Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PLC (CCEP) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Hello, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to today's Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Half Year 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I must advise you that this conference call is being recorded today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy, Sarah Willett. Please go ahead, Sarah.

Thank you all for joining us today. I'm here with Damian Gammell, our CEO; and our CFO, Ed Walker. First, a reminder of our cautionary statements. This call will contain forward-looking management comments and other statements reflecting our outlook. These comments should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary language contained in today's release as well as the detailed cautionary statements found in reports filed with the U.K., U.S., Dutch and Spanish authorities. A copy of this information is available on our website at www.cocacolaep.com. Prepared remarks will be made by Damian. We will then turn the call over to your questions. Unless otherwise stated, metrics presented today will be on a comparable and FX-neutral basis throughout. Volume movements, unless otherwise stated, adjust for the impact of 6 more consumption days in the half when compared to the same period last year. Following the call, a full transcript will be made available as soon as possible on our website. You will see on the first slide of the presentation, a picture of one of the limited edition 2 million Campeones champion gold cans to celebrate our Spanish market winning the World Cup. So on that note, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Damian, who found one of these cans selling online for EUR 20.

Thank you, Sarah. I didn't buy it, but thank you, and thank you all for joining. We delivered a strong first half, and I really want to start by thanking our colleagues for their focus, hard work and continued dedication to CCEP and most importantly, to our customers. Our people and our strong brand partnerships continue to drive us forward. We've seen broad-based growth across markets and categories, continued share gains, robust profit delivery and strong cash generation. Our value creation strategy is working. We are creating value for our customers. We are a consistent top and bottom line compounder. We are generating significant cash, which is supporting record investment behind future growth, and we are increasing our returns to shareholders. Looking back over the past 3 years, we have generated $4.4 billion of value for our retail customers and returned $4.3 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. We operate in large, attractive and a growing beverage market. NARTD is a $180 billion category globally and is expected to grow 3% to 4% annually through to 2030. We are well positioned in the fast-growing categories and across a diverse channel and geographic footprint, including particularly attractive long-term opportunities in Southeast Asia. Looking now at our results, the business continues to perform well. We're pleased to have delivered a strong first half with balanced top line growth across our markets, continued share gains and robust profit delivery. We're executing well and innovating at pace, focusing on the categories where consumers are most engaged, including zero sugar, energy, sports and hydration. As a result, we continue to lead value creation for our customers. We're staying disciplined on costs with our productivity mindset and efficiency programs continuing to support profit expansion, strong free cash flow and investment in our brands, supply chain, technology and our people, also enabling us to grow our shareholder returns. We have laid strong foundations through our commercial plans, our innovation pipeline, our in-market execution and the ongoing development of our strategic capabilities. We are confident in reaffirming our guidance for this year and in the longer-term opportunity ahead. Turning now to the key metrics. You can see a well-balanced performance across the business. Revenue grew strongly with great execution across our markets, positive revenue per case and strong growth in volumes, particularly in Q2, despite Easter falling into Q1 this year. June was actually our biggest volume month ever. We also grew value share by 20 basis points, driven by gains in Europe. Our customer relationships remain a real source of competitive advantage. We continue to maintain high service levels, and we're proud to remain the #1 retail value creator, which is important because creating value for our customers is central to how we will grow sustainably. Operating profit reflects the quality of our top line as we benefited from stronger volumes as well as disciplined cost management and our ongoing productivity agenda. Cash generation remains a core strength of CCEP. We delivered strong comparable free cash flow in the first half and continue to invest behind future growth while also returning cash to shareholders through our dividend and our share buyback program. So overall, the first half demonstrates the strength of our model. We are growing, investing, improving productivity and growing shareholder returns, all within a disciplined framework. We delivered revenue of EUR 10.7 billion, an increase of 6.1%, with volumes growing 5.6% or 2.2% on a days adjusted basis, with volume growth in both Europe and APS. Revenue per case grew 0.4% against a strong comparative of almost 4% growth in the first half of last year. Headline price increases, promotional optimization and positive mix benefits from the growth of energy and more coolers were partially offset by the growth of larger volume formats in Europe. In addition, we also faced a headwind from the Suntory alcohol exit in APS, and this is worth just over 1% of total revenue during the first half. In fact, in Australia Pacific, revenue, excluding alcohol, grew a really healthy 10%. Cost of sales per unit case increased by 0.6%, lower than our full year guidance of 1.5%, and this largely reflects both a higher half 1 comparable of 3.6% last year and with much of the absorption of the ongoing uncertain situation in the Middle East still to land in half 2. OpEx as a percentage of revenue was 21.4%, an improvement of around 40 basis points, supported by savings on discretionary spend and continued productivity gains. The combination of these factors drove operating profit of EUR 1.5 billion, up 8.1% with an operating margin of 13.8%, up around 30 basis points on last year. Diluted earnings per share of EUR 2.20 was up 10.6%, supported by the share buyback with around EUR 600 million of the full year EUR 1 billion now completed. And finally, free cash flow of EUR 435 million was slightly ahead of last year. This was after investing in key projects, including more coolers, a new warmfill line for Powerade in Australia, new can fillers in Sweden and the development of our exciting greenfield site, Manila, which is on schedule to begin production next year. We do remain on track to deliver comparable free cash flow of at least EUR 1.7 billion for the year. Our performance in the first half and the solid start to the second reinforces our confidence in the outlook for the full year, notwithstanding 6 fewer trading days in the second half. So today, we're reaffirming all elements of our full year '26 guidance. And our '26 guidance is in line with our midterm objectives with a quick reminder of those here. Our performance and the continued delivery of these midterm objectives come back to the execution of our focused and consistent strategy captured in these core priorities. Firstly, we're broadening our total portfolio, investing behind faster-growing categories and driving innovation across both established and emerging brands. We bring these brands to life in market with great execution, whether that's through impactful on-shelf, differentiated points of interruption, cooler placements or recent major activations such as the FIFA World Cup, to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. Enhancement of our revenue and margin growth management, investment in commercial capabilities and productivity improvements ensure we remain competitive. Our investments in the Philippines and Indonesia represent significant long-term opportunities to accelerate growth, and we're encouraged by the progress we're making in both markets. And we're unlocking growth through technology and AI. These investments are helping us to generate new growth opportunities across the business, improve decision-making, enhance customer service and increase our manufacturing efficiency. Our focus on these priorities is strengthening our business today and creating the foundations for growth and value creation for many years to come, and, of course, all done sustainably. Briefly on that, we recently updated our sustainability goals to include the Philippines, something we explored in our recent ESG webinar and available for replay on our website. So how are we getting on more broadly against these priorities? Our portfolio strategy is working. We're continuing to invest in the core whilst broadening our participation across faster-growing categories and occasions, including sports, energies and zeros, where we're seeing strong momentum, which I'll come back to shortly. We've seen a meaningful contribution to our growth from some great innovation in the first half. On our Coke trademark across Original Taste and Zeros, our new cherry variants, including Cherry Float and GB performed well. We continue to make good progress with small and more premium packs and the new 500 ml Supercans are proving to be a great success, especially with younger consumers. So watch this space for more to come. And we