Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Danone 2022 Half Year Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mathilde Rodié, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Mathilde Rodié speaking, Head of Investor Relations at Danone. Thank you for being with us this morning for Danone H1 results call. I'm here with our Chief Executive Officer, Antoine de Saint-Affrique, and our Chief Financial Officer, Juergen Esser. We'll go through some prepared remarks before taking your questions in the second step. Before we start, I draw your attention on the disclaimer on page two related to forward-looking statements and the definition of financial indicators that we'll refer to during the presentation. With that, let me hand this over to Antoine.
Thank you, Mathilde, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our Half Year 2022 Conference Call. I must say, I'm delighted to be with you today for what is a first step in our renewed Danone journey. It has been only a few months since we held our capital market event. Only a few months, but as you can imagine, a mighty busy months, where Juergen, myself, the executive committee, and all Danoners have been moving to the front foot. We have focused our efforts on navigating what is an unprecedented environment, deploying consistently the agenda we shared with you in evian. Sustaining and making the most of our core portfolio, boosting our pockets of excellence, and importantly, working on fixing the platforms and areas where we are more challenged.
Today's results are a first step in moving our strategy into action, or better said, into execution. Let me dive into the results, starting with page four. As you will have seen from the press release this morning, we close a strong first half of the year with like-for-like revenue up 7.4% and a broad-based growth across geographies and categories. Importantly, volume and mix remained resilient this semester, up +1.3% versus last year. We clearly focused on execution and delivery, which allowed us to maintain good continuity of business and product availability amid global supply chain disruptions. As you well know, the context in which we operate remains highly volatile, with inflation having significantly accelerated since last year.
As you would expect in such a context, our pricing came in strong this semester, up +6.1% compared to last year, with a contribution from all geographies and categories. We also delivered a strong semester of efficiency and productivity, above 5%, leading our recurring operating margin to land in line with our expectations at 12.1%. Despite the many external challenges, we also kept making progress on sustainability. The first half of the year has seen progress on our journey to become a certified B Corp, with 70% of our sales now certified, up from 62% last year. This is a great achievement for which I'd like to thank all the teams that were involved. Moving to the next page.
As I mentioned earlier, we have a number of areas that worked well in the first half, with continued strength of our core and with good momentum of our winners. Aptamil, our global baby formula brand, closes a strong first half of the year, with broad-based growth and market share gains. Over the last few months, Aptamil has adopted a new positioning, evolving from a focus on ingredients to a focus on the needs of parents and their babies, no matter their feeding choices or circumstances. Grounded in our expertise in biotics and in 50 years of advanced breast milk science, we've introduced a new product proposition like Aptamil Essensis and Aptamil Dairy & Plant Blends that recognize every feeding journey is unique, and our solutions are tailored to these varying needs. We are working on further raising the bar with Aptamil. More news to come there.
Next, I would like to highlight the continued strong performance of our North America activities. Over the last couple of years, the U.S. and Canada teams have strengthened their business and accelerated significantly. They delivered on the renovation and the turnaround of Oikos and Activia in the yogurt category while growing the International Delight and Silk powerhouses in an environment that has been nothing but challenging, from supply chain constraints to inflation. They have done so thanks to our clear portfolio choices, assertive Revenue Growth Management and a constant attention to execution. Even if everything is not perfect yet, this shows in the numbers, +7.2% like-for-like revenue in H1, with positive volumes, mix, and pricing. Thirdly, our water category is delivering another good semester of growth led by evian.
As you see on the slide, the brand was recently leveraging the Wimbledon tennis tournament, a good illustration of how we want to bring value back in the brand. Performance has also been driven by many of our local brands, be it in Europe with Volvic or Żywiec Zdrój, or in emerging market with Aqua and Bonafont. Finally, let me say a word on our baby formula shortages in the U.S. The teams have done an incredible work showing Danone at its very best. I'd like to thank all those that were involved, as this was not a small undertaking. While non-material from a business standpoint, this is a great illustration of Danone living up to its mission to bring health through food.
On the organizational front, the implementation of Local First is progressing on track, which allows us to progressively reinvest savings in the business. I will let Juergen elaborate on that. As you can see, a lot we can be proud of and build on for the future. Let's be clear, there is still also a lot we can still improve on, and some of which will take time to fix for good. Page six is largely a repetition of what we discussed not so long ago in evian, but it's an important one as it summarizes some of the key areas of improvements we have to focus on. We can and we must do a better job at managing some of our core assets.
That starts with more assertive categories, category strategies and leadership, notably in our dairy and plant-based, where we are not yet systematically exerting a role of category captain from our category developments to co-range renovation and breakthrough innovation. It is also about better balancing our growth components. Here, our Revenue Growth Management is an important capability we are investing in. We can also do a better job at sharpening our mixes, making sure our core is regularly renovated, kept relevant to consumers, and superior to competitors. Our innovation starts to be more focused, but we still can be more focused and do a better job at getting more from our hero innovation. There, we are only at the start of the journey. Last but not least, retail is detail.
