Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the C&C Group FY 2026 full year results. It's great to see you all and a warm welcome to all of you, whether you are here in person in our offices in St. Paul's or indeed if you're joining us remotely this morning. I'm really pleased to be joined today by Adam Phillips, who's started as our CFO just a few short weeks ago. I'm sure a number of you already know Adam from his past, but I am delighted to say Adam's hit the ground running and is already making a great impact in the business despite only being here for a very short period of time. Welcome to Adam.
In terms of today, you have presentations in front of you, and we'll run them through on the screen. I will kick off with a short overview of FY 2026. I'll then hand over to Adam to take you through the detailed financial review of 2026. Adam will then hand back to me, where I will cover an update on strategic direction, followed by a short operational review. We'll close with a short summary and then be happy to take your questions. Moving right along. I'm on slide four now. It's been a busy year for us at C&C Group. I'm pleased to report we've made some encouraging progress across our strategic priorities. However, it has been a difficult year from a financial performance perspective.
There's no getting away from the challenges faced in the sector, and we do not yet have the resilience or agility as a business to withstand the headwinds that we have faced. This theme will be consistent throughout this presentation. We need to build that resilience into our business, and that's what we've been doing over the past 12 months. As it happens, not quite fast enough to cope with external market challenges that impacted the hospitality markets and consequently our volumes and our mix, especially in our core wholesale business. However, across the last year, we believe we have established a stronger and more resilient platform for the future. I will explain why after we have heard from Adam with the financial review of FY 2026. Adam.
Thanks, Roger, good morning, everyone. I'll start with the headline financials. Just moving on to slide six. Revenue declined 6% year-on-year reflected, that reflected branded growth of 4%, decline in the distribution business of 8%, I'll expand on that on the next slide. Operating profit of EUR 70.5 million compares to EUR 77.1 million for the previous year, that year-on-year reduction broadly tracked the movement in revenue. Operating margin in the middle of the slide there was broadly flat year-on-year, with margin expansion in the branded business offset by dilution in the distribution segment.
From a cash perspective, the group continued to generate good cash flow, albeit at lower levels than the previous year, mainly due to movements in working capital, which I'll cover later. Free cash flow before exceptionals was EUR 45.3 million, and leverage at the end of the year was 1.6 times on a pre IFRS 16 basis. Looking at revenue in a bit more detail, branded revenue increased by 4% to EUR 310 million, reflecting positive sales growth for Tennent's and Bulmers, offset by declining cider volumes in GB, where our brands experienced a period of disruption as we took the Magners brand back in-house.
In the distribution segment, revenue decreased by 8%, driven by a combination of weak market volume product mix headwinds with wines and spirits categories ceding share to long alcoholic drinks, and the impact of the removal of BBG brand sales in Republic of Ireland, which we exited at the same time as we regained control of our GB cider brands. Turning to operating profit, these numbers are before exceptional items. Operating profit of operating margin, sorry, of 4.5% was broadly maintained year-on-year. Absolute operating profit declined from EUR 77.1 to EUR 70.5, principally due to the movement in revenue. On this slide here, we've set out the drivers of that profit movement in the year. In the branded business, you can see volume decline was more than offset by mix and price benefits.
Branded operating profit increased from EUR 46.1 to EUR 51 million, margin percent improved by 1.1 percentage points to 16.5% through a focus on efficiency, lower costs and trading disciplines. In distribution, operating profit declined from EUR 31 million to EUR 19.5 million, driven by volume and mix. The mix impact itself is due to the category shift from the higher margin percentage wines and spirits into long alcoholic drinks. As I mentioned, these operating profit numbers are before exceptional items. These exceptional costs totaled EUR 40.7 in the year on a pre-tax basis, they're set out in detail in note three to the financial statements in this morning's announcement. Those exceptional costs include some non-cash impairments of goodwill and assets.
If you put those to one side, the cash cost of the exceptional items was EUR 20.8 million, so around half of the total amount, principally related to restructuring costs. Before I move on to cash flow, a quick look at the outlook for costs. On the left-hand side of this slide, I think we've shown this slide before, but the left-hand side, we've broken down our FY 2026 operating costs into its different components, the sort of percentage split. In the middle of the slide, we've updated the outlook that we've shown before, with the arrows showing the direction that these costs are moving in FY 2027. We're well hedged for the year ahead, and these arrows show the impact after those hedges. We do expect cost inflation net of hedges.
We expected that before the current kind of geopolitical situation. We are well hedged for the year ahead. Clearly, those hedges only provide some short-term protection. The longer that the geopolitical circumstances continue, the more likely it is that the market will see some increasing cost inflation. We have put some price through already, which has landed well. As I say, the core sort of key cost lines are well hedged for the year ahead. Moving on to cash flow, this table here breaks down the free cash flow in the year, starting at the top of the table with EUR 104 million of adjusted EBITDA, which was down EUR 7.7 million year-on-year in line with movement in operating profit as explained earlier.