welcome the return to growth for Die Coke and GB, supported by the addition of Cherry and the collaboration with The Devil Wears Prada. Our flavors family has seen lots of exciting new introductions from Royal Grape and Lychee in the Philippines, the fantastic Nipis Mint in Indonesia and the fun new visual identity for Fanta with Xbox gaming graphics. We're strengthening our presence in sports and hydration with volumes up 12%. Aquarius continues to drive strong growth in Iberia, while Powerade grew double digit, supported by the FIFA activation. This brand has also been recently introduced to Indonesia, where the sports category is already half the size of sparkling. Energy continues to outperform with volumes up an incredible 19%. Monster growth is running at roughly twice the category rate. Our share was up 230 basis points, supported by innovations such as Viking Berry and strong activation around our motorsport partnerships with Oscar Piastri now featuring on the cans of Monster Green. Water is growing well, particularly in GB with Smartwater and in the Philippines with Wilkins. And we've made fantastic progress in coffee in Australia, where Grinders is now the #1 coffee bean brand in retail with sales of over AUD 100 million. The common theme here is choice, more brands, more packs, more flavors and more occasions focused on faster-growing categories. That's helping us recruit consumers, increase frequency and capture a greater share of the beverage spend. As I mentioned earlier, we've seen great momentum in the growth of Zeros everywhere, whether in Coke trademark, flavors with Sprite and Fanta, in hydration or in energy. Both Coke Zero caffeine, in its eye-catching -- caffeine-free in its eye-catching new black and gold packaging and Zero Chill Sprite with its refreshing blast of mint have delivered beyond our expectations with Sprite overall growing by 6%, supported by the fantastic Sprite & Spicy campaign. We've extended our range of Zero flavors in Fanta and are seeing good growth in both zero sugar sports through Powerade and Aquarius and in energy, where the Monster Ultra range was up over 50%. Overall, Zero Sugar volumes increased by 10%, and we expect strong growth going forward with innovation offering more choice for consumers as they increasingly seek out healthier but exciting and great tasting options. Execution is one of our most durable competitive advantages. And in half 1, we turned brand strength and innovation into visible, measurable marketplace impact. One example is our cooler rollout plan, which is running well ahead. We've added more than 80,000 coolers this year, an increase of 5%, more than 10% since last year when we began our accelerated program to expand cold availability and grow instant consumption, which supports mix. We're continuing to win with customers and listings across markets, including Smartwater and Fuze Tea in McDonald's in selected markets. Domino's was a significant recent win in Australia, with the GB team winning Parkdean Resorts, Papa John's and Leeds United. This expands our coverage of English Premiership grounds to 80% and makes Ed, our CFO, a proud Yorkshireman very happy. And we've seen a terrific win for the whole system with Marriott International, including over 600 hotels in our markets, and that will start rolling out during half 2. Beyond that, execution on our packaging collection progress continued. DRS has landed well in Portugal. We continue to prepare for GB next year, and we launched a cross-border recycling program across the Pacific Islands, all contributing to our decarbonization journey. And finally, we're bringing our brands to life through stronger activation, as you can see here on the Fanta and Xbox and of course, through FIFA World Cup, which I'm keen to touch on next. World Cup 2026 has been our biggest activation program ever, providing a great example of how we work with the Coca-Cola Company combining world-class assets with exceptional local execution at scale to create value for our customers and excitement for our consumers. We delivered more than 500,000 displays with our field teams continuing to build momentum as the tournament progressed. All of our top European Home customers executed a campaign covering more than 47,000 outlets. We activated exclusive Panini sticker on-pack promotions with 163 million packs and produced more than 135 million team and player cans. Importantly, it just wasn't about brand awareness. The activation supported transactions with more than 1.3 million FIFA items awarded to shoppers through the purchase of our brands. On to competitiveness. Sharpening competitiveness is not simply a cost agenda. It is about building a faster-moving business, one that is more efficient and more effective in serving our customers and consumers and one that can [indiscernible] and growing profitably. One important lever is revenue and margin growth management. We are continuing to use sharper insights, better promotional mechanics and stronger pricing tools to balance value for consumers with profitable growth for our customers and CCEP. That is particularly important in an environment where many consumers remain focused on value. Promotions are a good example. They're not only about headline price, but as examples here demonstrate, about great promotional mechanics, helping to drive higher incidence, whether that's through free meals in QSR, gifts with purchase or price-led campaigns for Fuze Tea and Coke Zero Zero. At the same time, we are building more scalable capabilities across the business, expanding integrated shared services with more than 1,500 colleagues, including now over 250 in Manila. This is all part of our broader productivity mindset. We are improving how we work, simplifying processes as we leverage AI, reducing OpEx and reinvesting behind the capabilities that matter most across both commercial and our supply chain. Our markets in Southeast Asia are our fastest growing within CCEP, as you saw earlier. In Indonesia, we made solid progress during the first half of this year with sparkling continuing to grow ahead of the total category. Our new launches like Sprite Nipis Mint, Coke Zero Vanilla and Powerade are performing well and have contributed significantly to growth in Q2, following a great festive period. This has been supported by our new route-to-market model, which is helping us strengthen execution and improve category participation with our distribution partners. In the Philippines, we've continued to see strong momentum. Our Coke Zero campaign focused around All-Out Sarap, or all-out deliciousness supported double-digit volume growth, and we've continued to see good momentum at Wilkins, our water brand, which is benefiting from new listings. We're also investing for future demand. Construction of our new facility remains on track for 2027, and this will provide additional capacity to support long-term profitable growth in the Philippines, with margins now approaching our 10% target. Taken together, Indonesia and the Philippines are becoming a scalable Southeast Asia growth engine for CCEP, combining strong category growth, improving execution, innovation momentum and growing profitability. Now just to talk a little bit to AI and tech. Our approach to AI is clear. We are focused on a key number of strategic opportunities across the business, but we are deliberately centered around growth. By way of a few examples, it is providing enhanced analytics to optimize promotional pricing levels. It is supporting our insights team to analyze data to drive swifter commercial decisions. It's cleaning millions of pieces of manufacturing data in days rather than years, and it's helping key account managers provide more effectively -- prepare more effectively for customer conversations and is starting to enhance productivity as we leverage digital twins in our supply chain. So what gives me confidence is that what we're seeing -- while we're seeing good progress against all our strategic priorities, we will keep coming back to demonstrate how we are strengthening our business today and creating foundations for tomorrow. We know, however, that we've got more to do. We continue to broaden our portfolio, especially in Zeros, bringing even more magic to Coke Original Taste and driving more innovation with new and exciting options coming from our brand partners. In Southeast Asia, we are encouraged by the early progress in Indonesia and the continued strength of the Philippines. Our focus is now to sustain that momentum and scale it into a long-term growth engine for CCEP. All of this whilst continue to execute across our markets each and every day whilst adapting even faster, leverage and tech across our business. So as you've seen today, we're continuing to build on the consistent track record of delivery over the past 10 years. We've created significant value for customers, consumers and shareholders, and we believe the opportunity ahead remains just as compelling. We are growing across attractive categories and markets, broadening our portfolio, winning through execution, sharpening our competitiveness, scaling Southeast Asia and unlocking new growth through data, technology and AI. The strength of our first half performance demonstrates the resilience of our business and the consistency of our growth model. While we have several key months to go and 6 less trading days in Q4, the second half has started well, giving us confidence in our full year outlook and our ability to deliver on our medium-term objectives. We are winning today, and we are creating an even stronger platform for tomorrow. Thank you, everybody. And Ed and I would now be very happy to take your questions. As I hand the call back over to you, Mel.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Edward Mundy from Jefferies.