You heard me talking about the importance of execution and about how we need to improve on that front. Although improving recently, our service levels are not still where I'd like them to be. The quality of our media asset is still uneven, and we are still not leverage them enough from one country to another, a source of both capital and resource inefficiency. Finally, our shelf execution is still irregular. We are sharing best practices, and we are investing in capabilities, so expect us to improve step by step on that front. Let me conclude this introduction on page seven with a message around focus, discipline, and consistency. Everything you will hear from us today and in the next few years, I'm afraid, will be in continuity of what we have shared in evian.
You can see on the slide a few extracts from my presentation back then. We are only at the very beginning of our new journey, and our four strategic pillars and four enablers give us clarity and focus on the task at hand. The name of the game for us is to leverage what works, to fix what needs to be fixed with a mix of urgency and thoroughness, and build a culture and a track record of consistent delivery. With that, let me hand it to Juergen for the financial review. Juergen, over to you.
Thank you, Antoine, and good morning to all of you. I hope you are all well. Let me suggest that we go immediately into the financial review starting on page nine to share with you the key drivers which made up for the net sales like-for-like growth of +7.7% in the second quarter. From a geographical perspective, Europe delivered another quarter of solid mid-single-digit growth consistent with what we posted already in the first quarter.
North America as well as the rest of the world both were accelerating growth at the beginning of the year with strong performances across all categories, with North America more specifically posting a stellar performance this second quarter with a well-balanced price, mix, and volume contribution. The growth momentum in China, North Asia, and Oceania did, as expected, normalize after the first quarter of this year, with the China early life nutrition baseline now sequentially becoming more comparable. However, our China zone remained in solid growth also this quarter, despite Chinese city lockdowns affecting our Mizone business. Looking at it from a category perspective, EDP delivered a strong quarter of price-led growth thanks to both dairy and plant-based, while Specialized Nutrition continued its strong growth momentum with our Aptamil brands winning share in many markets.
Our Waters business delivered another quarter of strong performance and is now back above 2019 levels in many of our geographies. Moving on to our classic sales bridge on page 10, you can see that this solid like-for-like performance of +7.7% in Q2 was led, as expected, by price, with +6.8%. That said, volume and mix contributed again positively, up +0.9% compared to last year. The solid contribution from product mix by volumes remained resilient in most markets, and the very similar dynamic as experienced in the first quarter of this year. On a reported basis, we benefited this quarter from a positive ForEx impact of +6%, mainly thanks to the appreciation of the US dollar against the euro, but also of the British pound and of some other Asian and Latin American currencies.
We also recorded a slightly negative scope impact of -0.5%, mainly resulting from the combined effects of the integration of Follow Your Heart and the disposal of the Vega brand, both in the North American zone. All in all, reported growth stood at +14.5% for the quarter, bringing our quarterly net sales to roughly EUR 7.1 billion, up from EUR 6.2 billion in Q2 last year. Let's now have a look at the performance of each zone in more detail, starting with Europe on page 11. Europe maintained a solid mid-single-digit performance in the second quarter and as a result delivered for the first half +5.4% like-for-like growth with a positive contribution from volume and mix of +1.6% and price of +3.8%.
Recurring operating margin in Europe was down minus 199 basis points on the period, reaching 13.1%. This decline reflects the impact of high COGS inflation, which could not be fully offset in this first semester despite a stepped up productivity as our pricing initiatives benefited our P&L only starting from the second quarter. From a category perspective, growth in the second quarter was led by Specialized Nutrition and Waters. Specialized Nutrition delivered high single digit like for like growth with a very good performance of our Aptamil brand and solid growth in our adult nutrition portfolio. Waters was also up high single digit, confirming its sequential recovery, while market share remained resilient, especially for the evian brand. Finally, EDP, that delivered another soft quarter, resulting in a low single-digit growth in this first semester.
The picture is contrasted country by country with a good performance, especially of the dairy portfolio in the U.K. and Poland, where we were able to better leverage our differentiated portfolio with brands like Actimel or Activia. On the other side, the situation is more challenging in a number of other countries like Spain, where we have, as you know, a more structural challenge and where our teams are working hard to design a new and more powerful portfolio strategy and consistent execution plan. Moving on to page 12 and North America. We delivered another strong quarter driven by both countries, the U.S. and Canada, and we are even accelerating compared to the first quarter, resulting in a +7.2% growth in the first half of the year.
In Q2, as in Q1, this performance was achieved with positive contribution from all aspects, price, mix, as well as volumes. This strong growth was driven by continued momentum across categories and brands. In EDP, coffee creamers, yogurt, and plant-based posted high single-digit competitive growth. In particular, the Oikos Pro and Oikos Triple Zero ranges continued to deliver strong competitive growth, supported by the upgrade of our formulas our packs, and the marketing mix, and a solid shelf execution. Next to Oikos, Activia growth remained strong this quarter, building on the continued consumer interest in immunity benefits and building on core portfolio renovation, a successful A to Z campaign, and strong execution. In the coffee space, our International Delight and STōK brands delivered another quarter of strong competitive growth.
