Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining the call today. On the call today, we have our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, David Bortolussi, our Chief Financial Officer, Race Strauss, Peter Nathan, our Chief Executive for Asia Pacific. David, Race, and Peter will present our half year results, and there'll be time for questions at the end. With that, let me hand over to David.
Thanks, David. Good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to have finally joined The a2 Milk Company after a long transition period. It really is a remarkable business. Notwithstanding some of the challenges that we'll cover today, I'm confident in the fundamentals of the business. I'm excited about the future. It's been a big couple of weeks settling in, relocating to Sydney, meeting as many of our team as possible around the world in person and virtually, being introduced to our strategic partners, and developing a better understanding of the business. I've only been in the business a short time. For the intro, I just wanted to make a few comments on the half and cover why I think the fundamentals remain strong. The first half was challenging for a2.
Like most businesses, it's been impacted by various dynamics related to COVID-19, which has caused a lot of demand and supply volatility that has impacted the business significantly. We won't gloss over the fact that performance for the half was challenging and disappointing relative to the company's initial plans and market expectations. Revenue and earnings were down significantly, mainly due to disruption in our English label business, which Peter will cover later. There were some real positives in our results, too, in the China label business, Australian liquid milk, and a material improvement in the profitability of our U.S. business. Notwithstanding these challenges and results, the fundamentals of the business give me confidence that we have plenty of opportunities to grow the business over time. I've reviewed our brand health metrics across our categories and markets, and they're strong, which we'll continue to have to invest in.
We have a compelling consumer product with first-mover advantage and lots of innovation potential over time. We have significant further growth potential in our core markets, particularly in the China label IMF market. We have a strong balance sheet with the flexibility to invest in growth opportunities. Lastly, the team has been investing heavily in improving our execution capability. Lastly, I want to acknowledge the efforts put in by the a2 team and all of our strategic partners. It's clear they've been working hard to address the challenges head-on and get the business back into growth. I'll now hand over to Race to take you through the financials, and then Peter and Race to take you through the regional performance. I'll come back at the end to cover our plan and outlook for the second half.
Thanks, David. Hi, everybody, I hope everybody is safe and well. There are a number of highlights in our results despite the challenges. We are especially pleased with the strong growth in our China label business. We are achieving a growing share in the largest IMF channel with strong brand health metrics. However, the shape of the result has been impacted by our performance in our English label channel. Here on slide seven, we've presented a summary income statement for the half year. Group revenue was down 16%, and EBITDA was down 32%. I'll explain some of the key movements on the next few slides. On slide eight, we show our segment revenue. China and other Asia segment was flat half on half, where the growth in China label was offset by the decline in CBEC.
In Australia and New Zealand, as we flagged previously, we were impacted by challenges in the daigou and reseller channel. In the U.S., the changes we made to our execution approach have had a positive impact. Moving to slide nine. A few things to call out here. Our lower gross margin percentage reflects the impact of a number of temporary factors. Most relevant is the stock provision that we recognized in the half and the adverse product mix shift with a higher proportion of liquid milk to infant nutrition sales. Another important point here is that historically, the gross margins we have achieved for infant nutrition sales between channels has been broadly similar. Some variance in gross margin percentages between the channels has now emerged.
This is due to the different channel pricing pressures, cost of goods sold differences, particular things like ingredients and packaging innovation, and foreign exchange movements. China label infant nutrition has a lower gross margin percentage than our English label, but has a higher absolute gross margin per unit in a higher cost to serve channel. Moving to slide 10. Our balance sheet remained in a strong position with closing cash position of NZD 775 million. Cash was NZD 80 million lower than June. This was due to negative operating cash flow, primarily due to an increase in working capital, reflecting higher inventory and a decrease in accounts payable, our participation in the recent Synlait capital raising, and our acquisition of the Kyeburn processing facility. With that, I'll hand over to Peter to go through the Asia Pacific performance.
Thank you, Race. Looking at slide 12, and look, this is a slide we have presented a number of times before. What it does is summarizes our infant nutrition revenue across both ANZ and China.
You can see that the proportion of our revenue has evolved over time, and we're growing very well in our China label business, which is the largest by a long stretch of the infant nutritional channel within China. Looking at slide 13, we show that in China label, we grew revenue by 45% versus the prior corresponding period. We also grew share and furthermore expanded our footprint. We've invested very heavily in our brand by in-store activation with greater engagement with consumers through increased māmā classes and also promotional people as one of the key activation points. We do believe that there continues to be an opportunity for us to gain market share given our very strong brand resonance with our consumers. We're very pleased with our performance here given the incredibly strong strategic importance and size of the MBS channel.
