Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Carlsberg's Q3 2022 trading statement. For the first part of this call, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question, please press five star on your telephone keypad. This conference call is being recorded. I will now hand it over to the speakers. Please begin.
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Carlsberg's Q3 2022 conference call. My name is Cees 't Hart, and I have with me CFO Heine Dalsgaard and Vice President, investor relations, Peter Kondrup. Let me begin by summarizing the key headlines for the quarter. Driven by both volume and value growth, the group delivered strong top-line performance for the quarter. We delivered particularly strong volume growth in Asia and in many markets in Western and Southern Europe. We increased our full year guidance yesterday, and finally, we are increasing the fourth quarterly buyback for the year by DKK 500 million- DKK 1.5 billion, due to the strong financial health of the group. I will provide the headlines for the quarter, and Heine will take you through the regions and the upgraded full year outlook.
We delivered 3.6% organic volume growth in Q3, particularly supported by continued strong growth in Asia and solid growth in many markets in Europe. Revenue per hectoliter grew strongly by 8% due to price increases in all markets, and in Asia, a positive country and channel mix. Organic revenue growth was 11.6%. Reported revenue was DKK 20.2 billion , which was an increase of 13.9%. A positive currency impact, mainly from Asia, was partly offset by the deconsolidation of the business in Nepal. As was the case in H1, our Q3 performance was well ahead of Q3 2019, with total volumes being around 8% and revenue around 20% above Q3 2019. Looking at our on-trade volumes, they were approximately 5% above 2019 levels.
Please turn to slide four and a brief update on some of our international premium brands and alcohol-free brews. Carlsberg delivered very strong growth of 12%, thanks to particularly strong growth in most Asian markets, including China, Malaysia, India and Vietnam, and in European markets such as Sweden, Germany, Greece, Croatia, and Bulgaria. The 6% growth of Tuborg was driven by strong growth in Asia, notably India and Vietnam. Our volumes in Western Europe were impacted by declining volumes in Norway. 1664 Blanc was impacted by the difficult situation in Ukraine and lockdowns in China, while the brand saw strong volume growth in markets such as Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Serbia, and Malaysia. We are very satisfied with the 34% growth of the group, supported by growth in markets such as Switzerland, U.K., France, and the Baltics.
Our alcohol-free brews grew by 15% in that quarter, with strong growth in markets such as France, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, and Denmark. Total volumes were, however, impacted by a significant decline in Ukraine and lower volumes in some other CEE markets. Excluding Ukraine, alcohol-free brew volumes were up by 6%. With this, I will hand over to Heine, and he will take you through the regions and outlook. Heine.
Thank you, and good morning, everybody. Please turn to slide five and Western Europe, which delivered volume and value growth, albeit, as expected, at lower rates than in first half due to less favorable comps. Volumes grew organically by 2.4% with a similar positive growth in both on and off-trade. Revenue per hectoliter was +3% as a result of the price increases earlier in the year. We saw healthy revenue per hectoliter growth across all markets, but country mix had a negative impact on the regional number due to less volumes in higher-priced Norway and higher volumes in lower-priced Poland. Organic revenue was up by 5.7%, including the impact of currencies. Revenue growth was 6.7%.
Due to the significant inflationary pressure, we concluded negotiations for a second price increase during Q3 in all markets except for Germany. However, the impact in Q3 from the second price increases was limited as most price increases came into effect in late Q3 or will come into effect during Q4. Despite the general inflationary pressure and deteriorating consumer sentiment, in general, we have, in most of our markets, not yet seen any material downtrading. Looking at the markets, volumes in the Nordics were impacted by tough comps due to the warm summer last year. Volumes in Sweden grew, helped by an increase in the border trade, while they were flat in Denmark and declined in Finland and in Norway. In Norway, the volume development was anticipated.
Contrary to last year, the country's borders were open, and this led to an increase in the Norway-Sweden border trade and in the number of Norwegians going abroad for the holidays after COVID. Volumes were up double digits in both France and Switzerland, supported by very good progress for the core beer portfolio, including 1664 in France premium business, also alcohol-free brews. In Poland, the macroeconomic environment remains challenging, with inflation running in the mid-teens. Our volumes were up by 10%, supported by easy comps and retailers stocking up prior to our price increases. Alcohol-free brews grew well, supported by the warm weather. In the U.K., we improved our market share in both off and on-trade, but our volumes for the quarter were down by low single digits, impacted in particular by a tough month of September.