Finally, in Specialized Nutrition, as Antoine was mentioning, our teams focused their effort on actively addressing the baby formula shortages in the country. While non-material to our company, this is a great illustration of our mission into action. The current operating margin in North America registered minus 235 basis points decrease to reach 8.1% for the first semester as we faced some productivity initiatives to the second semester in the context of challenged supply chains. Recent results are indeed encouraging, with service levels going up, yet there is still a lot to do to go back to pre-COVID levels. Moving on to page 13, to China, North Asia and Oceania zone.
This zone closed the first semester with revenues up +8.3% on a like-for-like basis, led by both volume and mix at +6.1% and price at +2.2%. Margin reached 32%, up 240 basis points, driven by a strong net sales dynamic and the favorable product mix offsetting the inflation. Let me enter into a few more details of the Q2 performance, starting with China. Infant milk formula posted mid- to high-single-digit growth in a category which is progressing along the lines which we shared with you at our CME. Importantly, we have maintained competitiveness in the market with continued resilient market shares on both domestic and international labels.
Chinese label grew double digits, while international labels saw continued growth in our indirect, or we can also say uncontrolled channel, which is now representing less than 15% of the segment's revenues. The Aptamil brand registered another good quarter, and it's worth noting that it was ranked number one brand, as Danone was ranked number one company of its sector during the June 18th shopping festival last month, the second largest shopping festival in China after the 11.11. Besides IMF, special pediatric solution and adult nutrition continued their very good momentum and are contributing strongly to the positive product mix of the zone. In waters, Mizone declined in the mid-teens range.
As you know, Mizone products are mainly for out of home consumption, and thus, the performance was unfortunately penalized by mobility restrictions and lockdowns across China, with governments applying zero COVID policy. Final comment on this zone, obviously China is a lot in the spotlight, but let me also mention the very good performance of our business in Japan, where EDP delivered double-digit growth led by our portfolio, including the Activia, Danone and the Oikos brands that are winning shares in this market. Finally, moving on to the Rest of the World zone on page 14. The Rest of the World zone registered sales growth of +9.7% on a like-for-like basis in the first half of this year.
This growth was price led, while volumes and mix were negative, with a few countries operating within a tough macroeconomic context, namely Russia, Brazil and Turkey. Recovering operating margins to the +6.1%, broadly in line with last year, notably driven by a positive category mix, thanks to good performance of our Specialized Nutrition and Waters portfolio in Southeast Asia. Looking at the sequence, sales accelerated in the second quarter sequentially and reached +12.3% on a like-for-like basis. Worth mentioning the very good performance of Indonesia, where sales increased by double digits, thanks to a strong dynamic of our Aqua brand, which has been able to leverage in a very competitive way the accelerated category momentum as mobility is returning. Also, our Specialized Nutrition portfolio Indonesia, as well as in the rest of Southeast Asia, delivered very strong sales performance.
In Latin America, sales increased also double digits, led by dairy categories, with notably a very good performance of the Bonafont, Danone and Danonino brand in Mexico. Finally, the operating conditions continue to be extremely constrained in Russia and Ukraine, impacting notably our volumes, which were significantly negative in Q2. Our like-for-like sales remained resilient, thanks to a series of price increases which we implemented over the last few months. At the same moment, we have been adapting our operations according to the announcement which we made in the month of March, including the fact that we stopped all investments into the business. Before diving into our margin bridge, let me come back on slide number 15 on the inflationary context. The inflation we experienced in H1 was in line with our expectation at mid-teens level, with broad-based impact on all geographical zones and categories.
Almost all of our cost components were under pressure, with packaging, transportation and milk the most increasing. In front of this inflationary challenge, we continued to deploy numerous actions to address it. First, by stepping up our productivity efforts. We managed to deliver a record level of more than 5% productivity on the first half of this year, and we believe that we can deliver even more in the second half. We also significantly stepped up our pricing actions, passing increases in all categories and regions, although with different levels and locally relevant strategies, always in a competitive way. Pricing increased in Q2 to reach 6.8% compared to 4.9% in Q1, resulting for the first semester into a pricing impact of +6.1%. Let's now move on to the margin bridge on page 16.
We delivered in the first half a recurring operating margin of 12.1%, down -101 basis points compared to last year. Looking at the building blocks, it was mostly impacted by the decrease of margin from operations, down -173 basis points, reflecting the acceleration of input costs all along the semester. Despite the outstanding efforts which our teams made on productivity, we registered a negative effect from COGS net from efficiencies of -610 basis points. In front of this, our top line drivers, volume, mix, and price, had a combined positive effect of as much as +440 basis points that could not fully offset the pressure from net inflation in this first semester.
