Morning, everyone. Today, I'm happy to share another strong set of results. We continue to make consistent progress towards our ambition to be one of the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer product companies in the world. We're delivering against our six priorities and have made good progress against all four of our measures of progress. I would like to thank everyone who works for and with Diageo for their contributions to today's results. We have delivered organic net sales growth of 6.1%, in line with our fiscal 19 guidance with strong price mix. Growth is broad-based across regions and categories. Our operating margin guidance over the fiscal 17 to 19 period was for 175 basis points improvement. I am proud to say that we have exceeded that.
We delivered 83 basis points of margin expansion in fiscal 2019, bringing total margin expansion over the last three years to 198 basis points. Free cash flow of GBP 2.6 billion reflects our focus on achieving strong, consistent cash delivery. We delivered 10% growth in EPS before exceptionals and increased the full year dividend by 5%. In fiscal 2019, we returned GBP 2.8 billion back to shareholders through a share buyback program, and our leverage ratio of 2.5 is back within the policy range. Today, we are announcing a further return of capital to shareholders of up to GBP 4.5 billion over the next three years. We have been working to deliver efficient growth and consistent value creation. This year's net sales growth is once again in line with the three-year guidance of mid-single digit growth. We have successfully embedded a culture of everyday efficiency in the business.
This has allowed us to upweight our investment behind our brands to fuel long-term growth while improving spend effectiveness through the use of cutting-edge analytical tools, as we talked about at our Capital Markets Day in May. At the same time, we have improved our organic operating margin, and we continue to drive strong free cash flow. We actively manage our portfolio to maximize value for shareholders. Since fiscal 2014, we've completed the acquisition of several companies and brands, notably Don Julio, USL, and Casamigos, and have increased our shareholding in Shui Jing Fang. We've also divested assets, including, most recently, a portfolio of 19 brands to Sazerac. The business continues to generate and return cash to shareholders, and we delivered consistent dividend per share growth of at least 5% since fiscal 2015. Finally, our five-year cumulative total shareholder return is towards the top of our peer group.
All of this has been achieved with a continued focus on ensuring we make a positive contribution to society and have a high level of employee engagement. I will talk more about this later on. We are not done. We're working to deliver a self-sustaining model of consistent top-line growth, everyday efficiency, and smart investment underpinned by the actions we're taking to build credibility, trust, and engagement. We see ongoing opportunities to drive efficient growth in our core brands and develop and grow the big brands of tomorrow. Let me now hand over to Kathy to talk through our financial results in more detail.
Thank you, Ivan, and good morning, everyone. We've delivered another strong set of results in fiscal 2019. Our underlying results are consistent with our medium-term guidance. Let me start with a recap of some of the highlights that Ivan has already talked you through. Organic net sales grew 6.1%, with 2.3% organic volume growth and 3.8% positive price mix. Organic operating margin increased 83 basis points. At GBP 2.6 billion, free cash flow continued to be strong, GBP 85 million higher than last year. Pre-exceptional earnings per share grew 10.3% to GBP 1.308, mainly driven by organic operating profit growth. Return on invested capital improved 80 basis points to 15.1%. This was largely driven by organic profit growth, partially offset by increased CapEx, the acquisition of Casamigos, and the divestiture of a portfolio of 19 brands to Sazerac.
We returned GBP 4.4 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and our share buyback program. Let's dive into it. Reported net sales were up 5.8%, driven by organic growth with strong price mix, which I'll talk through in detail in a moment. Organic net sales grew just over 6% with a good balance of 2.3% organic volume growth and 3.8% positive price mix. Growth was broad-based across regions and categories. There was a step-up in price mix driven by continued premiumization, improved capabilities in net revenue management, and successful premium innovation performance. This included the launch of White Walker by Johnnie Walker, and sustained growth in premium innovations launched in prior years, including Ketel One Botanical, Crown Royal Regal Apple, and Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla.
Net sales growth was at the top end of our medium-term guidance and driven by particularly successful innovation launches across categories, broad-based gin growth, and strong performance from our reserve portfolio, especially Tequila and Chinese white spirits. Net sales growth continued to be broad-based across all categories apart from rum. Scotch net sales were up 6%, with strong growth in all regions except Europe, where Scotch sales were flat. Ivan will share more detail with you on the drivers of our Scotch performance. Vodka continued to improve, with net sales up 2%, driven by Kenya, Brazil, and South Africa, as well as improved performance in U.S. spirits. In U.S. spirits, vodka was up 0.4%, supported by innovation-led growth in Ketel One and Smirnoff, which more than offset a decline in CÎROC Vodka. Outside U.S. spirits, vodka net sales increased 5%, with growth in every region except Europe.