Look, I appreciate it's a little bit too early to talk about 2027 guidance, but I'd love to pick your brains as to how you're thinking philosophically about growth in next year. On the one hand, you're going to be lapping 2 really good summers. You've got FIFA. You've got this very strong innovation cycle that we've just been through. But on the other hand, you're broadening your portfolio, you're taking share. Southeast Asia seems to be waking up and AI is moving from a productivity tool to a growth engine. What are the 2 or 3 things that you're really excited about, Damian, as you go into 2027?

Yes. Thanks, Ed. I mean we'll talk later in the year with more specificity around '27. But clearly, we're excited about the second half of this year, just to maybe bring it back to '26. As I said, the second half of this year started well. We've continued to see good weather across most of our markets. And we've got a lot of good campaigns coming, whether that's around the Bundesliga, EPL, our new icon, look and feel for Coke Zero. We're only at the beginning with Coke Zero Zero. Supercans are new. So a lot of the innovation that we've brought to market in '26, really we'll see the full year benefit of that in '27. So that definitely gives me some excitement and confidence. I think the second point I'd make, Ed, is that clearly, when we were preparing for FIFA, we were working very closely with the Coca-Cola Company to have a really exciting asset for the same period next year, and I'm really excited about that. Obviously, for various reasons, I can't get into more detail with it. But as you'd appreciate, we have been working hard to make sure we bring a similar level of excitement on store inventory to our consumers for 2027. You're right about Asia. I think we start to see that being a material player in our growth algorithm. It's great to see Indonesia performing. And again, a lot of the innovation we've brought this year will continue into 2027. Yes. And to your point around AI and tech, certainly, we will see net revenue per case playing a bigger part of our story in the second half of this year. We'll clearly continue to look at pricing opportunities as we exit '26, which again will give us a bit of momentum into 2027. So excited about the second half of this year and looking forward to an even more exciting 2027. Also, some of the foundational work we've been doing around cooler placements, some of those customer wins, I mean, they remain in our base into '27, and that also supports our growth objective.

Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Ford of BNP Paribas.

The first one is just to pick up on something you just mentioned there, Damian, on the revenue per case kind of evolution. Particularly if we focus just on the Europe performance, Q2, I think, plus 1.3% revenue per unit case kind of in line with what we saw in Q1. And obviously, Q1 was impacted to a degree by the earlier timing of Easter. Just how much of the sort of slightly softer revenue per case is reflecting sort of the tougher consumer environment and the focus on affordability and large packs? Or is there something else in there? And should we expect the kind of European revenue per unit case to also sequentially improve? Clearly, in APS, we have -- we will fully cycle the Beam Suntory impact there. But specifically on Europe, what's your thoughts into the second half? And then very, very quickly, just, if I can, follow up on the Philippines. We're cycling, I think, as we go into Q3, the quite devastating typhoons you saw in July and August last year. So any update on how July and potentially the first couple of days of August have trended in the Philippines?

Yes. Thanks, Matt. Maybe I'll deal with the second part of your question and then hand back to Ed for your questions around the NSR per case. Yes, as I said, we're pleased with the way half 2 started across CCEP, including the Philippines. So far, we haven't seen similar weather that we had to deal with last year. So that will definitely help as we look at Q3. But generally, the momentum we saw in June is continuing across our business. So that gives us a lot of excitement for a solid Q3. And I'll hand back to Ed on the NSR per case question. Ed?

