Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings Inc. (TYO:2579)
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May 1, 2026, 3:30 PM JST
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Earnings Call: Q2 2022

Aug 12, 2022

Speaker 4

Good afternoon. I am Masaomi Gomi, Investor Relations Department manager for Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings. Thank you for joining us today for our Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Call for analysts and investors. I'm here with President Calin Dragan, CFO Bjorn Ulgenes, and Takashi Wasa from The Coca-Cola (Japan) Company. Following prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. This presentation is intended for analysts and investors, so we ask members of the media listening to today's call to please hold your questions for our media session scheduled separately. Simultaneous translation in both Japanese and English is being provided for today's call, and during Q&A with separate telephone lines for Japanese and English. Before we begin, let me remind you that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements, including statements concerning annual and long-term earnings objectives, and should be considered together with cautionary statements contained in our supporting presentation.

Both are posted to the Investor section of our company website. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to President Calin Dragan. Calin Dragan-san.

Calin Dragan
President and Representative Director, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

Thank you, Gomi-san. Good afternoon, everyone. Calin Dragan here. I will begin by sharing the summary of our first half 2022 earnings. Please turn to slide five of the presentation. In the first half, sales volume increased by 4%. Volume growth was achieved overcoming the large initial volume impact from the large PET revision implemented ahead of the industry. With the foundation built to date, we achieved growth by capturing opportunities, introducing new products, and implementing effective promotions. In late June, we faced a sudden surge in demand from the heatwave. Improvement in the S&OP process followed last year's supply challenges. This allowed us to flexibly respond to record levels of demand fluctuations and contributed to volume growth. Total channel value share grew by 8 points versus last year. Value share growth in our important vending channel drove overall growth.

Value share for the OTC channel, which has been facing challenges, turned to growth in the second quarter and for the first half. This is thanks to initiatives that captured market share, overcoming severe market conditions. Wholesale revenue per case is on an improving trend overall. With the price revisions, wholesale revenue per case for the OTC channel grew in the second quarter compared to the previous year. Our vending channels also saw improvement through initiatives to optimize selling prices. We achieved growth in wholesale revenue per case while growing volume. Business income loss widened compared to the previous year, though. Volume growth, price revisions, and transformation efforts all contributed to profits. However, this was offset by raising commodity prices, rapid currency depreciation, and a continued severe competitive environment, and the cycling of the one-time cost savings achieved last year.

From a profit standpoint, we are still in a difficult situation, but the top line is returning to a growth trajectory as we capture the recovering traffic trends. For July, we continue to grow volumes. To improve profitability, we have already implemented price revisions for large PET as planned, and they are preparing for the price revisions for small packages in October. Now let me ask our CFO, Bjorn Ulgenes, to take you through the details of the first half earnings.

Bjorn Ulgenes
CFO, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

Thank you, Calin. Hello, everyone. This is Bjorn Ulgenes. Please see slide six for the first half results. As Calin explained earlier, although sales volume increased by 4%, revenue growth was 1.8% due to a challenging competitive environment and increased sales deductions. Looking at the second quarter alone, the mix is improving with volume growth of 3% against the 3% revenue growth. Business income decreased by JPY 3.4 billion on the previous year, resulting in a loss of JPY 18.2 billion. The factors behind the decrease will be detailed on the next slide. Operating loss improved by JPY 3.8 billion from the previous year. This includes the continued balance sheet improvement efforts, such as the approximate JPY 3.7 billion gain from the sale of fixed assets. Net income decreased by JPY 9.5 billion.

This is mainly due to the cycling impact of a JPY 12.5 billion gain on the sale of shares in our subsidiary, Q'sai, being included for 2021. On slide seven, you will see our primary business income drivers. From the left-hand side are volume, price, and mix, which shows the year-on-year change in marginal profit from the commercial activities, improving by JPY 2.7 billion from the previous year. This was supported mainly by volume growth in the immediate consumption channel with recovery in traffic and from the heatwave. We also saw improved wholesale revenue per case in the second quarter from price revisions, as well as improved package mix. This also includes the impact of increased rebates due to promotional activities in response to increased competition. As volume grew, fixed marketing expense or DME increased by JPY 3.5 billion from the previous year.

This was driven by strategic investments to capture traffic recovery demand, as well as strengthen marketing activities ahead of the peak season. It is progressing on plan. For our 2022 commercial strategy, we target marketing investments with a focus on profitability, and we believe our investments in growth channels and packages will lead to mid- to long-term market share and volume growth. Impact of commodity was a JPY 6.2 billion deterioration versus the previous year. As we are affected by rising raw material prices, we are taking all possible countermeasures, including hedging. The price rises in PET and aluminum are significant. Additionally, the rapid depreciation of the yen had an impact. The effect of these factors has been ongoing and is expected to impact future business performance as well. Manufacturing costs improved by JPY 1.8 billion compared to last year.

