Good morning, everybody, and thanks for joining the call. What I'd like to do to start is just take you through some key messages I think is worth you starting with. I intend to go through a little bit of detail in terms of our four strategic priorities. Let me start with the key messages. You can see is some strong quarter and year total sales and like-for-like for the group. Secondly, we've got some good momentum on our four strategic pillars of bigger, better, simpler, and cheaper. Just to pull out one of them, which is our biggest value driver for the group, we said that we'd open up 450 stores, and we've actually opened up a record 516 stores. Good performance on our biggest value driver for the group.
The four strategic pillars have helped us to drive sales, helped us to drive the like-for-like, helped us to deliver on our EBITDA guidance, and also create some good cash generation. This is all done on the backdrop of us being completely and utterly focused on price leadership. We've just seen some September results, the good news is we've maintained, in a significant way, our price leadership, and in many cases improved on that. Of course, this is all on the backdrop of a pretty disruptive and volatile macro environment for the customer. The third key message I'd like to give you is our momentum on the four strategic pillars will allow us to go even faster and be even more focused on these four pillars in full year 2023.
Let me give you a bit of an update actually on these four pillars that I mentioned. Let me give you an update on them and describe what's new for full year 2023. I'll start with bigger. Remember, that's the biggest value driver for the group. As I said, in full year 2022, we said that we'd open 450 stores, and we've actually opened 516, which is a record opening. It's worth also pointing out that we entered a very strategic and important market, which was Germany, in full year 2022. What's the plan for full year 2023? The plan is for another record set of new openings, and we've given ourselves a target of a minimum of 550 stores, and we plan to enter two new countries, one being Greece and the other one being Portugal.
In fact, we entered Greece last week and had our first store opening, which traded incredibly well last week. It's also worth noting in our bigger strategic priority that Western Europe allows us to enter white space, and also it's worth noting we're progressing very well in Spain, Italy, Austria, and Germany, which gives us confidence. Finally, it's worth me reminding everybody what we said in the past. We believe that there is a potential for 20,000 stores for the group across the whole of Europe, and that remains a very realistic and a very achievable plan. Let me go on to the second pillar, which is how do we get better. In full year 2022, we continued in Poundland the Diamond rollout, and we refitted 129 stores, and that's helped us drive the like-for-like in Poundland as well as customer satisfaction.
In Pepco, we've now completed the GM, general merchandise, extension program, and that, again, through the course of the year, helped us drive some like-for-like and also improved the customer satisfaction. Now what I'd like to do is to go through quite a number of things that we plan to get better for full year 2023. Previously, when we last spoke, I talked to you about what we're doing in Pepco, which was in Wrocław, where we've remodeled our stores with a new look, a new feel, and a new brand. I gave you an indication that the stores were trading very well, and what I can update you on is those stores have all been completed, and they continue to trade very well. There's significant like-for-like improvement, significant customer satisfaction, and we can also see that transpiring into good profits.
We've now finished the same remodeling program in our 47 stores in Warsaw. What is very interesting, the results are very, very similar to what we've seen in Wrocław. A significant improvement in like-for-like, a significant improvement in customer satisfaction, and although it's early days, we can see a similar improvement in our profitability. We're very confident in this program, and what I'd like to do in terms of telling you what's new is that we plan to refit all of our existing Pepco stores in the next two to two and a half years. This is a big program for Pepco and a very important program for Pepco and will actually be its second biggest driver after new store openings.
It's around 2,000 stores over the next two and a half years, and it's worth me pointing out to you that we made the decision about the new look and feel and new brand just over one year ago, so any store that's opened up in the last year, any extension that we've done and any relocation has already been done to the new look and feel. That's what we're going to do in Pepco in terms of remodeling our stores. Just what else are we doing in terms of better? We're going to continue in Poundland with our Diamond program. As I said, it's helped to drive like-for-like and customer satisfaction. We're going to do slightly more stores next year than we've done this year. What else are we going to do in the group to get better?
Again, last time I spoke to you, I mentioned, or I informed you about our decision to put our Dealz business in Spain and our Pepco business in Spain, to put the two businesses into one as a new format called Pepco. We've now completed 20 conversions to date. They continue to do very well. A significant improvement on like-for-like, a significant improvement on customer satisfaction. Again, similar to the new look, the profit improvement is significant, mainly driven by the like-for-like and the margin improvement that we're seeing. We've also converted one store, one Pepco store, standalone Pepco store. We've now converted one store, and introduced FMCG into that offer, and that has now been trading two weeks and has had a very similar impact in terms of customer and like-for-like.