Canadian whisky net sales were up 6%, driven by Crown Royal, which continued to gain share in the category in the U.S., supported by the limited time offer Crown Royal Peach. Crown Royal Regal Apple, which is in its fifth year since launch, delivered double-digit net sales growth. In U.S. whiskey, growth was driven by Bulleit, with net sales up 8% in U.S. spirits where it continued to gain share. Rum net sales declined 2%, largely driven by a 5% decline in Captain Morgan in U.S. spirits in a declining category. In liqueurs, net sales increased 4%, with growth in Baileys across all regions. Performance was driven by our campaign that reminds consumers year-round that Baileys is a delicious, indulgent treat. Net sales in IMFL whisky were up 8%, driven by our prestige and above brands, especially McDowell's.
In gin, net sales were up 22%, with Gordon's and Tanqueray delivering double-digit growth. In Tequila, net sales increased 29%, with Don Julio and Casamigos delivering strong growth and share gains in the U.S. In Mexico, Don Julio net sales grew double digit and gained share. Beer net sales were up 3%, driven by Senator Keg, Guinness, including Foreign Extra Stout, Draught, and Hop House 13 Lager, Serengeti Premium Lite, Malta Guinness, and Rockshore Lager, partly offset by a decline in Satzenbrau. Global Giants were up 5%, with all brands in growth except Captain Morgan. Net sales of local stars increased 6%, driven by strong growth in Chinese white spirits, Crown Royal in the U.S., and McDowell's in India. This was partially offset by a decline in J&B in Europe and Windsor in South Korea, which is being mitigated with the W range by Windsor, the lower ABV variant.
In reserve, net sales were up 11%, driven by Don Julio and Casamigos, Chinese white spirits, malts, Johnnie Walker Super Deluxe, and Ketel One. Reported operating profit before exceptional items increased 7.8%, driven by organic growth. Organic operating profit, which excludes exchange, acquisitions, and disposals, increased 9%, with organic operating margin up 83 basis points. Reported operating margin, excluding exceptional items, increased 60 basis points, driven mainly by organic operating margin improvements. As you heard me talk about in some detail at Capital Markets Day in May, everyday efficiency is embedded in our self-sustaining model. This is allowing us to make smart investments in marketing and new technology while expanding margins. Organic operating margin was up 83 basis points. This was ahead of our guidance and slightly ahead of expectations as strong price mix continued in the second half.
This, combined with ongoing productivity savings, more than offset the inflationary pressure we experienced, supporting gross margin expansion in the second half and the full year. Marketing spend was up 8%, ahead of net sales growth, driving a 22 basis points higher investment rate. We increased marketing investment in all regions with the largest increases in U.S. spirits. Over the past two years, our marketing investment rate has increased by roughly 50 basis points as we continue to build a platform for sustained growth. Other operating items delivered 67 basis points of margin improvement, driven by productivity initiatives and overheads. Overheads as a % of net sales decreased 71 basis points as we continued the use of zero-based budgeting on indirect costs and have begun to adopt improved tools and simplified ways of working to drive greater standardization and efficiencies.
These efforts are also providing easy access to data and information, which enables faster insights and actions to improve the business. Cash delivery continues to be strong, with GBP 2.6 billion of free cash flow delivered. This is GBP 85 million higher than last year as operating profit growth more than offset reduced working capital gains and investment in maturing stock, increased CapEx, and higher tax payments. Net CapEx increased by GBP 95 million year-on-year to GBP 639 million, equivalent to 5% of net sales value. We have an everyday focus on working capital management, which has resulted in continued reduction in average working capital as a % of net sales, which came down by 81 basis points in fiscal 2019.
As we look to fiscal 2020, we expect CapEx of between GBP 675 million and GBP 725 million as we complete most of our GBP 150 million investment in consumer experiences in Scotland, including the new Johnnie Walker experience in Edinburgh, and also upweight our spending on environmental sustainability. Our disciplined approach to our capital structure targets an adjusted net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.5 to 3 times. We are pleased to be back within our leverage policy range. Our priorities remain to invest in the business to deliver sustainable and efficient organic growth and to generate value through acquisitions that further strengthen our exposure to fast-growing categories and occasions. We regularly review our portfolio to ensure that we allocate resources behind opportunities that can maximize shareholder value.