Improved manufacturing efficiencies helped absorb higher energy costs caused by crude oil prices. In other costs, we saw an improvement of approximately JPY 1.8 billion compared to the previous year. Labor costs increased with the cycling of last year's temporary leave. However, we achieved a net positive contribution with improved logistics costs and our new mega distribution center. Controlled CapEx has resulted in a decreased depreciation expense. This also includes a lower depreciation expense with a change in the useful life of sales equipment from nine years to 11 years. CapEx is broadly in line with initial full- year plan. Investment in the Akashi Mega Distribution Center was booked in the first half, but investment has decreased from the previous year with the cycling of the Saitama mega distribution center investments booked last year. These were the main drivers of business income.

Please see slide eight for volume performance by major channels and categories. For the first half, sales volume increased by 4%. By channel, supermarkets, drugstores, and discounters, volume was impacted by the large PET price revisions and intensified competition. Convenience stores, which has been experiencing challenges, posted a volume increase of 8% in the second quarter and 2% for the first half. This was achieved through the contribution of new products and strengthened collaboration with customers despite the persistent intense competitive environment. Vending was up by 3% from the previous year, thanks to both strategic machine placement, reinforced in anticipation of traffic recovery and effective deployment of the Coke ON app. Retail food volume increased by 20% with a recovery in people dining out as COVID restrictions lifted. Wholesale revenue per case is improving overall.

In supermarkets, drugstores, and discounters, we saw the positive effects of price revisions for large PET. Vending also grew from the previous year with sales price improvement activities. Details of price revisions and other initiatives will be explained later. By category, Sparkling had contributions from new products, Fanta Premier Lemon and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Lemon. Volume was flat year-on-year, impacted by the large PET price revisions. For Tea, Yakan no Mugicha from Hajime continues to grow volume since its introduction last year, and new Ayataka Cafe Hot Chocolate also contributed to growth. The sports drink category grew by 9%, benefiting as COVID restriction lifted on events and from the heatwave. Slide nine highlights market share trends.

Our operating areas total channel value share for the first half grew by 0.8 points from last year. This is a result of a continued growth in vending value share and value share turning positive for the second quarter in the convenience store channel, which previously saw slow growth. We will continue to improve market share by leveraging our growth foundation and capture the recovering demand opportunity. For OTC retail prices, large PET has turned positive from last year with the previous revisions. Both our small PET and large PET are maintaining a premium price to the market average. We will continue to supply refreshing products and implement effective promotions. Slide 10 is on the progress of price revisions for large PET and efforts to improve wholesale revenue per case in vending. Large PET price revisions implemented in May to improve earnings base is progressing as planned.

Supermarket, drugstores, and discounters wholesale revenue per case improved by JPY 52 in the second quarter with the benefit from price revisions. While large PET volume declined significantly following the price revisions, volume is recovering ahead of the peak summer season. The rate of recovery is at a faster pace than the 2019 price revisions. Retail prices are increasing alongside shipment price. Our retail prices were at a premium to the industry average even before the price revisions. Our retail prices have increased while maintaining the premium, allowing us to confirm the effectiveness. The left graph below shows the trend of the retail price of brand Coca-Cola's large PET bottles. As one example, one can see the retail price has increased by approximately JPY 20 since the time of the 2019 price revisions.

Our large PET price revisions ahead of the industry was carried out with determination to build a revenue base. We will continue efforts to maintain the shipment price of large PET and are determined to carry out the price revisions for small packages scheduled in October. In the profitable vending channel, we improved wholesale revenue per case by JPY 29 while achieving volume growth of 3% in the second quarter. To achieve volume growth, we captured a tailwind of traffic recovery and favorable weather conditions. We strengthened our product lineup, launched new products, implemented campaigns through Coke ON, and placed new vending machines in prime locations. In addition, we have been able to achieve volume growth and wholesale revenue per case growth together. This was made possible by strengthening premium products with high unit prices and actively reviewing price promotions.

We feel that the strong market share foundation we have built to date has made a significant contribution. In this difficult business environment, we believe that efforts to improve our earnings base are important, urgent, and will continue implementing a profitability-focused pricing strategy. On slide 11, I would like to share the supporting factors for the volume growth. In the second quarter, the market environment was characterized by tailwinds, such as the recovery in traffic at an early end of the rainy season and the heat wave in the second half of June. In this environment, we were able to achieve steady growth by leveraging the foundation we have built and capturing increased demand opportunities. In Commercial, we continued investments to strengthen our sales base, even in the difficult times of COVID. This allowed stable growth when the traffic recovers.

