Hello, and welcome everyone to the Diageo PLC Fiscal 2027 Q1 Trading Statement and AGM. My name is Lucy, and I will be coordinating the call today. If you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand you over to Sonya Ghobrial, Global Head of Investor Relations , to begin. Sonya, please go ahead when you are ready.
Thanks, Lucy. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Diageo's Fiscal 2027 Q1 Trading Statement Call. I am Sonya Ghobrial, Head of Investor Relations, and I am joined this morning by Sir Dave Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, and Nik Jhangiani, Chief Financial Officer. Just a quick reminder for those on the call that in the discussions today, the company may make certain forward-looking statements, including those that refer to our estimates, plans, and expectations. Please refer to this morning's release for our detail, including factors that could lead to actual results to materially differ from those expressed in or implied by any such forward-looking statements. Hopefully, you have all seen this morning's press release, which can be found on our website in the Investor section. For those listening who would like to ask a question, please use the dial-in details included in the release.
Also, if I could ask if you could limit to one or two questions per analyst, that way we can hopefully get around everyone, particularly when it is a busy day ahead of our AGM. But first, let me hand over to Dave for some brief opening remarks.
Sonya, thank you, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Sonya says a busy day for Diageo, so let me get straight to it. When we spoke in August, I think we were trying to be very clear about the opportunity that we see for Diageo, but we were also equally clear that there was a lot of work ahead of us, and we had much to do to improve our performance. Quarter one was in line with our expectations, and given the amount of change that we have been executing in the organization in the last wee while, the results represent, I think, a small step in the right direction. North America remains our biggest challenge. The market remains soft, and our focus remains on making our offering more compelling and competitive. There are clear actions underway as part of that turnaround plan.
We shared those with you at the Capital Markets Day in August, and the focus of John, the team, and everyone is firmly on execution. I'd also like to highlight the fact that nothing has changed in our view about the confidence we have in the long-term value creation of the Diageo business. We reiterated our guidance for 2027, and we remain completely focused on a consistent creating value for shareholders. But with that, let me hand to Nik, and he'll walk you through Q1. Nik.
Great. Thanks, Dave, and good morning, everyone. I'll take you through our performance in the first quarter before Dave and I take your questions. Let me start with a few of the key highlights. In the quarter, organic net sales, excluding EABL, grew 0.6% with positive price/mix of 0.7%. If you included EABL, organic net sales increased 1.4%. In LAC and APAC, we delivered mid-single-digit growth, while in India and EMEA, we grew low single digits. In North America, organic net sales declined mid-single digit, reflecting continued market softness, as Dave just referenced. By category, we highlighted good momentum in whiskey, Guinness, and Smirnoff RTDs. Our guidance for fiscal 2027 remains unchanged from what we shared at the Capital Markets Day.
Now, if you look at reported net sales, those were up 1.2% to $4.9 billion, with positive organic growth partly offset by the negative impact of foreign exchange and disposals. Organic net sales grew 0.6%, excluding the impact of EABL, with slightly negative organic volume growth of 0.1% and positive price/mix of 0.7%, as I referenced earlier. Getting into some more detail on net sales across the regions. In North America, organic net sales declined 3.6%, reflecting continued market softness. As Dave said, North America remains our biggest challenge, but clear actions are underway. We remain focused on making our offer more compelling, more competitive, and executing the turnaround plan we shared in August. In the U.S., net sales declined 3.7%, with a small phasing benefit and distributor stock levels in line with Q1 last year.
In spirits, weakness in Don Julio, Casamigos, and Crown Royal was partly offset by growth mainly in Johnnie Walker. Guinness and Smirnoff Ice both delivered double-digit growth. In EMEA, we grew 2.4%, led by Türkiye, Africa, and the Middle East, more than offsetting weakness in Italy and France. Growth was volume led, with negative price/mix reflecting targeted price repositioning. Spirits and RTDs were the key drivers of growth. In beer, double-digit growth in Guinness in Africa and DACH offset a low single-digit decline in Great Britain and Ireland. Asia-Pac grew 4.1%, with double-digit growth in global travel and mid-single-digit growth in Southeast Asia and North Asia. Greater China declined mid-single digits due to weakness in Taiwan, while in mainland China, both Chinese white spirits and international premium spirits were relatively flat. Guinness delivered strong double-digit growth, with particularly strong performance in Southeast Asia and in Australia.