CapEx of EUR 13 million remained above the rate of depreciation but was lower year on year, principally due to the investment in the prior year in the new can filler at the Wellpark Brewery. Working capital there in the middle of the slide, you can see was a EUR 21 million outflow. An element of this related to the decline in revenue, including a circa EUR 5 million reduction in the drawdown on the receivable securitization facility, which sits in working capital. The remainder of the movement principally related to movement in payment terms with certain customers and suppliers around the payment, around the period end, and with stock being broadly flat year on year. Moving down the table, you can see cash tax was net nil in the year, and that's due to refunds received.
Net finance costs of EUR 20.7 million were broadly similar year-on-year, that was the net of the impact of higher average borrowings, offset by lower rates. All of those movements resulted in free cash flow pre-exceptionals of EUR 45.3 million. Moving on to net debt on the next slide. Net debt ended the year at EUR 122 and EUR 21.4 million on a pre IFRS 16 basis. That's an increase of EUR 40.5 million in the year, which matched the level of exceptional costs and the working capital outflow in the year. Shareholder returns in FY 2026 on a cash basis were EUR 38.2 million, that comprised EUR 23.1 million of dividends and EUR 15.1 million of buybacks.
Leverage, as I've said, at the end of the year, was 1.6 at times on a pre IFRS 16 basis. Just by way of reminder, our financing is long dated with significant headroom. We have an RCF and term loan extending out to January 2030, and a couple of private placements maturing in 2030 and 2032. Just to finish on capital allocation, this slide sets out the prevailing approach to capital allocation. Firstly, on the left-hand side, a reminder of the cash generation characteristics of the business with tight working capital management, relatively modest maintenance CapEx requirements, and stable finance and tax costs. This cash generation has been used to pay the ordinary dividend, to fund buybacks, and provide strategic growth investment optionality.
Subject to shareholder approval, the board proposes a final dividend of EUR 0.0367, taking the full-year dividend to EUR 0.0575. Since the start of FY 2025, and including the final dividend in respect of FY 2026, which will be paid in July, a total of EUR 105 million will have been returned to shareholders. That's it from me for now. Happy to take questions at the end. Back to Roger.
Okay. Thank you, Adam. I would like to take a little time just to update you on what we've been doing across the last 12 months to support our choices and plans around the strategic direction setting for the C&C Group. I will then give you a brief update on our main brand and initiative activity, along with an update on progress in relation to sustainability before we move to the Q&A. Turning firstly to the market context we find ourselves in, which is on slide 14. Last year has seen tough market conditions across many consumer goods categories. Perhaps some of the toughest have been well documented are the challenges in the hospitality channel.
The hospitality channel has had to contend with multiple issues, primary product inflation in food and drink, labor cost increases, regulatory-driven cost pressure, as well as the general impact on volumes of dropping consumer demand as economic pressure reduced consumer spending power. In addition to a challenging economic environment, we've also seen changes in consumer consumption dynamics, with further extension of alcohol consumption moderation trends and the increased usage of weight loss drugs impacting consumer consumption across multiple fronts in multiple categories. Product mix changes accelerated as consumers continued to shift from wines and spirits towards long alcoholic drinks.
In addition, consumption occasions further developed beyond the traditional to more intentional and occasion-based planned social moments, driving consumption at home and the rise of more upbeat on-trade event-driven occasions. As I already mentioned, moderation is an ongoing theme with 23 million GB adults now consciously reducing alcohol consumption, either through fewer occasions or by turning to no and low alcohol products when socializing. It's currently a tough environment. However, consumers will continue to drink. We just need to be alive to what they will be drinking, where they will be consuming it, and when they will be consuming it. Within this market context in mind, our overall branded drinks performance has continued to see relatively strong performance within these difficult conditions, supported by our unique position in our core markets and our differentiated route to market.
It's often said that in challenging times, consumers turn to better known and trusted brands, which is an important and ongoing opportunity for our wider brand portfolio. If I can turn from the external market and to talk a little bit about what we are doing to steady the ship and prepare for the future, if we turn to slide 15. The past 12 months have seen progress across a wide range of areas of the business. We've continued to take action to stabilize and lay a solid set of foundations for the future. When I arrived last year, there was a long list of necessary actions, financial control, corporate risk, systems and business processes, to name but a few. I'll not dwell on this huge list. Rather, I'll pick out a number of key areas, actually highlighted in green in the slide.
However, I would say that it was very clear to me that to make strategic progress within C&C, we needed not only an appropriate strategy, but we needed to avoid the executional banana skins which have dogged this business for years. Focus had to be on getting the basics right, and all of the strategic planning in the world could be wasted by immediate executional issues if they weren't dealt with. Operationally, we've prioritized safety and service. Both are not overnight fixes, but we've made real progress to ensure the safe operation of everything we do, and we have in recent months delivered industry-leading customer service from a stable operating platform right across the business. I was especially proud of our service to our customers over the festive period, where I would go as far as saying our execution to the trade was close to flawless.
With this base operating level set, let me now pick out three areas to update as they are critical to the strategic development of the business, and they are senior management data and the creation of models to increase transparency of our fully allocated costs across the business. Let me turn to each of those in turn. First of all, if I turn to slide 16. Over the past 12 months, we've changed around 70% of the senior leadership team, recruiting what I believe is a talented and highly capable team. You can see from the slide the new leadership team. We now have a team capable of delivering both the strategic thinking and the leadership required to take the business forward quickly and effectively.