We have taken measures such as reinforcing vending machine placements while assessing the return on investments, expanding store sales space, and rebuilding a market share base. We also introduced new products and packages to suit different locations and developed promotions centered around our core brands. As a result, we captured increased demand during the current phase of traffic recovery and achieved steady growth in volume and sales revenue. Efforts to avoid lost sales opportunities have been successful, and the challenged supply structure of last year have improved greatly. Demand jumped in the last week of June with traffic recovery, an earlier than usual end of the rainy season, and the heat wave.

Our product shipments has achieved historically high levels, and we were able to supply products without major disruptions, thanks to our efforts to fundamentally improve the sales and operational planning process using learnings from the previous year. Inventory has remained tight since July with rising demand, but we are working to ensure a stable supply while minimizing shortages. Our new sales and operational processes have improved demand forecasting accuracy, sped up decision-making based on scenario planning, enrich financial data to support decision-making, and enhance communication throughout the process. Through these improvements, the modernized infrastructure, such as mega distribution centers, we continue to build a supply system that can flexibly respond to demand fluctuations. Now I'd like to ask the Chief Marketing Officer of Coca-Cola Japan, Takashi Wasa, to take you through the marketing initiatives updates. Wasa-san, please.

Speaker 4

This is Wasa from the Coca-Cola Japan. Let me walk you through 2022 quarter two review and quarter three marketing highlights. To begin with, 2022 quarter two review. In June, Coca-Cola Brand launched the Coca-Cola summer campaign with the key message, "Coke Music: Charting the Magic of Summer." We launched Coke Studio, a new platform for enjoying music content featuring up-and-coming artists from around the world, including K-pop rising stars, ENHYPEN. In conjunction with the summer campaign, we are also implementing an instant win promotion, which can be entered by purchasing eligible products. In addition, the first flavor of Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Lemon, was launched as a limited release, contributed to sales growth. Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero 100% recycled label-less 300-350 milliliter PET bottles were launched in April, exclusively online.

The Coca-Cola Spencerian logo is debossed on the label-less bottles, a process that creates a concave effect, successfully promoting both the brand and reducing the amount of plastic used, which helps promote our ESG initiatives. Turning to Georgia and Costa. Georgia communicates its support for daily timely refreshment during the hot summer, centering on the renewal of the Georgia Japan Craftsman series that maintain its refreshing taste from the beginning to the end. In addition, a new product, Georgia Japan Craftsman White Mocha, was launched in June. From Costa Coffee. Costa Coffee Almond Latte, a high quality latte, was launched made with rich espresso, domestic milk and almond milk. The number of Costa Coffee fans who are particular about the hand-brewed quality of Costa Coffee has been steadily increasing. Leveraging Georgia and Costa Coffee brands effectively, we have succeeded in expanding our market value share in the coffee category.

In April, Ayataka celebrated its 15th anniversary and revamped its package design and campaign. We are strengthening our core products by conveying the peaceful and aromatic flavor of Ayataka, delivering the relaxing tasty taste that accompany people in their daily life on the concept of aromatic umami made with tea leaves brewed until fully open. In addition, in April, Ayataka Cafe Hojicha Latte went on sale. The second product in the Ayataka Cafe series of authentic lattes made with the finest ingredients and manufacturing methods, combined with Ayataka Cafe Matcha Latte, launched in March of last year. Total shipment of Ayataka Cafe series exceeded 200 million bottles. The next and next generation relaxation drink, CHILL OUT, was renewed in April. Together with renewal, a new campaign, Want to Chill or Push to Heart, was launched. We're expanding products awareness through trials and creating a new profitable category.

In May, we launched a new energy drink in collaboration with Yoshiki of legendary rock group X Japan. Real Gold X is inspired by uplifting rock music, and Real Gold Y is inspired by concentration through classical music. Through Yoshiki's message of nothing is impossible music-based marketing, we are inspiring the next generation to take on various challenges with this new energy drink. We successfully tapped into the profitable energy drink category. Next, I am going to walk you through Q3 highlights. Coca-Cola Creations is a new platform for collaboration between Coca-Cola and pop culture. From this Coca-Cola Creations series, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, the artist Marshmello's limited edition was launched in July. A limited release collaboration product with electronic music producer and deejay Marshmello, who has huge following among zoomers around the world. Turning to Fanta. Fanta has launched the Fanta Mix at Home in Summer campaign.

The campaign aims to bring smiles to the faces of the whole family by sharing ideas to create an original Fanta mix of your favorite Fanta topped with fruits, ice cream and sweets. At the same time, Fanta created a web commercial through a special collaboration with girl group NiziU and the general public. This collaboration will deliver the positivity, fun, colorful individuality and playful spirits that Fanta values, along with NiziU's music. A summer campaign for Ayataka Cafe will start in July through TV commercial, digital ad, and OOH. The appeal of the delicious chilled Ayataka Cafe will be delivered. This summer, enjoy the cool and relaxing coolness of summer in Japan with the cold matcha latte and hojicha latte from Ayataka Cafe. Ayataka Core will launch its second campaign based on the concept of aromatic umami made with tea leaves brewed until fully open at the end of August.