LAC delivered 4.8% organic net sales growth, with a double-digit growth across CCAV, South LAC, and Colombia, partly offset by weakness in Mexico, while Brazil was broadly flat. Scotch performed well with high single-digit growth across multiple markets, and RTDs grew double digit, led by Smirnoff Ice. In India, we grew 3.4% with Prestige & Above the bulk of our business up 7.1% due to double-digit growth in both vodka and Scotch. This was partly offset by the Popular segment, which continued to be impacted by regulatory policy and excise changes in the key states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Finally, in corporate, EABL delivered double-digit growth across all three markets. Turning now to the outlook, as I mentioned earlier, our FY 2027 guidance remains unchanged. We continue to expect broadly flat organic net sales growth and low to mid-single-digit organic operating profit growth.
We still expect free cash flow of around $2 billion after exceptional costs and excluding EABL. Finally, we expect to end FY 2027 at the midpoint of our target leverage range, including the benefit from the completion of the EABL transaction and the sale of RCB by USL. With that, let me hand back to the operator, and Dave and I will be happy to take your questions. Thank you.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. The first question today comes from Simon Hales of Citi. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Morning, Sonya, Dave, and Nik. My first question is just on North America, and I just wondered if you could perhaps share a little bit more color on the performance in the period, particularly for the U.S. spirits business. You mentioned there, Nik, there was a small phasing impact on the quarter, which is pretty typical at this time of year. Are you able to provide any quantification of that or maybe talk about some of the underlying depletion trends that you've seen through Q1?
And then maybe associated with that, more broadly, and to some of Dave's comments, can you talk about some of the actions that have gone into market since the CMD in August in the U.S., where we are on the price repositioning journey now of Casamigos at retail, where the broader category brand laddering process is at, some of the initiatives that John was talking about around packaging implementation changes on Smirnoff and Crown Royal, et cetera. Are those in market now, and are you starting to see any pickup from those actions in some of the data that you're seeing?
Simon, good morning. Let me start, and if Nik wants to add, he is very welcome. Look, first part of your question, no, the small phasing that Nik talked about is completely normal, as you suggested. Been and had a look at it very, very deliberately just to make sure that we are all very comfortable. And as Nik said, actually, the stockholding in trade in North America is at or ever so slightly lower this year than it was last year. So, it is just the normal phasing as you prepare for OND. Look, in North America, we continue to see a mixed picture. We see very strong growth for Guinness, we see a very strong growth for Johnnie Walker, but we do see still a challenge in our tequila brands and still in Crown Royal, exactly as we said to you in the Capital Markets Day.
In terms of activity, I think I said, we said, John said at the Capital Markets Day, it was going to take us a year, just the lead time from CapEx to be able to then have the things that we wanted into North America. It is a nine to 12 months. So, what you see in the first quarter is really not a function of those packaging changes that we talked about at Capital Markets Days. Those are still to come. I think what is true is there is a clearer focus in execution in North America, and where we have innovation that was coming through the first quarter, the execution of that has been better.
But look, we still got a long, long, long way to go in North America, but most of the things that we talked to you in the Capital Markets Day about really have a 12-month lead time before we are going to see material benefit of those in the North American market. Nik, is there anything you want to add to that?
Nope, all covered.
Okay. Thank you, Simon.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question comes from Andrea Pistacchi of Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yes. Morning, Dave, Nik, and Sonya. My first question is on Guinness, please. You called out a low single-digit decline for Guinness in G.B. and Ireland, reflecting the unusually hot weather and competitive pressure. Can you give a bit more color, please, on this competitive pressure, and particularly, is it primarily within stout? Are you seeing it more in the off-trade or the on-trade? What are you doing in response? Then if I may go back to the U.S. a second with a slightly broader industry question there. The industry seems to have had a marginal improvement since the summer, at least based on Nielsen data. The comparison base should be easier in calendar Q4 as we head into the festive season. What are you expecting for the holiday season? Anything a little bit better?
Is it reasonable to expect some slight improvement in industry trends? I am obviously aware that you are reiterating the expectation of -3% industry for the year.
Yeah. Andrea, so look, let us talk Guinness first, shall we? Look, double-digit growth in the quarter. Guinness continues to be a powerhouse for Diageo. I think we call out a particular situation in the U.K. and Ireland, and you are right. If you track over the last, I only looked at the last five years, there is a very strong correlation in terms of We have had a very, very, very warm summer, so the stout market does have some impact. We need to do something about that, and there has been some interesting work about how we might impact that going forward, but we did not see that benefit in this year yet. I think that explains most of the issue. But we have had Look, I think success draws competition. Guinness has been very successful. The competition is within stout.