Please go to slide six and Asia, where we had another very good quarter, supported by strong performance across all markets. Volumes grew by 9.9%, driven by growth in all markets, albeit in many markets this was on the back of easy comps due to last year's COVID-19 restrictions, which have since been removed. Asia remains our designated volume and value growth engine, and we are therefore pleased that our volumes were 19% higher than pre-COVID 2019. Revenue per hectoliter improvement of 9% was the result of growth for our premium brands, country, and channel mix, and several price increases so far this year. Carlsberg, Tuborg, and Somersby grew, while growth of 1664 Blanc in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong was offset by lower volumes in China.
Organic revenue growth was 19.3%, with reported growth being 25%, which is the result of a positive currency mix, and currency impact from all markets but Laos and also the deconsolidation of Nepal. The Chinese beer market was impacted by COVID-19 related lockdowns and restrictions, declining by an estimated 3%. Some of our Western strongholds were impacted by these restrictions and lockdowns, but despite of that, our growth continued and volumes increased by 1%. We strengthened our market share thanks to both our international brands and local brands such as Shancheng and Chongqing. Carlsberg, Tuborg, and Somersby delivered good growth while 1664 Blanc was impacted by the on-trade lockdowns. Revenue per hectoliter was up by 4%, supported by both price increases and also mix.
Our Indian business saw strong volume growth in Q3 2023, with both volume and value being well above 2019. Versus last year, Carlsberg volumes almost doubled and Tuborg also delivered very strong growth. It was another quarter with very good volume growth in Laos, in Vietnam, and in Cambodia. In Laos, we achieved very strong volume growth in the off-trade, which more than offset lower consumption levels and frequency in the on-trade due to the high inflation. There was very good momentum behind the craft range of the local power brand, Beerlao, and for Somersby. In Vietnam, the Huda brand grew very strongly, as did Carlsberg, Tuborg, and Blanc, albeit the international premium volumes are still quite small. Overall, our volumes in Vietnam were up by 55%. In Cambodia, volumes benefited from easy comps. We saw strong growth for both the Sting energy brand and the Angkor Beer brand.
Blanc has been introduced in the market with the initial consumer response being very positive. In Malaysia, we posted very good volume growth, although this was on the back of easy comps. The premium portfolio delivered good progress. To slide seven and Central and Eastern Europe, please. Regional volumes were impacted by the war in Ukraine and were down by 2.5%, while revenue per hectoliter was very strong at +18% due to price increases and country mix. Revenue was up organically by 14.7%. Excluding Ukraine, organic volumes was up by 1.4%. On the back of tough comps, the Baltic markets posted good volume growth, including very good growth for the international premium brand portfolio.
In Italy, low double-digit volume growth was driven by growth for the local power brand Poretti and the premium beer portfolio, including Tuborg and Grimbergen. In Greece, volume growth was low double digits. Local brand Mythos, Carlsberg, and Somersby were important growth drivers. We remain deeply impressed by the strength and the resilience of our Ukrainian colleagues, who continue to navigate the extreme difficult humanitarian situation and the enormous business challenges. Our volumes were, of course, impacted by the war, albeit the decline was less severe than the first half. For the quarter, volumes were -18% with an improving trend during the quarter. In our export and license business, we saw good growth for Carlsberg and for our alcohol-free portfolio.
Before going to our earnings expectations, just a few words on Russia, where our volumes declined by 4%, while revenue was up organically by 22%. The complicated task of preparing the Russian business for sale continues. As part of this, we are executing over 150 separation work streams, while at the same time continuing the divestment process. Please turn to slide eight and the outlook for the full year. Yesterday, we upgraded our full year earnings outlook, now expecting organic operating profit to grow by 10%-12% compared to previous expectations of high single-digit growth. The reason for the earnings upgrade relates to better than expected performance across many of our markets. The good results have been achieved while at the same time increasing our marketing investments to support the long-term growth of our brands.
Even with the increased guidance, we are expecting weak operating profit growth in second half than in first half for the same reasons as mentioned at the first half announcement, namely the increasing commodity and energy pricing, which have a more severe impact on our cost of sales and logistic costs in second half than in first half due to the rolling off of the more favorable hedges from last year. While we are increasing pricing again in second half, these price increases lack the input cost increases. In addition, we are further accelerating investments into our SAIL'27 specific priorities, including marketing investments across the group and sales investments, particularly in China and Vietnam. Lastly, we have tougher comps in second half than in first half, and revenue base leader is not benefiting from the Western European on-trade recovery as was the case in first half.