The campaign aims to further expand and invigorate the green tea market by offering autumn season food and ingredients. In its second summer, Yakan no Mugicha, which aims to provide the authentic taste of barley tea brewed in kettle, will launch a big campaign with a mileage promotion whereby consumers can receive original goods when purchasing products, alongside television commercials and other advertising activities. We aim to expand our drinkers to more generations through this campaign. Last but not least, the Lemon-Dou brand, which specialize in specialty lemon sour, has launched a summer campaign focusing on one of the most important occasions, enjoying drinks with a meal. The campaign's designed to encourage the combination of strong flavored hearty food and the strong lemon sour Lemon-Dou. Along with the campaign, Lemon-Dou six-pack will be launched as a limited offering to attract loyal consumers. This is a summary of my presentation today.

Our marketing strategy for this year continue to have three main pillars: pivot to core, fuel bigger innovations, and capture stay-at-home demand. We will continue to respond flexibly and quickly to changes in the environment and further grow sales and revenue by strengthening our core brands and strongly accelerating the growth of second year innovations launched last year and this year's new innovations. Our marketing plan is underlying our company purpose, refresh the world, make a difference. We will continuously strive to deliver refreshing moments and positive feelings through our beverages. That's it for my presentation today. Thank you very much.

Calin Dragan
President and Representative Director, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

Thank you, Wasa-san. Calin here again. Please turn to slide 17. I will now explain the outlook for the second half of the year, and first, I will discuss the external environment. The beverage market in the first half of the year, it's estimated to have grown by about 4% from the previous year, supported by the rebound in traffic with the lifting of COVID restrictions, the fastest end of the rainy season on record, and the heatwave in late June. The market has been growing for four consecutive months since March. For the second half, our overall view of the beverage market to continue steady recovery in volume remains unchanged. However, new COVID cases have recently been rising. It is necessary to carefully monitor the impact of future restrictions and traffic trends. In addition, the risk of higher costs due to external factors is increasing.

Commodity prices remain high compared to pre-COVID levels, and together with the yen depreciation, this will have significant impact on corporate earnings in our industry. The business environment is expected to be challenging with the commodity prices and yen depreciation having an even greater impact. The risk of inflation on household finances and consumer sentiment also needs to be closely monitored. The following slide will explain our outlook for the second half, considering this business environment. Please see slide 18. I will explain the risk and opportunities expected for the second half of the year. As briefly mentioned earlier on risk, there are three major factors. First is the commodity impact. Commodity prices have remained above our initial expectations, and we are working to mitigate the impact by using hedging and other measures. Price of materials such as PET have been trending above our estimates, making the impact unavoidable.

Second, its Forex is expected to have an even greater impact. Although the situation has stabilized somewhat, the yen has depreciated more than initially expected, leading to higher cost for raw materials and impacting our business performance. As for the additional impact from commodities and Forex, we are currently expecting an increased cost of about JPY 3 billion on top of the JPY 11.3 billion communicated in the guidance announced in May. Thirdly, we need to pay attention to the uncertainties in the future consumer behavior coming from the current unstable environment. There is a risk that a COVID resurgence will affect traffic and changes in consumer sentiment with inflation, which could impact future demand for beverages. We must closely monitor the impact of these uncertainties, especially as we prepare for price revisions in October.

While we are faced with various headwinds, we will create new growth opportunities to overcome the impact. First, we will grow by taking advantage of the recovery in traffic. With the growth foundation and the supply structure we have built, we will capture the opportunity for demand increase, especially during the peak season. In the first half of the year, the results of our activities, such as growth in volume and market share in the highly profitable immediate consumption channel, are becoming evident. We will continue to strengthen our efforts in the second half of the year. We will further improve profitability by successfully implementing the price revision for small packages scheduled for October. This impact has not been reflected in the full-year earnings forecast announced in May.

We continue to monitor the situation after the price revision of large PET in May, and work to generate the benefits as planned. In addition, we will work to mitigate the impact by controlling all the costs. While the business environment in the second half is by no means optimistic, we will continue to commit to the full year business income targets announced in May, and we will do this by overcoming the negative factors to various growth opportunities. Please look at slide 19 for updates on our ESG initiatives. With creating shared value as the foundation of our business, we have formulated CSV goals representing our commitment to realizing this value as we promote various initiatives. In our efforts to realize a world without waste, we have been promoting horizontal recycling of PET bottles in collaboration with partner companies.

We are working to increase the ratio of sustainable material used, including bottle-to-bottle recycling. In May, we were certified as a Green Partner 2022 under the Forest and Decarbonization Challenge 2022, organized by the Forestry Agency in recognition of our efforts for forest development for water resource conservation. We will continue our activities in various areas to achieve our CSV goals. Please turn to page 20 for today's summary. In the first half of the year, we were able to leverage the growth foundation and supply structure we have built into volume growth. We have captured opportunities presented by the recovery in traffic and demand increase from the heatwave. Growth in the profitable immediate consumption channels has had a positive impact on business performance.