In fiscal 2019, we increased our shareholding in Shui Jing Fang, our fast-growing premium Chinese white spirits business, from 40% to just over 63%. We continue to actively manage our portfolio of brands, including the recent divestiture of 19 brands to Sazerac, primarily in the value segment in U.S. spirits. This divestiture enables us to focus our resources on the premium and above brands, where there's stronger growth and profit opportunities. In fiscal 2019, the full year dividend increased 5% to GBP 0.6857 per share, with dividend cover at roughly 1.9 times. The dividend increase was consistent with our guidance of mid-single-digit increases as we look to build dividend cover and operate comfortably within our policy range of 1.8 to 2.2 times. When we have excess cash, we have been clear we will seek to return it to shareholders.
One of the key metrics we consider in determining this is our leverage ratio. We opened fiscal 2019 with a leverage ratio of 2.2 times, which was below our leverage policy range. The share buyback program this year was therefore set at a higher level, with the intention of getting us back in the 2.5-3.0 leverage range. We repurchased GBP 2.8 billion in shares, which included the use of GBP 340 million of net proceeds from the sale of the portfolio of 19 brands to further upweight the share buyback this year. We ended the year with a 2.5 times leverage ratio, so back within the range that we're targeting. Going forward, we expect to operate in the 2.5-3 times leverage range.
Over the next 3 years, we expect to return a further GBP 4.5 billion to shareholders, to be returned by the most appropriate mechanic via share buybacks or special dividends, depending on market conditions. Average net debt increased by approximately GBP 1.3 billion as we moved back into the leverage range we're targeting of 2.5-3 times adjusted net debt to EBITDA, supported by both the execution of our share buyback program and our purchase of increased ownership in SJF. Our effective interest rate was 2.4%, 20 basis points lower than last year as we continue to see benefits from our efficient group funding transactions as well as benefits from swap portfolio gains. For fiscal 2020, I expect our effective interest rate to be broadly in line with fiscal 2019 based on prevailing market conditions. Other finance charges were broadly in line with last year.
In fiscal 2020, I expect other finance charges to be similar to fiscal 2019. Moving now to foreign exchange. In fiscal 2019, we had a modest, favorable exchange impact on net sales and operating profit as a result of the strengthening U.S. dollar, partially offset by the weakening of several currencies, including the Turkish lira, Indian rupee, and the Australian dollar. As I look forward to fiscal 2020, using the rates presented here, exchange is expected to favorably impact net sales by GBP 375 million and operating profit by GBP 135 million. Earnings per share before exceptional items increased by 10.3%. Organic operating profit growth, lower finance charges, the positive impact of the share buyback program, and favorable exchange more than offset the negative impact of higher tax expense and higher non-controlling interests.
Our tax rate before exceptional items was 20.6%, just shy of our full year guidance of between 21% and 22%. We had a few one-off tax benefits in fiscal 2019, which are not expected to repeat. This, combined with changes in profit mix, is expected to result in a tax rate in range of 21% to 22% in fiscal 2020. Finance charges were lower than last year and had a positive impact on EPS. Non-controlling interests had a negative impact on EPS as a result of the higher profit in our listed subsidiaries. The execution of our share buyback program reduced the weighted average number of shares and had a positive impact on EPS. We have delivered another set of strong results, with mid-single-digit top-line growth, upweighted AMP investment, and strong margin expansion.
We generated strong, consistent cash flow delivery and returned GBP 4.4 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and our share buyback program in fiscal 2019. Total shareholder return increased 27%. Across the board, a good year. Before I turn to fiscal 2020 in more detail, I just want to touch on a change to our organic calculation methodology in fiscal 2020 that I announced at our Capital Markets Day in May. You can expect to hear more about this before we report interim results for fiscal 2020. In summary, our organic numbers will be based on prior year exchange rates, which is consistent with our internal management reporting and will drive simplification benefits for us while also better aligning to how our peers report. We have back-tested the new methodology, and there's no material difference in the results of the new method compared to the current approach.
