Kerry H1 2026 Earnings Call - Management Unveils 2030 Targets Anchored by Renovation-Driven Growth and Margin Expansion

John, Conference Operator: Hello, thank you for standing by. My name is John, I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Kerry H1 2026 Results and 2030 Targets Presentation. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. I would now like to turn the conference over to William Lynch, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

William Lynch, Head of Investor Relations, Kerry: Good morning, thank you for joining the Q&A call for our H1 2026 results and our 2030 targets. We released the presentations and management prepared remarks earlier this morning, both are available on our website under the Investors section. I’m joined on our call by our CEO, Edmond Scanlon, and our CFO, Marguerite Larkin. Edmond will begin with a summary of the highlights from our H1 results and our 2030 targets, then we’ll open the line for questions. Before we begin, please take note of the disclaimer on our presentation regarding forward-looking statements. I’ll now hand over to Edmond.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: Thanks, William, good morning, everyone. Beginning with our H1 2026 summary overview. We’re pleased to report a strong performance in the first half, reflecting a step up in volume growth in the second quarter, combined with continued strong margin expansion, driving high single-digit constant currency EPS growth. We delivered H1 volume growth of 3.3%, well ahead of our markets. Our step up from 3.1% volume growth in Q1 to 3.5% in Q2 represented a broad-based improvement across all 3 regions and in both the retail and food service channels. Growth was led by food service with a range of new menu innovations, seasonal launches, and cost reduction solutions. Growth in retail was supported by continued product renovation activity and innovation in high-growth areas.

On EBITDA margins, we delivered margin expansion of 60 basis points in H1, driven by Accelerate 2.0, net price, operating leverage, and portfolio mix, with EBITDA margins reflecting progression across all 3 regions. Our volume growth and margin expansion supported constant currency adjusted earnings per share growth of 7.9% in H1. While recognizing current market uncertainty, we remain strongly positioned for volume growth and margin expansion in the full year, underpinned by a good innovation pipeline. We are maintaining our guidance range of 6%-10% constant currency EPS growth in 2026. Looking beyond 2026, I’d like to outline our new 2030 targets. On volumes, we have consistently outperformed our end markets over many years. We’ve set a target of 3%-5% volume growth, our range is set in the context of current market conditions, which I’ll touch on shortly.

On EBITDA margins, we’ve delivered 320 basis points margin expansion since 2021 and have set our target to be in the 20%-21% range by 2030, driven by efficiencies, operating leverage, and portfolio mix. On EPS, our algorithm is about delivering consistent high single-digit plus EPS growth, supported by agile capital deployment aligned to value creation opportunities. We’ve increased our cash conversion target to 85% plus and are increasing our returns target to 12%-13% by 2030. In our prepared remarks webcast earlier, I outlined the key dynamics in the market and the drivers of our future volume growth. With Marguerite outlining our targets around EBITDA margin expansion, cash, and returns. I’m now going to summarize the building blocks of our volume growth target, and then my key takeaways from this morning’s 2030 targets presentation. Starting with our recent performance.

We have a strong track record of market outperformance, delivering 3.8% average volume growth across the last four years against pretty flat end markets. We set our target range of 3%-5% in the context of these market conditions and not assuming an uptick in future market growth. I believe we will see market growth in the coming years, but we’re taking a pragmatic approach and not factoring in something outside of our control. We’ve just reported Q2 volume growth of 3.5%, which you will have seen, and our pipeline of innovation and renovation opportunities is as strong as ever. Looking at our recent volume performance and our growth target through the lens of our three regions. Firstly, the Americas, which is our largest region and a powerhouse for Kerry, and where we see phenomenal market opportunity.

We’ve delivered strong volume growth in recent years and are looking for volume growth to remain in that 3%-5% window. Next, in Europe. Given the market backdrop, we’re looking for growth of around 1%-2%. In APMEA, where we have delivered volume growth of around 6% and where we’re looking for growth in that 5%-9% range. We have three key volume growth drivers which will underpin our performance. Firstly, food service, where we’re aiming for mid-single-digit plus volumes. Having grown our business by 70% since 2017, we still see significant runway for growth given our competitive advantage, which is based on deeply embedded customer innovation partnerships, our broad technology portfolio, and our dedicated business model. Next, emerging markets, where we’ve delivered high single-digit volume growth over the long term and have a large global presence.

