Earnings Call: Q4 2021

Jun 24, 2021

Good morning to all our participants in Asia, and good evening to all our participants in the U. S. First of all, we'd like to convey our sincere apologies for the change in this briefing schedule. We had to meet with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines. It's a routine meeting required by the submission of our registration statement with the SEC for the planned IPO of the Almonte Philippines. Unfortunately, it was advised on short notice and it started late, so we'd like to apologize for any inconvenience caused. Representing Del Monte in this briefing are Cito Alejandro, Group Chief Operating Officer of Del Monte Pacific Parag Sacheva, Group CFO of TMPL Greg Longstreet, CEO of Del Monte Foods in the U. S. And I am Igi Sison, Chief Corporate Officer of Del Monte Pacific. Parag Sachedeva will now present our results for the Q4 and full year ending April 2021. Thanks a lot, Igi. Good morning to everyone in Asia, and evening for those of you who may be joining from the U. S. As Igi said, we do apologize for the delay that was caused today. On Slide 4, I would like to reconfirm that DMPL owns 87% of Del Monte Philippines and 93.6 percent of Del Monte Foods Inc. Therefore, DMPL recognizes a 13% and 6.4% non controlling interest in these 2 subsidiaries respectively. These are captured in the NCI line in the P and L. On Slide 5. Next slide please. On Q4 highlights, the NPL Group improved its margin to 26.8% from 17.8%, which is an improvement of 900 basis points coming from better sales mix, lower trade spending and lower costs both in the base business and in BMFI. EBITDA increased by 30.8% to $73,100,000 Net profit of $14,500,000 was a turnaround from the $12,400,000 loss in the prior period. EBITDA of Del Monte Foods rose 20 percent to $41,200,000 and delivered a net profit of $4,600,000 from a loss of $18,400,000 last year. The group reduced the net debt lowering the gearing to 2 times from 2.4 times equity, while Moody's and S and P upgraded Del Monte Foods credit rating in April 2021. Final dividend declared, which was approved by the Board, represents 37% of fiscal year 2021 net profits. Next slide. On the outlook, our strategy continues to strengthen the core business, expand the product portfolio in line with market trends for health and wellness and grow our branded business while reducing non strategic business segments. We will continue focusing on more product availability through better distribution and expanded sales channels including e commerce or dollar stores, convenience stores and also expand in our international markets such as China. The NPL Group is well positioned to build on momentum achieved in fiscal 2021 and offset the impact of commodity and transportation headwinds. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the DMPL Group expects to generate higher net profits in fiscal 2022. Next slide please. We'll take you through our Q4 group results summary. Sales of close to $500,000,000 or $497,800,000 to be more precise, lower by 22 percent U. S. Sales lower by 34.6 percent Philippines higher by 6.1% in local currency and 11.9% in dollar terms Sale of S and W Branded Business increased significantly by 31% in the 4th quarter, mainly coming from recovery of premium fresh pineapple segment as well as higher sales of packaged pineapple products. JV in India declined by 20% in local currency as B2B business did get impacted by COVID-nineteen though it was partly offset by surge in retail and e commerce sales. EBITDA of US73.1 dollars up 22.2 percent on a recurring basis due to better sales mix in both U. S. And Philippines and also active cost management with significant savings from DMFI's asset light strategy and other cost saving initiatives. Operating profit of $49,200,000 is up 43.7 percent from $34,200,000 Net profit of $14,500,000 up three times from US4.8 million dollars even after including the impact from minority interest changes explained on slide 4. There are no one off items this quarter. All figures above are versus prior year quarter excluding one off items that were relevant to fiscal 2020. On non recurring expenses, next slide please. There are no one off items in the Q4 as confirmed previously. Impact of one off costs in Q4 of fiscal 2020 on a post tax basis was $17,200,000 and included the remaining plant closure costs that were incurred, severance as well as write off of deferred financing costs and interest rate swap settlement following refinancing of 1st and second lien loans by high yield bonds. Impact of 1 off costs on a post tax basis was $113,600,000 from a full year perspective in fiscal 2020. Next slide please. We'll take you through our Q4 results on a reported basis in more detail. 4th quarter sales of $497,800,000 was 22% lower than last year. Higher sales from Philippines and international markets, both from premium fresh pine and packaged exports were offset by lower sales from a high base effect. This will be explained more in the turnover analysis as well as by Greg. Gross profit at US133.2 million dollars is higher by 17.4%. More importantly, the gross margin at 26.8% is higher by 900 basis points led by lower trade spend, lower cost driven by DMFI's asset light strategy and improved sales mix both in the U. S. And the base business. Margin for the base business which excludes DMFI improved by almost 3 10 basis points and DMFI by 9 10 basis points during the same period. EBITDA of US73.1 dollars is an increase of 30.8 percent mainly due to increase in gross profit and gross margin as explained previously. OI followed gross margin at $49,200,000 is up 63.4%. Net finance expense of $27,400,000 reflects a higher interest cost driven by higher coupon rate on high yield bonds issued in the U. S. However, lower on a reported basis as last year includes $11,300,000 for interest rate swap settlement and increased deferred financing charge on settlement of 1st and second lien secured loans. DMPL's share in Field Fresh joint venture was close to breakeven and which is an improvement versus last year, reflecting continued recovery of a business and change in mix more towards B2C following the pandemic impact. Last year, higher due to tax cost on dividends, I'm on tax cost now from subsidiary and also we had true up of tax on one off costs, partly offsetting higher tax expense due to higher net income before tax this year. Net debt at $1,257,000,000 lower by $106,000,000 due to stronger operating results and consequently the gearing ratio at 2 times lower by 0.4 times mainly driven by lower loans plus higher shareholders' equity following good and strong operating results. Next slide please. On the turnover analysis, Americas as you can see does constitute 66% of total group sales. It was lower by 34.6% in the Q4 to $330,000,000 mainly due to extremely high base coming from peak pantry loading in March April of 2020 and to some extent reduced promotions. Shares however held or improved in all categories on an equated volume basis. New products continued to perform well and contributed close to 7% to the MFI sales in the Q4. Asia Pacific sales in the 4th quarter increased by 23% to $150,500,000 from $122,300,000 mainly due to increase in all major segments including Philippines retail, S and W Fresh Pineapples and packaged business and exports of non branded processed pineapple and packaged products. It was really great to see how our fresh pineapple business bounced back in the second half and grew significantly and even better than pre COVID period. Sales in the Philippines domestic market were up in both peso and dollar terms by 6.1% and 11.9% respectively, mainly due to higher volume in general trade. The group continued to progress with expanding distribution coverage in general trade and is also seeing early signs of recovery in the foodservice business. Moreover, the sale of S and W Branded Business increased by 31% as explained earlier in the Q4 mainly coming from higher sales of fresh pineapples in North Asia as well as higher sales of pine solids, tropicals and juice drinks. Europe also had a good quarter at $17,000,000 in sales, which is an increase of 60% on a lower base coming from higher sales of packaged fruits and beverages. Next slide please. Next slide please. On full year results, the key highlights. Again in line with Q4, the NPL Group improved its gross margin to 25.7% from 21.2% on better sales mix, lower trade spending and lower costs. EBITDA more than doubled to $309,000,000 Net profit of $63,000,000 was a significant turnaround from the US81 $1,000,000 loss. In the prior year, EBITDA of Del Monte Foods surged to $170,500,000 from $33,000,000 in the prior year and delivered a net profit of $15,000,000 from a loss of $100,000,000 last year due to asset light strategy, which has generated significant savings and also led to a huge change in sales mix, which is more skewed towards branded sales. Our group reduced net debt, lowering the gearing to 2 times from 2.4 times as explained in the Q4 highlights. Final dividend again represented a 37% of FY 2021 net profits and has been approved by the Board. Next slide please. Group