Based on the spot rates yesterday, we assume a currency impact on operating profit of +DKK 250 compared to +DKK 350 at first half. The decline is in particular due to depreciation of the Laotian kip and the Norwegian crown. All other assumptions remain unchanged. Net finance costs, excluding FX, are assumed to be around DKK 550, tax rate approximated 22%, and CapEx around DKK 4.5 billion. Slide nine, please, and an update on the share buyback. Last Friday, we concluded our third share buyback this year amounting to DKK 1 billion. The three buybacks so far this year have amounted to a total value of DKK 3 billion and 3.3 million shares, corresponding to 2.4% of the total number of shares.
Since the start of the buybacks in 2019, we've bought approximately 10% of the total number of shares. Today, we initiate this year's last quarterly buyback, which will run until January 27, 2023. Due to the earnings upgrade and our strong balance sheet and liquidity position, we have decided to increase this buyback to DKK 1.5 billion compared to the DKK 1 billion in previous quarters, thereby bringing the total of the four quarterly buybacks in 2022 to DKK 4.5 billion. The increase in the Q4 buyback is not an indication of the size of the quarterly programs in 2023. The quarterly programs will, as always, depend on expected earnings and cash performance, as well as expected leverage by end 2023. The Carlsberg Foundation will continue to participate in the share buyback on a pro rata basis.
Further details can be found in the Q3 statement. Now back to you, Cees.
Thank you, Heine. We are very satisfied with the performance of the Carlsberg Group so far in 2022, considering the severe circumstances with the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, the commodity and energy price increases, and the overall inflationary pressure that is putting tremendous pressure on our business, our customers, and our consumers. Our colleagues across the group have put significant efforts into successfully managing these challenges, and our Q3 performance, the earnings upgrade, and the increased cash returns to shareholders are a testament to their hard work. Looking ahead, the business environment remains challenging. With an uncertain macro situation, very high cost inflation, and weakening consumer purchasing power, we will address these challenges and the need for price increases by leveraging our strong commercial programs, well-embedded performance management systems, tools, and capabilities, while not losing sight of our long-term sales and development priorities and ambitions.
That was all from our side today, but before opening up for Q&A, let me summarize. The group delivered strong top-line performance for the quarter, driven by both volume and price mix. Volume growth was particularly strong in Asia and in many markets invested in Southern Europe. We have increased our full-year guidance. Finally, we are increasing the fourth quarterly buyback for the year by DKK 500 million - DKK 1.5 billion due to the strong financial health of the group. That was it for slides. As usual for the Q&A, we will limit the number of questions to two per person to ensure that as many as possible get a chance to get through. After your questions, you're welcome to join the queue again. With this, we are now ready to take questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press five star on your telephone keypad. To withdraw a question, please press five star on your telephone keypad again. We'll have a brief pause while questions are being registered. The first question is from the line of Trevor Stirling from Bernstein. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted.
Morning, Cees and Heine. I do have two questions, but I think before the questions, Heine, this is probably your last public appearance with the analysts. Is that right?
That is right.
I just want to say thank you very much.
Leave two moments to say bye. Leave two moments to say more about it. You are welcome back, two days at the very end of the call with Trevor. Thanks for that.
Okay. I'm jumping the gun a little bit, Cees. Just to say, Heine, thank you very much for all you've done for Carlsberg over the years. And thank you very much for all you've done for us and your patience in answering what may be very stupid questions at times. Hopefully I've got two questions for you, and hopefully they're not too stupid. The first one, price mix in Europe was 3%. It was probably just a little bit less than I was expecting. You know, I appreciate that the second round of pricing hasn't kicked in yet. But could you just talk a little bit about what was going on within that 3% in terms of product mix, country mix, pricing, et cetera?
Then second question, looking forward to 2023 and the COGS outlook in 2023, you know, I appreciate you're not fully hedged, and you never will be fully hedged. At the moment, do you think it's gonna be worse than 2022, better than 2022? Any directional steer you can give us will be very welcome.
Thank you, Trevor. As a reward for Heine that he can shine the last time, over to you, Heine.