Our plan is to complete all of the Dealz conversions to Pepco by March 2023. We're also planning to convert around 40 of our existing Pepco stores and introduce FMCG. Around about 100 stores, 60 Dealz and 40 Pepco stores we will complete by March 2023. What's also important in this project is not just about what we do for the customers in the stores and driving the like-for-like, but also what it means in the back office. Currently we've been operating with two teams, two marketing teams, two HR teams, two IT teams, et cetera. Through the course of 2023, we'll amalgamate the two teams into one, which means we'll end up with a Spanish business, which is far more efficient and far more effective, really supporting the two pillars of getting simpler and cheaper at the same time.
Just to remind you, as we've completed the conversions, the like-for-like customer satisfaction and increased margin is pretty significant. What else are we doing to get better across the group? We've now made a decision that we're going to test six of the Dealz stores in Ireland. We're going to do the exact same test in Ireland as we've done in Spain. We've already converted four of the Dealz stores in Ireland to Pepco. We can already see very similar improvements in like-for-like in customer satisfaction. We can see early improvements in the margin. We said that we'd do six stores, we've done four of them already. We've got two more stores to do, and a fifth store opens up this Saturday in Galway. It's important to point out what we do when we test something is we agree what the test is.
We carry out the test. We evaluate the results for the customer, for the colleagues, and for the business. If we like the results, we roll out. If we don't like the results, we will modify things. In terms of Ireland, we're still in the test phase. We want to complete the six stores, carry out the evaluation. I'm sure by the time we next meet at the next quarter, I'll be able to update you what the decision is in terms of Ireland. What I'd now like to do is move on to two other of the strategic pillars, getting simpler and getting cheaper. The good news is we've continued. We will continue on our five-year journey on the end-to-end work that we've been doing in Pepco.
Just to remind you, this is some value chain analysis where we look at the plan, buy, move and sell. How do we do that in the most efficient and effective way? Effectively, how do we bring a product all the way from Asia right the way through to the store in Central Europe or Europe? This program has been and will continue to deliver significant efficiencies in the way that we buy products, the way we operate our DCs, the way that we operate our transport, as well as our stores. That program, as I said, has been going for nearly three years. Has got another two years to carry out. That leaves us in a good position for the next couple of years.
The other thing that I should point out under simpler and cheaper, because of the success of this plan that we've been activating in Pepco, we've now commenced the exact same plan in Poundland. We've now completed our end-to-end value chain review, looking at how we buy, how we move, how we sell. Plan, buy, move and sell across the products in Poundland. We've now started the program exactly the same in the way that we did with Pepco. This, again, will improve how do we buy products, the operations in DC, the operations in transport, as well as the stores. I think we'll start to see some of the results coming in full year 2023. Quite a lot going on in terms of getting bigger, quite a lot going on in terms of getting better.
What would be the key takeouts I'd like you to take away today? First of all, we're confident that we will achieve our EBITDA guidance that we set out for full year 2022. Second one is that we will continue with our four strategic pillars in 2023, in fact, in many cases, we will go a lot faster. The third point is just to remind you, the Spain two businesses into one is going very well. We've started the test in Ireland, I'll update you in the next quarter of how that's progressed and what decisions we want to make. Just to remind you, the Pepco rebrand in terms of the look and feel will become Pepco's second biggest project over the next two, two and a half years. That is only beaten by the biggest pillar that we have in terms of getting bigger in Pepco.
Again, just to remind you, we opened up a record number of stores in 2022 of 516, we're going for a new record in 2023 of a minimum of 550 stores. Just to remind you that we will enter two markets in full year 2023, Greece, which we opened our first store last week, in Portugal around April, May time. I'd like to conclude today's quick description, just talking about relevancy. Everything remains quite volatile, quite tough, and quite turbulent for our customers, it's very important that we look at our existing plans and our new plans to make sure that we are remaining relevant, actually, we need to become more relevant to our existing customers and potentially new customers. The clear thing, we've looked at our price leadership.