Looking at slide number 14, what this slide does is highlight some of the key activities during the half in terms of our social media campaigns as well as investments in road shows, in māmā classes , in promotional people, and other various activities which we use to engage our consumers with. If we look at slide 15, what this shows is that the very strong growth we've delivered in distribution and also growth in our MBS market value share, which was up to 2.4% from 2% at the end of the December half. In slide 16, our performance in English label was impacted by Australian retailers and daigou reseller channels, as well as in cross-border e-commerce. In our ANZ business, we have previously explained the challenges initially resulting from the disruptions of COVID-19.
The pantry stocking in 3Q 2020 and then the unwind in Q4 and into this fiscal year, was also compounded by the challenges in the daigou reseller channel, which we did begin to observe from September. These events, combined with subdued online pricing and channel inventory unwind, have resulted in daigou resellers being slower to fully re-enter the market to promote our brand than we initially expected. In CBEC, our sales were down 35%. Having said that, our market share was 22.2%-23% on MAT basis, which was up from the previous share number that we took to the market of 21.5%. The revenue decline this period, therefore, was due to a lower level of sales to informal social e-commerce channels and traders, which are not vetted by SmartPath, and also on top of that, there was some further inventory unwind in these channels.
In addition, we have temporarily ceased sales of our Hong Kong label. While our performance in the competitive 11.11 online sales event showed strong year-on-year growth with high growth and activity, sales in the months preceding that or just after that were a little bit below expectation with some pricing issues compounding the fact there. Looking at slide 17, we do have a solid plan in place to reactivate the English label channels. We are focusing on reactivating the daigou reseller channels and are confident that it does still remain a very attractive and strategically important channel for distribution penetration and also for new user recruitment. We are aiming to continue to reactivate the channel by further rebalancing inventory levels and improving, very importantly, traceability through the channel.
Furthermore, we will continue to provide temporary support to corporate daigou. Lastly, we will be continuing to look at some very innovative opportunities within corporate daigou to further grow our distribution. In CBEC, we'll continue to rebalance inventory in the channel. Also, continue to refine and optimize our promotional approach. Turning to slide 18. Liquid milk, it's fair to say, does continue to be an absolute critical pillar of our business. We're pleased to announce that we have achieved double-digit growth as we've increased our market share again. We now have a market share of 11.7% in value in Australian grocery. Assuming the COVID-19 situation improves in Australia, however, we would expect out-of-home consumption to increase or to decrease a little bit, which could impact us slightly in the second half.
New Zealand licensing fees increased by 33% during the period, along with China revenue, which increased in liquid milk at 107% to NZD 3.7 million. On slide 19, it demonstrates that the other nutritional products segment, mainly our whole milk and skim milk powders, and we've seen additional products here, such as Smart Nutrition, nutrition for mothers, and also Mānuka honey powder. Unfortunately, all of these product categories were impacted by the disruption we've experienced in the daigou reseller channel, but we are confident in our plan to reactivate the channel, and we do definitely see further opportunity in all of these other nutritional products moving forward. Now I'd like to hand back to Race.
Thanks, Peter. In the U.S.A., I'm now talking on slide 20, we delivered 22.3% revenue growth. During 2020, we did observe that consumers were becoming more value-conscious given the economic uncertainties, and retailers were prioritizing conventional and private label brands. We have redirected a significant portion of our marketing investment towards account-specific activity to position our pricing at a more affordable premium level. The aim was to increase shelf presence as well as investing in additional in-store activation to further build velocity. Our average velocities have grown within our key accounts. Distribution grew to 22,300 stores, and we have strong brand health metrics. For the second half, as we further increase our trade spend, we are expecting net revenue to be lower than the first half. On slide 21, we show some images of the in-store activities. Slide 22 has the growth in our store footprint.
Turning to slide 24 to talk about some group updates. The proposed Mataura Valley acquisition will provide the opportunity for us to participate in nutritional product manufacturing. It provides supplier and geographic diversification and strengthens our relationship with key strategic partners in China. Over time, it will also offer access to manufacturing margins and the ability to provide more flexibility for product supply, including the potential to pursue an additional China label registration and additional innovation opportunities. During the transitional period, MVM will operate as a manufacturer of commodity powders and some base powders for nutritional products, prior to manufacturing predominantly consumer-packaged nutritional products for The a2 Milk Company. We've previously announced that during this transitional period from FY 2022 to 2024, the business will operate at approximately EBITDA breakeven, with the business returning a positive EBITDA from FY 2025.