Major growth drivers from a consumer perspective will be increased health and wellness innovation, regulatory developments, and an increasing number of snacking and beverage consumption occasions. The investments we have made in building out our extensive local footprints and in-market capabilities gives us a proximity to our customers, enabling us to provide locally relevant solutions and de-risking their supply chains, giving us an advantage and positioning us to outperform across the medium to long term. Finally, renovation, which continues to grow as a percentage of our pipeline. It’s around 40% today. Each renovation opportunity is providing a catalyst for organic growth and margin expansion as we incorporate deeper layers of technology in new launches. This morning, I provided some examples in areas like sodium reduction and protein masking.

We will be hosting an investor event on the 8th of October, where we will give you more color and insight into our business at our U.S. Technology and Innovation Center in Beloit, Wisconsin, and we look forward to seeing you there. I’ll finish with my key takeaways. We have a strong track record of growth and business development. We feel confident that we will continue to significantly outperform our end markets while continually evolving and future-fitting our business to ensure we remain the top-of-mind partner for the food and beverage industry when it comes to solving its most complex challenges. Today’s market landscape provides significant opportunity for Kerry. Challenges are greater. Customers need to move faster to make their products better. That is what we’re built for.

Our clear market differentiation is based on our ability to deliver value for our customers at pace through our deep, layered taste and biotechnology capability, along with our global innovation ecosystem across our broad customer and channel base. This provides us with an inbuilt business resilience, which is critical in today’s market landscape, where dynamics continue to evolve. Our strategy is growth led. I’ve outlined our building blocks by region and the key drivers of our future volume growth. Finally, this growth, combined with our EBITDA margin expansion, will be the key drivers of our high single-digit plus earnings growth algorithm as part of our balanced overall financial framework. With that, I’ll pass you back to the operator, and we look forward to your questions on both our H1 results and our 2030 targets.

John, Conference Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, please press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We’ll pause for a moment to assemble the Q&A roster. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Alex Stone with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Alex Stone, Analyst, Barclays: Yes. Hi. Morning all. Thanks for the questions. I’ve got one on 2026 and then two on the targets, if that’s okay. Just in terms of 2026, obviously, maintaining the full year guidance today, does that imply you’re still assuming around 3% volume growth for the full year? Or do you see the kind of slightly improved run rate of Q2 as sustainable into the second half? If not, if there are any kind of key factors as to what would be driving a moderation in your view. That’s the first one. Then on the targets, thank you for all the color.

If I look at the medium-term volume targets, APMEA has the widest growth range, obviously within the regions 5%-9%, and it’s the region where today you’re delivering towards the lower end of the range versus more middle of the range in the Americas. What needs to change for Kerry to sustain growth in the upper half of that range? Is it primarily within your control or does it require a stronger external environment? Then just a final one maybe for Marguerite on the margins. Thank you for the increased disclosure on gross margins and the ambition to step that up, which is welcome. I guess it’s a broader question on margins.

Given you have a pass-through pricing model, I guess how feasible are these targets to, and how sensitive are they to a more inflationary raw material environment? Are you building in some flex for inflation as a base case? Thank you.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: Good morning, Alex. I’ll kick off here. Maybe firstly on the outlook for 2026. We have increased our volume expectations for the year and now expect H2 volume growth to be more like our Q2 volumes of 3.5%. This means our full year volume expectations are close to 3.5% versus the 3% level we had outlined earlier in the year. Just from a regional perspective, Q2 volume growth by region is probably a good reference point or a good proxy in terms of our volume expectation for the rest of the year. Just to do the full loop then on EPS, as we referenced in the prepared remarks, there’s no change in our constant currency EPS guidance range of the 6%-10%.