This leadership team is obviously in the early stages of forming, but it's already identifying significant improvement opportunities across the business to improve our growth potential, further reduce our costs, and importantly, brings a sharp focus and a speed to our day-to-day execution. As you can see, you know, we have a range of skills. The most important thing for me is when you look at the start dates at the bottom of the slide, you can see that this is really a very much a new team. Moving on to slide 17. Not always the go-to topic for a corporate presentation data. Bear with me on this. Much of the history of C&C is in some ways linked in this chart.
Just to highlight what we've been wrestling with, this slide shows graphically what I couldn't begin to try and describe verbally. In the orange print at the top of the slide, there are more than 11 data structures which we have across the Group. These lead to, as I said, many of the reasons for the complexity, cost, and risk that we have faced. Each of these structures has different legacy constraints in terms of product, in terms of customer, in terminology, and in actual base technology, basically making any unified measurement or data analysis extremely difficult and consequently making strategic and even tactical decision-making difficult as well. To resolve the problem quickly and effectively, we're now well into our Data DNA program, which will support better, faster decision-making across the Group based on the lowest risk approach to us.
That is the implementation of a data integration platform that allows us to not fully reclothe the whole business in new systems with the associated new business processes, something which would have been extremely costly, very time-consuming, and have a high level of consequential risk. This should allow us to move forward swiftly and effectively. Through the initiation and the use of a single data integration platform, which pulls the disparate strands of our data together, creates one version of the truth to better support short and indeed long-term decision-making. This, in essence, is another example of what some might consider housekeeping basics, but they do enable our longer-term value creation. Let me assure you that without this simplification, we would simply be moving forward with a complex and high resource requirement before we could do anything.
If I can turn to the next slide, and I'll talk to you about the important work completed on cost allocation and business separation. We currently report our segmental performance based on two segments, as you'll all be well aware, branded and wholesale, and you can see from the slide. There's nothing wrong with this from a corporate reporting perspective. However, from a business operating perspective, we have in recent years lost the granular detail required to make the best day-to-day decisions. We have not been able to see through the full allocation of costs to allow us to manage beyond the One C&C approach that was brought in a number of years ago. The One C&C principles, which was an organizational footprint and one business model, has not worked and has not delivered the anticipated business performance set out some years ago. Why is this?
Well, there are multiple reasons. Much of the Group focus for some time has followed turnover and not profit. By that I mean the natural inclination has been to look at the biggest numbers and the areas of the businesses that have been most challenging, which in our case has been associated to the wholesale distribution area of the business. We have looked at costs generally at a Group level rather than attributing costs accurately across the Group. In addition, there's also obviously been significant changes in both the market we operate in and the shape of the business. Just as some context, the C&C Group, when it acquired Matthew Clark and Bibendum , acquired a wine and spirits-focused wholesale business. Since the acquisition, there has been a significant drift away from that core proposition.
Now in reality, we are much more of a beer, cider, and soft drink wholesaler and delivery system. Whilst we have retained terrific expertise and understanding, especially in wine, the market has changed. We're battling with challenging, changing market dynamics, not least of all within our customer base, where not only is the profit pool being squeezed, but we are experiencing the substantial drift in consumption dynamics that impact our product mix and therefore our cost base requirements and consequently, obviously, our margins. We have stripped the business down to create a dynamic cost allocation model that will allow us to set realistic cost targets across the business based on fact rather than assumption and history. This, although it doesn't sound much, is a very significant building block that will support us going forward.
We are stabilizing, we are improving, but the markets we operate in have significantly changed and consequently trading has been difficult. Financial performance is not where we would like it to have been as the external challenges and negative momentum in the business overtook the improvements we drove in FY 2026. This highlighted to me the absolute imperative for change in the C&C business. Small incremental improvement was not going to work. Significant change is required. The starting point for developing a plan is always to assess where you are. That's what we have done. We cannot drive improvements, leverage our scale, or drive simplicity or manage the business with agility based on the current approach. We now have to move forward in a different way. We turn to slide 19.
Armed with a much improved understanding of the detail of the fully allocated cost and consequential real allocated profitability of our two operating businesses, we can better plot a path forward for the Group in total. Our strategy is to progressively, over a short, as short a period of time as is required, reverse out of the One C&C model and revert to two basic business operations in the Group. Firstly, C&C Brands. This includes the historic company operations of Tennent Caledonian Breweries, Tennent's Northern Ireland, Bulmers, and C&C International. This is a brand-driven, full-service business model, make, move, market, sell, and deliver, which will be heavily biased to company-owned brands, building sales through brand development, innovation, and strong route to market propositions across multiple channels in core geographies in Scotland and the island of Ireland.