results on a summarized basis. Sales of 2,200,000,000 dollars is a 1.6% improvement versus last year. U. S. Sales declined 2.7%. Philippines is higher by 10.3% in local currency and 15.9% in dollar terms. S and W brand in Asia declined marginally by 0.9%, mainly due to lower sales of fresh pineapple in North Asia in the first half. Fresh Pine business was really a tale of 2 halves. First half was still recovering from the COVID impact, second half did exceptionally well. JV in India declined by 7.9% in local currency as B2B business did get impacted significantly by COVID-nineteen, but encouraging to see how the results were gradually improved particularly on the B2C business. EBITDA of US309 million dollars up 36.9 percent from US225.7 million dollars dollars due to better sales mix in the U. S. And Philippines and lower costs, including benefit from Asset Light strategy. Operating profit followed at $211,900,000 up 57% on a recurring basis. Net profit of $63,300,000 again on a recurring basis almost doubled from $32,200,000 and does include the impact from minority interest changes explained on slide 4. No one off items in 2021 and all figures that I just mentioned were excluding one off items. Next slide please. Results on a more detailed basis for fiscal 2021. F 2021 sales as mentioned of $2,160,000,000 is 1.6% higher than last year from higher sales in the base business both in Philippines and international markets, partly offset by lower sales in U. S. We will talk more about this in the turnover analysis. Group profit at $556,000,000 higher by more than $100,000,000 driven by volume increase in Asia, better sales mix both in Asia and the U. S, particularly in the U. S. And the gross margin at 25.7% stood 450 basis points higher than last year on a full year basis driven by lower trade spend, improved sales mix both in the U. S. And the base business, lower costs in the base business and U. S. Also contributed to improvement in the margin. Margin for base business on a full year basis increased by 250 basis points to 30.6% whereas for U. S. Gross margin improved by almost 500 basis points to 22.6%. EBITDA of 309 is up 117.2% from 142.2% mainly due to the increase in volume and more importantly the branded sales volume which led to an improved sales mix and lower trade spend and last year included one off costs as explained on Slide 8. Minor detail, increased depreciation from change in accounting of leased assets is $7,700,000 in 20 20 months. OI of 211.9, up 57.3 on a recurring basis and it's a complete turnaround on a reported basis with an increase of $161,000,000 Net finance expense, it does reflect higher interest costs driven by higher coupon rate on high yield bonds issued in the U. S. But if we exclude and that would be true if we exclude the one off costs that were related to incremental deferred financing cost settlement and interest rate swap of $11,300,000 as explained in Q4 that was booked in fiscal 2020. Just like Q4, on a full year basis, DMPL share in Field Fresh joint venture was a loss of $1,000,000 on an organic basis and lower than last year due to great effort put by the team to control costs and also reduce marketing spend to offset the impact of decline in B2B business due to the pandemic. Higher tax expense last year as Del Monte Philippines declared a dividend to its parent, which was taxed at 15% amounting to 39.6%. Net debt in line with Q4 is an improvement by $106,000,000 due to strong operating results. Next slide please. 2021 turnover analysis, Americas constitutes around 69% of group sales was lower by 2.7% to $1,500,000,000 that's what we delivered by way of revenue. This was actually driven by higher branded sales. Our branded sales increased by 2.5% in the U. S, offsetting the impact of extremely high base or coming from peak inventory loading in March, April 2020 and decline in private label sales that we have strategically pursued. The AMFI benefited in the categories and segments with strong leadership position as in home consumption increased throughout the year and consumers did trust did turn to trusted names. Growth in addition to category tailwind was also driven by increased distribution in club stores, e commerce and emerging channels. New products continue to contribute well and it was around 5.7 percent to EMI sales. Now moving to Asia Pac sales increased by double digit at 13% to $627,200,000 from $555,200,000 last year driven by Philippines and S and W sales of shelf stable packaged products. Fresh Pine business also surged and grew at pre COVID levels or better in the second half. Sales in the Philippines domestic market were up in both peso and dollar terms by 10.3% 15.9%, respectively, mainly due to higher volume both in general and modern trade, favorable sales mix and sales price variance too. The strong retail growth was driven by more or less all the categories in Philippines. Europe sales increased at $38,600,000 by 13% mainly from higher sales of packaged fruit as the supply of pineapple improved considerably in the 4th quarter. With that, I would like to hand it over to Greg for providing a more in-depth review on the U. S. Business. Thank you, Parag. If you could please turn to the next slide for market updates. Slide 18. On Slide 18, we've included some brief highlights on our performance in the U. S. At Del Monte Foods, we continue to maintain our leadership position in each of our core business and we are pleased with our market share growth in the Q4. Market share highlights include growth of our largest business canned vegetables of 1.6 share points and growth of our in our popular fruit cup snack business of 2.3 points. I'm also pleased to report that Del Monte, Contadina and College Inn businesses outperformed each of their respective categories in the Q4. Each of these portfolios now hold stronger share and broader distribution when compared to 2019 pre pandemic conditions. We continue to invest in consumer centric innovation and renovation. These efforts are successfully differentiating our products and our portfolio and they're enabling us to drive top line growth in a number of new channels, including club, dollar, natural and e commerce. These new products and new channels will lead us to continued positive top line growth in Q1 and FY 'twenty two. On the next slide, Slide 19, we've briefly summarized our key Q4 results. Sales were up I'm sorry, sales were down 34% compared to a year ago when the peak of pandemic stock up conditions were occurring in the U. S. I'm pleased to report that when compared to 2 years ago, pre pandemic, our branded portfolio delivered 18.4% growth in the quarter, signaling the strength of our portfolio. Our largest decline in Q4 sales was private label, which was intentionally reduced per our planned exit of margin dilutive non strategic business. I'm pleased to report that new product sales in Q4 were 8.6% of branded sales or 23,000,000 dollars and for the full year delivered 7.5 percent of branded sales or $85,000,000 New product growth was fueled by our performance in fruit cup snacks, our new premium pineapple line and our successful new frozen food item, Del Monte Veggie Full Pocket Pies. Gross margin in Q4 was 23.9%, a 9 10 basis point improvement, which Parag alluded to, and for the full year was 22.6%, a 500 basis point improvement. Key drivers of this gross margin improvement included low cost of goods driven by Asset Light and various cost reduction initiatives, our improved mix, which is focusing on building branded business and a decrease in trade promotion discounting. We generated a net profit of $4,600,000 in Q4 and there were no write offs. I'm also pleased to report that we received credit rating upgrades from both Moody's and S and P in the Q4. On the next slide, Slide 20, we've included some examples of our national marketing, shopper marketing and e commerce activities in the Q4. You will see an equal focus on our core business and our new products such as bubble fruit and pocket pies. Also included are some new creative execution examples of our Growers of Good campaign featuring various portfolio products. On Slide 21, we have highlighted our increase in public relations activities and media coverage in Q4, which included a large scale media event conducted virtually and multiple examples of feature coverage of our innovation efforts and initiatives and our leadership in plant based foods, our outreach efforts generated a 5 53% increase in impressions for the company versus year ago. Lastly, on Slide 22, we delivered growth in foodservice sales profit and profit margin in both Q4 and in FY 'twenty two, led by our collaborative efforts with chain customers, school districts and relief programs. As the economy has reopened in the U. S, we've seen a sharp increase in Q1 sales in this channel. Thank you. And I will now hand the presentation over to Mr. Cito Alejandro. Thank you, Greg, and good morning again to all of you. Happy to report that we not only grew our business in the Philippines, but equally important, we expanded our leadership share, thus providing a stronger foundation for future growth. These results were made