We do expect a modest increase in our EPS expectations for the year within the range, and that’s based on the increased volume outlook that I just mentioned there. Just moving on to your question on, let’s say the medium-term and APMEA specifically. Look, we outlined earlier in the year at CAGNY that we planned on building on the volume growth that we delivered in 2025 in the APMEA region with strong mid-single-digit growth in 2026 and a further growth in 2027 and beyond. Our aim here is to deliver on that high-single-digit growth. I guess overall, our ambition for the APMEA region actually remains unchanged. The makeup versus the past might be a little bit different in that we expect the increased growth to be led by growth in Middle East and Africa, followed by Southeast Asia.

Look, we have been investing in building out our footprint as you know, and our in market capabilities right across the three subregions of the APMEA region. It’s all about executing locally, executing on our growth strategies to help customers to meet the ever-evolving local consumer needs and the increased health and wellness pull that is also in that region. Out of home is also a factor, as is the new and convenient food and beverage offerings. Macro dynamics are also on our side in that region, in that over the next decade there is an expectation that middle class households will go from about 350 million to 700 million over the next decade or so.

Overall, as we kind of look at the three subregions within APMEA, while the building blocks will be maybe a little bit different than the past, we do believe we are well set up. There’s momentum in the business, and it’s playing out more or less as we’ve expected here through the course of 2026.

Marguerite Larkin, CFO, Kerry: Alex, just on the margin target and the inflation question. As you say, firstly on potential inflation, it’s not easy to predict over a life cycle. We do have a strong track record of managing inflation over the years, and we have a strong track record of delivering margin expansion of over 300 basis points over the last number of years. We have factored in some inflation in terms of our thinking on the increased target. What is important here, a couple of points I would make. Firstly, the strong track record of margin expansion delivery. The levers are clear in the context of driving margin expansion over the plan. Those are efficiencies from our Accelerate program mix and leverage, and beyond 2028 to reach the increased margin target of 20%-21% in 2030.

We see those similar levers driving the margin expansion leverage mix and efficiencies. I think there’s a number of factors at play as we look at the evolution of the business and as Edmond has referenced. Firstly, on leverage, we see good margin expansion opportunities as we continue to outperform in food service and in emerging markets where we’ve invested ahead of growth. Then secondly, on mix, particularly in the areas Edmond mentioned on renovation and clean label and technology and removing artificial ingredients. They’re complex challenges, and they require layering of our technologies and application expertise.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: That presents a margin expansion opportunity as well as growth opportunities. Thirdly, as I referenced, we will continue to deliver margin expansion through efficiencies. It’s a combination of all of those factors as we look to the increased target. I think importantly, like we’ve shown in the past, we are balancing our margin expansion with continued investment in the business. You’ll see also that we communicated earlier today our expectation to increase our current R&D spend from 4%-5%, to 5%-6%, which is also a key part of how we’re thinking about the business as we go forward and the margin expansion.

Alex Stone, Analyst, Barclays: Very clear. Thank you.

John, Conference Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Patrick Higgins at Goodbody. Please go ahead.

Patrick Higgins, Analyst, Goodbody: Thanks. Morning, everyone. Kind of one 2026 question, then one on the midterms, if that is okay. Firstly, just in terms of, I guess the step up in performance in Q2, to what extent is that just Kerry kind of executing stronger versus, I guess, any improvement in end markets in the sense that it is Kerry outperforming or outperformance widening, where is the key drivers there? Is it renovation or are you seeing a step up in innovation? In terms of the midterm guidance, I guess on free cash flow, good to see the kind of increased conversion target. Maybe could you just talk us through what’s underpinning that? Is this lower CapEx or kind of improved working capital or just the better margin profile? Thanks.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: Thanks, Patrick. I’ll kick off here. I would say in terms of, let’s say, our general performance here. Firstly, I would say we haven’t seen any notable change from an underlying market condition standpoint. We’d be calling underlying market more or less the same as we talked about at the Q1 and at the beginning of the year. The key drivers of outperformance, firstly, are around the renovation opportunity. I did give more color on that on the 2030 targets there this morning. We see this as a structural market shift, it’s primarily driven by actually increased consumer expectations. There continues to be supply chain challenges. There’s obviously also increased regulatory developments in various markets. Ultimately what we’re seeing is that customers’ need for renovation is increasing.