There is a need to make sure that we stay competitive at every touchpoint, so I think there is some work for us to do there. Not rocket science, but we need to do it. There is a plan in place to do that. But really very confident and comfortable with where Guinness sits in both of those two markets, but we have to call out the impact of the weather and the idea that I think we need to be a bit sharper in some of the executional touchpoints. It is actually in both off-trade and on-trade. I think when competition comes, it comes to you in both of those channels, and it is very important that we react and respond. Guinness is eminently capable of doing that.
But as we keep pushing the equity and the brand forward, we need to make sure that we deal with some of that competitive pressure head-on, and that's what the team will do. In terms of North American trend, look, we've guided what we anticipate for North America for the year. I'm just going to stick with that at this point. I'm not going to try and forecast Thanksgiving and Christmas in the States. Look, our focus has to be how compelling, how competitive is our offering to North American consumers. That's what we're trying to do. We're going to sharpen that as much as we possibly can as we go through OND, but we know we've got other things that we want to do that don't come until the end of the calendar, the fiscal year.
But look, I'm not going to be able to forecast the holiday trend for you, Andrea, I'm afraid.
Thank you.
Yeah, no.
Thank you. The next question comes from Trevor Stirling of Bernstein. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Morning, Dave and Nik and Sonya. Just one question from me, Dave. You are coming up to your first anniversary at Diageo. You shared with us in August the CMD, the plans that are underway.
Yeah.
What are you pleased about? What do you think is working better than you thought, and what needs a bit more work doing?
Trevor, good morning. Thank you. Look, as I said in my introduction, there is a lot of change happening in Diageo. We really have rewired how the organization is operating, so there is a learning curve there. Look, I think the leading edge of that has actually been in the marketing area in terms of building category strategies, building a different way of thinking about brand and innovation, and how it is we look to be bigger and better and more impactful in the way that we innovate. So if you ask me for a place where I think we have made really good progress and I am pleased and I feel the momentum sort of taking hold itself is in those category strategies and the way that the brand organization is coming together. There is real momentum in the changes that need to happen.
We use the phrase back office, which doesn't really cover the amount of transformational change that's happening in, say, Nik's area in the technology space. A lot still to do, but we've got some progress. I think everybody learning, and I don't overstate this, Trevor, everybody's learning some new roles. We're learning different ways of working, and look, that's energizing. I would say 80% of what we're doing together is working, 20% of it we're not getting it right first time and having to regroup and do it again. The most important thing is the spirit inside the business around that journey is really very positive, which, as I say, given the amount of change, is really very encouraging for me.
Super. Thank you, Dave.
Cheers, now.
Thank you. The next question comes from Sanjeet Aujla of UBS. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Morning, Nik, Dave, and Sonya. Two from me, please. Firstly, coming back to NAM, but focusing more on the Guinness and Smirnoff performance. Momentum seems to be accelerating versus last year. Are there any phasing nuances there, or is that fully reflective of underlying momentum on those brands? That's my first question.
Second question is going into EMEA. I think you called out weakness in Italy and France, and I recall those are markets where you've gone through some route to market changes in recent times. How is that transition going? Is that on plan? Thanks.
Sanjeet, the performance that you see in Guinness and Smirnoff in North America is underlying performance improvement. Guinness is around expansion of distribution, but also some really positive improvements in the velocity of sales of Guinness in the outlets where it's stored. It's a really good quality of growth in North America. Likewise with Smirnoff. You saw some of the relaunch activity that was at the end of Q4. That's been working well for us in Q1, and we hope that signals a return to a more positive growth trajectory. It's interesting that Smirnoff RTD globally grew at 15% in the quarter, so there's something working well for us in that relaunch, not just in North America, but elsewhere as well.
Look, in terms of the organization changes, I think in the Middle East, despite, let's be honest, some very significant operational challenges, I'm really very pleased with the way that the team are managing that situation. We're gaining share. We continue to grow even in a market which clearly has had its challenges. So in the Middle East, really very good. The changes in some of the European markets you mentioned, perhaps more significant in terms of change of model, but I think we would say so far so good, but it's too early to make a definitive statement. There's new teams, new people. That's very much further down the learning curve, but so far so good.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from James Edwardes Jones of RBC. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. You referred specifically to price repositioning in Latin America and Europe. We obviously saw price repositioning in North America last year. Is pricing now for the group broadly where you would want it to be? By extension, have you discerned any meaningful competitive reaction?