We remain significantly strong on the price leadership, in many cases we've actually improved on that. The ranges that we've brought in and our existing ranges remain relevant. We do regular reviews on our range performance. We've also, as you'd expect us to do, we've looked at our performance of new stores and our performance of refits as things have changed for the customers to make sure that those new stores and refits still remain relevant for the customers. The good news is, for everything that we look at, we're relevant for our customers and our plans are relevant for the customers, that's very encouraging. I also think that's testament to all of the Pepco brands across the group. That's it from me.
I think most of you know that we've got a capital markets day starting tomorrow and concluding on Friday in Valencia, so I look forward to seeing most of you in Valencia in the next couple of days. I'm now happy to open up questions for myself and Mat.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. First question comes from the line of James Anstead calling from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, Trevor and Mat. A couple of questions if that's okay. Firstly, you've obviously now trialed these Pepco store conversions in Spain and Ireland. I just wonder if you're planning to test the Pepco format in the U.K., and if not, why not? A second question would just be, I guess it's a bit too early to judge the reactions in Greece given the store's only been open a week or two, but can you give us a bit more color on the stores you've opened in Germany and how they're trading? Thank you.
I'll just start with the trade element, and I'll pick up.
In terms of the trading performance, I'll pick up on the second question, James. Look, I think actually Greece, its first week, performing very strongly. We've always believed it's a market that lends itself well to our proposition in terms of the customer dynamics and the demography and earning dynamics, so very strong. Germany continues to perform well for us, slightly ahead of the targets that we've set for it. It continues to give us growing confidence in that a large market with a lot of growth opportunity in it, and one where the customer clearly is well acquainted with the discount price led model. I think both markets continue to give us confidence, which is why I believe we've been pretty positive in terms of the Western European opportunity in the statement this morning.
Just to add to that, in Greece, it's just one store. It's been open just over a week, but its opening was one of the biggest openings we've ever had in the standalone Pepco world. That's very encouraging. It's in Athens, and we've got another two stores opening up over the next week or so. We're very encouraged by Greece, but it's very early days. Just to add on in Germany, there's two things in Germany is how are we trading, and as Mat says, we're trading just ahead of budget, so that's very encouraging. It's very strategically important to us, so we're all over how customers think and feel about us.
The good news is that they see our stores very similar to how the Central European customers and the customers in Spain see us, that all of the likes they like and all the things that they think we can improve on are virtually the same. We're very encouraged by the performance and very encouraged by the consumer feedback.
In terms of the trials, I think just from what we described at the start, we've been very focused around we have a concept, we test that concept, and then we go. We have a concept for Spain. We tested it. We trialed it. It was the right call. We're going. We're now in Ireland. We will continue to look at all the opportunities that we have and from concept, then move to trial. At this stage, we're not going to be talking about anything further than Spain and Ireland, where clearly the work that we've done in Spain is positive both in terms of the customer and financial response, and we're now going very hard at that. Obviously, we're now trialing Ireland. I think beyond that, we're not at this stage going to be making any further updates.
I don't know, Trevor, if you have anything further to add.
Yeah, look, James, it's a good question. It's an obvious question, what we're going to do in Dealz in Poland as well as Poundland in the U.K. What I would say to you is we had a strategic look in Spain, we've updated you where we've got to. We had a strategic look in Ireland because it's in Euroland, it was easier for us to do, and we're testing that. I can assure you, we will come back with a strategic review of what we want to look at in terms of Dealz Poland and what we want to do in the U.K. We just need more time. Whatever we do, we'll test, we'll evaluate, and decide what to do.
Very helpful. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from the line of Simon Bowler calling from Numis.
Oh, thank you. Sorry, the line cut out. Can you hear me okay?
Yeah, we can. Go ahead, Simon.
Great. Cool. Thank you. A couple if that's okay. There might be a third, actually. The first one being, I don't want to preempt anything you might be talking about tomorrow, so just tell me to be patient if that is the case. I was wondering if you can give us a sense of the split of new stores that you've got planned for fiscal 2023, between formats and I guess how many of those stores could we expect to come through in Western Europe? Second question was, can you just give us a sense of what that kind of working capital outflow has been in fiscal 2022 and how we should be thinking about that as a cash flow dynamic into fiscal 2023? Third question would be on the updated kind of CapEx guidance that you've given.
There's a few bits going on in terms of some accelerated refit plans plus, of course, the new store programs. Is there any simple way to think about the buckets of next year's CapEx so we can.
understand how that might evolve in outer years as well?