Focusing on the right part of the bridge, it reflects mainly the positive impact from Local First savings, with overheads before investments contributing to the profitability with + 111 basis points. As you can see, we are well on track with the implementation of the Local First program and we'll stay within the announced cost envelope of EUR 1.4 billion. As we shared during the CME, we have been starting in the Q2 our reinvestment journey which translates for the first semester into a negative impact of - 10 basis points. We intend to reinvest the savings in three macro areas, as you may recall, product superiority, capabilities, and A&P, with different phasings for each of them.
We started our reinvestment journey over the last few months, stepping up investments in capabilities to start filling some fundamental gaps while we are planning and preparing to accelerate reinvestments into A&P in the second half of this year. On the next page, page number 17, I would like to give you some more insight about the reinvestment we made despite the changing environment. Having the means to reinvest in the current context, thanks to Local First savings, is a clear competitive opportunity. We started this reinvestment journey as soon as this second quarter, focusing first, as I just said, on stepping up capabilities to rapidly catch up on a number of areas where we have fallen behind over the last years, like global marketing and sales, Revenue Growth Management, as well as overall IT and data. We did also reinvest into product superiority and differentiation.
For example, in North America, we have been upgrading the formulation and packaging of our Activia, Oikos, and Silk ranges for superiority. Finally, we selectively started to reinject into A&P, for example, into a broad-based campaign for our Aptamil brand, our number one brand in terms of net sales that delivered a very strong performance this semester. Overall, for A&P investments, we made sure over the last few months that our existing spend was more focused on winning assets and on the core to drive better returns, preparing therefore a more solid base ahead of accelerating our A&P spend as we travel through the next quarters, starting with this second semester. Moving now on to the EPS bridge on page 18. Recurring EPS reached EUR 1.63, up 7.2% versus last year.
The improvement of our operational performance had a positive impact of +1.6% on EPS. EPS growth was also driven by a +6.3% effect, mainly arising from the momentary elevated contribution from associates and minorities, as well as from the impact of the share buyback which we executed in 2021. These positive impacts were slightly offset by scope and currency as well as the other impacts of respectively -0.1% and -0.7%. Reported EPS decreased by 29.8% as last year's Local First one-off costs were almost completely offset by the capital gain from the disposal of our participation in Mengniu China.
This year, 2022, an impairment related to the announced disposal of the remaining minority investment in Mengniu added to the second part of Local First one-off costs and explains the decrease of our reported EPS. Let's now move on to the next page 19, focusing on our cash generation. Free cash flow reached EUR 0.7 billion in H1 2022, slightly below the EUR 1 billion from last year's first semester. We enjoy sustained strong cash flow dynamics in the business, supported by a disciplined CapEx management. In order to enhance our supply chain performance, we decided in some instances over the last few months to temporarily increase the level of our inventories of finished products and raw materials, but this should normalize as we go through the next couple of quarters.
Lastly, our cash flow was impacted as anticipated by cash outs linked to the implementation of the Local First program. Looking forward, a stronger focus on cash as we discussed during the CME is more relevant than ever, especially in the moment where we can expect the cost of our debt to increase, and this from the second semester onwards. Let me now conclude this financial review with the outlook for the rest of the year on page number 20. As you certainly recall, we provided at our CME a midterm guidance as well as a guidance for year 2022 of like-for-like net sales growth between 3% and 5%. We are taking stock of our good start into this year and therefore updating and upgrading our guidance for year 2022 to like-for-like net sales growth to be between 5% and 6%.
This updated guidance for the year does reflect the good dynamics of the first six months, while moving forward, staying consistent with our midterm guidance of 3%-5% in an environment which remains highly volatile and uncertain. At the same moment, we are confirming our full-year recurring operating margin above 12% for year 2022. The accelerated sales dynamics of the first semester, the strong mix contribution from our Specialized Nutrition business, as well as the progress we are making on Revenue Growth Management, make us confident to face an input cost inflation for the full year, which we continue to expect to be around mid-teens. Those variables, combined with an accelerated reinvestment dynamic for the second semester, are the fundamental building blocks of this foundational year in which we are on track to deliver on our margin guidance.
That concludes the financial review of our presentation, and with that, let me hand it back to Antoine to conclude.
Thank you, Juergen, and moving to page 23. We obviously feel good about the results of the first semester, sorry. I want to reiterate that we are only at the start of our new journey. We want to remain humble and realistic. There is still lots to do. Expect us, together with the executive committee and all the Danoneers, to remain focused on the consistent execution and the delivery of our agenda. It starts by making our portfolio more competitive, adapting our ranges and mixes to the new environment, and getting them even more ready than today for a potential recessionary environment. We are accelerating the deployment of our new growth management across geographies, but we will also work systematically at strengthening the equity and the relevance of our brands.
This is where the reinvestments plays an important role and why we are committed to it. In parallel, we will continue to step up the quality of our execution across the value chain. It is about securing quality access to raw and packaged materials as much as it is about efficiency in our factories and in our warehouses. It is also about bringing more rigor and discipline in consumer-facing activities, be it in the development and utilization of our marketing assets or in the quality of our own shelf execution. Finally, and, importantly, as Juergen alluded to we will keep strengthening the fundamentals of our business, making it future-ready. We already started reinvesting in IT and data, but expect us to further upgrade Danone's capabilities, in particular in operations and R&I. Let me conclude with once again, a message of focus on consistency.