Customers are looking not only to, let’s say, improve the nutritional profile, not only de-risk from a supply chain perspective, not only strive to meet regulatory requirements, consumer expectations, but do all those things while also maintaining the quality of the product, the taste of the product. They’re also doing everything they can to ensure that they’re not losing market share at a minimum and trying to grow market share ultimately. That is a key element. That’s not to say that there’s not innovation in the market. We’re also seeing innovation in the market. We’ve touched on it previously. Examples like poultry, the protein being, let’s say, a key focus for consumers at the moment. Poultry being a pretty good value source of protein. We have a very strong position on poultry globally as it relates to taste and an excellent relationship with the poultry processors.

Beyond that is the broader protein, I suppose expectation from consumers. I referenced on the webcast about the desire to put the maximum amount of protein, we’ve seen examples of customers wanting to put 40 grams of protein into a single serving. That is a highly complex, highly challenging thing to do, it requires a huge amount of technical capability, applications capability, technology. These are all areas of core competency for Kerry. Coffee is another area that is growing. Refreshing beverage, especially as it relates to functionality with a refreshing beverage, supplements as well. We’re seeing this right across actually the larger CPGs, emerging leaders, and of course, retailer brands as well as they’re looking at the landscape and seeing how they can grow their business. Then lastly, on food service.

Food service has been a key underpin of growth for us for several years. We’ve had an excellent performance here in the first half on food service, especially in the Americas region. Food service over the medium term will continue to outperform retail. We do see significant runway for growth out in front of us given that competitive advantage we have. That competitive advantage is not just based on one thing, it’s based on multiple factors. Those deeply embedded customer innovation partnerships, our broad technology portfolio, our dedicated business model that is absolutely orientated towards that channel. I think maybe what’s underappreciated is the fact that our market share within the food service channel is only still at the low teens.

We continue to have significant runway in front of us in terms of growing that market share, and we feel we’re very well positioned to be able to take advantage of that and capitalize on that.

Marguerite Larkin, CFO, Kerry: Your cash target question, we have increased the cash target to 85%+, and that is driven by profit growth and margin expansion expectations incorporated into our cash targets of 85%. Firstly, it recognizes working capital investment aligned to our growth strategies and also a capital expenditure of 4%-5% which is in line with our current investment. No change on our capital expenditure of 4%-5%. We do have a strong record of delivering roughly 88% cash conversion over the four years. Just in relation to 2026, we expect 2026 to be a year of good cash conversion of 80%+ for the year.

Patrick Higgins, Analyst, Goodbody: Very clear. Thank you.

John, Conference Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Ed Hawkins with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Ed Hawkins, Analyst, JP Morgan: Hi, all. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I hope you can hear me okay. I’ve got two, please. One is broadly on the renovation opportunity that you see for the midterm. I think you say 40% of your pipeline is related to renovation. I think in North America, a figure of 60% had been given before. I’m curious on where you see renovation opportunities developing in the rest of the world, in Europe and in emerging markets. Also within Americas, clearly renovation is a reality now, but to what degree do you see over the next 12 to 18 months a building pipeline of reformulations by customers? Should we expect that there’s a pickup further to come, or is this quite a smooth pace of renovation year in, year out?

My second question, please, is on the return on average capital employed metrics, which are quite stepped up from the 10%-11% level that you’ve been at for the past several years. What is it underpinning this? Obviously, improving profitability is one part, does it tell us anything about your appetite for acquisitions over the coming years? If you could remind us some of the spaces that you’re looking at for bolt-on deals. Should we be thinking areas like fermentation, enzymes, biotech, proactive health as before in some emerging markets capabilities, or anything shifted on the M&A outlook for the coming years? Thank you.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: Thanks, Ed. Good morning. I’ll kick off here. Maybe firstly on renovation. We’ve sized the renovation, or current pipeline as it relates to renovation is approximately 40%. Like we’ve said, it’s going to be a key driver of growth in the medium term, and we expect that to continue to be at that level or slightly greater in coming years. Maybe just looking back first, we have seen a significant step up in recent years in that scale of renovation activity within our pipeline. Maybe historically, one should think about that as approximately maybe a third of our, let’s say, business development activity was in renovation if we were to go back a number of years. It does vary by geography. Like we’ve said previously, we’re currently in that 60% zone as it relates to renovation activity in North America as we outlined.