The price revision for large PET implemented ahead of the industry and efforts to improve profitability in vending are delivering results with improving wholesale revenue per case. While we are making good progress in areas that we can control, we face the risk of additional cost increases due to external factors such as commodity price increases and the sharp depreciation of the yen. We expect the business environment to become even more challenging in the second half of the year. With the consumption environment becoming increasingly uncertain, we will continue to monitor the situation very closely. However, our efforts have steadily produced positive results. We believe that we will be able to drive our business forward in the second half despite the challenging business environment. While facing headwinds, we will further accelerate our efforts and implement various action plans, including price revisions for small packages.

By overcoming the headwinds, we will remain committed to achieving the business income target announced in May. We have been focusing on what we can control to prepare for when the traffic returns. We are confident in our strategy, which is producing steady results. Although the traffic has not fully returned and we face new challenges such as cost pressure, we believe that our initiatives and our ability to respond to the challenging business environment will not only produce short-term results, but also lead to sustainable growth over the mid to long term. As I shared in the previous earnings call, it is important here to move from protecting our business to growing our business, and we will further promote measures for growth and earnings improvement to return to a growth path. That concludes my presentation.

Let me now ask Gomi-san to come back and take us into the question- and- answer.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Calin-san. Let me remind you, this Q&A session is intended for analysts and investors, so we ask members of the media on the call to please hold your questions until our media session scheduled separately today. We are using simultaneous interpretation, so please make sure to ask your questions in the language you are joining. Japanese on the Japanese phone line and English on the English phone line. Please try to ask one question at a time as we are translating your questions. Please state your name and company. Now I would like to begin the Q&A. Operator, please put through the first question.

If you have a question, press zero one. We are accepting questions from both English and Japanese lines. The question is from Credit Suisse, Ihara-san. Ihara-san, please.

Hello, this is Ihara from Credit Suisse, and I have two questions. The first question is regarding the unit price and also the situation of competition. Looking at the numbers from April to June, the large PET, not just that, but the convenience stores, the vending machine, it seems that the revenue per case is on the positive side. Finally, it seems that, you know, it's growing. I think it is a simple question now. Now the volume will go directly to the profit increase. Looking at the situation by channel, what is the revenue per price per case, and what is the competition situation? This is my first question by channel, please.

Thank you, Ihara-san, for the question. First question is the unit price and the competitive situation per, by channel. Costin-san will answer.

Costin Mandrea
Executive Officer and CCO, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

Thank you, Ihara-san. This is Costin. I will address first important question about the price increase across the channels. We announced, as you know, from first of May, an increase of large PET, and we executed this with discipline across supermarket drug discounter channels. We did this in partnership with our customers, and this was critical because this was our second price increase in the last three years. We see retail prices and wholesale prices increasing across all the SKUs. Although the initial effect on volume was negative for the first few weeks, we saw the trend of sales recovering to expected levels after that.

This is very important, for us, all the learnings that we had from the price increase of large PET, because we consider price increases as a way to mitigate cost, but at the same time to increase profitability for BGI and for our customers, but also very important, the health of the entire industry. When it comes to other channels, although we didn't increase prices per se, we continued to act very cautiously with profitability in mind, managing our consumer and marketing promotions. That's why in CVS you will see in second quarter our NSR per case increasing by JPY 8. In vending you'll see NSR increasing by JPY 29 in the second quarter. We did this by executing diligently the new launches, by promoting higher value-added products, and overall executing with discipline the price strategy.

I will wrap up saying this is very important, and all these learnings on price management in the market are very important because we are now moving toward the big step, big milestone in the year. From first of October, we announced we'll increase the prices for small packages, and looking forward as well to turn this into profitability for us, for our customers, and for the industry. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Can you move on to your next question?

Yes, my second question is. You did mention about this a bit, but from October first you are planning to revise the price. In Suntory's explanation, they were saying that, you know, the price revision from October first, they're going to change the Japanese culture. This is what they said. You have already raised the price for the large packages. I think you were planning to raise it by JPY 20, but probably in reality it's, like, up by JPY 10 or maybe less if you look at the actual market situation. Based on this, you know, background and looking at the competitors, this price revision from October first, do you really think that you'll be able to change the culture of the beverage industry, or are you wishing to do it?

This is my second question.

Costin Mandrea
Executive Officer and CCO, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

I think we proved by increasing pricing for 2x in three years that we take a very disciplined approach to this, and the moment we commit something to the market, we go and execute discipline. I don't want to comment for other companies, but CCBJI, we do what's right for us and what is right for industry. For the time being, we are prepared, and this is the best estimate that we have going live with the price increase for October first. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Okay. Thank you very much.