Due to the revised volume assumptions, we now expect an EBITDA loss of up to NZD 10 million per annum during the transition period. We still expect EBITDA to be positive from FY 2025. Prior to any further investment in a blending and canning facility and the associated infrastructure with that, it is expected that depreciation and amortization during the transitional period will be approximately NZD 15 million. We are continuing to explore business development opportunities to improve the financial performance during this transition period. On sustainability, we made progress in a number of areas in the first half. In particular, we established the a2 Impact Fund as a vehicle to fund and manage our investments in pursuit of our sustainability and decarbonization goals. The team is making progress in several areas, including on-farm activities, such as farm environmental plans and animal welfare, as well as across various people and community initiatives.
We are also working through the process of target setting, and we'll look to update you later in the year. With that, I'll hand back to David.
Thanks, Race and Peter. Turning to slide 27, I thought it would be useful to summarize on the slide here the key actions we are taking in the second half, which we've already covered in the presentation. Just to reiterate, we're pleased with our performance in China label and liquid milk in Australia and the U.S., and we'll keep executing against those plans. We have a good plan for reactivating the daigou channel and optimizing our growth in CBEC. As you would expect, I will also be reviewing our growth strategy and execution plans with our leadership team and board to consider what adjustments we may need to make to maximize the long-term growth potential of the business. Turning to the outlook on the next slide. Globally, there continues to be unprecedented levels of uncertainty and volatility due to COVID-19.
The company remains confident in the underlying fundamentals of the business, and we will continue to invest behind the brand and in its capability to drive long-term growth. The pace of recovery in the daigou channel and in the CBEC channel has been slower than previously anticipated, and the company now expects revenue to be at the lower end of the previous guidance range. A lower EBITDA margin range is now expected due to lower revenue, higher brand investment, longer daigou support, movements in foreign currency, and adverse channel mix relative to what was anticipated in December. The company's FY 2021 outlook is now as follows. Group revenue for FY 2021 in the order of NZD 1.4 billion. Group EBITDA margin for FY 2021 of 24%-26%, excluding MVM acquisition costs.
The outlook for FY 2021 assumes the actions being taken to reactivate the daigou channel deliver a significant improvement in quarter-on-quarter growth from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. With that, we'll open up the call to Q&A. Back to you, David.
Thanks, David. Operator, if you can please help us facilitate the Q&A session.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request please star then two. If you are on a speaker phone please pick up your handset to ask a question. The first question comes from Shaun Cousins of JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, all. I just want to ask a little question about inventory. The company's now discussing rebalancing inventory in the daigou and CBEC channel. Is this the company confirming there is excess inventory in the daigou channel? If so, when did this start? As we've been asking a bit about this issue for some time, and a2 has been indicating there hasn't been an inventory issue with the business, please.
Sure. I'll start with that. From my point of view, it seems to be rebalancing, but I think Peter is probably best placed to answer this.
We're not talking about inventory, which we are aware of. The key point being is that the inventory within customers that we ship to, we've been confident for some time. It's more about inventory which is very hard to trace, which falls into third parties, which typically fall into the trader type definition, that pattern of inventory, which is more difficult to get a handle on that. That's what we're still trying to make sure that we bottom out. Again, that's where the traceability system that we're putting in place is so critical in ensuring that is achieved going forward.
Okay. We've sort of been concerned about distributor inventory being an issue as well. Is this something where you just can't get a hold of it and that's the-?
It's not distributor. Two very different definitions. The distributor inventory, we have got a good handle on. All of the customers that we ship to, we have a very good handle on the inventory. It's the non-customers which get leakage, which is more difficult to trace, and we want to absolutely make sure that's bottomed out. On top of that, as I said, the traceability system is a key in that. Yeah, we want to make sure that distinction is clearly understood.
Okay. Does the company reiterate the 30% EBITDA margin target in the medium term? It may be in your release, I might have missed it. Could you confirm if that's still being reiterated or has that been removed, please?
Shaun, I've taken that out for the time being. We're in a very different context. It's not that that is necessarily inappropriate, it's just that I haven't had time to think about our plans going forward with the team and we may give some more color around that in the future.
That makes a lot of sense. Thanks, David. Thanks, Peter.
The next question comes from David Errington of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Morning, all. Morning, David. It has been a long time.
Hey, David.
It's been a while. Welcome aboard and good luck.
Thank you.
First question I've got is on the inventory. Peter, I'm sorry, I just don't accept your explanation on that. You've been saying now you haven't got an inventory problem, but now you're saying you may have an inventory problem with customers that you don't know who they are. Then the company takes a NZD 23 million inventory provision out of the blue, and the inventory this half has increased by NZD 50 million on your balance sheet. Can you explain what is going on in your inventory? I know the question has been asked last 12 months, and you have steadfast denied that there's an inventory issue, but clearly there is. Your inventory's increased by NZD 50 million.