As you can appreciate, it’s typically higher in developed markets compared to emerging markets. We do expect that to evolve over time. Right now, like I said, it’s the highest in North America. That’s driven by lots of things, but it’s primarily driven ultimately by the consumer pull. Things like regulations and things like that, maybe just to give an update on that. Probably the most recent development, what we’ve seen is that there is more alignment between the federal government and the states that food regulation is more of an activity of the federal government. Obviously that is a positive development in recent months that it’s a more realistic, I think, and encouraging development. Look, it’s obviously still hard to predict exactly when front of pack labeling will actually be implemented in North America or in the U.S.

We genuinely believe it’s a matter of when, not if. I also believe even regardless of that, the consumer pull ultimately is the key driver. I think here over time, more and more customers will start thinking about renovation. Our expectation that it will be a gradual evolution here, Ed, as opposed to a big spike and a let’s say a fall off. We see customers being very strategic, very purposeful, very systematic in their approach to reformulation, ensuring that they don’t do any damage to their brand and ensure that they’re bringing their most loyal consumers along with them. That is typically how this plays out. Like we’ve mentioned previously, these are highly complex formulations to reformulate and do it in such a way that the consumer essentially can’t discern the fact that there is a formulation change.

This is typically a gradual evolution. That is what we have seen in other regions in the past, and that is our expectation in North America as well.

Marguerite Larkin, CFO, Kerry: Just on returns, as you referenced, we have increased our returns target to 12%-13% in 2030. It very much reflects our high single digit plus EPS growth expectation. While we are retaining flexibility for some bolt-on M&A under our capital allocation framework in the areas that you’ve mentioned, but I’ll maybe pass to Edmond here in a few moments. In terms of our overall returns, our objective is a continued focus on growth-led value creation and continued disciplined capital allocation in line with our capital allocation framework. Edmond.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: Maybe just on a couple of points on M&A. Firstly, I think we’re guiding here or suggesting here, I should say, that we’re probably more in the zone of bolt-on type acquisitions. I think in terms of areas of focus, firstly, I would continue to call out emerging markets. Despite the fact we have a really strong presence in emerging markets based on, let’s say, the demographic point I mentioned previously, and our expectation for growth in emerging markets. We will continue to look at potential opportunities to enter new markets through acquisition, modest in nature in emerging markets. The second area is in the biotechnology space. The three areas that will be a primary focus are around biotics and bioactives, number 1, enzymes, number 2, and number 3 on food protection preservation.

I think it’s also important to note that biotech capability that we’ve been building over the last number of years is a key underpin of innovation in our taste business. We will also be continuing to look at areas there where there might be some opportunities to continually evolve our capability in the biotech space as it relates to taste. Albeit, we believe that will be more orientated towards in-house innovation programs, and is the reason for that uptick in R&D investment over the medium term that Marguerite already mentioned.

Marguerite Larkin, CFO, Kerry: Thank you.

John, Conference Operator: Once again, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Nicola Tang with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Nicola Tang, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. First I wanted to ask a little bit more about margin drivers in the midterm. Marguerite, when you laid out those kind of three drivers, operating leverage, mix, and efficiencies to 2030, should we assume an equal contribution from each, or is there sort of one factor that’s driving more of that margin expansion? A linked question. When we think about the regions and the profitability across the regions, is it realistic to think that they can converge over time, i.e., is the biggest margin upside opportunity in APMEA and Europe, which is currently lagging the Americas? Maybe on a second topic on food service, I know you touched on it a little bit earlier. You talked about having a low teens share of the addressable market.

I was wondering, do you see any change in terms of the competitive landscape, given that this is clearly an area of growth and has historically been an area of differentiation for Kerry? You talked a little bit about what differentiates you in terms of your investment and business model, but perhaps you could share a little bit more details around why you’re confident that you can at least defend, if not grow that market share. Thanks.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: Hi, Nicola. Good morning. I’ll kick off here maybe on your food service question first. Look, I think at this moment in time, we wouldn’t be calling out any change in the overall food service landscape. I think it’s important to note that this is a space that we have been very active in for 15, 20 years at this moment in time. Over the years, building up a significant investment of people, capability, and competency as it relates to the food service channel and building a dedicated capability around that food service channel, where we have expert capability in terms of actually engaging with customers in all aspects of the menu. That is a really important point. I would also say that the relevancy of our portfolio to the food service channel is really important as well, in that it’s a key driver of that engagement with customers.