I am pleased that we've successfully delivered our three-year guidance from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2019. Organic top-line growth has consistently been in the mid-single digit range, and we delivered 198 basis points of margin expansion, nicely ahead of our guided organic margin expansion of 175 basis points. At Capital Markets Day in May this year, we shared our new medium-term guidance for the three years fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2022, which is to continue to deliver mid-single digit organic net sales growth and to sustainably grow organic operating profit about one percentage point ahead of net sales, within a range of 5%-7%. This is underpinned by our self-sustaining model of quality growth, everyday efficiency, and smart investments. As I look forward to fiscal 2020, I would expect net sales growth around the midpoint of the 4%-6% range.
I expect the top-line growth rate to slow down versus fiscal 2019 following a year of very successful innovation launches and acknowledging that volatility was unusually benign in fiscal 2019, especially in emerging markets. I'm pleased with the progress that we've made embedding everyday efficiency in the business. As I shared at Capital Markets Day, we have confidence that there are further efficiencies that we can unlock. In fiscal 2020, I would expect the value of these to be in the range of GBP 100 million-GBP 150 million. Our focus on everyday efficiency has allowed us to upweight our investment behind our brands to fuel long-term growth while improving spend effectiveness through the use of cutting-edge analytic tools.
In FY 2020, we expect to further upweight our overall marketing investment rate, focusing on the U.S. to sustain the gains that we've made there, as well as ensuring that we're strongly investing behind our smaller and new-to-world brands. Overall, for the group, I would expect operating profit to grow roughly one percentage point ahead of organic net sales, with continued margin expansion in emerging markets. Thank you. I'll now hand it back over to Ivan.
Thank you, Kathy. These results reflect the progress we've made against our ambition to be one of the best performing and most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. Let me turn now to our performance against our environmental, social, and governance goals. This is how we make and measure our positive contribution to society everywhere we make, source, and sell our products. These goals are an equally critical part of delivering our ambition and have always been a core part of how we operate. Our actions help us to attract and keep talent, engage our customers, keep up with changing consumer trends, and reduce costs. Just as we set targets for financial performance, we also set ambitious targets for environmental, social, and governance performance. Let me talk you through the excellent progress we've made over the last five years on some of our most critical metrics.
Grain to Glass Sustainability is about ensuring we preserve the natural resources on which our long-term success depends and positively impact the communities where we operate. Three of our key metrics here are carbon emission reduction, water efficiency, and skills empowerment. Diageo was a pioneer in setting an absolute carbon reduction target, aiming to reduce our emissions by 50% by the end of fiscal 2020 versus a 2007 baseline, despite growing volumes at the same time. This bold move has helped us to spur innovation and new approaches to reduce our environmental impact, and we have delivered a 45% cumulative reduction in our emissions to date. Water efficiency has also improved with a 44% absolute reduction since 2007 and a particular focus on water-stressed areas. We also run a range of skills building programs around the world to help people overcome barriers, move into work, and build their careers.
In 2019, these programs benefited 10,300 people. Our people are at the heart of our success. Creating an inclusive and diverse culture and keeping our people safe and engaged helps our business thrive. We are proud of our safety record and continue to improve employee safety in our operations every year. The frequency of lost time accidents has declined over 40% in the last four years, and we have already achieved our 2020 target of less than one lost time accident per 1,000 employees. We have exceeded our 2020 target of 35% women in leadership a year early, and we've set a target of 40% by 2025. Our latest annual employee survey results show that our employees continue to feel very connected to Diageo. Our strong employee engagement results are in line with best-in-class external benchmarks.
We recently rolled out groundbreaking parental leave policies for both men and women, which we believe will drive even higher levels of engagement and help attract and retain the best talent. We have a longstanding commitment to promoting a positive role for alcohol and addressing the misuse of our products. Last year, we announced new global targets around this commitment. We're already making good progress against these targets. We have educated over 600,000 people about the dangers of underage drinking. We have collected almost 17 million pledges to never drink and drive through Join the Pact, already 34% of our 2025 target. We have reached 66 million people with messages of moderation through our marketing, already 33% of our 2025 target. Our Guinness Clear activation linked to our Six Nations Rugby sponsorship won a Gold Lion award in Cannes.
We are proud to have been recognized externally for our efforts to run a sustainable and responsible business. On sustainability, the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, which assesses company performance on economic impact and environmental, social, and governance performance, included Diageo in this year's index. We were one of only 19 companies out of 7,000 companies to be rated double A for our climate and water efficiency in the Carbon Disclosure Project, and the only alcohol company to be rated this way year on year. Gartner named Diageo as one of the top 25 supply chain companies for our performance in environmental, social, and governance in our direct operations and supply chain. On people, Thomson Reuters ranked us fourth in their Diversity & Inclusion Index, and Management Today named Diageo Britain's Most Admired Company in 2018. We are committed to doing more.