Focus on the task at hand and consistency in delivering on our strategic agenda. We close a strong first half of the year. You can expect us to remain fully mobilized and focused. We are only at the beginning of our renewed journey, and there is still much we can do to bring Danone where we want it to be and deliver both on our purpose and on our business ambition. With that, let me hand it over back to Mathilde Rodié for the start of the Q&A questions.
Thank you. The first question today is from Jon Cox, Kepler. Jon?
Good morning. It looks so far so good. Antoine, a couple of questions for you. Just in terms of the guidance for the year, 5%-6%, you know, that clearly points to a slowdown in the second half of the year. Assuming that the pricing is gonna remain elevated, which given you've only just started to push through the prices in Q2, that should be the case. Are you assuming volumes will be negative then, volume mix will be negative in the second half of the year, for that guidance? Second question, just in terms of pricing, you're starting to see in the market, in some of the supermarkets anyway, big differences between branded and non-branded, so private label, discounters, et cetera.
What are you seeing there in terms of market dynamics? Do you see any concerns you're losing market share at all, given all of the, you know, that you know, the second step, shall we say, of this whole economic cycle we're in, where maybe people do start to really aggressively downtrade into different areas? Just the last question on the cash flow, yeah, free cash flow, it looked like a miss compared to consensus. You talked about higher inventories. Do you think that will unwind by the end of this year, and so as a result, the consensus EUR 1.7 billion free cash flow can last? Or do you think it's gonna take probably a couple more semesters for that inventory rise to unwind? Thank you.
Hey, good morning, Jon. We'll do a duet with that on with Juergen. Let me start with pricing because pricing then as a consequence of the rest. We actually see very different dynamics on different markets. I mean, if you take markets like Russia or Brazil, we see obviously a huge volume elasticity to pricing. You see places like the U.S. or France, you see limited to no elasticity. You see more of it in Spain and Italy. Actually it's a pretty patchy situation.
In the same way, depending on whether your brand is highly differentiated, Actimel, Oikos, Aptamil or less differentiated, you see very different reaction to our pricing and very different elasticity. It is, to be honest, a bit of an unknown quantity given the broad spectrum of reaction. We prepare for the worst. We are extremely disciplined in Revenue Growth Management.
We look at our portfolio, and we prepare our portfolio in actually a very systematic way to a tougher environment, looking at, I mean, the strengths of the categories, the strengths of the brand, the strengths of the portfolio, the sensitivity of some consumers, and doing it region by region to make sure that we have a portfolio ready in case things are getting tougher. A bit of a known, so far so good, varied reactions depending on the regions and us focusing essentially on making sure that our portfolio is in the right shape to face an environment in case it becomes worse.
The guidance is reflecting the combination of both the good start of the year, but also the uncertainty moving forward, so it's the best of our knowledge.
On the cash Jon, I think the underlying cash generation is very strong of our business also in the first half of this year. As we discussed in Q1, we have been phasing some of the Local First related cash outs from Q4 last year into Q1 this year, so we had to digest this cash out. On top of that, yes, we have consciously taken the decision to increase some of our inventories on raw materials and finished goods, and that's paying out. That's paying out because we see that we are doing better in terms of supply chain. We're doing better in service levels, especially in North America. I believe that moving forward that we are going to recover this increased inventory level sequentially.
You were talking about how I feel about the consensus, which is out on cash, and I can tell you that I feel good about it.
Great. Thank you.
Next question is from Bruno Monteyne of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Bruno?
Hi, good morning. The reinvestment level of 10 basis points that you're showing in the bridge, now the 10 basis points, it is remarkably small. Is it where you wanted it to be, in the first half, Antoine, or is it simply the rate of COGS that stopped you from going any faster than that? The second one is, if you look at the U.S. with the problems that the Abbott product withdrawal has had, and you're able to supply some more, do you see any discussion with politicians in the U.S., do you see any chance that the WIC system change, which would allow you to take a stronger position in the U.S. in infant nutrition? Thank you.
Bruno, on the investments level, you need to de-average actually. Don't forget that we've stopped absolutely all investments in places like Russia or Ukraine. We restarted, actually investing more in the geographies where we are already. We're gonna further accelerate moving forward. It's not a matter of COGS, it's actually focusing on where we have the right assets, focusing on where we have the right to serve, defocusing in the places where actually it doesn't make sense, where we're committed not to invest. It's more the reflection of our choices than anything else. We are committed to investments, I said, and you will see more of it coming forward. No ambiguity there.
On the U.S., the only thing I can say is, we have been moving forward extremely fast. We have been working extremely closely with the U.S. authorities to help in a crisis that is both a human crisis and a political crisis. Will it create goodwill for us? Well, I hope so, because we did a jolly good job. How does this or how will this goodwill translate? Well, I have absolutely no clue at this stage, but we do the right thing, and we try to do it consistently.
