Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining our call for half year results 2026 today.

The agenda is including some highlights for myself. Then we continue with Christos Varsos on the financial performance, and then we talk about the outlook, and before the Q&A session.

A few highlights about the H1 2026. I would like to reconfirm that our group is keeping the focus on our strategy reconfirmed based on our categories, on our countries, on our region, and of course, the key strategic priorities which we consistently execute as a group.

The digital transformation is well on track. We have concluded significant number of projects and the go-live events in almost all countries.

We have only Poland left for next year. That is what we're working right now.

On the capex investment, we are on track. We have concluded the majority of a massive program, both in digital transformation, but also in our production facilities, especially in Poland.

I have few details later. Of course, we continue investing in our people, developing our organization, fit for purpose, and of course, supporting our strategic agenda.

The truth is that in the H1 2026, we have some significant geopolitical challenges related to Middle East, and this is resulted a significant cost pressure in raw materials and logistics, linked with oil prices, and of course, the overall disruption in supply chain in Middle East. As you remember, significant investments concluded by the end of 2025, and this investments helped us to counterbalance the significant part of the cost pressure.

Of course, all of these things are still ongoing. We have challenges in couple of countries, Ukraine.

Things are not going very very well in the country. There are events that they are going harder in the last few months.

In Romania, there is a country that, although it's one of the biggest countries of the group, there are some market issues related to consumption and, of course, overall market performance. The last one is the phasing of our US exports affecting H1 results, although the performance in the market and sell-out of our Carroten brand in US is doing really really well, and I have later some details on that.

Key focus, commercial excellence. The hero SKUs remains a strategic focus for our business and winning brands, and we focus on the key brands of the business.

Revenue growth management initiatives to compensate cost pressures, focusing on the right SKUs, and the promotion optimization is key part of the market. The innovation, fewer and bigger initiatives, working with consumers in the region still a key priority, and the international expansion remains one of the biggest growth pillars for our future.

Moving on on the numbers, high-level numbers, Christos will continue with details later on, of course. From a top-line point of view, 1.3% growth.

Gross profit, similar. Underlying EBITDA, plus 0.4.

Strong profitability. There is, of course, a pressure in the margins.

There is a pressure in the market performance, and this is also reflected in our results in H1. If we move on on our hero brands, which is a major focus, the top 15 brands almost plus 1%, is 62% of our branded business.

There's a clear focus from our business to develop further our branded portfolio where the major investment, innovation, and activities taking place. Private label business is stable.

It's 11.4% of the group sales, and overall group is €308 million, as I said before. Now, if we move to our categories, in our beauty and skin, the category is minus 2%.

This is reflecting two things. One is the export facing, which is included in this category mainly because of Carroten brand, and the Romania pressure as a market, which is one of the biggest markets in our skin care business.

Personal care, 2.7% down. This is also reflecting two things: the promotional pressure from all the competition in the region, and there is a specific category that we are a significant player is a fragrance business that is affected mainly, although other categories are performing quite well, both in sales growth plus market share development.

Home Care Solutions, plus 3%. Here, all the investments, all the energy, our leadership position in the region, plus the focus on our key brands, and resulting a very positive momentum for our Home Care Solutions, and especially in the garbage bags category, the growth is even higher.

This is also absorbing the Ukrainian market, which is mainly Home Care Solutions market for us. Great momentum here, great projects, and of course, we expect things to continue in a positive way in the future.

The strategic partnerships part is a good growth rate of plus 4.9% for the six months. This is because of two things.

One, our focus on a fewer and better partnerships that is part of our strategy, and the relevant innovation that we had out of this partnership. Innovation and focus is resulting a better performance for our business.

When it comes into international markets, here there are a few highlights related to the first six months. The majority of the business are for the sun care Carroten brand, and of course, there is a skin care business in Philippines, which is also doing very very well for our business.

I leave US last. Australia is a market that is coming up in the second half of the year.

We are listed in a big retailer there and we're continuing with Carroten brand. Middle East, we had much bigger plans for the first half of the year.