Yes. Thanks, Matt. So on the revenue per case and looking specifically at Europe, so yes, absolutely, as you said, we grew 1.4% per case in the quarter, and that was quite nicely balanced between rate and mix. I think one thing we need to remember is that last year, for the same time period, so Q2 2025, we grew 4.2% per case. So we're cycling a very strong revenue per case growth from the previous year. And as we look at the year as a whole, I think evening out the impact between different quarters, we still expect a good balance between volume growth and revenue per case growth. I think in Europe specifically, if you look at Q2, so we continue to see healthy brand mix coming through. We did have a bit more adversity in pack mix, but that's really as a result of the success of a lot of the activation we did with promotions and particularly around FIFA. So that's probably Q2 specifically. And then when we look at the rate, as I said, when we look at the year as a whole, we think that will be fairly balanced. We don't see any reduction in our ability to take price in our markets. And as always, as we've talked about before, these pricing decisions within quarter are quite dynamic and are always influenced by the period that we're tackling. We continue to focus on affordability, as we talked about last year and making sure we have the right packs at the right price for all of our consumers, but also that we give consumers great experiences through either our packs, through our innovation or some of the great activation we saw around FIFA like Panini, as Damian mentioned earlier.

Yes. And I just think to build on that, I mean, on our last call, we've been very explicit about trying to balance pricing with value add because we think, obviously, the brands that we have bring a different level of excitement to our consumers. So what you'll see in Q2 and into Q3, a lot of our on-floor activation, particularly in retail is to win, to collect to get access to tickets. And we think that's important. While it offers value, it also brings excitement. And we think with the brands that we have, that's what consumers and indeed customers are looking for. So we'll continue to look at a balance of affordability to price value. We've got a lot of premium plays out there. A lot of our innovation is more in the premium space, Supercans, Coke Zero Zero. And then we'll shift some more of those promotional funds back into value add. We see that responding really well. And no surprise, the gold can for the Spanish team has been a huge hit in Iberia. So elements like that, we think, are something that brands like Coke can do better than anybody else, and we'll keep leveraging them.

Our next question comes from the line of Bonnie Herzog, Goldman Sachs.

I had a question on your volumes. I guess I was hoping to get a little more color on your volumes in the quarter and maybe how they trended relative to your internal expectations. Damian, you mentioned both the World Cup and favorable weather were 2 drivers of strength. So hoping maybe you could give us a sense of the lift you saw from this and maybe any other call-outs that surprised you from your perspective. Also, your guidance implies a decent deceleration of growth in the back half. So I guess I'm trying to understand how much was possibly pull forward into Q2 versus conservatism on your part? And finally, maybe just expected phasing of growth between Q3 and Q4.

Yes. Thanks, Bonnie. I can say there was zero pull forward or impact on Q3. So really healthy volume growth across the quarter. I would say it was a quarter where we delivered growth from a geographic perspective, very balanced. From a channel perspective, we were pleased. And also, as Ed mentioned, from a pack perspective. So it was broad across brands and packages. We came in with a lot of momentum into the third quarter. As I said, it started off well for us. So 0 impact on the growth from Q2 into Q3, which is great. In fact, probably some of the people who are working the hardest at CCEP are our supply chain colleagues as we continue to meet that increased demand coming out of the second half and rebuild inventories. So overall, very pleased. I would say, obviously, FIFA is a call out just in terms of its scale and impact. I would say some of the new innovations are doing better than we expected. So Coke Zero Zero. I think the Supercans has surprised us, really connecting with a different user, and I think that's working really well. And obviously, we talked to some of the innovation in Asia, but particularly Powerade in Indonesia surprised us to the upside. So that's great. So quite broad, which is exciting, quite sustainable into Q3, Q4, and as I mentioned, to Ed's point, into next year. You could call us conservative. I mean, Ed and I looked at our numbers for the first half of the year, reflected on year to go. There's still 5 months to go. And clearly, we'll be able to update everybody in November on how we see the full year. But at this stage, given the volatility that we've seen, particularly on the cost side, it's great to be able to reaffirm what was pretty good guidance anyway. And that gives us a lot of excitement for the second half.

Our next question comes from the line of Simon Hales, Citi.

Damian, I wonder if you could just sort of pick your brains a little bit further on your comments around the H2 guidance and potentially some of perhaps the prudence you're building in there. I'm just still trying to square the circle because from everything you've said today, clearly, Q3 has started strongly. Momentum was very good. It's obviously through June, that's continued into July and perhaps early August. We've got perhaps lower promo coming in Europe in H2, generally, as you said, higher revenue per case, further cost efficiencies coming through. And yet overall comparable EBIT growth is expected to slow to probably around 6% and change in H2 to meet your guidance. You just flagged there your worries perhaps around some of the cost volatility we're seeing. Are you really sort of being pretty conservative because of the higher COGS per case we're seeing in the second half? And is that really driven by what you're seeing out of the Middle East in particular? I'm just trying to get a bit more of a flavor as to what's driving that potential conservatism on your part.

Yes. I mean we look at the year in total, Simon. I mean I know everybody gets excited by quarters and the half year outlook when you take the first half and you deduct it from our guidance, I mean, you guys do the numbers as well, if not better than us. I suppose really it just comes down to we still have 5 big months. We still got to get through what is a really good summer for us in Europe, and we're excited about that. Then we move into spring, summer in our Australia, New Zealand businesses. So it more reflects a kind of time frame that we still have 5 -- what we hope will be great months to go. And that was it really. I mean there's nothing specific. When we look at our hedging, we're in a good place. We look at our pricing. We're in a good place. We would like to see a little bit more NSR per case progression in half 2. We're clearly working on that with our commercial teams. From a listings perspective, we're in good shape. Yes. So there's a lot to be positive about. We just felt with 5 months to go, sticking to our guidance is probably the best decision at the moment. And then obviously, should that change, we'll update it as we go through the year anyway as normal. So yes, nothing specific, more really that we felt we're just halfway through the game. Yes, maybe we are a little bit conservative, but that's -- Yes, maybe that's our way a little bit. I don't know, Ed, do you want to comment?