possible by our world class marketing and sales operations. We never stopped. We continued our marketing and sales activities throughout the pandemic to bring more consumers to our franchise. Next slide, please. In the Q4, Philippine sales grew 12% in dollar terms, 7% in peso terms, both retail and food service sales improved. All our categories grew behind advertising and promotion programs that led to the market share increases. Renovation of core categories and innovation or new products, these were pursued throughout the year. And finally, we are investing in resources and infrastructure to accelerate our emerging e commerce business. Next slide, please. So right before you in living color is the breadth and depth of the products we introduced last fiscal year. In culinary, you will see a lot of low cash outlays, small packs, all meant to expand distribution in downline stores to further increase penetration among low income households. In the fruits and beverage categories, we focused on line extensions and seasonal packs for Christmas and the summer season. Next slide, please. In the fruit category, communication centered on in home meal preparations and home celebrations as people spend more time at home. We also introduced line extensions of our fruit cocktail featuring mandarin and jackfruit additions to build consumption during the off holiday season summer months. Next slide, please. Here are the initiatives on beverage guided by 2 key strategies. First is pushing health and wellness in pineapple juice, which as you know has become more relevant in these times. The other strategy is driving home consumption of our juice drink portfolio via expansion of our 1 liter tetra pack format. Next slide, please. In culinary, it was all about maximizing our opportunities in home cooking incidents with families spending time at home. Quick and easy continues to be winner. It is a meal mix. It's complete, easy to prepare and makes for delicious food and one doesn't have to be an expert cook. Next slide, please. I want to share with you our maiden entry into the dairy category. It has also broadened Del Monte's appeal amongst children. So Mr. Milk performed very well since its introduction only 10 months ago, and we expect to accelerate growth with increased marketing activities this year. Next slide, please. Another major development is our entry into the biscuits category. Left side of the chart is potato crisp made with real potato baked, not fried. Right side is our upcoming entry next month, fun filled fruity munchers. These are fruit filled cookies. Next slide. I'm sure this will interest a lot of you who've been watching Del Monte Pacific for many, many years. So we will relaunch our 10 year old Fit and Right juice drink with a totally new health proposition. There is no such thing as a one size fits all when it comes to weight management. Thus, our proposition, Your Fitness, Your Way, featuring a totally new lineup of weight management products that suit unique health needs. Next slide, please. I shall now move to S and W. In China, we are market leader in fresh pineapple under the S and W brand, and the business continues to grow. In Japan and Korea, we are very strong top 3. And good to note that S and W E Commerce and Digital are growing in North Asia, expectedly the biggest market being China. Next slide please. In the Q4, S and W sales of packaged products grew by 23% in Asia and the Middle East, driven by higher sales of canned pineapple and mixed fruits. Sales of fresh pineapple grew 53% in the 4th quarter coming from a low year ago that was impacted by COVID. Overall, our sales of fresh pineapple was hampered in the first half of the fiscal year due to carryover impact of COVID. However, it managed to rebound by the second half of the year. Next slide, please. Here is a great example of what we plan to do in China to further accelerate growth. This strategy is about increasing our distribution in food stores beyond where we are today with major chains Pagoda and Xiangfeng. So in summary, what we want to do is expand our potential playing field to an additional 3,000 food stores over the next 3 years. Next slide. So S and W has gone beyond selling fresh sweet pineapples to fresh frozen pineapple and it is gaining momentum across geographies, across customers. At the left side of the chart is our patented NICEFruit frozen pineapple stick, great for snacking, lots of sales and usage coming from the youth and millennials. At the right side is our new foray into IQF Pineapple, primarily for institutions and food service. Next slide, please. So here are more examples of how we are gaining more traction in our fresh frozen pineapple. In Nice Fruit, we got the KFC account in the U. K. And Ireland and McDonald's in the Middle East. Very soon, our efforts on Nice Fruit will be truly global. On IQF Pineapple, this has grown very fast in retail as well as convenience stores. Next slide. So this is my last slide. I just wanted to show to you a brief summary of S and W's packaged goods initiatives in retail, foodservice and e commerce in Asia and the Middle East. So, that concludes my portion of the review. I now turn you over to Igi Sison. Thank you, Sito. Sustainability is one of DMPL's strategic pillars, supporting our vision, nourishing families and reaching lives every day. In the Philippines, we are installing solar energy, which will increase our renewable energy by 2 megawatts, in addition to the waste to energy facility, which already generates 2.8 megawatts of energy. In the same BUGO processing facility, we improved our water use ratio last year. And during the pandemic, the Del Monte Foundation partnered with over 400 organizations to support communities and frontliners in over 50 medical facilities. In the U. S, we reduced our carbon emissions by 13% and water use ratio by 26% in FY 'twenty one. The Amanti Foods is a finalist for the Sustainable Food Awards, which recognizes organizations that help build a sustainable food industry, while the Amanti Pacific's FY 2020 Sustainability Report was a finalist in the Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards in Singapore for Asia's Best Community Reporting. Next slide, please. To recap our outlook, we will continue to strengthen our core business, expand the product portfolio in line with market trends for health and wellness and grow our branded business as we reduce the non strategic business segments. We will continue to improve product availability through better distribution and expanded sales in our core markets in the U. S, in the Philippines, North Asia for the fresh pineapple exports as well as other channels like e commerce. The Monte Pacific is well positioned in this environment given our nutritious and long shelf life products, which enable consumers to prepare nutritious meals at home and build their immunity amidst the pandemic. The NPL is well placed to build on the strong momentum achieved in FY 2021 and expects to offset the impact of commodity and transportation headwinds. The Monty Pacific expects to generate higher net profit in FY 2022. Before we proceed with the Q and A, we'd like to convey our apologies again for the change in the schedule because we had to hold a routine meeting with the regulator in line with the submission of the registration statement and application for the IPO of Tamag in the Philippines. So we regret any convenience caused by the change in schedule. Before we go, just one sorry about that, Dhiggy. I would like to just say a few words on Slide 16 that I missed, if that's okay. Yes, on the dividend slide. Yes. I did cover it, but just wanted to emphasize that. Slide 16, please. So would like to again reconfirm the 37% dividend that the Board has declared that equates to $0.01.02 and this would be expected to be paid by end of July. That's our plan as it stands. So we'd like to share the good news with the shareholders. Thank you. Sorry about that, Igi. Thank you, Parag. It's good to highlight the good news for our shareholders. We would now like to open the floor to questions. You can click the raise hand icon at the bottom of your screen, as some of you have already done, or post your questions in the Q and A box. Our colleague, Jennifer, will also read some questions, which have been emailed to her earlier. Jen? Okay. Hi, good morning, everyone. So we've had some questions emailed beforehand, and I see some questions in the Q and A box already. So I'll start off with some questions from George Tan on our U. S. Subsidiary, Del Monte Foods. First is how well did this subsidiary perform? Can we sustain profitable operations in fiscal year in fiscal year 2022? And there's a similar question also in our Q and A box from Wen Ji Chan. What sort of sales growth should we expect in FY 2022? What's a reasonable run rate going forward? Over to you, Greg. Yes, thank you, Jennifer. There's a few questions there. So, 1st and foremost, the performance we're quite pleased with. We are delivering the kind of results that we had modeled in our LRP, and we're probably 6 to 12 months ahead of schedule, if you look at where we are delivering our net