That has been affected by the situation in Middle East, is putting the whole H1 for the region under pressure. However, Middle East for us is a long-term shot, we expect things to improve as the situation progress in the region.

The good thing also we have a new country joining in the second half of the year. This is not in our numbers in the first half.

It's Chile in South America, which is part of our expansion strategy of Carroten brand to Latin America as a next step for growth among other countries that we are working on. In US, there is a lot of positive developments in the first half of the year.

However, operational reasons and, of course, stockholding in the customers in US and our distributor resulted in this facing issue for the first half of the year. On the US, Carroten now is number one tanning brand in Amazon US and Target, which is one retailer that we're working with, and, of course, as we are speaking right now, we are preparing next year significant upside in our distribution footprint, especially in brick-and-mortar stores, in physical stores, because online we're very strong in Amazon, and we continue to be like this.

One thing is the extra distribution. The other thing is the expansion of the assortment where we are in a very good shape right now, and we are preparing the 2027 season with a lot of positive feedback and reaction from the customers and the consumers in the US.

Carroten is progressing, and we're expecting a lot of good things coming out in the near future. Coming now to geographies.

This is a split between the different countries that we are monitoring. Greece, a positive year, positive first half.

Greek market in specific categories is doing very well, and we are winning over other companies. Selected international markets minus 14 is what I explained about the US.

Poland, very positive. Romania is having the impact as of the market performance.

Czech, Slovakia, and Hungary, this cluster of countries, continue performing very well. West Balkans is also having a tough six months.

However, we see signs of improvement from a market conditions point of view, because 2025 and first period of 2026 was quite difficult. Bulgaria is positive, and of course, Ukraine, reflecting the impact of the market situation.

The transformation agenda, as I said, digital transformation, all the new SAP implementation is in place. As we speak, we have implemented the majority number of the countries.

There are two countries left, one for next year, which is Poland. We are very near to the final go-live day.

It's going to be in January 2027, and Ukraine will follow later on. From a planning point of view, have completed all the investments for improving our planning accuracy, and of course, all the digital tools, enhancing our digital capabilities, have been implemented in the business.

Manufacturing upgrade, we have concluded almost everything in our Stella Pack regranulation business. Now we are getting the benefits in 2026, but of course, benefits will even further improve as we're moving on in the second half of the year and 2027 as well.

Our Inovita plant in Greece, the expansion is also in progress. By the end of 2026, we expect to complete also the investments there related to our skin care and sun care expansion, both in the region and the international markets.

Of course, all these capex supporting also the sustainability agenda for the group. From the ESG point of view, we are improving our ratings.

We're in line with our commitments for reduction of scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, 42% by 2030 by reducing 11.5% for this year. Of course, we have improved the ratings, all the raters, improving the scores on our sustainability agenda.

This is the intro from my side. I would pass over to Christos right now to give you more details about the financial performance.

Thank you, Ioannis. Let me now provide some details behind the key numbers Ioannis described.

As you will see, we share underlying and reported numbers. The difference between the two relates to a one-off event, the sale of the old, non-operating factory of Polipak.

The difference from the value, the brokerage fees, and other expenses relevant to this was €0.8 million. Thus, the underlying P&L is the ongoing one.

The difference between underlying and reported is only this one, this influences all lines from EBITDA down to EBIT and all the way to net profit. We should note here that maintaining the non-operating factory had annual expenses of almost half a million, thus, after the sale, we will save this going forward, starting from the relevant portion in half-year two.

Our net sales grew by 1.3% compared to 2025, with focus on our core categories, especially on our branded business, which influenced favorably the mix of sales. Majority of our geographies did well, with decline, though, in Romania and Ukraine, which influenced the performance.

Also, we had the facing element on our sales of US, which influenced the first half, but will be normalized in the second half. In terms of price increases, these were minor in half-year one, and the action pricing is expected to be effective in Q4.

Our gross profit margin remained flat at 38.6%. We started seeing improvement in cost of goods sold as a result of our investments in our production capabilities and the regranulation in Poland.