Well, maybe just one point to add. We have to remember, of course, that there were more selling days in the first half than the second half. So when we look at our reported revenue and our reported profit, they reflect that. So obviously, that means a few less selling days in the second half. But that's all as per our plan and how we anticipated the year would roll out at the beginning of the year. I think on the Middle East, as you mentioned that, I mean, we're in a good place in terms of our coverage for the year. But the majority of the costs will fall in the second half. That's all built into our guidance. But obviously, given the timing of that and given -- we're always a little bit more hedged in the near term than the midterm, we will see more of that cost in the second half. And of course, the Middle East itself is still an open item in terms of how it really affects all of us for the rest of the year. So just a couple of points there that might help, Simon.

Our next question comes from the line of Andrea Pistacchi, Bank of America.

I have a question on Indonesia, please, which delivered a strong quarter, albeit against a pretty easy comparison base. Is there anything in sort of the performance of this quarter and the previous ones that really is maybe increasing your confidence that the turnaround is gaining traction beyond the comp effects? And do you think now Indonesian is in a situation where it can start sustaining positive volume growth?

Yes. Great question. We're really excited about Indonesia for the near and long term, obviously, just given some of the macros that we all know about. I think when we look at our business, we started the year off with a great festive, that's continued into Q2. A couple of drivers of that. One is structural. I mean, we've spent some time reorganizing our route to market and moving to a more efficient distributor model. We firmly believe that's a driver of growth for the long term. We've brought more innovation, whether it's on the mint side with Sprite or on Powerade, that's definitely driving growth. Our underlying performance on sparkling is actually better. So when you look at the consolidated number, within that, there's still a little bit of weakness on tea, and that's something that we need to deal with as we get through the second half of this year. But what that really shows is where we've been focused, which is on our sparkling portfolio, that's continued to go from strength to strength by quarter. So yes, a lot of moving parts in Indo. So I think while we're super excited, we're very happy with the route-to-market change. I'm particularly pleased for our team in Indo. I mean they've been working through a lot of change. It's great for them to see the positives, particularly on sparkling month after month, quarter after quarter. So we expect that to continue to -- through half 2 and then into 2027. So obviously, our objective for that business that it does become a consistent driver of revenue volume for CCEP. We're starting to see that this year. And clearly, we can update as we get into next year, yes, but definitely too early to talk about success. I would say it's great to talk about progress, and that's where we are at the moment.

Can I squeeze in, please, a very quick follow-up on how the supply chain has coped with maybe the increased strain because of the incremental demand because of the weather. Has there been any pressure on the cost base, maybe logistics or production? Or have you coped with that normally?

Yes. I'd say the team, I mentioned it earlier and a big call out to all our colleagues in customer service and supply chain. We've managed it really well. I mean we've had to make some, I would say, short-term tactical decisions about prioritizing certain SKUs. We came into the summer with reasonably good inventories. Our customers usually have good inventory. So that buffer certainly helps us to manage the uplift we've seen, particularly in June and into July. So yes, not without pressure. And I would say a lot of hard work, but nothing significantly impacting our cost base or anything like that. It's been really good to see that the team and our factories can respond to that uplift.

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Carey, Wells Fargo Securities.

I wanted to follow up on confidence levels around using pricing as a lever. Clearly, coming into 2026, there was a key strategy across the Coca-Cola system to drive improved or more balanced top line growth with volume. You've talked about in this call, providing consumers with the appropriate value and price points. But as we look at 2027, it certainly does seem like inflation will be higher than it is in 2026 based on what we can see today with acceleration in the back half. So how does this strategy in 2026 evolve into 2027? Can the pricing line continue to be as robust for you when you need it most when inflation is rising? Or is there a step change in the thought process about how to manage these inflationary backdrop, say, relative to 2022 and 2023? And I just wonder if you could maybe one level down and talk about how you would view this in your Europe versus APS businesses as well.

[indiscernible] give us access to a much more elastic consumer environment on pricing. So I think that's quite different to a lot of businesses in [indiscernible]. We're also more diversified than ever across categories and packs. So again, when we look at pricing, it's a very, very segmented strategy. And I think that gives us confidence that pricing will remain part of our mix story through '26 and into 2027. It's a similar environment in APS, albeit I would say we're focused on affordability, as you'd expect, more in markets like Indonesia and Philippines, where we just know out-of-pocket spend under more pressure. But ultimately, we feel with that diversity and a segmented approach, we're in good shape for this year and next year. I don't know, Ed, do you want to?

Yes, I think you're absolutely right. I mean if you look back over our history, we've managed successfully, I think, periods of low inflation and periods of high inflation. It will be a balanced approach, as you said, Chris, we're very conscious of the need for volume growth across the business and revenue per case growth. I think one of the strong things about CCP is we have many levers to that pricing, whether it's the headline price, a lot of opportunity always to make our promotions work harder and be more efficient. And then as you look across the portfolio, many different packs and brands. which really lends ourselves to being able to take that very segmented approach. And I think '27 will be no different from any of the other years. It will be a very carefully considered approach, and we'll look at what's the right thing from a consumer pricing perspective from affordability, what's the right thing for the category from a customer perspective and of course, what do we need to do to cover cost in our business, but also to invest in the future. So I think we will see the same type of trends and the same type of activities as we've seen in previous years of maybe slightly higher inflation.

Yes. And I think we're also leveraging innovation as well. I think a lot of the innovation you'll see coming through smaller pack sizes, generating a higher revenue per case, commanding a bit more of a premium. And there's more of that to come as we look at brands like BODYARMOR or what we do with Powerade I talked about earlier. Obviously, energy is mainly single-serve, drives a nice revenue per case. So to Ed's point, I think we have a lot of different levers beyond that kind of headline price element, but there will be some headline price as well. But the combination of all of those gives us confidence that we can maintain a quality top line growth, which for us is really a little bit of price, mix and volume and also sustained margin expansion on the P&L, which we're obviously very focused on.

Our next question comes from the line of Sanjeet Aujla, UBS.

Damian and Ed, I just wanted to dig into your share trends across Europe. I think we started the year with some weaker momentum, particularly in Germany and France. How have you seen your competitiveness develop through the course of the half year period? And specifically on the Away from Home channel, I think volumes were only up 0.5%. Are there any parts of Europe where performance is lagging? I think there was a bit of momentum build last year, but has that faded a little bit this year? Or how would you assess your Away from Home performance in Q2?