income, our gross margin and our EBITDA. So the work that we've been doing has really been executed quite well. The sales that were lapping from a year ago include the tremendous initial lift of COVID. They include a 53rd week. They include a lot of private label business that we chose to exit. As we look at the business in the Q1 of the New Year and the outlook for fiscal 'twenty two and for the next 3 to 5 years, we've modeled a 5% CAGR for top line growth. So we see a clear path to growing this company from $1,500,000,000 today to $2,000,000,000 in sales. That will be driven by our focus on our brands, our focus on innovation and our focus on developing new sales channels. We remain very underdeveloped in a number of channels that we are now entering and having success within. As I mentioned, club stores, dollar stores, convenience stores, the natural food segments are just a few of the areas that we see tremendous growth potential within. So, quite optimistic about the outlook for growth, as well as gross margins. So I saw some questions in the Q and A area around margins and the outlook. We've raised our margins to well over 24% through the work of Asset Light and through the work to improve our mix. Those are the 2 primary drivers. So think about half of the credit going to Asset Light, which was really an effort to take away a lot of fixed manufacturing expense, a lot of layers of SG and A that we removed. And as we downsized operations focused on the plants that were the highest producers and the lowest cost and we've added a lot of capacity and a lot of production into those plants. So we're running our facilities much more efficiently. We've negotiated some substantial savings in our key areas of M and S such as metal cans and corrugate and film, and that has lowered our cost of goods. So that's one key benefit. The other benefit is by focusing on our branded business, which generate all of our margin and deprioritizing areas that were margin dilutive like private label, like USDA government bids and those type of activities, we're shifting that raw material and that production capacity to things that generate very, very positive margins. So our outlook for gross margins is further increases in fiscal 2022 and further increases in each year of the LRP. And we've committed to delivering gross margins that in the out years in the LRP that are at or above our peer group in the north of 25% in the 27% to 29% range is the outlook for the long term. So we see a clear path to doing that driven by the initiatives. There's more cost savings occurring. We didn't stop at Asset Light. Those cost savings are necessary to offset inflation. That's hitting us in the U. S. Just as it is in Asia, but feel confident about our ability to offset cost pressures in the coming year. Just to build on that. Thank you, Greg. I would like to clarify that we absolutely expect our margins to improve in the first half in the U. S. So margins will see the tailwinds coming from our low production cost and asset light benefits from last year. But in the second half, we would see a little bit more impact from headwinds. And as Greg rightly said, the cost headwinds that we are seeing around commodities, whether it's raw produce or whether it's metal packaging and a number of other areas, they would be offset with the benefits and programs that we are putting in place through more automation, through more direct labeling efficiencies around moving the product across the country and also increased volume. So those will mitigate it, but there would be some margin pressures in the second half as we go into it. But overall, from a full year perspective, as Greg said, we expect to improve on gross margins in the U. S. Thank you, Greg. Thank you, Parag. There is some follow-up related to cost pressures. So will we be increasing prices? This is a question from Mohammed Alireda and also from Wenjie Chan. Similar questions on whether we're planning to raise prices to offset some of the cost pressures and what's the magnitude of these price hikes, and also to maintain to help maintain gross margin. Some competitors have already communicated increased pricing later in the year. Yes. Great question. We actually led the market. We raised our prices on May 1. So we didn't wait till September or until December or January this year. We raised our prices immediately, May 1 on our biggest business, canned vegetables, in the neighborhood of 7% to 10%. We also raised our pricing on canned pineapple. And we are we've announced plans to raise our pricing here in September on our number 10 bulk business across that family of products. And then we've also taken some measures to reduce our trade expense and trade spending. So we are very proactive in our pricing actions. I would say that the reaction to our price increases in May has been quite favorable. We haven't seen any decrease in velocity or business on our core vegetable business. Actually, we've gained share and grown the business post price increase. So we feel confident in our ability to execute even more pricing action throughout the year. And on the Asian side, similar approach. We have taken pricing to mitigate the impact of headwinds in Philippines And the average price increase taken is around 2% to 3%. And we will continue looking at opportunities to go for a higher ASP in case we can't cover any additional headwinds that come our way. Thank you. Question from Paul Chu is how does the branded product sales grow with lower trade or marketing spend? And is this a new level of trade spend? Yes. We've been lowering our trade spend each year as we find ways to get more efficient and evaluate and better evaluate our return on investments. So we've consistently brought that trade spending down. When I joined the company a few years ago, our trade spend was, if you can believe it, was close to 28% of sales. Today, it's hovering around 17% to 18% as we brought it down each and every year. We'll continue to work on that approach. What we see is through the power of good marketing and good alliances with our partners and the fact that we've been able to rationalize a lot of our competition and have them eliminated from distribution, we really are the dominant brand. And as Parag mentioned in his presentation, the solid trusted brands are winning in the U. S. Market. The retailers and the customers are carrying fewer products and fewer brands. So you have to be a top player. You have to hold number 1 or number 2 market share to survive in the U. S. Right now and that's where we are. So we're leveraging our strength and we're building upon that and we're finding ways to grow through lower trade. But as I mentioned, we're also finding ways to grow through new outlets and new customers and new channels. So that's how we'll grow by spending less trade. What is the percentage of foodservice sales? And can you remind us which branded products enjoy higher gross margins? Yes. Our foodservice business is still low relative to our peer group in CPG. We're relatively new to foodservice as a company. For many, many years, this company was just focused on retail business, retail big box business within brick and mortar with big retailers and we do well there. But as we built that business, we've created a revenue platform, which is well over 5 percent of sales approaching, 10% of sales. And over the long term, we see room to grow. Our peer group in the U. S. Would normally have a foodservice business that's 20% to 25% of sales. We'd like to get there. And we believe we have the brands, we have the portfolio of products and we have some new leadership. We've been out hiring some very experienced and seasoned leaders in foodservice that come from CPG success and we place them around the country to build those relationships. That's one of the reasons we grew foodservice this year, while most companies did not because of the shutdown. And we see more growth occurring in the out years in foodservice. So that's one of our growth pillars. And then as you think about margins, there we have a nice base of margin mix across our brands. Our Del Monte portfolio, our core canned vegetable and fruit business delivers exceptional margins, much higher than our average margin as a company as we stated 24% today. That and our collagen broth business, the broth and stock business is highly profitable. It's been a nice growth sector for us. That's another category that over delivers. So most of our branded business meets and exceeds our hurdles. And what we've done is focus on eliminating the bad business. We had a lot of bad business in the portfolio 2, 3, 4 years ago that we've exited those contracts and we've moved on to better business. And that's been the strategy behind this growth in gross margins. Overall, from a group perspective, our foodservice business is less than 10%. So that would be applicable to the U. S. And our Philippines operation. In terms of margins overall, as Greg said, retail branded business is in line with FMCG and what we see on the Asian side. So pretty good margins in the U. S. And also our retail business on the Asian side, particularly in