Thank you.
Next question is from Pascal Boll, Stifel.
Yes. Good morning. I have a question regarding the mix effect. Can you give us some more color on volume mix? What was the mix effect for EDP, Specialized Nutrition and Waters in Q2? What do you expect how the mix will continue in H2? Further, can you give us some more light on market share developments, also for the different brands, also when we look at plant-based in the U.S., because your examples you usually are evian, but what is with the other brands?
Hey, Pascal, I'll take the market share. Sorry. Go on.
No, sure. Go ahead, please.
I'll take the market share and Juergen will take the mix. All together, if you look at aggregate, we are making progress on market share. The direction of travel is not bad. Still we have a number of things we need to improve. Market share, actually, plant-based is doing pretty good in the U.S. We are doing very well in Waters. We are doing extremely well in Specialized Nutrition. The picture is patchier in other categories, depends on countries, and there are still a number of things that we need to improve. Altogether, the direction of travel is good, but not every.
Altogether, as an aggregate, we are winning shares, but we need to keep improving in a number of places, which is why I said we focus on solving unsolved issues for a long time. We'll do it thoroughly, try to do it diligently, but do it for the long term. All in all, on average, moving in the right direction, but then with a spread of very good news and the plant-based in the U.S. is actually looking good, and things we need to improve, and we will work at improving step by step.
On the mix question, Pascal, what you have seen in Q1 is consistent with what we have seen in Q2, strong mix contribution in each of the three categories. In Specialized Nutrition, because of what Antoine explained before, which is that Aptamil is contributing and growing very fast, and especially our innovations, which we have been putting in the market over the last 12-24 months, it is definitely helping us to drive product mix in the Specialized Nutrition segment, as well as the fact that our special pediatrics portfolio is outpacing the total special nutrition category. Waters, very clearly small format outpacing large formats, and we were discussing about the fact that our emerging markets are coming back, Indonesia, Mexico, with mobility coming back.
We have been discussing earlier the fact that we are also growing well in Europe, and here we really talk a lot about small formats, which is really helping us on the mix side. In EDP, the brands we have been mentioning earlier, which is Activia, especially in U.S., in the U.K., and a few other European countries, Actimel across all the geographies, our coffee creamers, our coffee, Ready-to-Drink coffee STōK, our Oikos ranges in U.S. and in Japan, all of those are more premium ranges, and all of those are outpacing the EDP category. That also has been helping us in Q1 and in Q2. When you look at that, I think it bodes well for the perspectives of the quarters to come.
Thank you, Pascal. The next question from Jeremy Fialko, HSBC.
Morning, Jeremy Fialko, HSBC here. A couple of questions from me. First one, can you talk a bit more about pricing? Can you talk about kinda how much more pricing you think that you need to implement in order to offset the cost inflation? Also, what most recent price increases you implemented have been? The second question, could you go into a bit more detail on the EDP volumes? They were down 3% in the quarter. Can you talk a little bit about where that volume weakness was concentrated and maybe a little bit of an outlook on that for the second half? Thanks.
Yeah. We'll do a direct 50/50 with pricing and probably do a direct on the volumes. On the pricing, as you've seen, we've taken pricing, I think the number is +6.1%, in a way that is broad-based. The way we look at pricing is much more than pure pricing. You look at obviously the increase in your list price. You look obviously at the way you manage your promotion. You look obviously at the way you cascade your trade terms and the balance of your trade terms.
You look at pricing not as a single thing that you apply across your portfolio, but you apply to it the filter of the relevance of your product, the competitive strengths of your product, the channel in which it plays. It's really, in some ways, artisanal and a science. It's very precise, market by market. We have been taking prices extremely fast in the market where you can take prices fast and in ways. I mean, you look at North America. I think we are over seven waves of increases in different bits and pieces with a rhythm of price increase that is allowed by the way the trade is working.
In emerging markets, you can go very fast. You do that through the traditional trade. In Europe, in some countries we are in the second, in a number of countries we are already in the third wave of price increase. We will keep driving prices where we think it is important to protect our business, but we will do it also in a way that is protecting our competitiveness, because you don't want to price yourself out of the market. Obviously, taking pricing is never a simple discussion, so we have in some cases some pretty robust discussion, but we hold our grounds when we think we have to hold our ground.
Far so good, right mix of driving the pricing in a very sophisticated way, and in a way that also makes sure that we don't price ourselves out of the markets. Juergen, do you want to talk.
Morning, Jeremy. On the EDP volume dynamics, as you said, they've been volume mix down -3%. Reality is that this is mainly due to the rest of the world zone, and within the rest of the world zone, to a large extent linked to the performance in Russia, where volumes are double-digit down. You see also volumes under pressure, and this is in consistency with Q1, I would say in a few other more emerging markets like Brazil or Turkey. While in the more mature markets, North America and Europe, volumes have been in most areas and in most countries really resilient. Obviously in Europe, in a few countries, like in Spain, a bit more under pressure. Overall, it's really due to what we are seeing in emerging markets.