However, these have balanced the pressure in the supply chain from the ongoing Middle East conflict, leading eventually to the same gross profit margin. Underlying EBITDA grew marginally to €48.5 million, with pressure also in the cost of transportation, despite, as mentioned, the mix performance and the cost benefits from our investments.

Underlying EBITDA margin was flatish at 15.7%. Underlying EBIT at €36.7 million posted a 2% decline to prior year, with a margin of 11.9%.

Financial expenses in 2026, although improved in terms of interest expense, following the prepayments of loans, especially in the second half of prior year, were impacted by more than €1 million negative, mainly due to the devaluation of the RON. Following this, our underlying earnings before tax declined to €34.8 million from €36.5 million in 2025, with earnings before tax margin of 11.3%.

Underlying net income of €27.7 million, down by 5% versus €29.2 million in 2025, leading to underlying earnings per share at €0.44. Moving now to our product categories so you can understand more about the dynamics in the first six months of the year.

Only private label is impacted by the sale of the old factory and has difference between underlying and reported. Starting with beauty, skin, and sun care.

This category, as is a key pillar important for our organic growth plans. In half-year one 2026, net sales declined by 2% to €54 million, impacted by the phasing of our US exports in half-year one, which will be normalized in half-year two, and by performance in Romania.

However, despite the net sales pressure, category EBIT grew by 7.4%, and EBIT margin grew by 280 bps above last year, almost at 22%, affected by the mix within the category. Personal care.

In terms of personal care, this was the category with the strongest promotional pressure from competition and with decline in the sub-segment of fragrances. We had a decline of 2% 2.7% of net sales compared to prior year, with EBIT being impacted further by 17% to reach €7 million EBIT with EBIT margin of 14.2%.

Home Care Solutions. Home Care Solutions grew by 3% to €95 million, with EBIT growing ahead of net sales by 3.6% to €10.8 million, with EBIT margin being stable.

Private label sales were flat at €35.2 million compared to prior year, with breakeven EBIT. We remind you that we use private label on a tactical basis to absorb costs from branded business, and will, over time, increase branded business and decrease the private label portfolio.

Finally, strategic partnerships. We had an increase of our sales by 4.9%, mainly driven by mass distribution, which rose by 12%, while selective business declined by 9% in the period.

The EBIT declined by more than 30%, €1.9 million, driven mainly by selective distribution, especially in Romania. As mentioned, the total group, we have a solid net sales performance reaching €308.3 million.

We have underlying EBIT at €36.7 million, with EBIT margin of 11.9%. Turning now to our geographies.

The underlying reported classification only affects Poland. For Poland, we are also splitting between branded products and private label to allow for better understanding of the dynamics.

Greece domestic market grew by 1.9%, €101.6 million, with EBIT being flat, and EBIT margin marginal below moving by 30 bps. Selected international markets net sales came below prior year to €15 million as a result of the phasing that we mentioned earlier in our US exports.

This is expected to normalize in the second half. EBIT was also impacted by this, declined to €6 million.

The EBIT margin remains at the 40% level, the highest in the group, declining just marginally by 89 bps. Selected international markets remain a key focus for our growth strategy, having the strongest margins, and as Ioannis described earlier, we expect this to grow in distribution, especially next year.

In Poland, the total business had net sales of €94.3 million, a 4.9 million percent increase versus prior year, with EBIT growing by 20%, driven by branded business. The branded portfolio grew by 2.3% to 65 65.7 million, whilst the branded business EBIT grew by almost 12%, and the private label EBIT improved as well in low margins, though.

In other territories, we had a mixed picture driven by specifics in each country. Romania continues the declining trend started on the second half of last year, with €44 million of net sales, a decline of almost 5% versus prior year.

In terms of EBIT, Romania at €5.7 million, representing a decline of 16.8%, with EBIT margin at 13%, declining almost 200 bps. We expect this trend to continue in the second half of the year as well.