You've taken an inventory provision by NZD 23 million. Now you're saying that there's inventory with customers that you don't even know who they are, and you have to do a tracing system to try to track it down. If that's not an inventory problem, I don't know what is. Can you give a bit more clarity so that we can have a bit more comfort that you are in control of your inventory?
David, it's Race. Let me start on our inventory, and then Peter can comment on the trade inventory. We had previously said that back when COVID started, we did take contingency steps working with our strategic partner in Synlait to build up our inventory. When COVID first started, there was issues of supply, there was risks of not being able to get materials, and you'd appreciate there was risks globally about the global supply chain. We took a deliberate step, which we did talk previously about building up our inventory. Unfortunately, post that, as the daigou and English label channels started to contract, the demand offtake, our demand offtake of that started to decline. Hence, we had to go through that downgrade process, and that inventory that we had built up was not being reduced as quickly as we wanted.
As part of our December downgrade, which we delivered to the numbers that we did communicate back in December, incorporated that we would take a provision, which we now have done of 20 odd, NZD 23 million into our results for the half. That is, as I said, a deliberate contingency we took for COVID. The demand fell off. We were left with a lot of inventory. What's really important, as you'd appreciate, is we need to ensure that inventory does not end up in the trade that could potentially be discounted, and we protect the quality to ensure as it gets older, we ensure that it doesn't get to the trade and we will potentially destroy it, hence the provision. That's our inventory. I'll throw to Peter to talk about the inventory throughout the supply chain.
Sure. Let me be clear, David. I'm not saying that we have a trade inventory issue at all. That's not what we're saying. What we are saying is that there is always a potential for product to get into the wrong places, and that will always be the case. Therefore, a traceability system enables us to identify precisely where that product originally came from and therefore deal with it. That will help us going forward. That is a clear point to make. The other point to make is that the extent to which pricing is uplifted is a consequence of reduced inventory. What we're saying is that the inventory that we need going forward will be lower than what it has been in the past in order to uplift the daigou pricing.
Just so we're very clear, we are not saying that we do have a trade inventory problem at this point in time.
I'll leave that one there. If I could go on to my second question, which is on the recovery of the corporate daigou. The first part of it is, well, how are you going to actively manage this? Your statement that you're expecting the fourth quarter to be a significant improvement on the third quarter, that really concerns me because that means that there's potentially further risk to the downside here if what you're actually doing doesn't work or is delayed further. Can I ask the question either to you, Peter, or it's too early for you, David, because you've just come on board, but probably Peter, you're the best. What are you actively doing with the corporate daigou to actually deliver fourth quarter significant improvement on the third quarter? What are you actually doing to ensure that?
That's a big statement to make to the market. You have to be held to account on that, because if it comes again, that you come for another downgrade, we've had three strikes now. How many more downgrades do you want to come to the market with? You've got that big statement out there that fourth quarter is going to be significant on third quarter. What are you going to do to ensure that you don't come to the market again with another significant downgrade? What are you doing to ensure that?
That's an excellent question. We're doing three things. Firstly, there is a positive trend for corporate daigou. Let's be clear about that. The trend is up. The bottom is behind us, and we've seen positive trend upwards. That's on the basis of two initiatives. One is the corporate daigou margin support program, which is rebuilding confidence in the channel. In addition to that, we have some innovative promotion activity, which has been effective. Thirdly, which is in front of us, there's some innovation within the corporate daigou channel itself, which is building momentum, particularly in the O2O space in China. Also the O2O channel, let me say, David, is showing some very significant growth for us in China. That gives us confidence that we're going to end the quarter or end the half finish strongly.
Okay. Well, thanks, Peter. I'll let someone else have a go, but thank you for your answer. It was very good. Thank you.
The next question comes from Chelsea Leadbetter of Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Morning, team. I guess maybe extending a couple of those questions a little further. You talk about the inventory traceability, Peter. Can you give us a timeline of when that will actually be in place?
Yeah. Chelsea, we're looking to get that implemented by the end of the month. The reason, and I think I might have mentioned this in previous calls, there's been a significant delay on the basis of COVID in terms of technicians being able to implement. Given now COVID's freeing up, we're very confident that the process has already started. We're very confident by the end of this month, very soon, that'll be up and running.