No. Okay. Thank you, and hi, Trevor, and thank you for the kind words. Price mix in Europe around 3%. If you look at it, market per market, we are actually having a quite healthy price mix effect in all of our markets. The reason for the 3% has to do with country mix due to the fact that Norway, which is higher price, is down, and Poland, which is lower price, is significantly up. The reason for the 3% is country mix. If we double-click on the individual countries, we have rather healthy or very healthy price mix effects in all of our markets.
With respect to COGS, 2023, first of all, we're now approximately 90% hedged on aluminum and also on malt for 2023. It's too early to give sort of precise comments, as you know, on 2023, both COGS and logs, due to the volatility. We do expect cost per hectoliter to increase. We will, as you are well aware, stick to our rigor of drum beats for the overall business. We will stick to sort of defending our profit per hectoliter using the same tools, the same methodology, the same approach, including OCM, which has served us so good so far.
Super. Thank you very much, Heine.
Thank you, Trevor.
The next question is from the line of Edward Mundy from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Your line now will be unmuted.
Morning, gents. Two questions from me, please. Just following up from Trevor's questions just on Europe revenue per hecto. Appreciate that adverse geographic mix has held it back. Do you have a sense of what the underlying price mix would've been if you adjusted both to Norway and the Polish impact? And then secondly, on China, has disruption from September continued into the early part of Q4, and any more sort of color you can give on your business in China?
Yeah. Heine, the first, and I will take the China one. Good morning, Ed.
Hi, good morning, Ed. It is, as said, a healthy market per market on average, something like mid-single digits.
Thank you.
When we go through to China, as you've seen, for China, Q3 was a bit muted with regard to the volume growth development, and it was very much following the COVID-19 restrictions, impacting, in particular, the northwest, but also Chongqing and the Sichuan province. We are still doing better than the market and delivering a positive share development and revenue per hectoliter development. But in general, indeed, we are a bit more hit by COVID in the second half of the year than even as when we speak about current trading than in the first half of the year. To put a bit more color on that, Xinjiang and Ningxia are not being released from lockdown so far.
Also in Yunnan, there's some tightening of the measures. In that respect, we see some development in the second half of the year, more than in the first half of the year, based on COVID measures in China.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Ed.
The next question is from the line of Tristan van Strien from Redburn Partners. Please go ahead. Your line now will be unmuted.
Tristan, how are you?
Can you hear me?
Well, we hear you vaguely.
Hello. Can you hear me now?
Yes, we do. Good morning.
Sorry about that. First of all, to second Trevor's comment, thank you very much, Heine. We really appreciate it, and good luck in the future. I'm sure you'll do incredibly well. Just two questions. One, just expand on the European consumer. I mean, you basically see no material impact on volume so far with your pricing. Is there any other commentary you can make on what you're seeing with the European consumer, especially in light of some of the comments yesterday by one of your competitors? And then the second question, just to follow up on China. I don't think I saw a revenue per hectoliter number, so maybe you can comment on that, if possible.
Additionally, yesterday or two days ago, China Resources Beer expanded into the baijiu market and I'm just thinking your thoughts on that, in particular in China. Is that something perhaps you guys will be looking at as well?
Okay, we'll take these questions. Thanks, Tristan. With regards to the European environment, the consumer sentiment is indeed very low, but we have seen very little evidence of our consumer impact, of any consumer impact. We see some signs in some markets, with Poland being the most visible one. The flavored products, these are a bit more expensive, like Somersby are declining. On the other hand, Harnaś, a mainstream brand, is increasing. In France, we've seen growth for our mainstream brand, Kronenbourg, which indicates maybe some down trading in France, but also shows the strength of our portfolio covering all price points.
Also on the other hand, we continue to see a very solid development in markets like Switzerland and Denmark, with stable volumes, a solid revenue per hectoliter development, and this continued good premium demand. So that's for Q3. We obviously at moment of time, when as inflation continued to increase, and brewers increased prices again in the second half of the year and beginning of 2023. Yes, you could argue we see some somewhat bigger risk in 2023. Again, for now, the very little evidence. With regards to the net revenue per hectoliter development in China, that's 4%.
As we said during the Capital Markets Day with regards to China, we have our SAIL'27 program for China. That does not involve the brew or other markets. We think we have in the beer segment ample opportunities to grow. We will for the time being stick to that system.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Simon Hales from Citi. Please go ahead. Your line now will be unmuted.