James, it is a good question. We shared with you at Capital Markets Day, and I think at other times, some of the work that we have done on repositioning. Look, one of the things I want Diageo to be more going forward than perhaps we have been in the past is really quite agile to market situations. I think the category strategies allow people to do that. I reiterate, we are not talking about a dramatic repositioning here. We are talking about precision portfolio-specific work. That twisting and tweaking carries on. There are lots of local circumstances that need to be managed, so I anticipate that there will be a low level of that that is part of our business model as we go forward, going on. But I reiterate, there is no major fundamental repositioning of price in the Diageo portfolio in our plan. There never was.
But I do want to make sure that our category portfolio offering is always competitive across all the different touchpoints. And look, we are finding that that is working well for us. When I look underneath, and when Nik and I look underneath the category or the brand, and you start looking at pack sizes and all the detail of where this precision comes in, actually, I am really quite pleased that that sharpening is working for us. But your final question, no, this is not the sort of thing that draws a competitive reaction. This is about us tightening up our offering rather than a price repositioning in the marketplace that draws a competitive reaction.
Yeah, and I would just add to Dave's point, it is not like you are done, you do one and you go. You keep looking at your offering. We keep looking at our formats and pack sizes. So, that is always something that we need to have surgical precision with on an ongoing basis.
Thank you.
Thank you, James.
Thank you. The next question comes from Laurence Whyatt of Barclays. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Morning, Dave, Nik, Sonya. Thanks very much. Couple of specific questions from me. Firstly, on Guinness, last couple of years across the U.K., there's been a few capacity constraints on Guinness. Just want to confirm that those have all been solved with the sort of build-out of your capabilities on that brand, and so we shouldn't expect any concerns in the Christmas trading, particularly in the U.K. And then secondly, on the Casamigos ready-to-drink canned product in the U.S., appreciate it's been off-shelf for a few months now. Just wondering when you expect that one to come back on-shelf. Thank you.
Very simple, Laurence, answers to your question. No capacity constraints for Guinness in the U.K. or Ireland, so clear there. Casamigos, sadly, as we said at the Capital Markets Day, needed to regroup, and we go again. You'll see the going again at the end of calendar Q1 into calendar Q2 is when I anticipate us being back in the marketplace.
Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Chris Pitcher of Rothschild & Co Redburn. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you. Good morning, all. There are two questions from me. Firstly, on Scotch, can I confirm when you say in the statement that the whiskey category grew, that Scotch grew? It certainly seems like that from the comments in the U.S., Europe, LATAM, India, et cetera.
Yeah.
Is this in line or ahead of your expectations? Because one of the things you said at the CMD was that you were actually expanding maturing inventories, which came as a surprise to me, but it does look like it could be vindicated by the performance. Just on India, there was a big step-up in marketing at United Spirits, which they are saying is the new normal. Is that a sort of trend that we should expect to see across most of your divisions? I appreciate this is not a profit call, but maybe not to that quantum, but that is a good indication of how you are investing behind growth as well as just price. Thanks.
Okay. So very quickly, if you take whiskey in total, I think market growth year to date, our first fiscal is about 2.1% positive. So the total whiskey market is back in growth. Our Scotch business grew by more than 5%, so the Scotch focus that we talked about in Capital Markets Day is working. So there is good volume and good growth in Scotch. As Nik said in his introduction, Johnnie Walker has been a big part of that. So the new strategy on Johnnie Walker is bearing fruit. So all good. In terms of India, look, I think India has had some challenges in the first quarter. I think the USL board would recognize because of some of the regulatory and excise interventions. The step-up in support, though, is consistent with strategy, right? The timing of that is there is a very strong plan in India.