Philippines is very much in line with FMCG. Thank you, Jan. Thanks, Bahram. We have a question from Jamshed Desai. How much pantry loaded sales are embedded in the fiscal year 2021 sales in the U. S. That may drop away this year and be a headwind to reported sales growth, would the Q1 have a similar loading as the Q4? Okay. To begin, as we try to break away the difference between what's pantry loading and what's sustainable growth, a couple of factors to consider. We grew the number of households buying all of our categories by double digits during the onset of the pandemic. So we had many new users come into our category and as in each of our businesses. And as the pandemic went on in the U. S, we saw those new buyers buy several times, a second time, a third time, a fourth time. They've been using our products. We've built some loyalty. We've built some familiarity about our around our products. They've learned new ways to use our products. Our products have become staples in many household recipes as a result. So as we think about the category growth that we enjoy, which varied between 5% 15% during the duration of COVID, we don't have any intention to give that back. Obviously, category sales are going to moderate this year and flatten out in some places, but we don't intend to return to pre pandemic levels. So we're going to carry that benefit of a higher base of business. And the forecast for this year is some single digit growth in each of our category segments and thus far we're delivering on that. And actually we're ahead of plan as we think about our core flagship business, our canned vegetable and fruit business as we look at the initial results of the year. So, feel good that we've increased the buying base, the households buying and that we've established a new level of consumption that we're going to build on, throughout this year. Anything to add there, Parag? I think, Greg, you summed it up. With the distribution increase that we are seeing across multiple channels, including club stores, the growth story that we have in our Mexico operations or LATAM plus food service, which again Greg alluded to. Those are the additional drivers, which will absolutely make sure that any headwinds coming out of categories declining or becoming flat or flattish, they will allow us to continue the growth momentum including a very important driver around innovation. So we are on track to deliver and build on the strong base that we shared with you in 2021 results. Thank you, Greg. There's a question also on COVID related costs. Did we have any of them in the fiscal year 2021? Yes. We had COVID related costs of approximately $5,000,000 from a group perspective, that we incurred, but obviously they were offset by several other savings as well we had in overheads. So I would not expect the impact of COVID cost to be significant on our results. And we do expect to make sure that the environment, particularly around our plants and network and DCs continues to be safe. We would continue to have the same level of safety standards to protect our employees and the bargain make sure none of our locations are adversely impacted during the more important pack season considering how important it is for our business. Thanks, Parag. I'm just going to finish all the cost related questions. This is from Wei Tan. Can you elaborate on the impact of increasing raw material costs? How much percentage does it eat into our net margin? And do you see raw material costs tapering off? Or will the commodity costs remain high for the whole of next year? So, great question. Overall, from a group perspective, we are looking at headwinds across packaging space, raw produce as well. And in terms of total impact, we are looking at overall it being 2 to 3 percentage points of sales. But more importantly, we have so many levers in place to mitigate that margin erosion through the commodity headwinds or transportation headwinds that we have seen. Greg talked about pricing, favorable sales mix as we keep on increasing our branded business. Increase in volume also helps quite a bit in terms of making sure our conversion costs on an overall basis or per unit basis go down. So that's another measure. The value engineering work that is being done by our supply chain teams, both procurement, R and D and supply chain, there are several programs underway to again mitigate the impact of commodity headwinds. And several investments are being made so that we reduce our labor costs in our plants, particularly in the U. S. Our direct labeling is expected to increase significantly due to those investments and which will also have a significant impact on our transfer freight, which is almost 3% to 4% of sales in the U. S. So all those areas are being worked on and it's an amazing job done by the entire team, which is allowing us to stay ahead of the commodity headwinds and make sure we can protect our margins. That's a great summary, Praag. The only thing I would add to that is, keep in mind that we have some tailwinds due to the cost that we incurred in fiscal 2021 to supply our customers. We had to accelerate and expedite freight and choose many inefficient freight lanes and freight modes to keep up with these sharp surges in demand and the volatile nature of the consumption trends that occurred. We're lapping that this year and we'll be careful on how we manage resupply and how we manage service to our customers. So there's a lot of significant expense that we're going to avoid in this fiscal 'twenty two relative to fiscal 'twenty one cost. That is a positive tailwind for us. Thank you. Moving on to the Asian side, are we going to see the same pullback in sales in terms of magnitude, especially as Philippines emerges out of COVID lockdown? And then questions on U. S, Philippines and the group outlook in terms of sales growth and profitability. Situ, you want to provide a little bit color on Philippines first? Yes. As far as the Philippine market is concerned, we are optimistic that we can sustain growth not only this year, but in the succeeding years. What is good to note is we were able to increase market share during the COVID period. That's important because it really sets our level to a higher starting point going into this year. Food service is a different story. That used to account for 10% to 15% of our business. But right now, that portion is really challenged. And even the QSRs, the McDonald's and the others are not very optimistic that recovery will be soon. Likely, this will come in, in the first half of calendar year twenty twenty two. But having said that, the retail remains strong. And one positive one other positive development is we have actually increased our distribution coverage. So from about 60,000 plus stores directly covered, when we started the fiscal year back in May last year, we ended our fiscal year in April with 91,000 more store 91,000 total stores. So that again sets the pace for how we plan to grow the business moving forward. And as you know, direct coverage is very important. But this is just the start. Our vision is to take it to 130,000 stores this year and eventually get to our 200,000 store coverage 5 years from now that will put us at pace with the likes of Unilever and Procter and Gamble. So that in a way sums up the Philippines. Growth in beverage, culinary that continues to be positive. Also as you know, the kids are still at home. Schooling is still at home here. So that should all be positive for all of our products. Parag, anything else you want to add to that? Yes. Thank you very much, Sita. So building on that, right, so we did see some tailwinds coming from COVID in Q1 of last year. So I just want to emphasize on that. But with the plans we have around distribution expansion, some recovery of food service, as Sito said, recovery of food service will take a bit longer, but we are seeing signs of recovery. Distribution and commercial excellence will help to offset the tailwind that we saw in 1 or 2 quarters in Philippines. Our strong recovery of fresh business, which was unfavorable in the first half of twenty twenty one. All these things will help mitigate any category tailwinds that we saw for 1 or 2 quarters in Philippines business on the retail side. So we absolutely have plans to continue growing our operations just the way we talked about in the U. S. On Philippines and international markets too. Thank you, Parag. We have a question from Ronald DeSiguera for Philippine Market. With the favorable acceptance of Mr. Milk, how do we see the dairy product growth from product offering to market penetration? Well, first, let me tell you that the work on Mr. Milk is not yet over. I mean, we're not yet happy with the way even if we had a good start, there's more room to grow and we will accelerate this growth further this coming year. As you know, Mr. Milk is just our maiden entry in the dairy category. We right now have a we're working on a strategic partnership with a regional dairy player and Asian dairy player. I cannot disclose it at this point, but we expect to complete this very soon and we should have our new products in the market too. So that