Damian Paul Gammell - Coca-Cola European Partners Plc
Management
Thanks, Steve. I mean obviously we're not party to that deal, so all of my comments are based on an outsider's perspective, but I'm happy to share my own personal views on the deal. I mean, overall, I think it's very exciting and obviously the deal hasn't closed yet. But if it does close, I think it's a great move for The Coke Company to build scale in a category that's extremely exciting globally. So I fully can see the logic behind KO's move. And I think for the bottling system, it's great that they're looking at big asset acquisitions that can transform our presence in a big category. So, no debate there. You're absolutely right. Within GB, there is about 2,700 outlets today that don't sell our products within Costa. It's actually the only coffee shop of scale that we're not partnering with. That business is something that we, as you would expect, on an ongoing basis, absent this deal we're competing for anyway. So we believe our brands in Costa is good for Costa before this deal and obviously after this deal, we feel even stronger about it. So there is potentially, but again that's going to be an arms-length commercial decision with the Costa management that we believe we could get into those outlets over time. We have a big vending business. So, clearly, across our markets, particularly Germany, Belgium, Nordics, we have got a lot of coffee business already within CCEP. So, clearly, beyond the ready-to-drink opportunity with Costa, we would look at being able to bring a more premium brand into those – into that universe which is exciting. And, yeah, I mean back to the first point, if over time, KO acquires that business and you have got 2,700 outlets in fantastic high street locations, airports, transportation. So, they exactly fit in an environment that will give you a great opportunity to bring new brands and experiences to consumers quite quickly so we're excited about that for sure. And I think that's something – obviously we will wait with patience for the deal to take its course and hopefully it's successful and then obviously we're sitting with KO, looking at what could it mean for CCEP. But as you've highlighted across three areas, there are maybe even more that we haven't explored yet, it's an exciting deal potentially for CCEP.