Well, thank you, Ihara-san, for the question.

Operator, can you put through the next question? Next question from Mizuho Securities, Saji-san. Saji-san, please go ahead.

Thank you very much. This is Saji. I have a question about the first half one-off factors. I would like to organize those factors and go through the numbers. There are three things. One is the one-off cost reduction cycling. It's JPY 18 billion for the full year. How was the first half? When you change the useful life of sales equipment. It said the impact is about JPY 8 billion. What was for the first half? You are reviewing the costs for the raw material. I would like to understand what was the exact cost for the raw material for the first half. I think you have around JPY 14.3 billion for the raw materials. But in order for you to commit to the business income that you announced, I think it's a great thing.

You are now in the red for about at JPY 14.3 billion. How would you going to keep your commitment, and how will it like in the first, like, going forward?

Thank you, Saji-san. You would like to go through the number on those three factors. I would like to ask Bjorn-san to pick up on this question.

Bjorn Ulgenes
CFO, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

The question. First of all, confirming, as you said, we are maintaining our full year revenue and core forecast for this year. When it comes to the different cost items, when it comes to the one-off items we have, it's important to remember we took significant one-time cost savings in 2021. This was primarily led by what we call temporary leave, which are, in essence, support from the government when you see a reduction in business. We have offset that partially by the vending useful life extension for this year. I believe it's about JPY 4 billion for the first half that will help offset the one-time from last year.

When it comes to raw materials, as you said, we have increased our estimates to a good JPY 14 billion for commodities and exchange combined, which is another JPY 3 billion on top of what we estimated in the main disclosure. The reason for this is we're seeing continuous pressure on the dollar-based commodity prices. We also, in Japan, have experienced a fairly significant yen devaluation to the dollar. All of them combined make the impact increasing on a full year basis. Trying to pull this together to your question about effectively what are the risks and opportunities for our business. I will refer to that page in our prepared deck, where you can see risk and opportunities in the second half for this year. Some of them, as we talked about, comes in commodities and exchange. We all know that's out there.

Also, what Costin mentioned about the price increase and capturing the consumer behavior and the consumer demand are important factors. We believe, though, that the actions we have taken here, Saji-san, have proven we stick to our commitments to deliver what we plan to execute. However, there are also opportunities out there that needs to balance this off. Traffic is expected to come back again. Consumers start moving outside and then buying products from the convenience stores and the vending machines. We are taking the first price increase in good 30 years now, I believe, for small packages. Significant decision, as Costin said. We promised to deliver it. We will deliver it. Lastly, we're also continuing the continuous efforts around transformation and cost.

All in all, we believe, again, this is our best estimate at this point in time for the full year and therefore confirming our full year guidance. Hopefully that gave some color to your question. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Saji-san. Hi. Thank you. For the raw material, it's JPY 6.2 billion on page seven. So I understand that. You're expecting JPY 118 billion negative impact. What was the impact for the first half exactly? Because I believe this number is for full year.

This is Gomi. You are talking about the first half commodity, right? So it's JPY 6.2 billion for the first half. The one-off cost. How was it? For the one-off cost is JPY 6 billion. The one-off cost saving is JPY 6 billion. You said the full year is JPY 18 billion, so it's JPY 6 billion out of JPY 18 billion, is it? Yes. All right. So are you gonna be turning into profit next year?

Bjorn Ulgenes
CFO, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

Thank you, Saji-san. First of all, let me say that we're not gonna make any predictions about 2023 at this moment. We are now fully committed and focused on delivering the summer peak season for this year and the price increase that's coming the first. But again, we'll remind you of all the controllable actions we have put in place. The effect of the price increase we took in May and will come in October. The continued transformations we're doing in our business. Staying committed to our execution for next year, therefore being able to capture any upside that might come in the market. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Saji-san, for your question. Operator, please put through your next question.

The question is from Morgan Stanley MUFG, Miyake-san. Miyake-san, go ahead. Thank you. This is Miyake from Morgan Stanley. Well, it's a great opportunity, so I want to hear from Wasa-san. CCJC and Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan, and I'm sure there's other bottlers in Japan as well. But what kind of information do you share with each other, with what frequency? And the marketing, you know, plans like the new launches, et cetera, it all is initiated by CCJC. But how do you leverage it, that information with the other bottlers? I think I want to understand the flow or maybe the structure you have to share all the information between the bottlers. Because your market share overall is not really growing and it's getting some hit.

I think, you know, the bottlers that have work on the ground, you know, there are things that, you know, they can see. Maybe, you know, those in the bottler insights are not reflected to the product like development. After the price revision, I think these kind of, you know, alignments will be extremely important between you two. Can you give us some flavor on what your process is?

Okay, thank you, Miyake-san. That is, you know, CCJC marketing and the bottler, how do we collaborate with each other. By Wasa-san, please.