Okay. Thank you. I guess coming back to the questions before around the statement on significant improvement quarter-on-quarter, can you kind of cycle back and sort of, I don't know if you can, but give us some sort of quantification around what that third quarter last year looks like versus the fourth quarter last year? You talked a lot about pantry stocking in the third quarter of 2020 and some of that unwinding in the fourth quarter. I'm just trying to understand, I guess, what the comps are like that you are cycling for that daigou channel in particular, but also, I guess, how the third quarter has started versus the second quarter, and ultimately what gives you the confidence for that statement around significant improvement and maybe if you can provide some quantification around what significant improvement actually means.
Sure. Look, we’re not going to give the absolute specifics of that, but you could probably do the math on that in terms of looking at the guidance number relative to the results. What we would say is, again, we have seen some very strong momentum and offtake within the corporate daigou channel. We’ve seen very strong momentum in the O2O channel. That gives us confidence on top of what we did indicate. Going back to David Errington’s question around further tightening. It’s not about the fact that we’ve got inventory, the further tightening, which is implicit in the numbers to further uplift pricing on top of the innovation, on top of the margin support, which hopefully will fall away once the pricing starts to move upwards. Then you couple that with the momentum that we’re already seeing, that gives us confidence in that forecast.
Okay. Any context on the pantry stocking in terms of how to think about that from what you're cycling in the prior period?
Yeah. Look, the pantry stocking, look, the numbers would indicate clearly that's behind us. Clearly that upset or unsettled some of the flow of numbers in terms of its factory. We're confident that that's no longer an issue, which is implicit, obviously, in the set of the numbers that we've delivered, which damaged in terms of the H factory being, as we indicated in previous announcements, not as high as we thought going back six months.
Okay. I'll leave it there for now, might take a few more offline with you. Thank you.
Sure.
The next question comes from Richard Barwick of CLSA. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, all. I was going to just try and get a bit more clarity if I can. When you talk about the pace of recovery in the daigou and reseller channel, basically recovering more slowly than previously anticipated, why is that? Do you understand why or what's caused that now? Sort of married up with that is, how does your new daigou channel reactivation plans compare to the plans you had in place back at the last downgrade just before Christmas?
Yeah. Look, that's an excellent question. Look, the key issue for us has really been about market pricing. Market pricing, we expected to recover more quickly than it has. Now, outside of market pricing, we've still seen growth. Had we had market pricing where we thought it would be on top of what we've run with initiatives, we would've been at the numbers that we thought in previous announcements. It's really the combination of those two factors.
Do you think that means, Peter, if the market pricing has been weaker, i.e. hasn't recovered to the extent that you thought, is that a sign that there is more inventory washing around? This sort of stuff that you don't have the visibility on, there's actively more there than you had appreciated?
Look, there was a bit of disruption from Pinduoduo, which we're confident now there is less access. As I said, the traceability gives the capacity to really deal with that with a bit more blunt instrument. That is certainly the case.
Okay. I'm pleased you raised PDD, because that was my next question. Certainly back in August and September, the color we got from you guys then, you're pretty dismissive of that as a channel and saying that it wasn't compatible for the a2 brand or it was a place you didn't want to be. Has your views towards PDD changed at all? My observations would be, it's seemingly like a more credible channel today than what it was even six months ago. Just wanted to know if it's going to play a bigger role or going forward for a2 or are you still intent on sort of getting your product out of there?
No, look, our view has not changed. We believe that they're not the sort of customer that we want to be encouraging or doing business with. Not a customer, but a platform. In that regard, no, our view has not changed. Remains consistent.
All right. Thank you. I'll leave it. Next questions.
The next question comes from Sam Teeger of Citi. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi there. Good morning. Maybe one for Peter. Peter, just in terms of the comments around the recovery and market pricing, there's been a lot of talk around supply on this call. What about the demand side? It just seems to me that the formula is not as advanced as a few of your competitors in terms of the ingredients and the resurgence of Chinese brands continues.
Sorry, Sam, I'm not sure about. You said about the formula. Sorry, what was your? If you can just repeat that or rephrase that question, please.
Yeah. Just in terms of the market pricing recovery comments you made earlier.
Yeah.
Feels that a lot of the comments is around supply. Can you talk maybe a bit more around the demand side? From my perspective, it seems that your formula is not as advanced as a few of your competitors who've launched into the space in recent times, and also we've got this resurgence of Chinese brands which continues.
Yeah. With the formula, are you referring to competitive product or was that your question? When you say the formula, what are you referring to, sorry, Sam?
All the ingredients that a lot of your competitors are-
Buying.
-using in their formulas.
Right. Yeah.
Yeah.