Czech, Slovakia, and Hungary accelerated growth by adding 11.5% more net sales, reaching almost €35 million, with EBIT of €4.5 million, which is a 22% increase to prior year. In terms of EBIT margin, this improved by 109 bps, reaching 12.9%.

West Balkans showed a decline in the net sales of 4.9% to €18 million, mainly impacted by the Serbian market. In terms of EBIT delivery, West Balkans declined EBIT to €1.2 million from €1.6 million in 2025, and then the EBIT margin dropped to 6.8%.

West Balkans are expected to improve in half-year two. For Ukraine, this is another year of pressure in the results as identified already from our full-year results discussion.

The net sales dropped by almost 10% to €9.5 million, and EBIT continued in the negative territory, declining further to €0.7 million loss. As the geopolitical conflict in the area continues and as we witnessed lately it accelerates, we expect additional pressure from Ukraine in the second half of the year as well.

Moving now to our healthy and strong balance sheet. As we have also discussed in the past, we maintain a strong balance sheet which can support our organic growth, the next phase of our transformation agenda, and M&A activities.

As of 30th of June, we had net debt of €29.6 million compared to €32.8 million net debt on 30th of June 2025. In 2025, we had also received the €20.8 million from Estée Lauder, while in 2026, we did not have a similar amount to share.

I remind you that due to seasonality, our worst net debt position is on 30th of June, whereas the best is 31st of December. Already today, as we speak, net debt is largely improved versus June, standing at €19 million.

Thus, by year-end, we should again be at net cash position. In half-year one 2026, we have improved our working capital by two days, releasing extra cash to the business.

As we have discussed also in the full-year results, in the last quarter of 2025, we have made early debt prepayments of €17 million, reducing our financing expenses this year. We have now informed one of our lenders for €7.5 million prepayment to be executed by end of this month, enhancing further our earnings per share.

We also expect another loan prepayment in Q4. Finally, as of today, we have committed loan facilities of €120 million as a war chest for future acquisitions.

Enhancing our shareholder value is key for us. Underlying earnings per share is €0.44 from €0.46 last year, declined by 4 4%.

During the first half, we paid dividend of €25 million or €0.39 per share, representing a 25% increase compared to €20 million paid last year. This represented a 47.1% payout ratio versus 43.5% payout ratio last year.

I would like now to provide an update on our capex for this year. Our new capex expectation for 2026 is for €22 million from €20 million we communicated earlier this year, which will complete most of our big projects.

€18 million was deployed already. Now coming to our outlook.

The group continues to monitor the ongoing geopolitical volatility to mitigate as far as possible the resultant pressure on raw materials, energy, and logistic costs. Pressure continues in terms of costs in Q3, while the price increases are expected to be largely in place from September late and mostly in Q4.

Complexity is further amplified by local pressures, mainly within the Romanian and Ukrainian markets. Our strong brands, disciplined execution, sharp focus on cost control, and commitment to our strategic priorities provide confidence to continue safeguarding healthy profitability.

As the current environment is pretty liquid, we will be able to provide updates on the outlook later in the year, if needed. Thank you very much.

Yes, good afternoon, gentlemen. My first question, as far as I understand, you said you're going to provide an update on the outlook later in the year.

However, taking into account that we are almost close to the 9-month period, and your initial guidance for the year calls for €620 million in sales, plus 3.4%, and EBITDA of 9 90 97 million. It seems that, taking into account your performance until now and the relevant headlines in Ukraine and Romania, would you say how confident are you that you are going to achieve this guidance?

My second question has to do with the fact that you ensured fire power of financing of €120 million for future acquisitions. How close are you to close any acquisitions?

If you could identify for us potential geographies, what would be your strategy for acquisitions going forward, which parts of the business are you targeting for acquisitions going forward? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Iakovos. Thank you for the questions.

Related to the guidance, I think that's why because we said the environment is very volatile and there's a lot of uncertainties around. Of course, we see things and we say that we can commit for a more accurate number later on in the year.