will that initiative together with Mr. Milk should broaden our footprint in the dairy category. Thank you. Lastly on the Philippines from Wengi, are we going to benefit from lower tax rates under the CARES Act? Can you help quantify the benefit? Yes. We would benefit marginally as the regular corporate income tax did get reduced, but we are also seeking and waiting for the implementation rules to come into place so that we can have a complete assessment. But based on our preliminary review, there is a marginal improvement in tax that we would expect on our BMPI side, which is effectively around 70 to 100 basis points on an effective tax rate basis. Okay. Thanks. Moving on Yes, connection problems, Jenny. What's the timeline in terms of refinancing and paying down? Okay. On the balance sheet side for U. S, what's the timeline in terms of refinancing and paying down debt? And how high is this in terms of our strategic objectives? From Eric Chow. So it's a great question. Thank you. We would be looking at options, but we don't intend to pay it down in fiscal 2022. The valuation would be considered in this year, but any plans to evaluate or execute the options would be more from next fiscal year. In terms of savings, we could lower the cost by 3 to 5 percentage points if we stay on course in terms of execution of our operating plans. Okay. We have a number of questions related to the IPO, so I'll ask all of them in one go. So first is, of course, the timeline for the IPO, what's the status? What will be the use of the proceeds? How much of the proceeds will be used to pay down the preference shares? Will you be scaling down the IPO? Okay, we can start off with those. The user proceeds at the DMPL level would be partly to redeem the prefshares A1 series, is $200,000,000 and partly to repay the debt at the holding company. So with that, we expect to improve our overall leverage debt to equity from a group perspective from 2 times that we outlined today and bring it down to 1 to 1.2 times. In terms of debt to EBITDA, from a group perspective, we are looking at our leverage to be brought down to almost less than 3 times. So that is what our outlook is and that's the use of proceeds expected in case we proceed with the IPO. And the timing? Timing, it is subject to regulatory approval and market conditions. So we can't really provide any definite timelines on the same. But we are working with the regulators on it. And how do you think the coming IPO of DMPI affect the share value of DMPL? It should have a positive impact as it will really unlock the valuation of our Philippine business or DMPI, which is our crown jewel. And that would have a positive impact on the valuation of DMPL as well. Okay. A question from Mohammed. With respect to capital allocation, can you comment on capital spending and the thinking around debt, the remaining capital to shareholders of fiscal basically said that dividend policy and why are we giving dividends in light of our debt level? So we are careful on our dividend policy and we are making sure that we pay the right level of dividends to reward the shareholders. And our retained earnings and also our ability to cash generate the cash flow has been considered while making this decision of paying 37% dividend on net income. Is there any other question, Jen? About the CapEx. CapEx that we plan to incur is around 2.5% to 3% of our group revenue. Thank you. Okay, let me see. There was an e mail from George on Field Fresh. How did Field Fresh perform given the COVID situation in India? And will this be a profitable operation in FY 2022 as planned? Will this be achieved? So as far as India operations are concerned, we would like to commend our India team for improving the cash profits. They improved their EBITDA considerably, considering how big the impact on the business India business comes from food service. We were able to generate positive cash profits as compared to a cash loss last year. Obviously, it had a significant overall impact on revenue. The revenue was lower by 11 percent to 12%. But the more important development that I would like to share is our B2C business improved by almost 20%. It grew by 20% and which is a big focus for us going forward, whereby we plan to improve the channel mix and have our revenue coming from B2C at around 60 5% to 70% versus less than 50% where we were a year or so back. So we are on the right track. We expect to achieve that in the next 18 to 24 months and that will allow us also to improve our gross margin by 300 to 500 basis points, which is our goal in India. That would be instrumental in terms of enhancing the value of that business and also turning it around from a net profit perspective, which is what we are on course to. Obviously, the COVID situation in India has made it complicated and that also has impacted our Q1 of fiscal year 2022. Thank you, Parag. Going back to the IPO from Wei Tan, how much of the Philippine profit will be reduced as non controlling interest or minority interest? What will be the net reduction in the group profit? So we expect the non controlling interest, which is today 13%. As you know, non controlling interest is 13% in fiscal 2021, that to increase to 25%. So it would more or less double and you can accordingly do the math in terms of what does it mean. The only thing I would say is it does lead to improvement in cash profits, including pref dividend of $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 from a DMPI perspective. Thanks, Parag. We have a question from Wen Ji on what's driving the significant increase in G and A expenses and what would be the growth like in the next 12 months? Separately, can you also talk about the outlook for distribution and selling expenses, especially given the increase in freight costs? Is it reasonable to think that selling expense should grow by at least greater than 10% in FY 2022? Great question, Jan. Thank you for that. In terms of G and A growth, G and A did increase for the group and that's because we did make some structural changes last year, which gave us some one time benefits from an IFRS perspective. For example, the defined pension plan in the U. S. Was changed that gave us some savings and similarly, retireal benefit programs were also changed that led to some one off benefits in IFRS accounting. We also did see the benefit of really having no variable compensation in the costs last year, considering we were restructuring the business and our performance was not in line with the plan. But considering this year, we have over delivered and increased our performance tremendously, you are seeing the variable compensation costs also being included in the G and A. Thank you, Parag. We have a question from Brian. Could you identify 1 or 2 weaknesses or threats that could challenge the group's position in the market or its profitability? Yes. I can help you with that, Parag. Thank you, Greg. Yes. Yes. I think we're in an ag based business here in the U. S. And we need to have a good pack season to build back inventory and stocks for our sales activities over the next 12 to 18 months. So there's always a potential risk. What we've done to help mitigate that risk is we've planned for a substantial increase in production as Parag alluded to. We're going to be using our plants like we haven't used them for some time to run production. We've also formed partnerships with global suppliers in many of our categories. So we're sourcing some of our key commodities from areas like Brazil and China and Greece as an example. So we're trying to balance that normal risk that we have. And I think the biggest pressure that we're facing collectively, and Parag has alluded to this earlier, is just the inflationary headwinds. We really need to make sure that we are on top of these headwinds. We're monitoring these headwinds, measuring them and identifying the offsets to each area of increased costs, so that there's no margin erosion, there's no profit erosion. That's our commitment and that's what we work hard at here. So we haven't seen I know a lot of the industry talk here in the States is around labor shortages. We've been able to keep our teams in place. We are adequately staffed for a healthy pack season and an ongoing workforce that we have is strong and well suited for what's in store the coming year. Parag, do you want to add anything to that? Thank you very much for helping out, Greg. Only thing I would add is successful execution of our innovation plans and entry into adjacencies is something that we would need to make sure we stay ahead of. Yes. Parag, thanks, Greg. There's a comment from George in Thanks, Greg. There's a comment from George in terms of reporting our results. Can you highlight the net income to common shareholders as preference shares take about a third of the reported net income? Thank you for the question, Jen. As you know, our net income prior to pref dividend is around $63,000,000 And if we take out the $20,000,000 that we pay by way of pref dividend, what's available to the common shareholders would be around $43,000,000 Thank you, Farag. Let me see. For those who have other questions, you can