This being said, Juergen said it in his remarks, there are countries where we still need to do groundwork to upgrade our business. I mean, we discussed about Spain. We can certainly do much better. There are parts of the portfolio in France, parts of the portfolio that are doing very well, but there are parts of the portfolio that we still need to improve. It's gonna be a journey that is not gonna be resolved overnight, because you need to look at the quality of the mix, the quality of the positioning. We will do that properly.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. The next question from John Ennis, Goldman Sachs.
Morning, John.
My first question's on the Specialized Nutrition division. I guess the volume mix of 9% was much stronger than a lot of people expected. Can you maybe help allocate a bit more of that by country or region? Was there anything notable that we should be aware of from a phasing perspective? Then related to that, do you need to take more pricing in this segment, or is it or do you expect volume mix to really be the main growth driver for the remainder of the year? Then my second question's, again, coming back to EDP, can you give us the breakdown between plant-based volume mix growth and traditional dairy volume mix growth?
I'm, I guess I'm particularly interested to hear how your plant-based volumes have been developing in the U.S., given some of the supply chain challenges you've called out in the past. Thank you very much.
We'll do again a duet on both questions. On the Specialized Nutrition, the key message is it's a broad-based group. We are doing extremely well in China, but we are also doing very, very well in all other geographies. That's, I think, an important message because it is a pretty balanced growth. Juergen, on specialized.
No, on Specialized Nutrition, to the point of Antoine, it's really not only about China, but you have seen that we have a very solid performance and now on a much more comparable base, but also in Europe, where we have seen in many countries signs of stabilization, even a category returning to soft growth. In that environment, you have seen that Aptamil is really posting a very good performance, including winning shares in many of its markets. Here, the additional A&P we have been putting behind the campaign since the beginning of year is really paying back. At the same moment, I think that's also important, we are boosting the special pediatric solutions across also all the categories. There's absolutely no phasing effect.
We are very careful managing stocks, and that's true for China as well as outside of China, because this is the way to manage price, and this is the way to manage margins.
We're choosing our performance. On the EDP and specifically on plant-based, I'll give you qualitative answer because as you know, we don't go to that level of detail, not because we don't want, but because also lots of our competitors are not publishing there, and I don't want to open everything to the rest of the market. In North America, you've seen we've delivered a good growth, so things are going in the right direction, but we are not at the end of the journey. I mean, we have a great campaign with Milk of the Land on almonds. We are in the process of researching other parts of the ranges.
The adjacent segments are continuing to grow very nicely. All in all, I mean, there is a good momentum, partly helped by the way by a competitor that was challenged, so we need to also acknowledge that. The direction of travel is good. More to do with the restage of oat that is coming. Europe, the picture is more patchy by brand, by segment, by country. Doing very well in parts of Southern Europe, more challenged in some of the historical countries. The market is normalizing post-COVID, which is one thing.
I think the second thing, which is probably less apparent to you, is we are also working at our portfolio and we are rationalizing a number of things that were looking good from a top-line standpoint, but not really making any sense from a value creation standpoint. There, we are working at both end. On the one end, making our, I mean, our business more competitive and keeping driving the market. On the other, also cleaning the house and rationalizing our portfolio so that we keep creating value in that category.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question, Celine Pannuti from J.P. Morgan.
Good morning, Celine.
Yes, good morning. Good morning, Antoine, Juergen, and Mathilde. Thank you for taking my questions. My first one is on China, Specialized Nutrition. Is there any impact from lockdown that you benefited from. Then, I think one of your main competitors is cleaning up inventories and been taking a warning about a weak market. Can you talk about whether you've done quite well? Have you gaining shares? Are you happy with your inventories and overall with your stocks there? Whether what do we expect to see from the changes to regulation, if you are ready for that, I think starting next year. My second question is on COGS inflation, you reiterated mid-teens.
We've seen some of the price points for aluminum, even some of the milk prices rolling over. Can you talk about whether that could be a help at some point in the second half, or is it more of a 2023 numbers? Lastly, coming back, I think, to Jon Cox question he asked you about volume. You were quite, you know, you were questioning about volume mix potentially being negative for the year. H1 is ahead. Can you update us on what you expect for the year now?
Good. I'll take the first one. Juergen will take the COGS, and one of the two will take the volume mix. On China, on the lockdown, no, we didn't benefit from lockdown. The only way we really benefited from lockdown is more from an image standpoint, because when a place like Shanghai was totally locked down, people were delivered foods by their government at the bottom of their housing, we managed to get into the basket. The team was incredibly creative to find ways to make sure that Aptamil was reaching the people even during the time of lockdown, which got us quite a nice publicity on the social networks in China.