Morning, Cees. Morning, Heine. Morning, Peter. Just a couple for me, really just sort of following up on those sort of European consumer comments, Cees, if I can. I just sort of wondering, obviously you're highlighting that you're not seeing any clear signs of deterioration across your European footprint, in aggregate at this point. Now is that the assumption you're making into the year end, i.e., do you still expect Q4 overall to be resilient from a consumer offtake standpoint? And then secondly, maybe related to that, I mean, you called out in the presentation, you know, a bit of deterioration in the U.K. as you moved into September. I think others have been flagging, you know, some weaker September and early October data out of the U.K. market.
Wonder if you could just expand on your comments there. Are you seeing some channel shift onto off-trade or, you know, sort of down trade to hard discounters and things like that? Any color would be great.
Yes, Simon, good morning. With regards to Western Europe, indeed basically it's the same as I said already to Tristan. With regards to Q4, don't forget that there were some COVID-related closures in December by the end of 2021. In that respect, we feel that we should land also Q4 in Europe, okay. With regards to the U.K., you're right. We see there's some difficulties in the market, so to say. The on-trade frequency, the visit frequency has declined significantly over the last couple of months. Kantar has shown us a report that they see the lowest consumer confidence that they have ever measured.
That is not good. On the other hand, we have not seen it really back in our volumes in Q3. We had a -3% development. On the other hand, we had an improvement of our shares. Basically, with that, we look forward to Q4. Yes, of course, there are some anecdotal evidence that things are changing in the U.K.. By and large, we have not seen that in Q3 yet.
Brilliant. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of André Thormann from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted.
Thank you so much, good morning, everyone. Yeah. First of all, I wonder whether you could give some more comments around the performance of Somersby, and I also heard your comments around 1664 Blanc. I just wonder when should we start to see growth pick up for 1664 Blanc? I understand that Ukraine and also China impacts this, but should we start to see growth pick significantly up in 2023? My second question is also related to this. How do you look at the premiumization going into 2023 in the current situation we are seeing especially for Western Europe? Thank you.
Thank you, André, and good morning. With regards to Somersby, it is very much related to Ukraine. As I said, we have high expectations from Somersby in many countries that we launched it over the last two years. One of them is China, which had a super start from Somersby. It's of course very low scale. It was more test market, which we are now going to expand. You should see growth from Somersby going forward. The same applies for 1664 Blanc. Indeed, especially the cities that are being hit by COVID at this moment in time in China are important for 1664 Blanc. Hence you see some nuanced development on the volume of 1664 Blanc.
Also here applies that we should see growth of 1664 Blanc in the coming years. Of course, that is one of the two points that will be also the launch of 1664 in Vietnam and a further rollout in big cities in China. And where we have launched 1664, we see a good continuation underlying volume growth. With regards to, let's say, our SAIL'27 plans and especially premiumizing our portfolio, as we said during the capital market day, we are under-indexed in this segment. Yes, there might be some pressure on this segment going forward. On the other hand, with all the efforts we will make to correct our situation that they are in the index, we feel that there are still many opportunities to grow our premium portfolio in the coming two to three years. We stick to our focus on premiumization going forward towards our 2027 goals.
Thanks so much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Laurence Whyatt from Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line will now be unmuted.
Hi. Good morning, Cees, and good morning, Heine . Just one intellectual question from me, please. Assuming the sale of Russia goes through by the end of year-end, FY 2023 leverage is likely to be very low. If there isn't sufficient liquidity to continue your quarterly buyback program, would you consider a special dividend as an option for capital returns?
Thank you, Laurence. You only have one question, I understand. Over to Heine.
Good morning. First of all, as said, the sale of the Russian business continues as planned, both with regards to the sort of separation project, but also the specific activities around the divestment process, which is actually quite complicated. We will continue with the discipline that we've had on the capital allocation that we've had basically since 2016. It's not in our plans to do any special dividends. The logic that we have applied is that we will continue to invest into growing the business organically. We will continue to ensure a strong balance sheet. We will continue to have a dividend payout ratio of around 50%.