also raise your hand because I see there's a lot of questions and some may be similar. And if they have not been answered satisfactorily, you can also raise your hand and speak up. There's a question from Patrick Chan on can we assume that the FY 2021 is representative of what would be a base year for the coming year? So one thing that I am very pleased to report to the shareholders and to those who are on the call that we did not have any one off costs. So what you are seeing are the operating organic results in a true sense. There were no significant one off gains either that we have recorded in our DMPL books. So that should give a good baseline in terms of how we are looking at building our margins and top line going forward. Thanks, Prahlad. And going through the questions, if you want to Yes. And I think related to that too, I see a question around growth and target growth rate. And building off of Parag's comments, we've committed to top line growth of 5% in the coming year end. Our long range plan outlook of 5% CAGR is what we've modeled and committed to. Okay. Do the rest have any questions? And if you do, you can raise your hand for your questions. I don't see wait, there's one here. Okay, wait. There's some more coming in. Eric Chao raised his hand, Jen. Go ahead. Can you please unmute Eric Chao? Eric, go ahead. Wait, wait. Let me unmute Eric. Hey, Eric, please go ahead. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Yes. Just back on the refinancing side, I'm just wondering why we aren't looking at reducing interest expenses, I guess, more aggressively, given that we had an improvement in credit rating in the U. S. The business outlook is also improving. Yes, can we just get more color on that? Thanks. It's a great question. We did extend our ABL and also reduced our interest rates around the ABL. So we are seeing benefit of that right away. That was executed end of April. But when it comes to high yield bonds, we can't refinance it for the 1st 2 years. Yes. The no call period and the fees involved are substantial. So that's the reason we're not pursuing it right now. In the 1st 2 years. Yes. Great. Thanks. There is a question on IPO and on the price range and the PE. So I'm not sure if we're able to answer that now. So the question just came in as well. Yes. Our PE is based on really our comparables in the marketplace and the PE that we have submitted in our registration documents is around 29 times of our fiscal year 2022 estimated net income. Which is based on a theoretical maximum price. Okay. We have a comment from Wei Tan. Thanks, Greg, for including the market share change in your slide. So he's referring to the the included percentage increase or decrease on market shares on top of just stating the market shares. Appreciate that you acted on his feedback before. His question is, is canned tomato still a market we want to grow? Yes. Thank you and we appreciate that feedback. So I think that was a good suggestion and we're happy to include that change. When it comes to tomatoes, there's a couple areas of tomato category that we do like. We like the authentic Italian tomato space. It's one of the fastest growing segments. We have an authentic Italian brand in Cantadina and we are seeing growth in velocity and growth in distribution. We also like the organic tomato category in that space and we see an opportunity to grow there over the long term. So there's parts of that business we like. It's tougher to compete in the more commoditized, price driven areas of base tomatoes, but we do like the more culinary, more premium places and there are big categories in the U. S. That we are pursuing. Thank you, Greg. Can you talk about your A and P marketing spending plans? How much would be the year on year increase and what would you be spending on? Separately, can you provide a bit more color on how you see the sales mix changing and the corresponding impact on the gross margin? Okay. Our advertising and promotion plans have not increased significantly this year. Our budgets haven't changed dramatically. One thing that Parag and I have been driving is we've been working to reduce our non working media spend and investment to find efficiencies and savings and agency fees and associated miscellaneous costs. And we're redistributing that those dollars into working media. So we're going to get greater impressions and greater impact with a similar budget and advertising and promotion. So we're excited about that and we are seeing some very positive change there. When it comes to mix, we're not quite done with private label. We're winding down some of the very last private label contracts and continue to grow a bigger percentage of our mix in branded business that continues to become a bigger and bigger portion of what we do. So that inherently will bring positive gross margins with us. And it's one of the reasons that Parag alluded to the fact we feel very comfortable in our first half gross margin improvements over this prior fiscal year and our total year gross margin improvements driven by that improved branded focus and branded mix, less and less private label, more and more brands as well as our cost actions to remove costs throughout our supply chain and lower our cost to produce. Thanks, Greg. Is there any further restructuring in the state in terms of cutting costs such as factory load shirts, etcetera? We're always looking for ways to save and ways to cut costs and be more efficient and increase utilization. So we are through the majority of in the bulk of our asset light work, but the work never stops. We're looking for ways, as Parag mentioned, to increase efficiencies, decrease the number of warehouses we have, decrease inventory. So we have more of a just in time M and S environment and finished goods environment. So we're looking for and we're finding lots and lots of cost savings throughout all parts of the supply chain and that's never going to stop. That's just part of what we do. But in terms of major asset sales and major restructuring and one time events, those are behind us. Anything to add there, Frahd? Thank you, Greg. We have a good question from Paul Chiu. How much low margin our business to be emphasized is left in the U. S. Operations? And once this disappear, can it lift net profit? Thank you. We have already made significant changes in our sales mix. That will continue. We would see further reduction in private label sales, particularly around Vedge. But in terms of major changes that we had to make, they have already been addressed in terms of taking out non profitable businesses. But continuous approach to really looking at anything that does not generate accretive profits will continue, but the big bets are behind us. Yes. Yes, we finished the year with about $100,000,000 in private label sales and about $200,000,000 in what we call miscellaneous sales. And those are the things that Farag and I keep looking at for ways to reduce that small sales base now. It's much smaller than it used to be and move that into branded business. I have one last question from George. In case I miss out any of your questions, please raise your hand. So this question from George, will there be a special dividend because of the IPO? That would be first subject to us completing the IPO. And once that is done, if the Board approves it, we would look at it. But the first focus is to really get this to the finishing line and then make any proposal to the Board around that. Okay. Thank you, Parag. Are there any more questions? Wait, I see one here from Eric. On the S and W side, are there any opportunities to introduce new product categories into China and North Asia? Juan will take that, Parag. In China and North Asia, in China, first of all, what we are focused on is really driving our business on the fresh side. There is tremendous potential. And we see that in the low consumption and also distribution opportunities in 2nd tier and third tier cities. We also are focused on growing our frozen business in China. So that's an area which we see opportunities in and also on the North from concentrate premium juice, which have been recently introduced. So all pineapple centric, that's where we are focused in terms of continuing our momentum in China and North Asia. Okay. We have a question from Ramesh. E commerce is a major platform to tap upon. Can Greg give us updates on that in the States? Yes. We were encouraged, like most CPG companies, by the substantial growth in e commerce sales this year in both what you call pure play through the Amazons, but also through what we call kind of click and collect through our brick and mortar partners that had tremendous growth through curbside programs and delivery programs. So we see this as just an avenue of tremendous continued growth. We actually have done a lot of work in this area this past year and we formed a new e commerce division within our selling organization with a Vice President that we hired from a very powerful CPG organization and a team behind her that are paving a lot of new ground for us. So we see this as being a very large segment of what do in the future. Obviously, off