Well, Miyake-san, thank you for the question. First, this is a really positive piece of news. Let me say that, you know, you mentioned about market share.

Last year in March, starting from that timing, there is this market share, which is a value share that we track continuously. For 18 months in a row, the value share has grew. I think the reason for you asking this question is, you know, between the company, which is, you know, the CCJC and the bottlers, how are we aligning with like the strategies or like the product innovation? I think this is what you want to ask. My answer is we have close collaboration, to be short. We have this mid, long-term plan that we established together. From the beginning, we and the bottlers, we come up with the detailed building blocks. We think about the detailed strategy together. We talk about the innovations. We think about, you know, the innovations to come for the next three years.

We look at everything together, like target, the buy category strategy. We do share everything with the bottlers and we get the bottlers' input too. We make sure that they're all reflected to the next year's ABP. Probably you are wondering about the level of collaboration, if it's really happening or not. I can say that we have close collaboration and it's really working. In this, you know, IR event, you know, I'm here always. I think this is one way to show that we have close collaboration.

The market share overall, you mentioned that you are improving and that's good news. Coffee category and especially Georgia brand, if we look at certain brands category, what is your understanding of the trend?

Especially for the OTC channel, what is going to be the trend? Or maybe like green tea or, I'm wondering about, you know, the breakdowns. Looking at the share, you know, it might be growing as a whole, but I'm just wondering about each category, each brand. Do you have some, you know, challenges in certain areas?

Okay, we have brands and we have categories, and I don't, you know, want to use a lot of time to go into all the details. In the last couple of years, what we're trying to focus on is to develop our core business. In addition, we have the new launches. The new launches are treated as on top, like incremental. In fact, if you can look at the numbers for this year, the core products are growing successfully.

On top of that, we have incremental innovations. I guess it's like maybe 2% or so in terms of the growth rate. That is all because the core is performing stably. Of course, in every year, some years the coffee might be a little bit weak. In other years, the tea might be a little bit weak. But we understand the trend, and we make sure that we strengthen the weak areas. For the strong areas, we try to grow it even more. We want to have like successful new launches as well. We do the planning all together. That is like the major answer I have for that question. Thank you. Miyake-san, Costin wants to add some information.

Costin Mandrea
Executive Officer and CCO, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

It's Costin, thank you. I just want to confirm what Wasa-san said. The process of commercialization, it's a very common one, and we collaborate very closely with our partners from CCJC. Also, the roles are very clear, with CCJC being responsible for coming up with the new ideas for innovation and to make sure the core portfolio is performing. While on the bottler side, our responsibilities are again, very simple. First of all, it's the demand planning and the forecast. Calin was just mentioning that this year we saw a significant improvement. The second big responsibility for the bottler is the relationship with our customers. Over the last three years, we see a significant improvement across each of the channels. I think there is no better proof than the current price increase for large PET.

The last and also most important responsibility for the bottler is the execution in the market. Here, we have our incentive. My team incentives are very directly linked with the way they sell the new product, with the share of visible inventory in the market, with the speed to market. All these indicators are over-performing for the last few years. I hope this clarifies a bit how the process is working between CCJC and CCBJI. Thank you, Miyake-san.

Speaker 4

Well, thank you for the question. Thank you. Lastly, may I ask about Lemon-Dou? It seems that Lemon-Dou is not doing that well this year, but what is your plan for the future for Lemon-Dou? How should we look at this brand? Thank you.

The alcohol business, it seems that the number is negative as a whole. The reason behind that is, you know, last year we had this brand, NOMEL's. We have this cyclical. It didn't, it's not working this year, so we have that cyclical impact. Also for the Lemon-Dou, we have the non-alcohol version, the Yowanai Lemon-Dou. Of course, you know, it's not really alcohol because it's non-alcohol, but it is working under the Lemon-Dou umbrella.

We have the concentrate type too, that you drink with water. After we started to sell Lemon-Dou, you know, this premium sour lemon category, other, you know, competitors, they are launching, like, similar products in this category, so the competition is intensifying. As a leader, I think, you know, we can do various things using the Lemon-Dou brand. The Coca-Cola alcoholic portfolio will have Lemon-Dou of course, but we want to have the second pillar, the third pillar. We want to prepare for those new pillars to come. We think that we have lots of possibilities for the alcoholic beverages as well.

Thank you, Miyake-san. Thank you. Let me move on to the next question. Operator, please.

Next question is from Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, Shinoyama-san. Shinoyama-san, please go ahead.

Thank you. This is Shinoyama speaking. I have one question. The price, I would like to understand about the price hike. After October, what will, which kind of impact are you expecting from the, price hikes from October onwards? That's one thing. Also, when you look back at your experience in the price hike, you will see the patterns. Sometimes the price may go up and down way after that. For the current price hike, if you are to hike the price, how, what's your plan on maintaining the price on that level?