We see this as having the potential to be a true multi-beverage platform in its core markets and beyond. Our mission will be to build brands throughout GB and Ireland. Recognizing we already have a preeminent position in hospitality in Scotland and the island of Ireland, we will build from this position of strength. We will develop and invest in the capabilities to support growth in our portfolio, increasing in retail as well as hospitality, building our execution capabilities even further. Our intention is to broaden our approach to the market, both from a portfolio perspective and a channel perspective, and I'll cover our existing brand portfolio in a moment in this presentation. Turning to the second component business in the group, Matthew Clark and Bibendum, or MCB, as we now officially know it.
MCB has now, at long last, been integrated into a long overdue step which has only taken place in the last few weeks. Some of you may be surprised about that. I was. The full integration following an internal reorganization has created a single organization now and a single product portfolio approach, bringing the best of both to create MCB as more than a set of words on an organization chart. This is the first step in a renovation program that needs to take place within our wholesale business. MCB has scale, coverage, and portfolio breadth and depth alongside a significantly improved service performance required to fulfill the critical role it holds in the U.K. hospitality infrastructure.
We have work to do to establish where and how it fits into the dynamic hospitality ecosystem in the best possible way, and we also have work to do to deliver our readily achievable margin targets such that they are sustainable and acceptable to all in the value chain, whether they're brand partners or customers. MCB offers a huge curated range, especially in wines and spirits, plus unrivaled knowledge, advice, and support for the hospitality sector, as well as an efficient route to market for brand partners and industry-leading customer service. A one-stop shop for the hospitality operator across drinks. Just to turn to each of these businesses in a little more detail on slide 20. C&C Brands provides a platform for growth at stable margins, and it has more to it perhaps than first meets the eye. It's made up, in our view, of multiple pillars.
The first of these pillars is our brand portfolio. We have reviewed that portfolio and re-segmented it. As you can see from the slide, we have focused our portfolio around three distinct segments. Firstly, core, the brands you know us best for, which have strong market penetration and significant development potential. Secondly, premium, this growing portfolio of brands that offer growth above market levels and superior sales pricing as consumers seek quality and differentiation. We've added Drygate and latterly Innis & Gunn to this group in the last year. Finally, heritage, a range of less well-known brands that perhaps you've not heard of or forgotten about. This is a segment with a loyal and significant consumer and customer base. They've been somewhat forgotten and somewhat neglected as local heroes.
With the right approach and as part of our portfolio, they can offer volume growth opportunities, particularly as we stretch from a channel perspective, and particularly into retail channels. Our plans going forward will see us develop around these segments, building innovation, driving brand development, expanding our channel coverage to ensure we maximize growth potential of these important brands. Putting the correct level of investment, management focus, and resources to ensure volume growth, which will be the main indicator of success going forward. In addition, we see opportunities to grow and develop the portfolio over time through the creation of new products, the development of new sub-brands, and the potential to acquire bolt-on brands that can complement our existing portfolio, as well as play to our operational and route to market strengths.
This portfolio is developing beyond its current boundaries into a multi-beverage portfolio, spanning across the beverage space and utilizing our skills, which will and do stretch beyond beer and cider. I genuinely believe the C&C Brands portfolio is capable of real sustained volume growth over time. The second pillar in the C&C Brands strategy relates to the existing infrastructure. This asset base is long-standing, well-invested, and flexible. Our two primary manufacturing sites at Wellp ark and Clonmel offer very large-scale operating sites with flexibility, capability, and agility baked into them. Importantly, both sites have sizable space and operational capacity available from existing infrastructure, as well as significant development flexibility on both sites. Whether it's the ability to drive significant operational leverage from growth of our own portfolio or the ability to rapidly deploy capacity when opportunities arise outside of our portfolio, we are well-positioned to action this.
This also applies to our regional routes to market, where our reach, sales density, and flexibility provides interesting options for both cooperation and commercial development. Whether it's innovation, brand development, or supply site development, we believe we are well-positioned to support and develop the C&C Brands strategy going forward with relatively little requirement for major capital and significant operational leverage opportunities. Now, turning to MCB, our second business operation within the groups, just a few stats on that slide for your interest. Turning to slide 23. Unlike the immediate growth and development potential we see in C&C Brands, MCB requires more of an immediate renovation strategy. However, we believe the steps to improve MCB are clear and we've already made many of those first steps. As I mentioned earlier, MCB has a critical role to play in the G.B. hospitality ecosystem.
With its broad range, and once more providing industry-leading service, it supports its customers across the channel. For brand owners who are in our system, we provide a unique access and experience and expertise in the U.K. hospitality channel, covering all subsets from pubs to hotels, restaurants, and more. The role of MCB has changed over time, not by design. Our job is to set up MCB with the appropriate customer proposition and sustainable margins. We have commenced a journey across, which will last across the next few years to move our target operating margin back to the 3%-4% range. We have a wide range of actions in hand to deliver this cost range, service proposition, buying margin, and importantly, commercial controls.
We have been focused on delivering service and rebuilding trust with our customers initially, alongside achieving our objectives in the core business associated to data pricing, technical architecture, and CRM. With improved basics and stronger commercial control and planning, we believe we can deliver the improvement in margin that we plan over the timescale set out without damaging our marketplace competitiveness across our customers from a service range or value perspective. Managing MCB, our core wholesale business as a standalone profit center will highlight and support the requirements and improvement that we have identified to return our margin to its target levels. Turning to Slide 24. Something that's been very much in our minds as we've progressed our strategic thinking is that both sectors that our operating businesses are deeply involved in are likely to experience consolidation over the coming period.