I think the relationships that we have and the reputation that we have of being that go-to innovation partner for the channel is also another really important underpin. The food service channel is broad, and we have deployed various strategies to sub-segment that channel to be able to cover the breadth of that channel all the way from independent operators to the largest of global customers with tens of thousands of stores. We’re able to support them on a global basis or on a local basis right across every aspect of the menu. We’ve also built a strong capability as it relates to the LTO support.

This can be very challenging from a supply chain perspective, but we have the processes and capabilities in place to be able to do that as well and to bring LTO concepts to customers at pace and also to be able to execute flawlessly on LTOs, which is a crucial aspect of their business as it relates to targeting that occasional consumer to walk into their stores. I think we feel pretty confident about our ability to not only defend, and for sure, we don’t take anything for granted, but also to grow and to grow at a pace within the food service channel. I think our performance reflects that, bearing in mind that the food service traffic continues to be flat-ish year-on-year. In the quarter, we delivered 5% volume growth.

overall, it’s a space where we feel pretty good and an important underpin for growth for us here over the medium term.

Marguerite Larkin, CFO, Kerry: On margin expansion in terms of the levers and how they will evolve over the life of the plan, it’s fair to say we see contribution from each of leverage mix and efficiencies. I would call out an expectation that in the earlier part of the plan, we see a greater level of margin expansion coming from efficiencies through the Accelerate program with mix and leverage contributing. Beyond 2028, we do see that evolving, we expect to see a greater level of margin expansion coming from leverage and also coming from mix for the reasons that I referenced earlier. In the context of the regions, we expect continued margin progression across all three of the regions with a greater level of margin progression in APMEA and Europe versus the Americas.

We do see overall our margins in the Americas will remain higher than the other two regions. That’s really driven by the scale, the strategic positioning, and the complexity of customer challenges that we are solving in the region.

Nicola Tang, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Thank you.

John, Conference Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Victoria Neuss at Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Victoria Neuss, Analyst, Bernstein: Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the question. I was just surprised that with solid Southeast Asian growth, China back to growth, and good Africa and Middle East, that volumes were not even more ahead of the 5.2% in Q2. Can you just run us through in more detail the performance there by sub-region? You say you see similar to Q2 for the rest of the year. I just want to make sure I’m clear what area you see stepping up next year in particular. My second question was just on the midterm. The ROCE target you’ve said it assumes some bolt-on M&A.

Can you give a bit more detail here on the rough size potentially versus history, as M&A’s obviously been bolt-on historically, there’s just been a greater number of deals, and that’s something that’s slowed in recent years, and you’re kind of implying doesn’t really pick back up again. Just compared to that historic run rate potentially and the key reasons for why you see that changing? I guess the flip side of that, does that mean that we could potentially get greater or could expect greater cash return instead? Thank you very much.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: Good morning, Victoria. Your line is a little bit muffled there, but I think we got most of it. Firstly on APMEA and how we’re kind of thinking about the medium term and let’s say performance through the year. We did say earlier in the year, as it relates to our performance in APMEA, that we planned to build on the performance that we had in 2025, with strong mid-single digit growth in 2026, and a further increase in growth in 2027 and beyond. Our aim and ambition here over the medium term is to be in that high single digit growth zone, recognizing that this will be a build over the next number of years. In terms of the 2026 outlook, it is as we have outlined.

One should expect the full year outlook for the APMEA region to be more or less in the zone of the H2 outlook to be more or less in the zone of Q2. That’s our expectation here for the remainder of the year for the APMEA region. I guess in terms of maybe just some of the changes there. China, our expectation over the medium term is more modest growth in China. We haven’t factored in China as being a key driver of increased growth in APMEA in the coming years. The teams are working very hard to drive things forward. We have to recognize the current market context within China. Growth will be driven, and our expectation is that growth will be driven by Middle East, Africa.