Yeah, I think the simple or the high-level answer to that is yes, we'll come back in more detail on all those topics and a few more tomorrow and Friday. Just to give you a little, kind of an immediate answer. In terms of Western Europe versus CEE, we opened 164 stores in Western Europe under the Pepco banner, FY 2022. I would expect a slight tick up in the proportion of store openings into next year to Western Europe for Pepco. This stage, we're not going to be describing the sort of precise mix around that sort of FMCG versus or not contingent. That's something that we'll be assessing clearly as we go this year, given the trials in Spain have only recently completed. There's probably not yet in a position or wish to start describing that precise split.
Certainly, Western Europe growing as a proportion over FY 2022. In terms of the working capital dynamic, yeah, look, we've been quite clear this year that we'll continue to use our cash to support our growth and our business. The first thing clearly to say is working capital investments this year to seek to guarantee availability for our customers, continuing to bring in stock a little sooner than we have done in prior years to ensure that we're well stocked and well-positioned for our consumers into what is going to be a critical quarter of Christmas trading. Last year we did face some disruption, and I think we described probably EUR 30 million-EUR 40 million of carryover stock from last Christmas. The corollary of that clearly also being we didn't hold it on our balance sheet at the end of the financial year.
There is a bit of a movement year on year from investing into stock and to enable our growth. The second piece then on working capital is growing more quickly, as we're planning to do. We're also investing in more stock. I think at the moment, the kind of dynamic around cash working capital is about making to support our proposition and to support the growth. We'll give a little bit more detail on that over the coming days. The final one on CapEx. I think the buckets that I'd think about it are three. You've got store expansion, you have store renewal, and you have sort of central systems and process CapEx, sort of part of that simpler and cheaper bucket.
Thinking about that EUR 350 million-EUR 400 million number that we've quoted on, we'll grow our store expansion CapEx year-on-year as we accelerate those store openings that we've described. That's probably in the region of EUR 100 million-EUR 150 million or just over. We'll have around EUR 100 million of store renewal CapEx, which is supporting, we've got around just over 2,000 stores of the Pepco banner that we'll refit over the next two and a half or so years. There's some residual kind of systems warehouse process CapEx that we'll invest. I think from the perspective of the investments that we're making have very clear paybacks that we're able to articulate from the trials or rollout that we've already done. The buckets clearly are well defined and each have a very clear and compelling business case, clearly it is a tick up.
I think that's in the context of the fact that now more than ever, customers are seeking value. In volatile times comes opportunity, we've made some bold decisions in the past. Focusing on price a year ago, where we had some challenges around that decision, absolutely the right thing to do. I think now more than ever, customers are seeking value, and we've got a significant opportunity to expand more quickly and accelerate our long-term vision that we have. I think overall, this is all in the context of driving our strategic levers.
Yeah, just one small build to what Mat said in terms of Christmas stock. Very operational, but very important. This time last year, we spent the best part of 12 weeks from October to December just constantly worrying about where the stock was, when it was going to come in, and how we can move it through the system very quickly. What's very comforting this year is we have virtually all of our Christmas stock in the DC, and if it's not in the DC, it's in the port waiting to go into the DC. All we've now got to do is just get that stock sent to the stores in a very efficient and effective manner.
The whole of the management teams in both Poundland and Pepco and Dealz can just now focus on moving the stock from the DC to the stores and having a great Christmas with our customers.
Okay, great. One quick follow-up. Could you perhaps just remind where you are in terms of warehousing capacity and if we're looking at an accelerated program of store roll-out and so on, what that might mean in terms of need to put down additional facilities?
Yeah. A couple of things I'd say on that, Simon. First of all, we open up a new Romanian DC, I think it's about April, May time next year. That helps us to get into Romania and Bulgaria and Greece in a far more efficient and effective way. We've currently got plans to open up a DC. We have a DC, which is the Dealz DC, but it's too small, so we're going to open up a new DC in Madrid in the next year to 16 months, and that will be a full-on DC that will deal with the GM clothing as well as FMCG. If you look at the DCs that we're opening, you could argue, is that enough DCs to cope with the expansion?