Our thesis is driven by the facts presented by the current market dynamics, volatile costs, low structural growth dynamics, and the changing shape and size of available profit pools. It therefore seems logical that consolidation could be a next step, particularly in the wholesale supply environment across the U.K. Our strategy is specifically designed to take account of these possibilities to ensure we are best placed to benefit from these market conditions, whether it is as a consolidator or as part of a wider consolidation. In both branded and wholesale, we need to be agile and prepared to take full advantage of our strong and improving market positions and import performance. In summary, we've spent time on many of the enabling works which should support a rapid move into the delivery stage of our strategy.
We will continue the implementation of the refreshed strategy on the ground as MCB comes together, and we set up the systems and processes designed to support our new approach in both C&C Brands and MCB, alongside the supporting central functions. We are planning a Capital Markets Day in September to update on progress, to provide much more detail in terms of financial targets for the discrete elements of the business and the group as a whole, along with updates on capital allocation, leverage targets, and dividend policy. We will provide an opportunity to meet the senior team and hear about plans for brand development, innovation, and delivery of the MCB margin recovery plan at that stage. Moving on to the operational update on Slide 27. Firstly, Tennent's.
2025 marked a milestone year for Tennent's Lager as it celebrated 140 years of brewing Scotland's favorite beer. Despite the difficult market, Tennent's has shown remarkable resilience, maintaining its market share in Scotland, which is a testament to its position as the category leader. In the off-trade, Tennent's has four of the five best-selling beer SKUs, selling the equivalent combined volume of its next two nearest competitors and three times more than the entire stout category combined. In the on-trade, Tennent's gained share of Scotland lager at Christmas and the full year. Such is the strength of the brand performance, Tennent's is now actually a top 10 lager brand by volume across total GB, outperforming a number of leading global brands. Tennent's is famed for its role it plays in Scottish culture and will continue to be at the heart of what matters to consumers.
Our summer campaign last year rewarded Scots' bravery through the best and worst of the summer weather. We were there with a pint in hand at some of the biggest moments of the year, including selling over 365,000 pints during the summer stadium gigs across central Scotland and 200,000 pints at Murrayfield Stadium alone during the Six Nations. Sport remains central to the brand identity. In November, remarkably, we saw Scotland's men's team qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1998. As official partner of the SFA, we celebrated with the team. The tournament will form an important part of the plans for the year ahead.
I will treat those of you in the room, I am afraid not those of you who are not in the room, to an early preview of a brilliant new piece of creative work for Tennent's associated with the World Cup at the end of the presentation. This time last year, I said we would bring innovation back to the brand, and I am delighted in the success that Tennent's Bavarian Pilsner, a 4.7% ABV, limited edition beer with a distinctive Bavarian flavor has done. Launched in December, the four-pack was in the top five best-selling SKUs in all the major multiples it was listed.
The launch has been so successful we have taken the decision to make it a permanent on-trade SKU with retail keen to do the same. It has set the scene for our latest innovation, Tennent's Tops, a summer beer innovation taking Tennent's Lager and blending it with lemon for a refreshing summer tipple. I think you've got some samples, those of you who are here to take away. A busy year for Tennent's and a busy year ahead. Turning to Bulmers. I'm pleased to report that Bulmers has delivered a strong full-year performance. From a position of category leadership, we've innovated to grow. Bulmers flavors variants grew 10% year on year and have the potential to deliver more. A new range of four products has replaced the existing two lines.
These have been tested with consumers and strong adoption from retailers will see a threefold increase in total distribution points for the Bulmers flavor range from May 2026. The latest full-year volume growth for Bulmers 0.0 was also impressive at + 24%, supported by an increase in store listings of just over 10%. The 0.0 cider category grew by 4% year on year. Our 0.0 product commands a 33% share of this category in the Republic of Ireland, now the number one ranked in the segment. 2025 also saw the celebration of 90 years of Bulmers with a full celebration at our Clonmel site and a series of consumer activations across channels.
The brand remains in rude health, worthy of its age with the highest awareness in the category and the strongest demand power as measured by Kantar in the category, which underpins the point that when consumers look to cider, they are more likely to choose Bulmers than any other brand in its market. Turning to Magners. As you know, the past year has signaled the start of a new chapter for Magners as we took the brand execution back in-house. The first year back under our control did, as expected, have transition issues as we moved out of the BBG ABI sales system and back into our own. After a bumpy start, we now feel we're on the road to recovery for the Magners brand.
I'm pleased to say that following our investment in both marketing and point-of-purchase activation, we are beginning to see positive impacts as a reward for our efforts. We remain under no illusion that further time and commitment is required to ensure Magners becomes a consistent growth element of the portfolio. Magners remains the number one packaged cider in the GB on-trade, but it was also the fastest-growing in the 12 weeks to the end of the calendar year, demonstrating an increase in consumers choosing the brand at the important point of consumption. We set out at the start of the year to improve Magners' off-trade presence as a key lever in reconsideration for consumers.