It’s a region, both the Middle East and Africa have delivered strong growth for us in recent years. They have been our fastest-growing regions consistently, over the last number of years, and we expect that to continue. There’ll always be an element of volatility, but we do feel we’re very well-positioned. We do believe that macro dynamics are on our side, as we see customers evolving their business, investing in their businesses across APMEA. It is based on that macro dynamic that there will be more middle-class consumers consuming convenient food and consuming food outside of the home. We have invested significantly in building out that local footprint in recent years. Built out capabilities, built out capacity and we feel we’re well-positioned to take advantage of that growth. Southeast Asia then will be the next building block in terms of that growth in the region.

We already have very strong positions there across multiple countries, capabilities in place, footprint in place. Capabilities both in terms of commercial and RD&A. We see a limited need to further invest there because we feel we’re already well set up. Our relationship with customers is really strong. Southeast Asia will also be a sub-region whereby we would see that middle-class consumer growth over the next decade as well. In terms of M&A outlook for the next number of years, I referenced previously on the call some areas where we will be focusing that investment, or one should expect that we’re thinking about M&A in a bolt-on nature for the coming years. Maybe in the zone of EUR 100 million-EUR 200 million per year, more or less in that zone, similar to what the last number of years have been at.

John, Conference Operator: Our last question for today comes from the line of Cathal Kenny. Please go ahead.

Cathal Kenny, Analyst: Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, the outlook for pricing and inflation for the remainder of 2026. Second question relates to your long-term targets for Europe. What will it take to lift Europe from its current run rate to the midpoint of the 1%-2% volume growth? Finally, it’s a question on renovation. I think you mentioned them, and it’s 40% of the current pipeline. Does that infer that you’ve greater visibility now over forward revenues as renovation isn’t dependent on market growth, it’s more about projects? They’re my three questions. Thank you.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: I’ll kick off here, Cathal. Firstly, maybe on the renovation point. The nature of renovation is that typically it is products that are well established in the market. Therefore, there is visibility in terms of the scale of those particular opportunities. There’s more certainty around the scale of those opportunities. When we are deploying resources on those renovation opportunities, we are quite confident in terms of, let’s say, the potential outcome. Which obviously is a little bit different on the innovation side, where you’re bringing a new innovation to the market, or a customer is bringing new innovation to the market. It’s not always perfectly predictable to see how that new innovation in the market actually ultimately performs, and there could be an element of variability around that performance. I don’t want to overplay the level of visibility.

I mean, the current market backdrop doesn’t kind of lend itself to predicting the future extremely well. For sure, as it relates to renovation, we have better visibility in terms of the expected outcome. Maybe shifting to Europe. Like we’ve said, we are planning limited growth this year in that 0%-1% range. Look, the team are very focused on executing against the strategies. We’re not changing strategy in Europe. We believe we have the right strategy in Europe, with the right strategy in place. We’re building on that. We’re taking a more proactive approach, like I’ve said previously. We are seeing green shoots. We are seeing progression on the overall pipeline, and we do believe we will make further progress in 2027 and beyond to be comfortably within that midpoint of 1%-2% here over the medium term.

Marguerite Larkin, CFO, Kerry: Cathal, on your inputs cost inflation expectation, we expect to move from deflation in the first half to some limited inflation in the second half of the year.

Cathal Kenny, Analyst: Thank you.

John, Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that is all that we have for the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to the Kerry team for closing remarks.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO, Kerry: Thanks everybody for joining our call this morning. We’re conscious it’s a very busy morning, we’ve put a lot out there as well. Overall, we believe we have a powerful strategy. We’re executing well against those strategies. We believe that there is momentum in our business allowing for that market backdrop. We do believe we are well set up for the future. As we’ve mentioned previously, the presentation of our 2030 targets and our prepared remarks are up on our website, we would encourage you to listen back if you haven’t already. We will be hosting our Investor Day on October 8th in Beloit, Wisconsin. If you have any follow-ups from this morning, please reach out to the IR team. Thank you, have a great day.

John, Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Have a pleasant day.