We are making investments that will help us continue our progress against our current targets and have also started work to define our ambition and targets for environmental, social, and governance work beyond 2020, when many of our current public commitments expire. Turning back to our business performance, we have focused on six execution priorities. We have made good progress on all six. Today, I want to touch on a few examples of the great work we're doing against two of them, keeping premium core vibrant and driving innovation at scale. The gin category continues to expand, growing value 18% in calendar 2018 in IWSR. Tanqueray gin again grew ahead of the category. Net sales growth accelerated to 20%, with strong performance across the brand's major focus markets of Europe, South Africa, and Brazil.
Our marketing strategy combines a global media campaign focused on taste with locally relevant experiential events, such as Taste of London, Lollapalooza Brazil, and Delicious Festival. Tanqueray continues to be voted the bartender's favorite gin for the seventh year in a row, as published by Drinks International. We're now bringing Tanqueray into the pre-mix market, launching two super premium Tanqueray pre-mixed offerings in Australia and recently in GB. Beer represents 16% of our portfolio. In FY 2019, net sales grew 3%, with Guinness growing 2%. We saw some standout executions and performance. In GB, we executed an award-winning campaign around Six Nations rugby. The campaign reached 50 million consumers, including the biggest ever responsible drinking platform for Guinness, and helped drive strong Guinness growth in GB.
In the U.S., the new brewery in Baltimore has already welcomed almost 400,000 visitors since opening in August 2018 and has received praise from consumers for both the brewery experience and for the beers. The new brewery is helping to underpin ongoing share growth for Guinness in the U.S. In Nigeria, Guinness Gold launched in March, and we have already sampled 50,000 consumers. In Ireland, while Guinness was impacted by difficult market conditions which we're addressing, lager performed really well, particularly our new brand, Rockshore. Lagers have also been a source of strength in other markets. Globally, premium lager net sales grew by 9% and standard lager by 7%. Hop House 13 Lager continues to grow as it enters new markets.
In Tanzania, Serengeti Premium Lite lager sales had strong double-digit growth. FY 2019 has been a banner year for innovation, with outstanding results for new innovations and sustained performance from recent innovations. Our focus is on recruiting new consumers to our brands and recruiting into new occasions. Ketel One Botanical, launched in May 2018, has been one of the most impactful launches in our history. Gordon's Pink in Europe also continued to perform very strongly last year. Fiscal 2019 has also been an exciting year for Scotch innovation. Leveraging the "Game of Thrones" global phenomenon, we created two limited edition offerings, White Walker by Johnnie Walker and the "Game of Thrones" Single Malt Scotch Whisky Collection. These opened up the Scotch category to a whole new set of consumers across a number of markets.
Following the ongoing success of Crown Royal Regal Apple and Crown Royal Vanilla in the U.S., we brought back Crown Royal Salted Caramel as a limited time offer and introduced Crown Royal Peach as a limited time offer to further expand occasions for Crown Royal. These innovations helped deliver 6% overall Crown Royal net sales growth in the U.S. in fiscal 2019. We are also investing in disruptive new-to-world brands, including brands that provide low and no alcohol choices to consumers. Our portfolio of rising stars includes brands we have developed and brands we have acquired. In Europe this year, we launched Villa Ascenti, an Italian gin, to recruit premium and super premium gin drinkers. We acquired Belsazar in fiscal 2018, a brand we had supported through Distill Ventures, to strengthen our participation in the aperitif occasion.
We completed the acquisition of Copper Dog, a blend of Speyside single malt whiskies with a quirky attitude to bring vibrancy to Scotch. Since our acquisition of Casamigos, we have taken the brand to new markets, built new distribution, and recruited new drinkers into this great brand. We also invest in new brands through Distill Ventures, our Diageo-backed accelerator program for drinks entrepreneurs. The Distill Ventures portfolio includes Seedlip, the world's first non-alcoholic spirit, Stauning, a Danish single malt and rye whiskey and one of Europe's standout new whiskies, Starward, an Australian whiskey matured in Australian wine barrels, and Westward, an American single malt whiskey brewed and distilled in Portland, Oregon, using locally malted Pacific Northwest barley and ale yeast. While small today, these new to the world innovations have the potential to become the big brands of tomorrow.