I'm pleased to report that we've achieved a number of new listings across grocery, which have contributed to volume growth across all time periods and share growth in the resulting 12 weeks to the end of January this year. These channel shifts suggest our approach is working and give us much-needed positive momentum as we enter this new trading year. Moving on to premium. We continue to see compelling opportunities across our wider premium portfolio. A particular focus has been on the development of Menabrea and Outcider brands, which both play in attractive growth segments in the market. Menabrea, our Italian lager, achieved growth of 4% in the year as we launched a new partnership with TV chef James Martin, which saw the brand achieve higher levels of engagement across digital media.
We've launched some multiple sets of new product formats, supporting our off-trade growth, which has delivered well during the period. Outcider has continued to go from strength to strength. In its launch market in Northern Ireland, it's now the top-selling on-trade cider brand. Following a successful launch in Scotland last year, the brand now has nearly 300 on-trade distribution points secured during its first year. We will now move to launch the brand in England and Wales to continue the growth momentum as consumers demand interesting, exciting alternatives to existing brand, particularly in the on-trade. Having fully acquired the Drygate brand earlier in the year, we have now followed up with the addition of Innis & Gunn to the portfolio. Turning to Slide 31.
In March this year, we were presented with the opportunity to expand our brand portfolio with the acquisition of Innis & Gunn. This acquisition represents an attractive opportunity to the group to further broaden its branded portfolio with a premium, well-established brand with an acquisition that held very low executional risk. I'm pleased to say the brand has now been fully absorbed into the group's existing operational, commercial, and supply chain infrastructure. Whilst we were the existing manufacturer and commercial partner to Innis & Gunn, our ownership not only improves the commercial return to us but also allows us commercial freedom to develop the brand from its already strong starting point.
Whilst we bought the brand from the administrators of the group, I should point out that it was not the beer and brewing end of the business that led to the ultimate demise of the parent group. We strongly believe that Innis & Gunn is a great brand capable of sustained growth in our portfolio. We will develop this brand further, utilizing our established capabilities, route to market, infrastructure, and leveraging our existing capabilities to unlock brand value with minimum requirement for incremental overhead or capital investment. I hope this usefully serves to illustrate that we are alive and open to external options that add value or deliver synergistic growth potential to the group under our refreshed strategy. If I can now turn to sustainability on slide 32 to update on the important progress we've made across this key area of the business.
Sustainability remains at the center of our thinking at C&C Group. From ensuring the safe delivery of all our operations across the group to supporting our teams across the business to personally grow and develop meaningful careers, we have continued to make real progress in the last 12 months. Our focus on improving health and safety has stepped up, and our initiatives to ensure everyone goes home safely at the end of each and every day have all made very strong progress. We continue to make good progress towards our climate-related targets, driven through reductions in emissions across all our activities and validated by our adoption of science-based targets. To support our ongoing sustainability improvements, we continue to make investments in our sites. The latest such investment is the planned introduction of electric boiler this year to reduce our reliance on expensive gas and also to reduce associated emissions.
We also have the planned commissioning of a dealcoholization plant at the Wellpark site, which will allow us to further develop our low and no alcohol portfolio of products. FY 2027, whilst we will continue all our actions across a broad sustainability agenda, our aim is to simplify the pillars of our sustainability strategy, which will support an even more focused approach to our development and growth of our performance in this important area. Conscious I've been speaking for a long time. In summary, FY 2026 has been a year of significant actions to stabilize the business, driving improvements across the group. We've reviewed where we are and how best to move forward and are setting a new simplified direction with a new team who believe in the approach and can deliver.
Whilst it's early in the year, I'm pleased to report that trading is currently in line with expectations, and we look forward to both a hot bank holiday weekend, I'm looking at the rain pouring down at the minute, and the start of the World Cup in the coming weeks. As I said earlier, we'll add significantly more detail in our September Capital Markets Day. In the meantime, thank you very much for your attention. We're now happy to open up to some questions.
Can I be first?
Of course. Clive.
Um-
Oh, you might need a microphone.
Best get a microphone.
Thank you. Thanks for the presentation. A couple if I may. Without sounding cynical, I could have drunk a few pints of Tennent's over the years to hear a Matthew Clark margin of 3%-4% at some stage. Why do you think this time is different? Then just secondly, to keep it brief, in terms of your brands, how important is England to your brands, or can you make the progress that you want through Scotland and the island of Ireland?
On the Matthew Clark margin, I've certainly heard tale of all sorts of numbers from history, some stretching into high single digits. I think a 3% - 4% margin is the right sort of level to aim for. It's will see us significantly improve from where we are, but we've been there in the past. When we look at our operation, when we talk to our customers, when we look at the service proposition we give, when we look at the resourcing we provide, I think we can provide terrific service, great value for money, and a amazing choice. I think really, as long as we continue to support those three things, then the margin is within our grasp.