I think what you'll hear, if you're with us tomorrow, is just how efficient and effective we are now in terms of flowing through the product. Four years ago, we would have needed many more DCs than what I am saying at the moment because we were holding all the stock in the DCs. We've got between 30% and 40% of our stock will now just come in and go straight through to the stores. Our DCs will be far more efficient and effective, which is why we only need Romania, and in the latter part of next year, open up in Madrid.
Great. Sounds good. I will see you tomorrow, look forward to hearing more on all of those topics. Cheers.
Cheers, Simon.
Thanks.
Next question comes from the line of Rafał Wiatr calling from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi. My question was just answered. I will pass.
No problem.
We currently have no question coming through. As a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one now. We have a question coming from Anstead from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yes. Morning again. Two quick follow-ups. One, I just wonder if you weren't reading the newspapers and seeing all the headlines about consumer pressure, would you be able to detect what was going on from sales trends within your businesses? It sounds like maybe it's more obvious in Poundland than it is in Pepco, but any kind of change in customer behavior would be interesting to hear about. Also, we've talked a lot about cost headwinds in recent times. It sounds like you got some tailwinds with raw materials. I think you cited cotton and freight rates starting to go down. Would you say that actually net net you might see some year-on-year gains in, say, raw materials and freight next year, or is that maybe a bit optimistic year-over-year?
Should we temper any optimism about these tailwinds with realism that labor rates and energy prices are going up significantly? Thank you.
Yeah, fine. Let me start, then Mat can build on this. Let me start with the question number one in terms of sales. I think we can see a couple of things. I'd say across all of the stores and all of their geographies, you can see customers shopping more often and spending a little bit less. I think that's not just in Pepco. That's what I read almost across U.S. and Europe. Consumers, when they feel their pockets are a bit tighter, they still shop, but they shop a bit more often and spend a little bit less. We can certainly see that within our baskets. I think in Central Europe, what we can definitely see is generally in Central Europe, you've got the private businesses and the public businesses.
One get paid mid-month. The other ones get paid at the end of the month. You can really see the pay days coming into effect. When people get paid, we have a good week. The following week it gets a bit tighter. The public get paid. You can really see a bit of a change in terms of people prepare to spend when they've got the money in their pockets. As soon as they've spent that, they really tighten up. That would be the two things that we can see in terms of the consumer basket. If there was one small one, you can see people stocking up for anything that's going to help them save on things like electricity. You can already see blankets, et cetera, things like that trading quite well. Anything to add on that, Mat?
No.
Okay. You're right to point out, James, that we can see the improvements on the spot rate in terms of containers. We can see the improvements on the cotton. Of course, that's now what we've got to negotiate some back charges on and some forward charges on, which is in process at the moment. I think you're right that we will see some tailwinds on those two. I think how much we see will be dependent on how well we can negotiate what we've already negotiated, as well as the forward. I think you're right to point out at this stage, there will be a couple of tailwinds. One of them, I think the largest one we've got to navigate is the FX, is the dollar. We've really got to think through that one very carefully.
I think certainly next year we've already factored in what we think is the kind of other inflationary pressures of diesel and wages. I think the good news is containers, commodities, and that also helps us a little bit on our fixtures and fittings, our CapEx. We've got to navigate, I think, not too much in full year 2023, but we've got to start looking at for 2024 in terms of the FX.
I think, James, the kind of summary from sitting where I am is that it's a more balanced kind of environment now in that this time last year we were facing a situation where all costs were kind of inflating, whereas now we're in a situation where there's some easing in quite big areas, containers and cotton, for example. Clearly there's pressures in other areas such as energy. I think it feels a more balanced situation than where we were last year because there are now at least opportunities that we can go after, we can negotiate on harder, the down charges that Trevor's described to drive that, to seek to mitigate some of the challenges.
I think the volatility is the piece that's probably still a big challenge in that we're seeing benefits now, but we're probably not through the woods yet in terms of containers as a specific example, but certainly more balanced than it was this time last year.
Thanks. Very helpful. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Rafał Wiatr calling from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi again. Would you be able to provide us right now with the cost of electricity across the group? That's the first question. The other one, if you can elaborate a little bit on the wage pressure in 2023, and more specifically on the minimum wage in Poland increasing over the next nine months, and to what extent that's going to have an impact on you. Thank you.