Look, I think on that point, the reality is, Sam, it's always been a brand play. We've been pleased with the success we've had relative to new entrants. Yes, you could argue some new entrants may or may not have relatively strong ingredients panels, but that hasn't meant that they've had consumer traction. At this point in time, there's been no a1 free product which has had consumer traction. It doesn't mean that there won't, but clearly it's been, first-mover advantage has served us particularly well. In terms of the supply side, what I would reiterate is that, again, we're getting traction in terms of offtake with the daigou channel post the COVID-19 disruption.
We're seeing our way clear of that, as I indicated or re-emphasizing the point that upside beyond what we've indicated would be dependent on pricing, which therefore we're determined to try to leverage or to try to encourage, hence the comments around inventory. That really probably answers that question, that there is some pricing dependency will provide further variation.
Got it. Then the lower China label margins that you're talking about, in your view, is this something temporary that's going to pass or is this the new normal?
Sam, it's Race. I'm going to just take that one. The China label margins, the innovation we put in the lid, the additional lactoferrin, does make that a more expensive product. That, of course, will continue. The impact that it comes through because that is transacted for us through RMB into US dollars, back to New Zealand dollars, I think that part will be particularly temporary. We have, of course, well, that's more from the CBEC side, taken part of the obsolete stock. For China label, I would say that the FX is potentially temporary, but the actual ingredient cost and the lid is a permanent fixture.
The channel pricing pressures that the release alluded to?
The channel pricing pressures for CBEC?
China label.
The China label. For China label pricing, we don't see a lot of pressure, so we've maintained our pricing through the period.
Got it. Then in terms of the reduction in corporate costs, what proportion of these reductions do you feel you can bank permanently post-COVID?
We will be able to bank a significant amount of the consulting costs because we've now built a lot of capability. One of our biggest cost exposures, as we previously talked about, was consulting. That has come down significantly. That will remain. Of course, we have been able to secure travel savings, but yes, they will go back up a little bit. There has been a reduction in employee incentives, which of course will come up. The lion's share of the cost, which is in fact these consulting costs and other discretionary costs, we'll maintain. I will say, just so we're clear, is we've always talked about building capability. The lion's share of that is done, but we will continue to invest in systems, in the right capability, and in building, for example, the right sales team across China and the U.S.
Right. Thank you.
The next question comes from Marcus Curley of UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Two from me. I just wonder, Peter, if you could provide a little bit more color on the reduction in the CBEC sales. In particular, what style of customers you've seen reduced sales into, and also, by reading it also suggests potentially that there's been a material impact from the Hong Kong border crossing market. Could you talk a little bit to that?
Yeah, no, I think one thing to appreciate is the fact that your market share did indeed grow with CBEC, and it's a very important point to reiterate. That's the prior period. That's encouraging. We're still getting consumer traction. I think the key point is that, implicitly in our number was the fact that there was probably some leakage from distributors through to customers such as Pinduoduo, which we have found hard to trace, which is no longer the case. That probably is one of the key drivers. As I said, furthermore, the further reduction, or the reduction in inventory, not beyond what we've had in the past, but reducing beyond that in order to push pricing up, which will positively impact the daigou channel is the other key factor.
We should interpret this sort of step back as, I suppose partly permanent, given that some of these distributors you're selling into, you're not going to be supplying, given the platforms they were selling onto?
We'll continue to supply those distributors. The point we're making is threefold. Firstly, offtake has still been solid. Consumer offtake has been strong in general terms. Point two is that we've had to reduce inventory in order to push pricing up beyond what we normally would. Therefore, it's not as though we've held too much inventory in the past, but we've had to take further steps. Thirdly, as I said, there's been some leakage, which we needed to deal with, around Pinduoduo and some of those social e-commerce platforms, which are not authorized platforms.
And-
Sorry.
The suspension of the Hong Kong label product, what's the impact of that on the CBEC revenue?
Yeah. Well, that's daigou impact. Most of that product flowed through to the southern provinces, Guangdong, et cetera. Obviously with the border closure, which is a separate issue, that the border closure due to the geopolitics with Hong Kong and China meant that that dried up at the time when, pre-COVID, it impacted through the period. I think the numbers are in there. In terms of volume, the numbers were reported in the prior reporting period. Race, you've got the numbers? No.
Sorry, NZD 10.7 million.
NZD 10.7 mil. Yeah, the Hong Kong label impact.
A full year? Secondly, I just wondered if you could talk to giving us some color on what you're planning on doing with marketing spend. It was low in the first half. What level are you doing in the second half? How does that influence your store rollout program in China?
Yeah. Marketing activity half on half will continue to be significantly stronger in the second half in China than the period last year and also the first half. If you look at, a lot of that activity will be both in-store. It'll continue to be very strongly weighted towards push people or in-store promoters, roadshows, māmā classes , in-store activity in MBS, in addition to broadcast media. Yeah, as Race indicated, we'll continue to invest behind our brand, and the second half investment will be very strong, which is also one of the key drivers of our momentum, particularly in the last quarter.