We have the commercial control opportunities to improve, we have the operating improvements in hand, and I think it's just a stepped movement towards that. I understand it's been there in the past and the aspiration has been there, but this time I think hopefully in September we can demonstrate how we will get there, when we will do it, and what the steps are, and that they are largely within our control rather than outside of our control. How important are our brands in England? I think, you know, look, it's great to have a very strong regional business. I think it's a great starting point, but you know, the GB business has a huge number of consumers. We have great understanding of what's going on in the market.
Our brands are scalable and developable, both in their core markets and wider. I think this is about getting our portfolio right. It's about looking at the portfolio, as I described, slightly differently. A lot of our core brands are in the Celtic Crescent, if you like, but quite a number of our premium brands and our heritage brands sit outside of that, and we just need to focus on them. I think it is important, but we'll grow from a position of strength, and we need to build the plans over time. I don't see it being a rapid change in focus, but I think over time we will do more in England and Wales.
Thank you.
Of course.
Good morning. Fintan Ryan here from Goodbody. Just a few questions, please. Firstly, in terms of the brands strategy, you've talked about going for a multi-beverage model within East Ireland and Scotland. Like, how sort of off-reservation is that? Is that into soft drinks, or own wines and spirits? Your, your thinking there. Sort of related to that, like, looking at the slides, you talk about basically 1.9 million hectoliter capacity in brands, but you've got production capacity across beer and cider of 6 million. Like, is there a version of the world where maybe you'd look to consolidate some of the capacity to save some cost?
Just secondly, maybe it's probably one for the Capital Markets Day in a few months, but as you think about the distribution business, how should the product mix change versus what you've shown on the slide there? Like, or is that the sort of the 64% beer side, or is that sustainable going forward?
Okay. Let me try and take some of these. Look, I think we have historically been a brewing cider and wholesaling business. We haven't spent a lot of time outside of those kind of core beer and cider products. We need to have a much broader view of the consumer. You know, we sell a lot of soft drinks. We sell a lot of juices. We sell a lot of water. We sell an increasing amount of low and no alcohol beers. The lines of consumer consumption are increasingly blurred. I think we just need It's philosophical. We need to have a different view of the market. We are a multi-beverage business, and we have skills and capability that we can leverage there.
In terms of the capacity, I mean, I think it gives us optionality. My point today is that, you know, probably one could see it as either a weakness, but I see it as a strength. I mean, we have a lot of capacity that we can grow our business. We're agile, we're flexible. We can move quickly when opportunities arise. The operational base that we have is broad and it's, as I said, it's very flexible. We're just really highlighting that as a strength that perhaps the market doesn't really understand. You know, it extends into our broader supply chain as well. It's not just manufacturing, it's our route to market. In, you know, development of brands and development of a business model that works, I think it's important.
The distribution mix, it is what it is today. It's drifted probably, somewhat unintentionally by us as a company. We are now, very focused on our mix, and we want to be more intentional. At the end of the day, as a business, you know, we have to supply the market what the market wants. I think there's more we can do to drive our mix, particularly towards, our own brands, and particularly where we've got a differentiated self-service operate-offering to our customers, then I think there is more we can do. You know, if the market changes around us, then we need to be alive to that, but we need to be much more intentional about what we're selling, to whom, and why.
You know, I think we've had a difficult few years, where we were just keen to make sure we were selling something, and now we're gonna be a lot more intentional about it.
Thank you.
Of course.
Yeah.
Damian McNeela at Deutsche Numis. Just on the sort of the cost profile of the business, can you provide a little bit more detail on where the major hedges end? Also, what's happening with third-party pricing, what you've seen there and what your plans are with that? Just on the brands business, obviously, the priority there is to grow volumes, and this may be a question for September, but can you give us an indication of what level of volume growth you think these brands can deliver at the minute, please?
Do you wanna cover the hedging-
Yeah
Adam?
Yeah, sure. The hedges, they do vary across the key cost line, but they're pretty well covered across FY 2027. As you get through the second half, some of those will start rolling off and, but pretty well covered. Fuel and freight is probably where there's the greatest exposure, but not hugely material. Yeah. You know, and overall, we're already I mean, before external events kicked off, we were already planning on the basis of there being cost inflation going into this year, and that level of cost inflation is kind of what we're expecting really, as we see it. Yeah.
Damian, You said third-party pricing. Just what were you-
Yeah. I think three-quarters of your cost base is
Okay
third-party brands, right? What are they doing and how are you coping with it?
By and large, that generally follows a set pricing profile and we've moved manufacturing, if we call them that, brand partners, manufacturers, whatever you want to call them, we've moved that pricing through our wholesale system. We're not seeing or hearing any changes to that currently. We changed our pricing position earlier in the financial year. We'd like to think that, you know, we can hold that for the time being, but obviously we'll respond to whatever comes along in the market. Currently, not seeing any particular momentum to change that. It's quite a dynamic position obviously from a cost base point of view, and everybody's got different hedging, but certainly we'd like to think we're holding it for the time being. On the volume growth position, look, I think you're right.