As I look ahead, we have a real opportunity to invest even more behind new to world brands to set us up for sustained long-term growth and portfolio health. Now, let me share the progress we've made on our three focus areas, Scotch, U.S. Spirits, and India. We've seen a strong step up in performance in all three areas. Scotch top-line growth accelerated to 5.7%, up from 1.9% last year. Johnnie Walker had an outstanding year, growing 7% with good performance across all regions. Johnnie Walker Blue Label grew 10%, and our White Walker by Johnnie Walker innovation drove growth and strong price mix. Buchanan's net sales were up 6% with good growth in both the U.S. and Latin America. Our Scotch malts performance improved significantly after underperforming in fiscal 2018.
Here again, our "Game of Thrones" innovations drove growth and played a key role in introducing new consumers to our malts collection. Scotch malts in Europe were soft, and we've more to do here to accelerate growth. Primary Scotch continued to perform well with double-digit growth in Latin America, led by White Horse, and in India, led by Black & White and local brand Black Dog. In other Scotch, J&B declined, principally in Spain, and in Korea, Windsor declined with changing consumer trends. Turning to our second focus area, U.S. Spirits. The health of the U.S. Spirits business has improved significantly over the last year due to up-weighted and targeting marketing investment, improved brand plan effectiveness, recruiting new consumers with strong innovation, and portfolio management.
We have used our Catalyst data analytics tool, as discussed in our Capital Markets Day, to bring data and discipline to guide our marketing investment decisions. We have seen a step up in net sales growth to 5% and good price mix performance. The biggest contributors to net sales growth were Don Julio, Crown Royal, Ketel One, and Johnnie Walker, with all except Don Julio benefiting from strong innovation. In fiscal 2019, we grew broadly in line with the U.S. Spirits market. In tequila, the fastest-growing category in U.S. Spirits, Don Julio was the largest share gainer, and Casamigos also gained share. Crown Royal was the largest share gainer in the Canadian whiskey category. Strong Ketel One performance has also driven good share gain.
The U.S. Spirits business continues to strengthen with some particularly good innovation results this year, but we have more to do to ensure we deliver sustainable growth. Smirnoff and CÎROC share continue to decline, although CÎROC has benefited recently from the successful launch of the summer watermelon limited time offer in March. We launched Smirnoff Zero Sugar Infusions in May. Good early results suggest this could be a source of growth for Smirnoff in fiscal 2020. Captain Morgan is in a challenging position in a category in decline. We've begun to focus on expanding consumption beyond the Captain and Cola serve, and will need to do more to attract new consumers on more occasions in fiscal 2020. In India, net sales were up 8%. First half growth was strong as we lapped the impact of the highway ban.
In the second half, growth slowed as we lapped a stronger period last year and faced some election-related disruption. Prestige and above continued to perform well. Scotch growth was north of 20%, led by Johnnie Walker, as we continued our efforts to make the brand more accessible to young, affluent consumers. Locally bottled Scotch brands, Black & White and Black Dog, also grew strongly. McDowell's saw good growth, bolstered by the launch of the new Platinum variant. The Indian business has continued to make significant progress on operating margin, which is now in the mid-teens. Margin improvement is underpinned by focused efforts to drive productivity improvements across the business. We also continue to invest in capabilities, technology, and process improvement in India. I have confidence that we are well on the way to delivering our medium-term goal of achieving sustainable operating margins in the mid to high teens.
This picture summarizes the way we think about how everything comes together. We want to be one of the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. To achieve this, we need to deliver efficient growth and value creation for our shareholders. We have a set of goals around everyday efficiency, smart investment, and quality growth that are self-sustaining. Everyday efficiency creates room to invest. Investing smartly drives growth based on a foundation of strong brand equity, sustainable innovation, and the best route to consumer. Delivering our ambition also means being trusted by all our stakeholders for doing business the right way from grain to glass, and ensuring our people are highly engaged. Our goals are to pioneer grain-to-glass sustainability, promote positive drinking, and champion inclusion and diversity. All of this ensures we operate in a sustainable way and have a positive impact on society.
These elements are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. Together, they will help us to achieve our ambition. To end where I started, these are a very strong set of results and in line with our guidance. They reflect a focus on our strategic priorities. We have shifted our culture to embed everyday efficiency and maintained our high levels of employee engagement. As we look to the next three years, we are building off a strong base. We will continue to invest smartly and nurture our fantastic brands to drive consistent, sustainable performance and deliver our long-term performance ambition. Thank you.