We see very strong growth in India. The USL board are keen to invest in that growth opportunity, and as a significant shareholder, we are keen to support that strategy. Opportunity in India, but as always with India, it is never completely straightforward. Nik is laughing. Nik is laughing. Nik is allowed to laugh. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Gen Cross of BNP Paribas. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the question. Just one from me. It is back to the U.S. Spirits business. You called out double-digit declines for Don Julio, Casamigos, and Crown Royal, which I think is roughly half your U.S. Spirits sales. So, I guess by different performance of the rest of the portfolio, it is clearly much better than that. Could you just share a bit more color on which parts of the U.S. Spirits business were in healthy growth? I am kind of thinking beyond Johnnie Walker, which you obviously talked a little bit about there. Thank you.
Yeah, look, I think you have highlighted what Nik said, which is tequila is the principal concern, but we also have the challenges on Crown Royal, Smirnoff, and Captain that we talked about in the Capital Markets Day, and John articulated, and a lot of the improvements that we have for those going forward will not land until the latter half, in fact, near the very end of our year. The strengths of performance really are in that Scotch area, Johnnie Walker, RTD, Smirnoff, and indeed others, and Guinness, right? So that is what is driving the circa 3.5 decline that Nik articulated in his introduction.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Edward Mundy of Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Morning, Dave, Nik, and Sonya. My first question, coming back to the U.S., is I know you gave very prescriptive guidance back at the CMD, and that is unchanged. Just theoretically, you highlighted at the CMD that immigration has historically been a tailwind to growth, but currently the Hispanic consumer or the Hispanic community is not socializing as much as they once were for the obvious reasons. So if immigration headwinds do start to ease given recent developments, what part of the portfolio do you think could see an uplift from that, is my first question. My second question is coming back to RTDs. Really good performance in Smirnoff Ice, +15% in the quarter. Does this give you more confidence that there is a lot more you can do to broaden this RTD growth with other brands and new propositions?
Where you have seen Smirnoff RTDs grow, has there been a positive halo effect on the core Smirnoff brand?
Very good. Ed, look, I take the point. Obviously, too early to talk about what might change within North America as a result of recent activity. But the Hispanic group, Hannah shared with you, is definitely a headwind in terms of consumption in North America. Historically, that group has been over-traded in our portfolio in two places particularly, tequila and Buchanan's, right? They tend to be the two brands which are over-indexed within that group. If there were to be a change in the behavior of that group, we would probably feel it in that part of the portfolio first. In terms of the RTD opportunity, we continue to see one. We need to move from talking about the opportunity to realizing the opportunity. I am pleased with Smirnoff, but I am pleased with some of the other things that are in development as well.
We continue to see that when we do well in RTD, it does have a positive impact on the equity of the parent brand.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks, Ed.
Thanks. The next question comes from Sarah Simon of Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. I have two questions. First one is on price/mix in the U.S. I wonder if you could just talk us through, it was obviously flattish versus negative price/mix in other markets. Can you just talk us through the drivers of that? Then the second one was more not on revenues, but on costs. What are you seeing in terms of U.S. freight costs, just given that that's been commented on by quite a lot of U.S. staples players? Thanks.
Hey, Sarah. So on your first question re price/mix, I think this comes back to what Dave talked about, right? We've been tweaking our offering, our positioning to be more competitive, playing a broader range, and clearly, this is some of the stuff that is hitting shelf now. We talked at the Capital Markets Day around a number of the interventions that we've made and the learnings that we've had. So we will continue to drive with those, and I think we'll continue to then see the volume uplift come as these get more baked in. So nothing more really to add on that. In terms of COGS in general, I mean, we went into the year pretty well hedged, but obviously there's significant volatility, and we do have some open exposures from a perspective of the unhedged levels that we will continue to manage.
And obviously, that continues to improve as you go through each year because you have a month of actuals kind of in there, but one that the team and I are closely watching and monitoring. To your question specifically on freight, well, clearly that is seeing inflation and continued pressure given what you are seeing in terms of the underlying oil prices. But, well, yesterday that eased a little bit. Let us see if that trend continues. But obviously, we are not managing this on a day-to-day basis. One of the elements you got to keep in mind with the whole supply agility program that we did and the closure of some plants and the build-out of the larger facility, our big focus there was how do we actually get our product production and manufacturing closer to the customer.
So from that angle, that is a positive for us given the restructuring that we did from an angle of what would have been otherwise a bigger drag.
Thanks, Nik.