We'll cover more of this in September. I think it's a mentality change for me in that we look at our branded business and the company owned brands and we want them to grow, which is quite different to where we have been, where I think we've been managing them a little bit more for profit performance rather than necessarily volume growth. It's quite a big shift in mentality to go in and want to grow the volume. We're starting to see the thinking and the planning around that. I'll not give you an absolute number to say that, you know, we want Tennent's to be a growth brand in volume, not just in revenue. We don't just rely on price or mix. We're relying on actual volume consumed.
Sorry.
Morning. Cathal Kenny from Davy. Thanks for the presentation. A couple of questions from my side. Firstly, to Adam, just the outlook for free cash in the current financial year. Conscious there was a lot of moving parts in the year just past. Secondly, on MCB, going back to the first question on margin, does the mix need to change in order to deliver the 3%-4%, or can you achieve that off the current mix? Third question then is on premium brands you've called out. I know you've added Innis & Gunn and Drygate. You've highlighted the portfolio impact is require some investment. Just understanding the scale of investment there and maybe the associated opportunity. Yeah, they're my three actually a follow-up on MCB as well.
Just in practical terms, does the merger between Matthew Clark and Bibendum, what does that mean in practical terms if I was in the organization in terms of SKUs, customers, et cetera? Thank you.
The margin mix question, yeah, we've gotta do it with the mix as it is. It will be multifaceted cost, range, complexity, commercial control, buying margin. Those are all the things that We cannot be reliant on suddenly selling a lot more of any particular category. We've got to do it off what we've got. In terms of I'll try and answer that. What does it feel like, so what does it feel like if you're in Well, historically you were generally working for Matthew Clark or Bibendum. The biggest change is Well, there is organizational change in reporting lines, and team dynamics, but the biggest change is you're working off a single product list.
Rather than having multiple wine lists for example, you know, we have consolidated it all into one high quality wine list that is suitable for all customers rather than having somebody turning up from Bibendum on a Monday and somebody from Matthew Clark on a Tuesday trying to sell a different range of products. Better for our customers, we think, and better for us and more efficient. What was the other question?
Free cash flow.
I'll leave that to you.
I mean, free cash flow in FY 2026 was EUR 45 million. Pre-exceptional was about EUR 25 million. Post-exceptional was down about EUR 20 million year-on-year. The big items within that obviously were the working capital outflow. Not expecting that in the 12 months to unwind and reverse, but not expecting it to repeat either. That's the big that's probably the big moving item. Over time, we'd expect those exceptionals cash flows to come down as well. Other than that, if you look at the table of free cash flow down from EBITDA down to free cash flow, not a huge amount of movement in the other items. Maybe a bit of tax benefit maybe this year, so we may see a small cash tax, maybe a bit of cash refund coming through.
Working capital is the big one and then the exceptionals.
Okay. Just coming back on the investment on the premium brand side.
I mean, we need to be alive to opportunities to make a decent return out of acquiring a business. The having the manufacturing footprint and the route to market is an important part of that. We can very quickly both integrate products into our system from an operational standpoint and from a commercial standpoint. I guess we'll take each on its merits. Some, some will be opportunistic and some will be by design. Hopefully we can give a better insight into that in September when we take you through where we see the opportunities in the portfolio.
Thank you.
Hi. Stephen Kennealy from Barclays. You had 4% growth in the branded division, mostly driven by 9% pricing. Could you provide some color into how much of that was mix and how much was price?
Pricing would be low single digit, and the rest of it would be driven largely by the mix. You, Clive.
Just a couple on, firstly on MCB. What does the merger of Matthew Clark and Bibendum mean for the 600 odd SKUs that you have at the moment? Does that need to go down that number? Is that number at the moment correctly representing the shift in mix that you have seen across beer versus wines? So that's one. Secondly, for that ambition of 3%-4%, do you need the on-trade market in general to stabilize in terms of overall alcohol consumption? Do you need it to stabilize in terms of the shift, change happening between wines and, between spirits and wines and long alcoholic drinks ? Thank you.
I'll, I'll answer the second one first. I, I think we've got to live with whatever's going on in the market. We need to make our business model more flexible and resilient and capable of handling that. We need to get our customer proposition right, and we need to get our ranging right. You know, we can't dictate what people will buy. It's a wholesale business. The, the customers, you know, we have a lot of businesses where we are the primary supplier, and we supply everything. If the consumer dynamics change, we need to be able to manage that and flex our supply chain costs, our overhead costs, and our, and our buying and selling margin appropriately. We have to be able to work out how to do that.
In terms of the MCB point in general around the size of the portfolio, I think there is work to be done. The bringing together in the single wine list is only the start. We've got more work to do around customer proposition to work out what is the what gives us a competitive advantage and what just gives us complexity. You know, to have, you know, over 100 vodkas in our range, is that a net positive or is it a net negative? I think a lot of this is just about putting the right controls and disciplines in place. You know, we want to be a full-service provider. We want to continue to give people industry-leading service, value, and range, but we've gotta have some bookends around it.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Great. Well, look, thank you all very much for your time today, and your attendance. It's much appreciated. We look forward to a update in September at our Capital Markets Day, which will be in advance of our next scheduled update at the half year. Great. Thank you very much