Not material from a volume standpoint, but keep building the image of us being a contributor to the health of China and to the people in China. On your question of one of our competitors and inventories, you'll recall that when we described what we believe to be the strength of our business in China, we said obviously, we talked obviously about the strengths of the brand, we talked obviously about the strength of the science. We talked obviously of the fact that we are a digital native company with extremely advanced tools. Speaking to the Chinese, we talked about being a Chinese embedded brand. One thing we talked about as well is the discipline by which we manage inventories.
It links back to our ability through our data mining intelligence, artificial intelligence, to be very good at predicting the markets. It goes also with an iron discipline in the way we manage the different channels, the price structures and all the rest of it. The result of that is what you see in the performance, which is a good competitive performance based on a very healthy base. Actually, our ability to manage channels, inventories and pricing is one of our competitive advantages.
Good morning, Celine. When it comes to COGS and inflation, it's true that we closed the H1 exactly in line with what we thought, exactly at mid-teens level and with the drivers packaging milk and transportation. It's true that we are monitoring very closely the situation which is extremely volatile. Now you're right that some of global commodities and also the transportation in U.S. is showing recently some signs of stabilization. While on the other side, this on one side is still very volatile, and we see that some other indexes like on energy gas or cost of labor are continuing to rise. Net-net, uncertainty remains still very high. It's very complex to make a precise forecast, and so therefore we are maintaining our best estimate for the full year to be cost inflation around mid-teens.
This is the way we are animating our business. In front of that, we will stay very focused and agile. Focused because we will step up further productivity in the H2 versus the H1, and H1 has already been record. Focused as we continue to drive the product mix very hard, as you were describing earlier in this call. At the same moment, agile in the way we manage pricing and promotions, doing further rounds of pricing if and when the inflation should continue to rise and to promote back. In the moment, you will see inflation plateauing, but everything with the intention, I would say, to protect a healthy financial equation as much as leveraging a strong competitiveness.
This is also linked to the way we have been articulating our full-year guidance in terms of top line, because obviously the way volumes are going to behave in the year to go will be a direct consequence on the way pricing will be executed, which will be a direct consequence of the way inflation will go. There's a lot of uncertainty on the next couple of quarters and semesters, and this is why we have articulated the guidance, taking stock of the first good six months of the year. Staying very consistent in the way we are looking into the midterm.
Celine, that's why we prefer medium-term guidance, not either quarterly or outlook guidance. As you know, this is where we are headed to.
We have one last question. It's gonna be David Hayes from Societe Generale .
Good morning, David.
Hello?
Just.
Hello.
One. Just following up. Hello, can you hear me?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Two and a half I can. Just quickly following up on Celine's question. On China inventory levels, clearly you're saying you're more on top of the inventory, feel comfortable with inventory. But do you see any risk going into the second half that that leading competitor is gonna have to discount quite aggressively to try and rebase its inventory levels? Is that something that we should be thinking about or do you not think it affects you? And then the two questions are just one on portfolio management. It's gone pretty quiet on that. Is that still ongoing review? Is there anything specifically that you're looking at, you know, in terms of what needs to change in the portfolio?
I guess kind of related to you talked about rationalization of brands and sales lines. Is that something that's been ongoing in the first half, or has that had some volume negative effect that starts to fall away through the year? Or is it very marginal still, it doesn't really make any impact on the numbers? Thank you.
China, we don't see something somber coming when it comes to our competitors managing inventories and all the rest of it. I mean, we keep focusing on the relevance of our brands with driving our mixes, doing things in a disciplined way. Normal course of competition, so I don't see people starting to hurt us that way. Portfolio, we haven't been so quiet actually. I mean, we have announced what we were doing with our Danone Waters in Argentina. We announced the next stage in our Mengniu. It kept us actually quite busy. Obviously we are busy on continuing the floor work we said we would do.
Not only we're working, but we have been delivering actually in May and June, and we will keep. Things are moving in a disciplined way, and we announce things when we have to announce things. Juergen, do you want to take rationalization?
Yeah, rationalization, I mean, we already announced a couple of quarters ago that we were cutting the tail, and we have been quite disciplined in organizing that. I would say the supply chain changes we had over the last quarters have reminded us on the importance in doing that. When we talk today about the fact that service levels in the U.S. are nicely bouncing back, it's also thanks to the fact that we have been really refocusing on what we call our hero SKUs. In that sense, we are continuing on that road, which also helps us to be extremely disciplined in the way we are managing innovations and the rotations in our SKU portfolio.
We are doing that all with a mindset obviously to maintain or increase our share of shelf, and this is the way our teams are animating that project, and so far so good.
Thank you.
Well, with that we conclude the Q&A.
Once again, thanks for joining us a bit earlier. I know a number of you have to rush to the next one. Good luck with the rest of the day. We are looking forward to seeing you all in the coming days and weeks, and if not, enjoy rest and a summer break. As we said, we are happy with a strong start of the year, but we remain focused and disciplined. It's only a first step, and there's still lots we need to do, and we will focus on that moving forward. On that, good day, everyone.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.