Sure. I'll start. I think Pepco's going to leave you a little bit wanting on the answer because we've not released full financials today. It's a trading update. Perhaps be less specific than you need and maybe come back to this in December when we release our full financial statements to describe some of the movements on specific lines. Probably not this day going to be quoting electricity. It's a portion of our store costs, and I suppose the context I'd give is we're not as energy intensive as some other retailers. We don't have large swathes of fridges and freezers, and we typically operate quite small stores, so heating and lighting them typically costs a little less. Won't be quoting specific numbers. I suppose what I would say it's a challenge, but it's one that we're managing.
We have, over the past couple of years, been investing in LED lights, in more efficient HVAC systems for our stores, which are the key factors in our energy usage. It's focused around those areas. A challenge, but not going to be the sort of specifics. In terms of your other question on wage pressures. Yes, there is clearly a tick up in wage pressures. I think the kind of run rate in CEE has been somewhere between 5% and 8% over the past couple of years. That will be ticking up over the next year, clearly, given some of the pressures. Those are things that we have factored into our plans. One of the key things here in terms of we have a broad-ranging strategy, bigger, better, simpler, cheaper.
Operating a simpler business and focusing on simple, efficient, scalable processes to a large degree enables us to offset the rate increases that we're seeing on some of our key lines, both in stores and the DC, because we're running more scalable, more efficient processes in the business. Yes, absolutely recognize that wage growth will increase, but I think we continue to have a high degree of certainty and visibility over the plans that we have to mitigate those increases.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah.
Yeah. Can you comment on your electricity bill in 2021?
We're not going to be commenting on the specifics. As I said, this is a pretty close trading update. We've not really released all the data to be able to describe that in the context of our overall results. Today, we're talking about sales and a profit range, and in December we'll be releasing our full financials.
Can you provide us with that data over the next two days?
On the specific cost of energy in the business today, we're focused on our strategy in the next two days.
Oh, yeah. I'm not asking about last year. I'm talking about the 2021.
Oh, sorry. I'm sure we can look. Yeah, I can come back to you on that over email.
Okay. Any more questions from anyone?
The next question comes from the line of [Audio Distortion ]. Go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two. First on GM and the second on competitive landscape. As regard GM, you pointed out that the pressure on GM from sourcing costs, which are growing. To which extent you can compensate it for by increasing prices right now on the market?
Yeah. I think just to be very clear, we do not seek to pass on inflation or input inflation to our customers. We're seeking to hold our prices. We've done that through a combination of absorbing some cost and mitigating some cost. At the moment, we're absolutely laser focused on maintaining our prices and growing our price competitiveness to the mid-market at the moment. We do not consider the market level of inflation when pricing our products. We seek to hold prices and then mitigate or absorb the cost. The context there being, we believe that the factors at the moment that are driving inflation are principally containers and commodities over the past couple of years, but clearly a degree of labor and energy.
There is a time-bound nature to the level and acuteness of the increase, what we seek to do now is to drive our market share through maintaining price and maintain customer trust and loyalty through holding our prices. I think just to be very clear, we are not moving on prices, in the context of inflation. That is not our business model.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's clear
Just to add to that, the key criteria for Pepco is price leadership. Our customers trust us on price. They trust us on price leadership, and it's absolutely paramount that we go through all of these tough and turbulent times for customers, we maintain and perhaps even improve on our price leadership.
Yes, that's clear. The second question, do you see any challenges in terms of competitive landscape right now? Do you see competitors going more to their lower pricing points on the market right now?
No. I think I said earlier on that price leadership is really key to us, we monitor it very carefully, we've just seen some September results. The summary would be we've maintained our price leadership. That means that no one's improved against us. In actual fact, some of the operators, we've improved our price leadership. Look, I think any discounters at the moment across probably the world, this is a good opportunity for them to remind consumers what they stand for, which is great prices, great products, great quality. Look, we keep an eye on all of the discounters across the whole of Europe. We are absolutely 100% focused maintaining our price leadership.
Of course, there's other discounters out there that are holding their own with us, but none of them are actually making any dent in terms of price leadership against us, and that's a critical measure that we measure very intensely and very often.
That's helpful. Thank you.
There are no further questions. I will hand you back to your host to conclude today's conference. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much, everyone, for joining the call. Hopefully, we've answered the questions. I look forward to seeing most, if not all of you, in Valencia over the next one and a half days, where we can really describe the Pepco Group strategy in a lot more detail. Look forward to that. Thank you very much, and hopefully, see you in the next couple of days. Thank you.