Thanks, Sanjeet. So our share has improved, particularly in Europe as the year has progressed. We're actually seeing a slightly better volume share than value share. And that comes back to some of the points Ed talked about. We've seen some of our large PET initiatives pay off, particularly on Die Coke. So I want to -- I'm a Diet Coke fan, so I want to call that Die Coke, where we've seen that brand return to growth in GB. So our volume share is improving and so is value share in Europe. And as you see overall in NARTD, we gained share. In terms of Away from Home, I would say it's pretty consistent with last year. Obviously, revenue is doing a little bit better than volume. Across all of our markets, it's pretty consistent. Obviously, it's picked up a bit as the weather kicked in, particularly in June and into July. Yes, so nothing structural there. Obviously, it continues to be a channel where we've got to drive more availability. So our coolers are a big part of our Away from Home strategy. And we've got to manage clearly, particularly down the trade -- you'll see a bit more meal deals. You've seen that from some of our big customers, a bit more value from McDonald's. And I think that just reflects what Ed talked to that while we see the business being very resilient, we are conscious that some consumers still respond more to value, and that's also true in Away from Home. Yes, but 2 years now where we've seen growth in Away from Home, and we're really happy with that.

Our next question comes from the line of Richard Withagen, Kepler Cheuvreux.

You mentioned promotions and promo spending a few times on the call today. And I think also on previous calls, you mentioned it. Can you perhaps quantify promo spending? Is there more optimization potential? And what else in revenue and margin growth management are you focusing on to optimize?

There's always opportunity when I speak to my key account and commercial team. It's a big pot of money. So I do think optimization has really improved. I mean we've done some good work using technology. We clearly understand what promos don't create value for us or our customers, what promos drive better household penetration. So we will continue with that. I think beyond promo optimization, and you'll probably see that a little bit in some of our markets some of the promo depth is increasing. So we see similar promos, but at a slightly higher promotional price. Clearly, to Ed's point earlier, that will support some of that NSR growth through to the second half of the year. Beyond that, I mean, I think, as I talked to earlier, our innovation plays a good role. It's mainly single-serve. It's mainly more premium compared to large PET and a lot of it's on the go, which commands a higher price. And then within retail, we see opportunity, particularly I'm just back from a visit to the U.S. with Ed you can really see how they've taken mini cans, small PET even further than we have in Europe. I mean that's been a good part of our story. But when you visit markets like that, you can see how that can be even a bigger part of our story in Europe and in Australia. So I think packaging, pack mix, pack innovation will be a bigger part of our -- or MGM story going forward. And then clearly, categories. So when we look at sports, particularly Powerade and Aquarius, they drive a much better mix for us. So -- and again, just referencing my North American trip when you stand in front of a fixture in the U.S. and also, I would say, in Australia, to our team's credit in Australia, they've just done a much bigger job on making Powerade and that whole sports category relevant. We see the growth in that in Europe, but there's a long way to go. So it's a combination of that price promo optimization, pack mix optimization and better category leverage. And I think that gives us confidence not just for '27, but over the next number of years in Europe and in Australia and New Zealand.

Our next question comes from the line of Nadine Sarwat, Bernstein.

One for me, please. That 20,000 new coolers added is a pretty incredible number, and you referenced it quite a lot in a helpful manner in your prepared remarks. Can you give us a sense of how this incremental cooler capacity is distributed across your geographies or channels? And just help us understand the ROI or incremental sales or positive mix generated by an investment like that in whatever way in terms of quantifying that, that you can?

Thanks, Nadine. Great question. So actually, it's 80,000 coolers that we've done this year, and that was building on significant increase as well last year. So yes, we're very pleased with our progress on cooler placements. I would say it's fairly evenly balanced across our markets and actually pretty evenly balanced across channels, both in the Home channel and Away from Home. We found lots more opportunities to place coolers, both Coke coolers and Monster coolers. From a finance perspective, there are some of the best investments we like to make. Every cooler is different depending on where you place it, but you can be looking at returns of certainly within a couple of years for a well-placed cooler. We give quite specific guidance to our sales teams in terms of what type of throughput we need to be seeing in order to generate the return. And then if that throughput is delivered, then you can be very comfortable with the return. And of course, we're starting to see more and more the use of connected coolers and that gives us great feedback on the number of purchases, what's the right distribution of products and brands, the right rates of sale that we should be seeing through those coolers. So again, another area where technology and AI is really giving us fantastic insight to make sure we put the right coolers of the right size in the right locations. But certainly, from a finance perspective, very happy with the returns we receive from our cold drink placements.

Understood. And one follow-up on that, actually. It clearly is meeting the consumer at a place where they want something cold, they want something convenient. What does that say about underlying consumer dynamics today, single-serve versus multipacks? And how are you expecting that to evolve over the coming years?

Yes. I mean I think our single-serve business, particularly as we bring more flavor and innovation is really robust, and it's something that we know that our category is an impulse category, right? So it's a huge benefit that if you put it in the right place and it's cold, it gets sold. And that's been true for a long, long time in our business. It's also an area where you can get price elasticity. So I think people realize and accept that for that convenience and for that immediate cold product, they'll pay a little bit more, which is good for us and for our customer. And typically, when you look at our beverages across our markets, while we have taken pricing, I mean you can get a cold Coke in most of our markets for around EUR 1, $1.50. So while we do talk about pricing, the absolute spend to enjoy one of our products, I would argue, is always still very reasonable, let's put it that way. And then on top of that, you've got categories like energy and sports that command a premium. And candidly, our distribution, particularly on sports in Away from Home and cold is very low. So that's something we've got to find a better way to unlock that opportunity.

I think it also says quite a bit about the customer and the customer sees the value in the category overall and that it's a great value creator from them from an outlet perspective. So we see increasing signs of the customer wanting to place more and more equipment and give more and more space to soft drinks, which I think is a great thing for us, obviously.

Our next question comes from the line of Mitch Collett, Deutsche Bank.