Sorry, just to be clear, the second half marketing spend will be above the comparative period last year?
Yes. More importantly, very importantly, it'll be stronger than the first half. It'll be a lot stronger than the first half spend.
Within the guidance, by the sounds of things, you haven't incorporated any significant growth in the MBS offline channel in terms of sales, would be my interpretation. Is that the wrong interpretation?
No, that's not correct. We are expecting some growth in sales within MBS. MBS, we are expecting it to continue to grow given-
I was meaning sequential. Yeah, half on half.
No, MBS half on half will be growing.
Okay. Thank you.
Mark, just to come back on that question that you asked on Hong Kong, just for clarity, the first half Hong Kong label revenue was NZD 10.7 million, on a full year basis last year was NZD 16.2 million.
The next question comes from Nick Mar of Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Could you just, on the China label, talk through the half on half growth that you saw in 2021 versus second half 2020? Seems to have slowed quite materially despite the footprint increase.
We're talking about roughly a 40% growth, half on half, for the same period last year.
Sorry, more sequentially, first half versus second half 2020.
First half versus second half, Yeah, look, I suppose what we're not doing is giving the second half on first half, what we're saying is the half on half growth continues to be in the order of 40%.
Okay. What I'm trying to focus on is that the first half was up kind of around 12% on the second half 2020, though the growth there was slower than the build in a number of stores. What's happening to velocities and everything else within that channel?
If you look at our velocities, they continue to grow in terms of both our distribution and also our same-store sales growth. The expectation of our ex-factory is in line with our off-take expectation.
Okay. Just at a higher level, you've talked about reducing sell into some of the channels. What would your best guess be of what actual consumption levels are versus what you guys are selling over FY 2021? Some indication of how demand is versus what you're selling them.
Look, what we can say is that if you look at the market share, the data points that we provide, we've provided you with our market share for MBS, where you've seen an uplift, which therefore reflects your consumption uplift. If you look at our CBEC share, you can also see that that has uplifted half on half, which again shows some solid consumption. What we don't have, of course, is hard data on daigou. We're not going to provide you with a number on that given the fact that there's some lack of certainty around that.
Okay, thanks. That's all for me.
The next question comes from Phillip Kimber of Evans and Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. I just had a question around pricing and I'm new to the stock, so apologies if it's a simple question. When I look at it, the different channels in China seem to have very different retail pricing, from NZD 400 a tin to NZD 300 a tin. I'm just wondering, I know that some of those higher priced, which is the China label product, have different ingredients and so forth. What are the risks that pricing actually has to converge over time and usually when prices converge, they converge to the lower level? There seems to be quite a big contrast between even Australian retail prices if you put them into renminbi. There seems to be a lot of differentials in pricing depending on which channel you're in, and I'm just wondering what are the risks that that has to converge?
Sure. That's a really good question. I think the pleasing thing is that we've had that variation since the get-go, and we've maintained that pricing variation across channels. It's something that consumers are familiar with. Consumers in the MBS channels are prepared to pay a price premium based on the experience that they receive in-store, the recommendation, plus the fact that they're buying a China label product, which they see as being slightly higher spec relative to the daigou pricing, which is made. We've maintained that variation, I think very importantly, for a long period of time. There's nothing to suggest that that won't continue.
Therefore, when you're talking about pricing, it's more the CBEC versus the daigou pricing that's the issue, where the daigous weren't getting enough profit. There wasn't enough profit in them or lower profit so that they moved away. Has that sorted itself out now or is there still a way to go on that pricing between CBEC and daigou?
Firstly, you're correct in saying that that pricing dynamic does not exist in MBS. That's point one. The second point you raised about the pricing required, therefore, the extent to which daigou pushes is largely dependent on their own margin, which is a reflection on price. Therefore, in order for us to reactivate the daigou channel, we need to push margin up, hence the fact that we've put through margin support within corporate. Furthermore, we're trying to uplift pricing, that hasn't happened as quickly in the last few months as we thought. Having said that, we've still experienced, as we indicated, off-take improvement, or should I say, sell out momentum, particularly with O2O. Clearly, the pricing dynamic between daigou is very, very different to MBS.
Yeah. My other question was just in relation just to what's happening in the market, and maybe your share is small, so it doesn't affect you. I see yesterday or the day before, big U.K. player talking about a strategic review, really tough numbers in China. They're talking about the domestic players are starting to really take share. Are they things that you're also seeing in that marketplace?