If you can share any details about your plan on maintaining the price, I would like to understand.

Thank you, Shinoyama-san. Your question is about the price hike in October and the impact coming from that. Bjorn-san would pick up on this question first.

Bjorn Ulgenes
CFO, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

Thank you, Shinoyama-san. Very good question. Again, as you've seen from our diverse prepared remarks, we're putting a lot of effort into executing the large PET price increase we took in May, and now the small packages price increase that will come in October. We believe, again, we're leading the market here in making these decisions, and we will execute them. When it comes to the impact, again, of course, this depends on how the consumers in the end react to price increases. But to the best of our estimates, we believe a full year impact of this price increase for the small PETs is probably in the JPY 10 billion-JPY 12 billion range annualized. Since this is a increase that hasn't happened over the last three decades, we of course will have to observe elasticities and impacts, et cetera, of this.

When it comes to the scope of the small PET, this is about 230-odd million cases in our business, and therefore about 50% of the total based on 2021. Now I'll ask Costin to talk about your second part of your question about the trends. Thank you.

Costin Mandrea
Executive Officer and CCO, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

Thanks, Shinoyama-san. This is Costin. I will share with you what was the direction to my team for the price increase in May. It was very simple. Raise the price and keep the price. Do not discount after that. This was made loud and clear throughout the entire organization. Which means after we increase the price, yes, we expect to see the transactions going down, but do not run price promotions. Redeploy the trade spend toward consumers, towards national promotions, and towards new developments, because we want to make sure this new raised price is kept, it's maintained in the market. This was pretty difficult for the team to do, but they disciplined basically. It was difficult because, you know, what they saw in the market, they saw other players doing exactly the opposite, reducing the price significantly, running promotions or even upsizing at the same price.

Why this is important as we move into October, this will be a massive change affecting more than 50% of our volume in the market, the price increase for small PET. It is for the first time in 30 years that we increase the small PET. The keyword here is to be disciplined, to work with our customers to make sure we increase the price and to keep the price at that level. I hope this answers your question. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much for your answer. This is time, but I would like to pick up one more question. Operators, please put through another question.

The question is from BofA Kaneko-san. Kaneko-san, please.

Hello, I have one question. I'm sure that you're working on the midterm plan at the moment, but in the future, what are the challenges you're going to have in the midterm, I would like to know. For example, like which areas you want plan to focus on, et cetera. Of course, one of the areas will probably to focus on price. Other than that, what are the areas that you plan to strengthen in the midterm to improve your profitability level? This is my question.

Thank you, Kaneko-san, for the question. Relate to the midterm plan.

I would like to ask Calin-san to answer.

Calin Dragan
President and Representative Director, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings

Thanks so much, Kaneko-san, for the question. One thing I want to say from the beginning, please all rest assured that the focus of our entire organization, it is to return to profitability and everyone's work every day in the market, in the plants, in distribution centers, and in our back office, it's towards that goal. Having said that, we have to acknowledge the fact that there are certain elements that needs to happen for us to be able to return to profitability and things that we need to observe going on. First, and probably the most important one, it is the return of traffic. During these COVID years, that was probably the most affected element of life in Japan and around the world. Traffic reduced significantly.

Coming back to that, we are very optimistic about the fact that after every state of emergency end, we have observed traffic return and immediately our business performance start improving. We are optimistic about that, but we are observing closely that reality, having in mind this recent surge in COVID cases again. At the same time, another big element that influences, again, the growth, the revenue part of our business, it is the price increase. We cannot take this price increase lightly. It is the first price increase for single serve packages, which we are doing for ourselves in the last 30 years and for the entire industry, basically, in almost three decades. All this involves a lot of unknown.

For the time being, for this year, we have our best estimates, but we are optimistic that with the positive approach from the industry, this is going to significantly contribute to our future performance. Nevertheless, we are having a couple of elements cost related recently, bumping in, and that's the message that we put it throughout our presentation today. We are taking hits from things that are not in our control, like commodities. Now, commodity costs have impact of tens of billions of yen in our business. The second element in terms of cost, it's the yen devaluation, which overlapping it with the current commodities cost make the growth of cost exponential.

Assuming that all these things are getting aligned, and we are going to get visibility and certainty on them, at that moment in time, rest assured we are going to come back with a plan, midterm plan that is going to give answers to all those questions. As well, another element of optimism would be our new base that we have created through our new processes, to our new system implementations and the way how we operate the business that already show results, as you could see in our first half of this year. Thank you so much. I hope that answers your question.

Speaker 4

Well, thank you, Kaneko-san, for the question. It's time, and we would like to end the QA session here. Thank you again for your interest in our business. The replay of this webcast call will be available on our Investor Relations website soon after finishing the call. We invite you to reach out to our IR team with questions or feedback. Thank you very much.

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