Great. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Javier Gonzalez Lastra of Berenberg. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you. Good morning, all. Just a quick question on India. Prestige grew 7%, but India overall grew only 3.4%, so it implies popular fell quite a lot in the 20%-30% range. Just wanted to ask, I guess that's related to the excise duty changes and regulatory changes that we've seen there, but just wanted to ask how much further do Maharashtra and Karnataka have to run? Also in India, if I could ask about your exposure from the Scotch import probe itself. Just a follow-up, a confirmation on whether Guinness itself lost share in the period in Great Britain and Ireland. Just trying to understand how much of the decline is really weather versus competition. Thank you.
Okay. Why don't I start, and you can add, Nik, in terms of India. Let's do the first thing. The Guinness one is not a share issue, it's a different issue. Shares are flat in the two areas that we're talking about. When we go to India, look, I think there's two things. One is excise, but the other is the challenge on ingredients that we received, or USL received during the quarter. I think they've been very clear in their communication about that, but that did affect the popular, what you call the popular part of the market disproportionately. We saw a very distinct difference between period one, period two, and period three after that issue was resolved. I think that's more driven, that mix you're talking about is more driven by that.
I think you've seen the challenge to imported Scotch, but we also saw this week that actually the Indian government have now made a declaration that bulk Scotch is included in the trade agreement. We've got to wait for all of the confirmations, but we don't see that as a significant issue going forward. Do you want to make any?
I would only add to what you said on the first one in relation to the ingredients. While we had a bigger impact in P1 and P2, we are in a better position in P3, and I think we are ahead from a competition perspective, given we were one of the first ones that were kind of impacted by this. I think that should be a positive as we look forward.
Agreed. Thank you, Javier.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Fintan Ryan of Goodbody. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, Dave, Nik, Sonya. Two questions from me, please. Firstly, just in terms of your World Cup sponsorship, clearly there was a quite big investment gone on from Diageo behind a quite prominent sponsorship program. Could you share, do you have any quantifiable results that you could share with us from brand equities, sort of purchase intentions? Would this change your view on sort of future sponsorship programs more explicitly connected with sports events? Secondly, just in terms, I appreciate this is a revenue update call, but just in terms of our modeling, can you share any things we should be thinking about in terms of the H1 versus H2 split of the low to mid-single digit organic EBIT growth delivery? Appreciate it. Thank you.
Fintan, okay. Let me try and help you on the first, and I will let Nik dance on the second. Look, we have just done, as an exec team, we went through a very deep, as you would expect us to, post-evaluation of the World Cup sponsorship. Overall, happy with what we did. Lots of lessons to learn. I hope, Fintan, you would appreciate, I am not going to give you any sort of quantified feedback on that, because that would be competitively sensitive. I do not want to give my competitors insight into our sponsorship program or indeed our choices going forward. Some real big lessons for us. It is the first time we have done it, first time there has been a spirit sponsor in the World Cup. I think there was definitely learnings, and if we did it tomorrow, would we have learned some things? Definitely.
But were there lots of very good things in there that would signal that we can and should be thinking about sponsorship platforms as part of our arsenal of the way we support our brands? Indeed, the answer to that would be yes, but I am not going to give you any quantified insights, because that would be competitively sensitive from my point of view. Half one, half two?
I think, Fintan, listen, we talked about this at the Capital Markets Day. We expect the top line to be fairly balanced, and I think that takes into account all the kind of phasing and the comps, et cetera, that go across various markets. From a profit perspective, we had talked about the fact that we would expect that to be more half two weighted, given the fact that we had some of the restructuring benefits that would come through later. I think, as Dave said, I think we are pleased with the progress that we are making there, particularly in the markets and the regions. There continues to be work that we need to do in some of the corporate functions, but I would expect, based on the way we see that play out, it probably will be a more balanced view on profit as well.
But again, we will update you more on that, but that is our current expectation.
Very good.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Fintan.
Thank you. This concludes the Q&A session today, so I would like to hand back to Dave for closing comments.
Thank you very much indeed. Ladies and gents, thank you for your time this morning. Thank you for your questions. I think I would finish, if I may, by reiterating two things. One is, there is a lot of change going on in Diageo, a very significant amount of change that is touching every part of the business. The fact that my colleagues are as focused and as professional, as committed as they are, is something that gives me huge confidence in the direction that we are going. But I would like to put on the record my appreciation for the work that colleagues are doing to keep our focus externally as we make those changes. I think we look at Q1 and say, "There has been a lot of work.
We know there is a lot more to do." But it does feel like a small step in the right direction, and we look forward to updating you more when we get together at the half year. So, thank you very much indeed.
This concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.