There's two points to make. You're absolutely spot on. The domestic players are doing well, and that's very clear, particularly Feihe. Having said that, the very pleasing thing is that as an international brand, we are still gaining share within the MBS channel despite some of the strong domestic players. Relative to other internationals within MBS, we still continue to do very well. Therefore, our brand is still resonating particularly well with Chinese consumers and also with four of our brand health metrics. We're very pleased with awareness, purchase intention, loyalty scores, all of those continue to play very well, which is also why we continue to invest heavily behind our brand within the MBS channel because we are getting uplift as a result of that investment.
Okay. That's great. Thank you.
The next question comes from Adam Fleck of Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks very much. Peter, just following up on your comments around fourth quarter significantly improving, partly due to the price increase that comes on the back of the inventory management in daigou. Can you talk a little bit about the glide path to make sure that the incentives and the support that you're providing are in fact temporary beyond that price? Is that a conversation you're having with the daigou partners? Just cognizant of the risk that some of that level of support sticks around and is no longer temporary.
Sure. Clearly, that's a conversation we're having. We're measuring very carefully the sell-out with our corporate daigou partners, and then the margin required to get additional momentum in the channel or additional arms and legs in the channel. Yeah, you're absolutely spot on. We're working very closely with our key partners to measure that.
Okay. That's good to hear. Thanks. Then maybe just a question on the U.S. Obviously, a significant improvement in the EBITDA loss, but trying to pair that against your comments around pricing movements to reach that more affordable premium level. How are you thinking about that business generating breakeven or even positive profitability in the future?
We've been clear that we haven't stated exactly when break even. That's deliberate, because we intend to continue to invest behind the brand. We are clearly on a pathway to bring it to break even. There's obviously a significant leap forward, which you will see in these results. The whole focus of this pivot that we talked about is to really improve the activation in store. It's about ensuring that where the main purchase decision is made, on the shelf, that we in fact have clear facings. We are getting additional facings, we are doing additional in-store execution, and we are therefore pivoting our marketing spend from the below the line type spend to ensure that we've got, first, the affordable pricing, which resonates better with the consumer, and better availability in store.
This pathway will continue to generate the volume, but importantly, it will get us closer to the breakeven. As you can see, we are much closer. We have not stated exactly when that breakeven will be, because we want the flexibility to continue to invest in the brand as we need to.
No, got it. That makes sense. That's helpful. Thanks very much.
The next question comes from Andrew McLennan of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome, David. Great to catch up since the Pacific Brands days. Welcome aboard. I've got just one quick question around provisions for Race, and then a question around new customer recruitment. Just that provision incurred in the first half, was that fully expensed in the first half, or is it still rolling through into the second half?
No, it's fully expensed into the first half.
Okay, sure. In terms of early-stage sales, you did mention in that December downgrade that new customer recruitment was an area where you really need to lift. At the same time, the early-stage sales, from what we can see on the team activity, have been materially underperforming versus the later stages. Obviously, there's some argument to suggest that they may provide a leading indicator. Can you talk about how the relative performance on stage sales has gone, and whether or not you've seen any improvement since your comments in December?
Yeah. Look, great question. I think for us it's sort of a tale of two cities, so to speak, in the sense the MBS environment is very different, where we're supposing a lot of the investment on new user recruitment within MBS, hence the uplift in investment in māmā class and in-store promoters. That's one of our key drivers and key ambitions within MBS. Within CBEC and daigou, there is a relationship clearly between daigou push and therefore new user recruitment. The extent to which we had some downward pressure on daigou push, then yes, you would expect some drop in new user recruitment in the early stage. Having said that, the later stage three in particular, there always tends to be a lot of brand entry at that point.
It's fair to say they are two very different segments, and you still can be very successful in stage 3 in particular, and get new users based on the fact that brands switch in that segment without necessarily having stage 1 uplift in new user recruitment. Having said that, we are still very intent on making sure we do uplift stage 1, hence the ambition to uplift daigou in order to achieve it.
Okay. Overall, when you aggregate the relative sales growth in MBS and CBEC, how are the stages performing? Is stage 1, stage 2 underperforming stage 3 sales growth?
Look, we're not giving out specific numbers, and we haven't clearly ever done that. Yeah, broadly, the trends run in line. Aggregate-wise, we're probably a little lower in stage 1. As you said, we're not going to be precise about that data.
Okay, thank you.
This concludes our question and answer session. I'll now hand the call back to David for closing remarks.
Thanks everybody for joining the call today. I'm really looking forward to making a contribution to the business going forward and engaging with our investors and analyst community over the roadshow over this week and next week. Look forward to catching up with you all. Thanks for joining us today. Cheers.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.