I enjoyed your third slide, the new one, so thank you for that. And there was a bullet on there about KIRA, your Agentic AI application. And you say that it gave you deeper brand insights and faster market decisions. So I just wondered if you could give us any examples of those insights and decisions? And how do you expect that tool to develop and contribute to the business going forward?

Yes. Thanks, Mitch. I mean we have got a wealth of information as a system. I think that's the starting point, whether it's from our customers, from our own structured research with the Coca-Cola Company and Monster, EPOS data. I mean, we really have a lot of information. Our challenge was trying to put that in a place where we could access it and use different sources to make better decisions. And this is, I think, a challenge of many companies. So KIRA really is our first big attempt to have an AI agent that sits above a lot of those sources, whether it's Nielsen, Kantar, EPOS information, brand information from the Coca-Cola Company. And it is giving us a better understanding of how consumers respond to some of our initiatives, whether that's promo or new pack innovation. And clearly, then that steers the next decision about where we prioritize resource. So it's really allowing our commercial teams to ask the right question, get a very quick answer and then bring that to our customers to shape whether it's space in a cooler, better promo pricing or better innovation as we go forward. So I think we're at the beginning of that. I mean we've also done some work with McKinsey on trying to look at how AI can sit above even more information and really consolidating a great data set from the Coca-Cola Company with what we have. And I think, yes, that's where KIRA kind of sits in the middle of that. So early days, but it's certainly amazing to see how what took weeks to try and get some correlation between Nielsen shopper panel or customer data is now happening a lot, lot quicker, yes. So super exciting.

Our next question comes from the line of Eric Serotta, Morgan Stanley.

Two quick ones. First, Damian, back in Manila, you talked about the potential for -- or the potential upside for improving kind of core sparkling volumes in Europe. It looks like you made some progress in terms of Diet Coke and light in a couple of markets. Original Taste seemed a little on the soft side. But even taking sort of a step back from the quarter-to-quarter volatility, could you talk about your progress and your confidence in achieving that core sparkling volume improvement in Europe since we heard from this a little over a year ago. And then a quick one for Ed. Usually, around this time, you're around midyear, you're typically about 50% hedged on commodities for the following year. Where do you guys stand today? Are you a little bit less because of maybe elevated prices earlier in the year? Or were there some opportunities given the forward curves on commodities?

Yes. Thanks, Eric. Good memory back to our Manila meeting. Yes. So we have seen sparkling volumes grow in Europe, and I think that's been great. It's been led by Zeros, which are up over 10%. You're absolutely right. The brand that hasn't grown volume has really been Coke Classic, and we've talked about that. And I think there's a couple of factors at play. Obviously, people are enjoying great tasting zero sugar options, particularly Coke Zero, but now Diet Coke, which is great. So on a consolidated level, we can grow our Coke trademark franchise and volume, and that for us is really important. Coke Classic is still the best tasting brand. So we still see that performing, and it's still growing revenue. So while on a volume level, it's off a little bit, it is growing revenue. And I think that will continue as we have, as I mentioned earlier, mini cans, probably smaller portions around our classic variants, both Coke and Fanta and clearly, a better Zero proposition. So the category is growing. It will be led by zeroes. We see that gaining momentum, both in energy and in soft drinks. And as we've reformulated, we're now really in a solid position to take that forward. Also fair to say the Coke Classic, when you look at -- in the shorter period, we did have the sugar tax increase in France. And clearly, that was mainly on Coke Classic, and that obviously impacts volume in the short term, but we generally cycle out of that through the year. Yes. But overall, great to see the category, sparkling category in growth and great to see it led by zeroes. And I'll just pass the call to Ed on your second question.

Yes. Thank you, Eric. So yes, as you say, we aim to be 80% covered by the time we start the coming year. We don't give specific guidance at this stage in terms of the year coming at where we are at the half year point, but we aim to build it up fairly evenly over the year. So as you say, 50% is probably a reasonable approximation. We haven't delayed any of our hedging activity this year despite the Middle East because obviously, we try to avoid or we do avoid speculation, and we do the hedging to give us certainty in terms of as far as possible on costs for the coming year. Although the forwards are higher, I think what we have seen through the Middle East crisis is quite a lot more volatility on individual commodity prices. So we have locked in what I think are some good competitive rates for next year already. But we haven't overall delayed our hedging program just as a result of the Middle East.

Our next question comes from the line of Lauren Lieberman, Barclays.

I wanted to just talk for a second about the more customers element of your strategic priorities. There were a couple of called out in the release, but it's interesting to think about the range of large customers that would be directly linked to KO level conversations like Marriott versus things that are more specific to your markets. So I was curious if you could talk a little bit about that process and maybe how much of this more customers you think of as being CCEP specific, things that are driven by your ability to cover more accounts with the productivity you're finding in your sales force versus big global strategic partnerships.

Lauren, it's mainly within CCEP's control and mandate. We won a lot of new business, both small and large. We won businesses in the event space. I talked about football. We won the biggest local chain in Spain in terms of pizza and food to go, Domino's in Australia. So clearly, we leverage any global relationship we can get with the Coca-Cola Company, but the majority of the outlets are very local. And we're very focused on that. You see a lot of multiple buying groups, particularly in Europe and Australia, where they have 10 to 12 outlets, and they're exciting. Obviously, a win like Marriott lifts all boats. So when the Coca-Cola Company shared that news, it was fantastic for us, 600 hotels. And I think globally, when you look at our global franchise partners through the Coca-Cola Company are very strong already. So I would say the upside for us, we'd always welcome a gift from Atlanta if they can land one of the big global ones. But really for us, it's in our control, and it's mainly local chains. Our share in Away from Home is quite high relative to retail, but that doesn't mean we don't have opportunities, and we'll keep picking up new customers and new business as we go through this year.

Our next question comes from the line of Charlie Higgs, Rothschild & Co Redburn.

And also I want to say happy birthday to CCP for 10 years in the quarter. And I hope it was a good party. And on that note, I was wondering, if we look back over the last 10 years in Europe specifically, there's been a lot of volatility at the macro level, sugar taxes and whatnot. And yet CCP Europe has still delivered very resilient 4% or so organic sales growth per annum. And then it seems like a lot of the themes in the presentation today is about really dialing up the execution at the local level with KO, more cooler placements, more customers, bigger, stronger innovations. So how should we think about the growth setup for Europe going forward? And I guess where I'm coming from is, why isn't the European guidance more like 3% to 4% over the medium term rather than the 2% to 3%?