The remaining part of the allocation will be a mix of share buybacks, which we consider the most flexible tool in these circumstances, and then potential M&A activities. It's clear on the M&A side, the one that could be coming closer is buying out some minority stakes, as you know. There are no plans of changing our capital allocation principles. It is dividend payout ratio of around 50%, and then the rest of the cash returns to shareholders to be done via share buybacks.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As a reminder, please press five star on your telephone keypad to ask a question. The next question will be from the line of Andrea Pistacchi from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line will be unmuted.
Again, good morning, Cees and Heine. Two questions, please.
First one is, how are you thinking of the balance between volume and margin in Europe in the current environment? I ask this because it seems that the second round of your pricing in Europe was probably a few weeks, a bit later than some of the peers. However, of course, you had good hedge cover, so you could very much do this. The second question, please, if you could just share a few words on France, where in Q3 last year you had some issues, and the year before, but clearly you've had a much stronger performance this year. Thank you.
Thank you, Andrea, and good morning. Well, we apply our so-called Golden Triangle, which is about volume/market share, the gross profit after logistics, that margin and, of course then the operating profit. Especially in these circumstances, we very much focus on the profit per hectoliter. On the other hand, we also focus per country on the balance in that Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle is our leading tool, so to say, to adjust between the three when it applies local market circumstances.
Also the dominant logic for the future is with this kind of high cost prices is to focus on the profit so the absolute profit per hectoliter and trying to improve that one. With regards to France, indeed, we do significantly better than in previous periods. We had a 16% volume growth and 20% net revenue development. We gained market share in both volume and value with strong performance across brands, especially 1664 and Tourtel. We also had double-digit growth for Grimbergen and good growth for Blanc and Brooklyn. Continued very strong performance of alcohol-free beer, again, driven by Tourtel. At this point of time, we have the right momentum in France.
Thank you.
Thank you, Andrea. Can we have the last question, please?
The last question comes from the line of Benjamin Silverstone from ABG. Please go ahead. Your line will be unmuted.
Thank you. Hi, Cees and Heine. My first question is regarding the channel mix. Could you please just give some more flavor on the dynamics seen in Q3 and how you look at this for the next 12 months? The second question is regarding Vietnam. Volumes up very strongly at 55%. Could you give some more information about what is driving this market here? Is it the market itself, or is it the investments that you put into the market this year? Thank you.
Thank you, Benjamin, and good morning. With the channel mix, frankly, we have not seen that much difference versus the first half year after the improvement. When we look at Q3 on trade versus 2019, we see that Western Europe is at an index of 98. Asia is even above, and Central and Eastern Europe at an index of 87. When we talk about the outlets, especially in Western Europe, we estimate that around 10% of the number of outlets have not reopened, but also that those that have reopened have gained some more business. We are back to more or less where we were.
Going forward, that depends a bit, of course, on the impact of the significant price increases, especially then on the on-trade. As we said earlier, we don't see so far any significant dynamics there. With regards to Vietnam, as you know, we have very much hopes for Vietnam for the future. We have a special plan, a special investment that we have basically made in sync with SAIL'27. An investment we started off in the second half of the year. We grew by 55% in volume and 86% in net revenue. A lot had to do, by the way, with the recovery of the beer market.
As such, the beer market went up by 43%. We had a good and a faster than expected recovery also in our own volume. Important for us of course is the market share that grew, supported by very strong growth for Huda and also international brands like Carlsberg, Tuborg and Blanc. The last one, the international brands, come from a low base. I said on the CMD, we are channeling the SAIL'27 investments to Vietnam to further strengthen our presence in the market. As you know, we are very much in the center of Vietnam and we want to extend our footprint in Vietnam. A good start of our SAIL'27 investment in Vietnam.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Benjamin. With that, we have come to the last question. Thanks a lot for listening in, and thank you for your questions. This was, as Trevor said also, Heine's last conference call at Carlsberg. Heine, it has been a pleasure working together with you, and I want to thank you for your contributions to develop Carlsberg to the strong position where we are today. We're pleased, we're very pleased that we have been able to recruit Ulrica Fearn, who is highly competent replacement for Heine. Ulrica has a strong global financial background, including almost 20 years in the beverage industry.
In addition to having many of the same competencies as Heine, she will also have a fresh pair of eyes on how we can further strengthen our business, and she will join us at the first of January in the new year. For now, Heine, thanks a lot for being an excellent colleague and a great contributor to our success. To those on the call, thank you again for listening. We're looking forward to meeting some of you during the coming days and weeks. Have a nice day.