I think what we said is there's a lot of pressure in the market, but at this moment in time, we cannot commit to a specific number. Related now to the €120 million facility, what we know Sarantis Group has been proven over the years that is always there in the market.

The strategy has not changed. We still focus on our Eastern Europe territory, because as we said, we focus on categories and geographies that we're already present, which is also give us the benefits of synergies, same channels, and of course, same categories that we have the knowledge.

We continue to do that. There is no new geography in the horizon for us at this moment in time.

Also, what we see since the beginning of the year, although in the previous years there was a theoretical interest for potentially new targets that they were more theoretical interest, now we are see more specific processes coming through, meaning that is more we have more robust and more specific processes around potential targets. However, as we speak right now, we cannot say any specific things related to any potential M&A.

Okay. If I may, one last question relating to your 5-year plan.

I suppose that going forward for 20 2027-2028, your target remains intact, your plan remains intact going forward. Is this correct?

Yes. Yes, it is.

Yes, it is.

Thank you very much.

€120 million by 2028. 31st December 2028, EBITDA of €120 million.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. I hope you can hear me.

I was wondering if we could get an indication we can't get a number for the full year, but an indication of the current running rates. We saw in H1 sales up 1.3%.

Was this mainly volume driven, and how has this been evolving well for Q3 to date or, on what you're looking and into current figures on the top line? We could probably understand if the remaining sales we should be expecting the 3% rise or something closer to 1 1 1 1 1.5%.

On top of that, I would like to understand a bit to get some color on the operating expenses rise. The gross margin was stable in H1.

Probably the pressure Okay, apart from the €800,000 coming obviously from the disposal of the plant, the remaining operating expenses will have had this pressure. Where did this come from, and have you seen this continuing?

Should we expect this to continue? I'm trying to understand a bit the dynamics of the margins and how much we will be able to catch up to the year end, well, based on current numbers you have.

Thank you very much.

Look, Natalia, based on the numbers for the second half of the year, we expect a higher growth rate from a top-line point of view, because the 1.3% needs to accelerate it. This is minimum you can have in the second half of the year, but we are aiming for higher than that.

Related to the operating expenses, first of all, on the margins point of view, as you saw from the mix of the category sales, we see that the partnerships, the strategic partnerships part of the business, is growing faster than the rest, right? This is affecting significantly the mix of our portfolio and, of course, the overall margin of the business.

Related to operating expenses, apart from the one that Christos mentioned, there is also some impact

in transport. Right?

We had the impact on the transportation and transport expenses, because of the fuel and everything else that related to the Middle East crisis, and that was really the part. It was not coming from our, let's say, what we had under control.

It was more of the external determined operating expenses.

Also is a little bit more depreciation that is affecting the operating expenses related to the capex investments over the last few years that is coming into game.

In the difference to EBITDA and

EBIT, yeah. Okay?

Oh,

okay. Yes, yes.

That's what I was trying to understand transport expenses. Probably these will continue to be tough, given that fuel oil is on the rise again.

I was trying to understand. Correct.

Think about also in Q3, what we have in Q3 is that we have the pressure from cost, but the pricing will hit in Q4. Potentially it has the weekend a point.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Thanks for clarifying that. Do you have I don't know if you have a number how volumes are evolving in the top line?

The portfolio of Sarantis Group is so diverse that is volume wise, you have to go category by category. I can tell you right now, because the first six months, there is no price increase in the first six months from a sales point of view.

All the volume that we have is volume-driven growth.

Great. That is very clear.

Can I have another question on the capex? Do you have an updated number or the €20 million you have given us for 2026, you believe this will hold?

Because you've already done I think €18 million.

As presented, it's €22 million. We expect instead of 20 that we talked about in March, we expect 22 now, but 18 million of this is already done.

It is the remaining part to be done.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much for taking my questions.

Nothing special. Thank you very much for joining the call.

If any questions or anything comes to your mind, you can contact our IR, and of course, we'll come back to you. Thanks for joining today and talk to you soon.

Thank you.