Thanks, Charlie. Well, thank you for the birthday wishes. We we're all very busy during the summer. We had a little bit of a party. Yes, I mean, Europe, since we created CCEP has been a massive value creator compounding year-on-year, and we see that continuing. I mean, obviously, we look at guidance on the midterm. And as we look at the group guidance around that 4% revenue, to your point, that implies Europe around 2% to 3%. Yes. And we think on a steady state, that's a good number. If we can do better than that, obviously, we will. Within that, we have factored in that transition from classic to more zero. That's accelerating, and we see that we're benefiting from that this year. Yes, we'll review guidance as we get more visibility on innovation with the Coca-Cola Company and Monster for Europe as we go into 2027. But I think overall, that range of 2% to 3% is a good number, leads to the 4% for the group. Obviously, your next question would be, if we did change Europe, would we change the group? And clearly, we want to manage all that within our current framework. But yes, happy to stick to the 2% to 3% for Europe. Yes. Thanks, Charlie.

Our next question comes from the line of Robert Ottenstein, Evercore ISI.

Damian, at this point, you've managed through a number of the FIFA World Cups. And so I was wondering if you could reflect on how the execution, the stuff that we don't see, but the kind of the nuts and bolts that goes into success has changed over prior World Cups, whether it's coordination with the Coca-Cola Company, dealing with more social media now, more agility, changing things on the run. Just some of the things underneath the hood that we just can't see. I love you to reflect on that. And then just one small question, just sort of coming into work today, I saw a headline about possible tax changes in Philippines on CSDs. Maybe give some context. I don't know if that's a special thing or something that was expected.

Thanks, Robert. I mean, I think -- and obviously, you listened in, obviously, on the KO side. I mean it was the biggest FIFA activation globally. Certainly, CCEP played a big part in that. It's always been a big event for us, but I think there was something very special about this year. And I think it was mainly in the space of digital and being able to drive more transactions with FIFA. I think Manolo and the team, both in Atlanta and locally in Europe, really focused on making FIFA transaction event. We obviously had the Panini initiative, which was huge in Europe. We had a lot of opportunities for our consumers to engage on pack. That was quite different to previous FIFA. Yes. And I think overall, that led us to be able to activate more cases on the floor, et cetera. Also, you mentioned speed. I mean, I think the gold can coming out so quick for Spain, I think, again, that just shows how as a system and as a business, we're able to move fast, make fast decisions and be prepared. We had a number of gold cans ready just in case. I won't name the ones that didn't make it. But clearly, we're happy Spain, given it's one of our key markets made it. So probably the digital tech and social engagement, Robert, would be what I'd call out as being at a very, very high level compared to previous FIFA's.

I mean on the sugar tax, I mean, there is some stuff in the media today. I think we need a bit of time to go through that. I think if you take a step back, though, we're well used to dealing with tax changes across all of our markets. If you look last year, we had the France sugar tax, which had some impact within the year. But as a good example, in quarter 2, we were back into volume growth in France. I think when you look across our portfolio with the number of packs and brands that we have and our R&MGM capability, we're well -- we're in a good position to be able to manage the impact of those types of tax changes as they come. So we'll do a bit more digging on what's actually proposed for the Philippines and reflect on that for our plans for 2027.

And we already have a tax in the Philippines. It's an excise tax, so it's across all beverages, sugar and sweeteners. So that's already in place, Robert. So let's see what changes they propose to that as well.

Our last question for today comes from the line of Carlos Laboy, HSBC.

Damian, I was hoping you could follow up a little bit on Lauren's question. What has changed that is helping you drive recruitment of more customers better? Is it an internal mindset? Is it that you have new tools that allow you to crack the code on these opportunities better? And is this something that you think can continue to drive growth in your client base going forward?

Yes. Thanks, Carlos. I mean it's something that's been a consistent part of our story at CCEP. I mean I think probably a couple of years ago, we talked about having a bolder view on the Away from Home market. I mean that market had been in decline for a while. And we talked about not being passive about that and actually working across a number of areas to drive growth in away-from-home, including customer wins. So one pillar was customer wins. The second pillar, which we talked about was cooler placements, so to drive more availability in that space. And the third element was leveraging our consumer assets better to drive transactions, and I talked to FIFA doing that as well. Clearly, as we broaden our portfolio, we've become a very compelling partner for customers. We bring to all of them a hydration platform, a leading energy platform, clearly the leading CSD portfolio. And then obviously, we're looking at bringing more innovation in sports and hydration. So when you look at NARTD, there's no one really with the breadth of portfolio that we can bring. There's a lot of companies with individual strength in different segments. I think that's definitely compelling, Carlos. And I think the more we talk to that total portfolio and the category opportunity, the more it plays into customers' needs for profit and growth. And typically, they earn good margin on our products, particularly in Out of Home. And obviously, as businesses become tougher with rates or with inflation around labor, selling a category that generates good margin definitely makes life a little bit easier for our sales force. So yes, probably a combination of all those elements. It's always been part of our story. It's always been a passionate part of our business that we want to onboard a lot more customers. That's definitely true in the Philippines, Indonesia. We're having a lot of customer wins in Australia and also in Europe, yes. So happy to be able to talk to it today.

I would now like to hand the conference back over to Damian Gammell for his closing remarks. Damian, please go ahead.

Thanks, Mel. And a big, big thank you to everybody who joined us this morning or this afternoon. So as Ed and I talked to, strong first half and very happy that today, we're reaffirming our full year guidance. We are very pleased with the progress against our strategic priorities as we've outlined today. Also pleased with the start of half 2. And I think the strength of our business demonstrates resilience and the consistency of our growth model. We do look forward to speaking to you again at Q3. In the meantime, I hope everybody can get a break and enjoy a great summer, ideally in one of our markets and obviously enjoy a nice cold beverage from one of our new coolers. So thank you very much, and have a great rest of the day. Thank you.

That concludes our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.