, we will be looking at our total portfolio and seeing where and how we can optimize our A&P.

Next question comes from Paul Chew from Phillip Securities.

Just one question. Regarding the cyclical challenges for Spirits, are you still referring to the lingering softness because of the, I guess, the Cambodian, I guess, lack of better word conflict and that's kind of affecting the demand for your Spirits and just the overall weakness in consumer spending. Just a bit more clarity on the cyclical.

Thank you. Actually, it's a general comment on the general situation. Coming back to Cambodia, we were hit by the situation last year, end of the year. But now as you understand that the situation is now eased, and then we are hoping to see that all the consumer around that area, which is basically the white spirit consumer that will get to come back and then consume more on our product, including the labor from Cambodian, even though now they are not being able to actually coming back to work in Thailand. But then hopefully, soon we're going to see some better situation coming.

Okay. In your estimate -- I'm not sure if you can give me a number, but in your estimate like what kind of percentage points for this set of customers in your Spirits business.

Normally, we won't break down in terms of the region for our sales, sorry.

Next question from Permada Darmono from UBS.

Hi, management. Can you hear me?

Hi, Mada.

A question on -- now that SGX is encouraging forward-looking guidance from companies being listed in SGX, is ThaiBev planning to provide forward guidance going forward?

Thank you for sharing this information for us. In terms of forward-looking, actually, I don't see that it's a perfect clear message from SGX in that direction, yes.

Okay, so they haven't communicated with you yet. That's what you're saying.

Do you have any other questions?

No. So no plan for now, right? That's what you're saying more or less.

Not yet, no.

As there are no further questions, we will now begin the closing comments. Please go ahead, Ms. Namfon Aungsutornrungsi.

Thank you for attending Thai Beverage's conference call tonight. And for more information, please feel free to contact IR department at [email protected]. Thank you, and have a good night.