of a relatively low base, we're seeing increases of 100% in growth. But we really think that COVID accelerated the e commerce channel in the U. S. By 3 to 5 years. The adoption rate by U. S. Consumers has been incredible. They like the convenience. They like the simplicity. So we're seeing success helping both traditional retailers like Walmart and Kroger as well as the Amazons in the world find success, and we're investing a lot of time and effort against this. So it is a major vehicle for growth for us. Thank you, Greg. I don't see any more questions in the Q and A box. Anyone still wants to raise their hand for questions? If not, let me see. And there's one more from Eric. What sort of growth rate can we expect for S and W? And what are the gross margins like? So when it comes to S and W, there are 2 parts, as you know. 1 is fresh. On fresh, our margins are very healthy. In terms of where we are from an EBIT perspective, it's close to 30% and we expect to sustain those margins or improve on it. In terms of growth rates, it should be in line with the momentum and growth that we have achieved in the last couple of years. When it comes to our packaged packaged fruit business and beverages, that also will continue to grow at a stable rate of high single digit to low double digit that we are seeing in 2021 in our results. I think also to add to that, our focus on S and W is really North Asia. And we also have pockets of businesses in Europe, which we will continue, particularly our co branding with Saint Mame in France, where we are the number one pineapple brand alongside that co branding with Saint Mame. But basically, it will be a North Asia play because we believe that that is where the greatest opportunity lies over the next 5 years and especially as Parag mentioned on fresh China where the per capita consumption of fresh pineapple is still very underdeveloped compared to mature markets like Japan and Korea? Okay, thanks. Ramesh, I unmuted you because I see your question here. You're referring to Asian growth, right? Go ahead, Ramesh. You have a question? Go ahead, Jenny. Ask Ramesh to ask his question. Felipe, so that's Asia. Sorry, can you hear me? Are you able to hear me? Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, Jen. I think Ramesh also posted the question, has he diner collaboration propelled growth? Yes. So the Asia growth was stronger. Asia ex Philippines growth was strong and appears to be e commerce based. Can we get more color on that? And has C Diner Aberration Propel Growth? So on C Diners, C Diners has been a great partner. They have been predominantly a financial investor, but they have worked with us on a number of areas as we developed our long range plan, particularly evaluating our China story and also trying to look at avenues to get into categories such as plant based products or ready to eat meals. So there are a few areas where we continue working with them, but it's more on the strategic side that they have really helped us a lot. Thank you. We have a question from Wen Ji. BMFI's 4th quarter EBITDA margin and GP margin were higher than 4Q of 2019. But why do we not see any increase on net margin basis? So net margin, as we said, our net profit is a complete turnaround for DMFI versus last year. So we have registered a net profit of close to $5,000,000 or $4,600,000 to be more precise in the Q4 and our margin gross margin at 24% is a big improvement versus last year. It's literally night and day when you look at the gross margin of the 2 quarters. I think it's also referring to versus 2019. We have higher GP and EBITDA margins, but net margin has not increased as much. It's probably due to the increase in interest? It's not just increase in interest, but also again as we were looking at opportunities to improve our business, there are certain one off gains that we had in the Q4 of fiscal year 2019 too, particularly around benefit funds. Yes. I don't see any more questions in the Q and A box. Okay, Yes, we can wrap up. Want to raise his hand? Are there any other questions? Any questions? Maybe if we can have a line from Greg, just to summarize because there had been many questions about the prospects, especially in the U. S, so we can wrap it up with maybe 1 or 2 lines about prospects in the States. And then Sito can also talk about the Philippines and our North Asia after Greg can wrap up, yes. Okay? Sure. Thank you, Jen and Igi. We have in terms of the U. S, as Parag and I have kind of alluded to throughout the conversation here, we have a strong outlook for growth in the U. S. Market. We've modeled a 5% top line increase and a 5% CAGR over the LRP. And that growth is coming from a number of areas. It's coming from innovation, but it's also coming from channel development. We've successfully built business and achieved and earned new contracts in the dollar channel, the club channel, the natural foods channel. We're seeing really nice growth building in foodservice in Latin America. So we have a number of channels that we are going to continue to drive growth within on our branded business as well as keep introducing this pipeline of successful innovation that we've now created. This year, our net sales from innovation were almost $90,000,000 and that's going to keep growing over time through the successful efforts that we're adding. So that's the picture why we're pretty optimistic about top line growth in the U. S. As category growth rates stabilize, we'll still grow through those initiatives. Okay. Jenny, you want me to speak now? Yes, Tito. Yes, please go ahead. Yes. Thank you, Greg. So, for Del Monte Philippines, which is really the Philippine market and our international business, I just wanted to share with you 4 building blocks for future top line growth. Number 1 is channel expansion. As earlier mentioned, in the Philippines, we will continue expand our brick and mortar distribution. We're not yet done there. And I talked about increasing our distribution to 200,000 stores over the next 5 years. Beyond that, the other channel that we are very much interested in developing is e commerce. And what we plan to do is beyond just simply investing in resources and infrastructure, we are going to convert our kitchenomics platform. We have this website on kitchenomics that provides all of these meals and menus. 3,000,000 followers in the Philippines. We're going to capitalize on that one and try to see whether we can commercialize that and convert that to our own e commerce platform. The second is, which is good to note is the demand will grow. All indications from market data and also from global data confirm that the categories we are in today will continue to grow over the next 3 to 5 years. And as this happens, we are also preparing our infrastructure in our supply chain to make sure that we're able to respond to the growth in demand, particularly also for the fresh pineapple business. And as you know, that takes a while. That has a gestation that has a preparation period of about 3 years given the agricultural nature of that business. The 3rd building block is really portfolio upgrades and diversification. As far as our core categories are concerned, we will continue to refresh them, make them relevant and meaningful. We will introduce line extensions, product quality improvements, all of those to refresh the current core business because that in itself is still significant. And then, of course, we have the adjacencies on the new categories, dairy, snacks, and we will we are also taking a look at other important categories that are in the pipeline right now that we are developing. We're not yet done with that because our vision is to is for the new products and the innovation, all of these to contribute at least about 10% to 15% of our NSB, of our revenue over the next 5 years. And that is a significant contribution coming from these upgrades and from these new products. And of course, as far as ASP growth is concerned, the strength of the Del Monte brand equity coupled with its consumer preferred products give us the runway of pricing power in the Philippines. And that is very important as far as making sure that we stay within our target margin over our long range plan. So, I would like that pretty much sums it up and I do hope that you have I do hope that you're delighted with what you found out this morning from Greg and from us that this company is very different from what I'm sure most of you have been have observed us over the past years. So we are really on a roll here. Thank you. Go ahead, Igi. Thank you, Tito. Thank you, Greg and Parag. So we hope, as the management team said, that you will see the very strong results of the NPL in FY 'twenty one, the turnaround of the Amonti Foods with a net profit of $15,000,000 EBITDA of $170,000,000 as well as record sales of the Almonte Philippines and also record net profit of $94,500,000 And with this, we conclude our briefing. Thank you for joining us despite the change in the schedule, and we look forward to touching base with you soon. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Igi. Greg, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye.