David Bortolussi
Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us today. My name is David Bortolussi, I'm the Managing Director and CEO of The a2 Milk Company.
Today I'm joined on the call by our CFO, Dave Muscat, and our business unit leaders, Xiao Li, Yohan Senaratne, Jaron McVicar, and Kevin Bush and I will present the results and outlook and there'll be time at the end for questions. During the presentation, we'll focus on continuing operations excluding MVM, which we divested in the first half, and occasionally refer to underlying results, which excludes both MVM and Mataura Valley Milk.
We've excluded Mataura Valley Milk from the underlying results given that the site is currently underutilized and incurring manufacturing losses and transformation costs, which are short-term in nature. Starting on slide 4, we delivered FY26 results in line with or slightly ahead of our updated April guidance with double-digit revenue growth.
Infant milk formula, or IMF, grew 5% in a flat China market supported by strong English label growth, with China label sales significantly impacted by temporary supply chain disruption in the fourth quarter. Supply chain disruption had a material impact on China IMF product availability, performance, and supply chain costs, which impacted our second half group sales and earnings.
As you would expect, we have a comprehensive recovery plan in place and commenced execution, which I'll come back to later in the presentation. Other nutritionals grew significantly by 42% through innovation in kids, seniors, UHT, and supplements.
Liquid milk growth was well above market at 22% in Australia and the US. Our commitment to innovation has resulted in the launch of a series of new products over recent years, which are making meaningful contributions to our growth.
These new products accounted for more than 50% of our sales growth in FY26, with further launches planned in the first half of '27. We also advanced our supply chain transformation through the divestment of MVM and the acquisition of Mataura Valley Milk, with the transformation program on track or ahead of plan.
Finally, following regulatory approval of our two new China label registrations, we declared a $300 million special dividend and today announce an increase in our full-year ordinary dividends with improved payout ratio. In combination, we have declared a total of $453 million of ordinary and special dividends in FY26.
Turning to our financial summary on slide 5, revenue was up 12.4% to $1.95 billion. Reported EBITDA was down 2.5% to $284 million, which was impacted by supply chain disruption and Mataura Valley Milk losses.
On an underlying basis, excluding Mataura Valley Milk, EBITDA was up 5.4% and underlying EBITDA margin was 15.6%. Underlying net profit after tax and underlying EPS were up approximately 7%.
Slide 6 shows that our growth was broad-based across all of our geographic markets and product categories. China and other Asia grew 11%, ANZ 10%, and the US over 28%.
By product category, IMF was up around 5%, liquid milk up 22%, and other nutritionals up 42%, excluding Mataura Valley Milk sales. Moving to slide 7, the China IMF market was relatively flat with premiumization offsetting a low single-digit volume decline.
The China label IMF market stabilized and English label growth slowed significantly in the second half due to the impacts of industry recalls. Pleasingly, the A2 type protein and ultra-premium segments continued to grow ahead of the category, which plays to our strengths.
Slide 8 addresses the supply chain disruption experienced in the fourth quarter. As outlined in our market announcements in April and July, product availability was materially impacted by a number of factors, including strong demand in the preceding quarter, freight challenges, a production backlog at Synlait, extended product release timeframes, and additional customs and testing requirements.
These factors have been resolved and availability has significantly improved. However, the in-market product availability issues necessitated a large proportion of our existing users to switch to alternative brands, which, as you can see, significantly impacted our China label market share during the fourth quarter.
The rate of recovery will depend on our ability to regain past users, new user recruitment momentum, and the performance of our new China label IMF products. Slide 9 sets out our recovery plan built around rebuilding trust, driving past and new user recruitment, supporting our distributor and retailer ecosystem, and launching new products.
There's been positive early progress against our plan. Our new traceability tool has been very well received by consumers, brand sentiment is recovering, and new user recruitment conversion rates are back to or above historical levels.
Moving to slide 10, the first wave of marketing behind our China IMF recovery is focused on reassuring consumers that a2 products are of the highest quality. This includes a market-leading traceability tool with batch-by-batch testing, an endorsement campaign from China state media Xinhua News with a leading food safety expert, and independent validation by leading quality assurance influencer Daddy Lab.
Together, these initiatives are rebuilding confidence in quality and supply and driving positive sentiment. The next slide measures how our social media and PR activity is helping rebuild confidence in the a2 brand.
Brand sentiment has recovered quickly towards prior levels, with the ratio of positive to negative sentiment improving significantly in July. Search interest in the a2 brand, a2 Zhi Chu, and a2 Platinum on the major e-commerce platforms has been recovering each week, reaching around 80% of December to January peaks by the end of July.
From mid-August, our new user education and recruitment programs will ramp up, followed by a broader a2 brand superiority campaign in October. Turning to our outlook statement on slide 12, we expect revenue and EBITDA to grow in FY27, supported by innovation in new markets, continued momentum in other nutritionals and liquid milk, and improved profitability at Mataura Valley Milk.
IMF sales are expected to be impacted by the flow-on effects of supply chain disruption in the fourth quarter with a gradual recovery over the course of the year, supported by an increase in marketing investment, particularly in the first half. As a result, group revenue and EBITDA are expected to be materially weighted to the second half.
Overall, we currently expect mid single-digit revenue growth in FY27, with first-half revenue broadly in line with last year. EBITDA margin is expected to be approximately 15%, with the first half materially down on pcp before improving in the second half.
Our full outlook statement, including key risks, is set out in our results commentary released today. Slide 13 outlines our strategy, which is unchanged and enduring.
We remain focused on capturing the full potential in China IMF, ramping up product innovation, entering new markets, and transforming our supply chain, all underpinned by our brand strength and science and innovation capability. As slide 14 shows, we continue to track well against our medium-term financial and non-financial goals and remain on track to deliver the majority of our targets despite the temporary supply chain disruption during the fourth quarter.
Turning to the next slide, we just fell short of achieving our medium-term revenue ambition of $2 billion this year, but will do so in FY27. Our market and category growth drivers remain on track, except for China label IMF, which has been impacted by supply chain disruption and is a key focus and work in progress currently.
Moving to the next page, and beyond our FY27 goals, we have significant growth opportunities to capture in our core business, adjacent categories, and new markets over the years ahead. We've been addressing these opportunities over time and thought it would be helpful to lay out the markets and categories we are focused on, the estimated size of these markets at retail, the addressable component, our current share, and how our portfolio through innovation and new markets has evolved from FY21 to where we expect to be by the end of FY27.
Interestingly, our portfolio of products and markets has expanded from eight in FY21 to a planned 36 by the end of this year, which is an indication of the focus on innovation and market expansion. In summary, we have a low share of a large TAM, with plenty of growth opportunities to pursue over the long term.
Over recent years, we have focused on expanding our product portfolio, supported by investment in innovation and product development capability, Mataura Valley Milk, and building a network of strategic manufacturing partners. Slide 17 highlights the many new innovations coming to market in FY27 and beyond.
In the first half of '27, we'll launch two new China label products that will expand our China label portfolio from one to three, significant updates to a2 Platinum and a2 Genesis, alongside continued expansion in other nutritionals, which Xiao and Yohan will cover later. Moving to slide 18, which speaks to the science that underpins our a2 brand proposition and innovation.
We have continued to invest in research for more than 25 years, building scientific evidence around milk that is A1 protein free. A highlight this year was a US growth monitoring study, a key clinical requirement for the FDA infant formula approval process.
The study showed that infants consuming formula made with a2 Milk demonstrated appropriate growth and had a comparable safety profile to infants consuming conventional formula, which is the primary purpose of the study. However, secondary analysis of the data showed a 6% greater length and weight gain versus conventional infant formula.
These findings were presented at the American Society for Nutrition annual meeting in July and attracted significant interest. Slides 19 and 20 cover our supply chain transformation.
During the year, we completed the acquisition of Mataura Valley Milk, a world-class nutritional facility, and the divestment of MVM. Since acquisition, we've more than doubled our Mataura Valley Milk team, delivered the first phase of our multi-year capital investment program on time and on budget, and secured registration amendments for the two new China label products.
The site is on track for an EBITDA break-even result in FY27 as we insource a2 Platinum and capture vertical margin benefits. As per slide 20, all of our key milestones with respect to English label transition, China label registrations, and facility upgrades for FY26 are all complete, with our FY27 metrics on track with production and financials in line with plan.
Finally, on slide 21, we continue to make good progress on sustainability, including commencing work to convert the Mataura Valley Milk gas-fired boiler to an electrode boiler to progress towards our Scope 1 and 2 net zero target by 2030. We also established real, on-farm data collection approaches to increase the accuracy of our Scope 3 emissions reporting and awarded 27 new projects through our Farm Sustainability Fund.
I'll now hand over to Dave to take through the financials in more detail.
Dave Muscat
Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. Starting on slide 23 with our group P&L.
Net sales revenue was up 12.4% to $1.972 billion, with growth across all product categories and segments. Gross margin was 47.7%, down 3.4 percentage points, reflecting Mataura Valley Milk losses, which were in line with expectations, a lower share of China label sales, one-time costs related to the previously mentioned supply chain disruption, and higher COGS due to higher milk and other ingredients prices, particularly in the second half.
Distribution costs were marginally higher as a percentage of net sales revenue at 3.5% due to higher freight rates, primarily related to the liquid milk businesses. Marketing investment of $325 million was higher in support of the China growth strategy, innovation, and new user recruitment.
SG&A was also higher this year, mainly reflecting investment in capability to support China growth and supply chain transformation, including planned Mataura Valley Milk operating and transformation costs. However, if you exclude FX losses caused by the New Zealand dollar devaluation, SG&A as a percentage of sales was lower than last year.
Reported EBITDA was $284.4 million, with margin in line with our previous guidance. On an underlying basis, excluding Mataura Valley Milk losses and transformation costs, EBITDA increased to $307.6 million, reflecting growth in the underlying business.
Our effective tax rate improved to 30%, supported by improved profitability in New Zealand and partial utilization of our group tax losses. NPAT from continuing operations was $208 million, or $235.8 million on an underlying basis.
We also declared a final dividend of 9.5 cents per share, representing a payout ratio of around 74%. The dividend will be fully franked and un-imputed, and will be paid on the 2nd of October.
Slides 24 and 25 set out our segment and product performance. On slide 24, China and other Asia revenue grew by 11.2%, with segment revenue and EBITDA impacted by Mataura Valley Milk losses and the fourth quarter supply chain disruption.
ANZ and USA both achieved double-digit revenue growth, with USA EBITDA improving materially. Slide 25 shows revenue growth across all product categories at group level, with liquid milk and other nutritionals growth partially offsetting China label IMF decline.
Moving on to slide 26, operating cash flow was $133.1 million, with cash conversion of 68%, in line with our updated guidance. This reflects the planned inventory build associated with the Mataura Valley Milk ramp-up and normalization of China label IMF inventory, plus some timing impacts related to the fourth-quarter supply chain disruption.
Investing cash flows included net supply chain transaction outflows of around $165 million, associated with the Mataura Valley Milk acquisition and MVM divestment, with other investing activities including a reduction in our term deposits and capex additions relating to our Mataura Valley Milk capital upgrades. Our closing cash balance at the end of the period was $784.5 million, down $276.7 million, reflecting the previously mentioned supply chain transactions, Mataura Valley Milk capital investment program, and dividends paid throughout the period.
Turning to slide 27, our balance sheet remains strong, with cash and term deposits of $784.5 million and no external debt. Inventory, as previously mentioned, increased, and intangibles rose with the goodwill from the Mataura Valley Milk acquisition.
The balance sheet gives us capacity to support our growth strategy while balancing risk and maintaining flexibility for future investment. That concludes the financial overview.
I'll now hand over to Xiao to take you through the performance of our China label business.
Li Xiao
Thank you, Dave. Starting on slide 29, China label IMF revenue declined 14% to $544 million for the year.
This was very much a story of two halves, with revenue up 6.5% in the first half and down 32% in the second half as a result of the fourth quarter supply chain disruption. As previously mentioned, the contributing factors are now resolved.
IMF availability has improved significantly. While it is too early to be conclusive, we are encouraged by some of the early data reads, with brand sentiment significantly improved since June, and the conversion rate of new user recruitment activities is back to historical level.
However, to be clear, the recovery is expected to be gradual in FY27. Turning to the next slide and looking at market share.
On MAT basis, China label share increased to March before declining to 5.2% by year end. However, on a quarterly basis, MBS and DOL both declined, significantly impacted by the fourth-quarter supply chain disruption.
As stock level has now significantly improved, we are focusing on our China IMF recovery, and regaining past users and accelerating new user recruitment. Moving to slide 31, which preview our two new China label products that are due to launch in the first half of FY27, both of which will be manufactured at Mataura Valley Milk.
The first, a2 Zhi Chu [Chirun?] , targets the ultra-premium segment and share gains in lower-tier cities.
The second, a2 Zhi Chu Zhichun, is a dual-certified organic product that is expected to build our brand in higher-tier cities. Both products has innovative packaging, including scoop in lid, and provide consumers with confidence in the safety and quality of their purchase via our recently launched traceability app.
Together, these new IMF products expand our China label range and support our growth strategy in the China IMF market. Our retailers, distributors, and brand ambassadors are excited to welcome our new a2 IMF babies to the market very soon.
I'll now hand over to Yohan to take you through the English label and other nutritionals.
Yohan Senaratne
Thanks, Xiao, and good morning, everyone. Starting on slide 32, our English label IMF revenue grew 23% to $788 million, driven by strong growth in our CBEC and O2O channels, with a growing contribution from a2 Genesis, which now represents 6% of total English label sales, and rapid expansion in new markets, particularly Vietnam.
Third-quarter a2 Platinum sales were strong following industry recalls. However, offtake momentum slowed in the fourth quarter, indirectly impacted by the USA label IMF recall announced in May 2026, net of some modest switching benefits from China label.
In ANZ, our English label IMF sales declined due to lower Daigou channel sales, while a2 Gentle Gold continues to drive growth in Australian retail channels. Moving to slide 33 and looking at market share, from a market perspective, English label now represents 20% of the total China IMF market.
However, market growth slowed significantly in the second half following industry recalls. A2MC was the leading share gainer on CBEC, driven by a2 Platinum and a2 Genesis performance.
A2 Genesis has now achieved a 1.8% share on CBEC, with over 60% of offtake coming from early-stage products. More recently, following the USA label IMF recall, offtake momentum has been indirectly impacted.
However, we're focused on rebuilding momentum in the first half. Slide 34 previews updates to our a2 Platinum and a2 Genesis formulations.
A2 Platinum will receive its first major update since 2022, with an enhanced, advanced nutrition formulation, premium packaging, and traceability. A2 Genesis will be upgraded with additional HMOs and a change to the probiotics to strengthen its super-premium positioning.
Both of these products will be manufactured at our Mataura Valley Milk facility, with the insourcing of a2 Platinum significantly increasing production volumes and bringing vertical margin capture benefits to the group. Continuing to the next slide, our new market strategy continues to advance, with Vietnam starting to scale.
Distribution has expanded to more than 3,500 stores, and English label sales grew strongly during the year. We are also continuing to assess and progress further opportunities across Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Turning now to other nutritionals on slide 36. Sales grew nearly 60% to $216 million, led by our kids and seniors fortified milk powders.
Our kids range continues to grow strongly, with the product also responding as a substitute for stage 3 and stage 4 China label IMF users during the fourth-quarter supply chain disruption. Our seniors and adult ranges hold leading category positions, and our new height support kids UHT has resonated well with consumers since launch, and we saw strong growth in emerging markets for our Macamilk brand.
Turning to slide 37 and taking a look at some of our individual products more closely. As previously mentioned, our China label kids milk powder is growing rapidly, with half-on-half sales up around 80% and retaining the number one ranking amongst international brands in MBS stores.
We continued to build brand awareness and new user recruitment for our broader kids portfolio through our Octonauts 2.0 campaign, including a customized episode featuring the a2 brand, character integration on pack, and a full suite of co-branded gift boxes across the a2 kids portfolio. Looking ahead, we will continue to innovate our kids milk powder range with new functional formulations to address areas of strong consumer interest.
Continuing on to the next slide, we entered a new category through the launch of our China label pediatric supplements range during the second half. The range is focused on immunity, gut health, brain and eye health, and anti-allergy.
Early consumer response has been encouraging, supported by professional endorsement, and we see significant potential to expand the platform over time, including expanding into English label. Turning now to slide 39, which previews our English label pediatric supplements range, due to launch in the first half of FY27.
Our English label supplements range is manufactured in Australia to TGA standards and will be available for sale in Australia, New Zealand, and China CBEC. will be first to market with Australian-made liquid calcium sachets, one of the largest and fastest-growing categories, and we intend to launch the range into Vietnam, subject to achieving registration.
With that, I'll now hand over to Jaron to take you through ANZ.
Jaron McVicar
Thank you, Yohan, and good morning, everyone. For those I haven't met, I'm Jaron McVicar.
While I've been with a2 for some time, this is my first results presentation since stepping into the ANZ leadership role in April, and it is my pleasure to take you through the ANZ results today. Turning to slide 40, our Australian liquid milk business delivered another strong year, with net sales revenue up 17% to $245 million, driven by growth in both our a2 Milk core and a2 Milk lactose free ranges.
We outperformed the category, growing overall share to 11.7%, and lactose free reached a record share of 22.6%. We were also proud to be the first national lactose-free brand with the launch of a2 Milk lactose free in Coles WA.
We delivered premium brand exposure across our priority markets through our exclusive Australian Open partnership as the first dairy milk partner of the Australian Open in its 120-year history, with our bespoke co-branded frappés becoming viral sensations on social media, driving exceptional visibility and brand engagement, including through mass sampling. Moving to slide 41, slide 41 highlights the lactose-free opportunity, which has been a major driver of category growth.
A2 Milk lactose free is the only product in the Australian market that is both A1 protein free and lactose free. Lactose free retail sales value has grown over 6% in the last year and is approaching 10% of the total dairy milk category.
The a2 Milk Company continues to gain share in this fast-growing category and is the number two brand in the segment. This gives us confidence in the broader opportunity for A1 protein free and lactose-free milk, including in markets such as the USA.
On that note, I'll hand over to Kevin to take you through the USA results.
Kevin Bush
Thanks, Jaron. Turning now to slide 42, the USA had an excellent year, with net sales revenue up 29% to $179 million, and importantly, achieved EBITDA break-even in the second half for the first time.
Growth was underpinned by double-digit gains across our core and grassfed ranges, increased household penetration and distribution, and a2 Milk is now a top 10 US liquid milk brand and is the fastest growing. From an IMF perspective, we managed a small voluntary recall of discontinued USA label IMF batches, as announced in May this year.
This recall was isolated to the USA market and is completed and closed, with immaterial impacts on USA financials. Our long-term FDA approval for IMF continues to progress, with a final factory inspection completed recently.
Moving to slide 43, we continued to strengthen the brand in the USA, with awareness and net promoter score both improving, and a new foodservice partnership with Steak 'n Shake. Looking ahead, and building on the strong momentum we have seen in lactose free in Australia, we see an opportunity to bring the same differentiated proposition to the USA.
In the first half of FY27, we will launch a 2% lactose-free product with selected retail partners. In addition, we are also considering opportunities to enter the higher growth protein segments of the market, with products currently under development.
I will now hand back to David.
David Bortolussi
Thanks, Kev. That concludes today's presentation.
I'll now hand back to the operator for the Q&A.
Operator
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad.
If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question.
Your first question comes from Peter Marks from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Peter Marks
Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question.
I was wondering if we can break down the EBITDA margin guidance a bit further. Is there anything in there that we should be thinking about gross margins, and what are you thinking in terms of marketing, and then the other cost lines as well?
If that'd be very helpful. Thanks.
David Bortolussi
No problem, Peter. I'll ask Dave to give you some color on that.
Dave Muscat
Sure.
David Bortolussi
Yeah.
Dave Muscat
Hey, Peter. There's a lot of noise in the FY26 results, probably the best way to think about it is to start with the FY25 EBITDA margin of 16.6%, which doesn't have any Mataura Valley Milk in it, which is I suppose in line with the break-even result we're expecting in FY27.
That's probably the best, cleanest starting point. If you're thinking about that 16.6%, we're guiding in FY27 to approximately 15%, you're talking 1.6 percentage points.
One thing that's very important to factor in is that the vast majority of that decline will actually be gross margin. I'll come back to marketing in a second.
It'll mostly be gross margin and driven by probably two factors mainly. One is mix, if you think about the fact that we've called IMF to be broadly flat for next year and strong growth in the other nutritionals and liquid milk, there's quite a reasonable amount of mix dilution coming through.
It'll improve through the year, but on average through the year there'll be mix dilution. Also, there are some COGS pressures coming through milk, through lactose, and a little bit still through whey as well.
They'll be the two sort of headwinds. Against that, we'll have probably some FX tailwinds and we're cycling a little bit of air freight.
Most of that 1.6 call it gross margin. Marketing will be up in terms of reinvestment rate, but it's probably more of a phasing story in terms of the first half being up by quite a lot.
Probably from a full-year perspective, it'll probably normalize, but it'll be up probably more slightly than COGS. Then we get a little bit of leverage on SG&A.
That's probably the way to think about the shape of the EBITDA for next year. Then probably I might as well cut it off now because I'm sure I'll get the question later is around the phasing for next year.
We've talked about, obviously mentioned before, the 15% approximate EBITDA percentage for next year with second-half weighting. Probably the two call-outs if I'm thinking about the average where you get to from an average for the full year, our marketing will probably be around two around probably 2 percentage points reinvestment rate higher than you'd get for the average for the full year.
Our gross margin is probably going to be a percent worse than where you would get to from a full-year perspective. Hopefully those building blocks give you enough to be able to sort of build out your numbers for next year.
Peter Marks
That's very helpful. Thanks.
Can I just follow up with the COGS pressures and everything that's going on with the business at the moment, how are you thinking about pricing? Do you think you can offset some of those with price increases or there's just too much going on?
Or do the new products and the formulation refreshes and the packaging refreshes actually allow you to take a bit of price? Just interested to see how you think about that.
David Bortolussi
Peter, it's David. We are taking price effectively in some of our categories and in markets, but overall it's not necessarily mitigating margin.
For example, in our China label product, we've increased price a little bit, but a lot of that's going back to the trade to support margins and activation. In our Platinum product, as we transition, in effect, pricing will be similar, but there'll be slightly smaller pack size, price per kilogram, if you like, will go up a little bit.
Then in milk, we've taken a bit of price as well, but reflecting the increases in farmgate milk prices as well. We are taking price, but it's not necessarily being accretive to margin overall.
Peter Marks
Very helpful. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sam Teeger from Citi.
Please go ahead.
Sam Teeger
Oh, morning guys. Thank you.
What was your China label market share in July for the month across all stages and by the time of the AGM, do you think you'll get back to where you were pre the supply shortages?
David Bortolussi
Sam, we're not providing the China label share data for July. We necessarily have that all at the moment.
Suffice to say it's down quite a bit. We would probably estimate that our offtake at the moment's sort of in the order of probably about 40% of what it might have been if you take the last reported results through to December.
It's come off quite a lot, but it's rebuilding back now. We're not providing guidance specifically again for the AGM.
We expect a gradual recovery over the course of the year, probably to get back to roughly the same run rate by the end of the year as it was sort of pre the supply chain disruption. If that helps you.
Progressively from where we are now back to sort of 100% of that run rate. Then from a reported sales point of view, that would then mean that it wouldn't be until the first half of FY28 that we'd be at the same level of total sales that we were pre-crisis.
Sam Teeger
Makes sense. That's helpful.
Then which of the It could be, Sam,
David Bortolussi
it could be better and worse than that, but that's just sort of our expectations and what we're planning for at the moment.
Sam Teeger
Okay. No, that's great.
Thanks. Which of the user re-acquisition initiatives that you have in place now in China have you found to be most impactful, and are you planning any tweaks to them going forward?
David Bortolussi
Xiao, do you want to talk about our past and new user reactivation or recruitment initiatives we have in place? Yeah.
Li Xiao
We have a pretty good track record to recruit new users like what happened in the past year first quarter, and then we quickly turned around the new user recruitment in the second quarter. The most effective activation mix for new user recruitment start with what we call the mama class, targeting either pregnant woman, which we are executing in a thousands of activation per year as the number one priority.
Then the second one, if you look at, we have a several thousand of promotion girl, run the ambassador in the store, they are also the key driver to get a new user in the MBS store. Thirdly, we also have other activation like roadshow, also partially contribute to the new user recruitment across all the early stage and late stage.
Plus, last but not the least, we have a medical marketing team who are targeting at a special channel, like a maternity center or the hospital, for the early stage new user recruitment.
Sam Teeger
Right. Certainly,
David Bortolussi
I think you and other of the market have picked up that we've also sort of make a gift with purchase benefits of returning to the brand and also an enhanced loyalty program. Overall at the moment our user recruitment conversion rates from the activities we've got in place at the moment are at or above historic levels in terms of the conversion of the activity, not necessarily in aggregate, but the conversion rates are really encouraging at the moment.
Sam Teeger
Excellent. Last question, what are the biggest learnings from the supply chain challenges, and appreciate that quite a number of the factors were outside your control, but what tweaks might we make to the operating model going forward to avoid this happening again?
Thank you. Oh,
David Bortolussi
Sam, you're right. A lot of this was outside our control in terms of the industry factors that led to recalls, new standards, testing methodologies, and all that at both in the New Zealand side as well as the China side.
The underlying thing that we need to address is having more consistent level of inventory throughout the supply chain at the right stages of the supply chain. We've struggled with that mainly due to some challenges we've had with Synlait supply over time.
However, having said that, Synlait has recovered well in recent months and we have no real concerns about supply going forward, but we must work together with Synlait to ensure that we have more consistent supply going forward. Indeed, from our Mataura Valley Milk facility going forward as our English label product and our new China label products hopefully become more material over time, we need to do the same ourselves.
We're not saying we're perfect, but we've got to ensure that we have more consistency in our production and inventory management throughout the system.
Sam Teeger
Great. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tom Kierath from Barrenjoey.
Please go ahead. Oh, yeah.
Tom Kierath
Morning, guys. Just to follow on from Pete's question, then, just on marketing.
You're saying it'll be a lot higher in the first half, that 2 percentage points. Can you maybe just give us some color on how much of that relates to the Mataura Valley Milk products?
Just how should we think about, I guess, the marketing spend in relation to that launch that you're doing this half?
David Bortolussi
Tom, the support for new products coming to market, not only the China label products, is appropriate, but relatively modest compared to the total investment that we have in brand and new user acquisition overall for both the Zhi Chu China label product and a2 Platinum. Obviously the a2 Platinum is combination of both.
We're phasing out a2 Platinum and bringing in a new upgrade. We have a baseline level of investment in always-on digital and everything else.
We've got significant investment in early-stage new user recruitment, and then we cycle in and out of new innovation coming to market, of which we have a fair amount coming to market in the next quarter, which we wanted to highlight to our investors. There's an appropriate amount, but don't think that it is by any means the sort of majority of our investment on the new products and ignoring the base business.
Tom Kierath
Can you maybe just talk through the incrementality of the Mataura Valley Milk products and how we should think about maybe market share when we're talking about share in 12 months' time? Where should we be in share then, maybe versus now if the plan is going to play out?
David Bortolussi
Back a year ago we sort of mapped out as in connection with the acquisition what we expected the new China label products to contribute in sales and also gave some earnings sort of margin perspectives on that as well. It was over $100 million of incremental sales over the next few years at close to our average China segment EBITDA margins.
Where we are at the moment is our thinking is that with the launch, which is slightly ahead of plan, like being able to launch these products in October having just commenced the manufacturing and that, which is great to be in market earlier, we're hoping that they might contribute, if you look at the phasing of that, I think there's a phasing chart in the earlier presentation 12 months ago. I think hopefully they'll make a stronger contribution earlier.
I won't be specific about that. One of the reasons I say that, Tom, is that through the supply chain disruption that we've experienced in our recovery program, we've deliberately constrained the distribution or the weighted distribution of our Zhi Chu product.
We're at about two thirds of what we were pre supply chain disruption, which actually opens up a bit more sort of available distribution for one of those products, which will play a more discrete or incremental role. If you put that all together, I think earlier launch, that's a little bit more white space in distribution, I think we are hopeful that we'll get a greater contribution earlier, but we won't provide any specific guidance on that at the moment.
Tom Kierath
Okay. Great.
Thanks, David.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Craig Woolford from MST Marquee.
Please go ahead.
Craig Woolford
Morning, team. Just firstly, just want to clarify what your guidance infers about the second half and if that's a indication of more normal margins.
If I've interpreted your commentary right, it's more like a 12% EBITDA margin in the first half and I guess by inference closer to 18% in the second half of '27. Is that second half relatively clean?
Is that a guide of how margins look once all the supply chain noise settles down?
David Bortolussi
Craig, yeah, I won't comment on the percentages you called out, but what I will say is just be wary of the marketing because we're basically saying that the first half will be reasonably up in terms of percentage points, sort of implies second half will be probably down relative sort of normal run rate. That's probably a little bit to come back on that margin from a marketing perspective.
I think the second half should be a better indication of what we'll see in the future.
Craig Woolford
Directionally.
David Bortolussi
Directionally,
Craig Woolford
yeah. Okay.
With the English label performance in FY26, is there any way to tease out, I'm sure it must be very difficult, underlying performance versus some of the customers that might have shifted to the CBEC channel because of the shortages? Oh,
David Bortolussi
from China label, Craig, going across to English label? Is that what you're saying?
Craig Woolford
Yeah. You've gone from, I think it was 19.1% a year ago to 19.5%.
Is that organic or switch?
David Bortolussi
Yohan might want to add to this, but just in terms of the switching, like we did mention in our update to the market there was some switching from Zhi Chu to Platinum, and there was some, but I think perhaps that's been amplified by the market. I think there's been probably expectations that's greater than what it was.
In essence it was relatively small, the switching from China label to Platinum. Most of the users unfortunately have gone to other brands, which some have retained with us, and our job is to get them back.
I don't know if that helps.
Craig Woolford
I guess the natural follow-on, it's quite a good result on English label cuz it was fairly static over the last 18 months at 19.1% and hopped to 19.5%. What would you attribute that to?
Yohan Senaratne
The market share growth is I guess two factors. One is of course continued investment in a2 Platinum and in particular in new user recruitment, we've seen particularly over the last 12 months an improvement in our stage 1, stage 2 share.
The second thing is the introduction of Genesis as well, so that adds a greater addressable market for us because it gives us exposure to the faster-growing HMO segment within English label, and we've been able to capture on our MAT basis in CBEC now a 1.8% share. Those two together then, if you look at it over an 18-month period have contributed to the EL share gains.
Craig Woolford
Great. Thanks, Yohan.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Richard Barwick from CLSA.
Please go ahead. Oh,
Richard Barwick
good morning, all. David, just want to talk specifically about winning back some of the lost China label share.
How much can you target or can you identify those a2 customers that have switched away? I was also curious just to sort of think through is there a point when it's too late to get them to switch back?
Then the other sort of dimension to that question is does transition from stage 1 to 2 and 2 to 3, does that present opportunities to win those customers back? Just like to sort of talk through those points, if you could, please.
David Bortolussi
Sure, Richard. In terms of targeting those users that may have lapsed, we can do that in certain areas, but by no means do we have a comprehensive CRM tool that tracks everything across all channels, and that's just because of the nature of the China market.
As consumers buy offline, online through different platforms and things, it's hard to capture a lot of that information. With say, for example, offline in the sort of national key accounts and some of the regional key accounts, we have our promotional ambassadors in store who keep quite close contact with our consumers that regularly purchase from those stores and through WeChat channels and everything else.
We have good line of sight over that. Through our loyalty program overall, there's a portion of consumers that do subscribe to our total loyalty program, and then within the e-commerce platforms there are loyalty programs there as well.
We have some line of sight over our users that we can target and re-target. Your second part of that was is it too late?
For some of our
Richard Barwick
Is it too late, right?
David Bortolussi
Yeah. Just in terms of the timing, for early-stage users, if they have switched to another brand, most mothers with a young infant would be generally not inclined to switch back unless they've had problems with the new product that they are using.
Some will, some may wait to the next stage of transition, which is the second part of your question, which is when you transition from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, that provides another opportunity to regain those consumers. Of course, as those consumers did change to other brands, the competition couldn't help but offer them attractive deals on full case or one or two cases, which means that some of them have significant pantry inventory to consumers as well before they would contemplate switching back to us.
That's why there's several of the reasons why it's going to take some time for those consumers to come back to us. We're also re-focused on ramping up the momentum of our new user recruitment.
Then for later-stage users, I'd just highlight that stage 3 users, the infant or toddler is obviously more robust and consumers have got greater flexibility in modifying feeding patterns or potentially using alternative nutrition or other products and then switching back is much more convenient for the consumer. On stage 4 in particular, whilst we're out of stock in stage 4 for a long period of time due to Synlait supply, we did have our kids nutrition, kids advance product that we refer to, which has been incredibly successful and also supported some of those users that were using stage 3 and 4 product as a substitute product.
It's complicated. We don't have full line of sight over everything at the moment.
The plan that Xiao and the team have put in place has been executed well and there's some encouraging signs, but it's too early to be quite definitive. will give updates to the market as we go, next at the AGM and again at the half year or in between if we need to.
Richard Barwick
Just timing-wise, though, David, if it's to win these back, presumably the sooner the better. Therefore, the AGM update, that will give you the best insight.
That seems like it's unlikely to be a second-half weighted winning Chinese label customers back. That's going to be a first-half story?
David Bortolussi
We're hoping that there'll be a significant proportion that will come back. Some have already come back because we were largely out of stock, Richard.
A great proportion of them had left. To even be at 40% offtake at the moment or thereabouts, that's already a significant return to the brand, and that's improving every week.
will see where we're at at the AGM. will certainly provide an update then.
If it's materially different up or down, we'll obviously let the market know if that's critical. Overall at the moment, we're expecting, as I said earlier, from around 40% now to be back to 100% or thereabouts run rate by the end of the financial year, progressive recovery throughout the year.
We're very careful about how we're going about this. The number one priority for us is to ensure that we maintain our really strong brand health that we have for the a2 brand.
The last thing we want to do is to rush into this and not preserve the distribution and the great sort of trade support that we have in the market as well as looking after our consumers. That's why we have constrained our distribution at the moment, and we're progressively going to expand that over time.
We're not discounting product and pushing it into consumers or expanding our distribution rapidly, which could run the risk of ending up with a lot of slow-moving inventory in the trade and create freshness issues and pricing and impact the whole ecosystem, which is really important to the a2 business model. In essence, we're going about this in a really measured, careful way, mindful of what our consumers need and the health of the a2 brand for the interest of the long term.
Richard Barwick
Yep. Okay.
It all makes sense. Thanks, David.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Adrian Allbon from Jarden.
Please go ahead. Oh,
Adrian Allbon
good morning, team. David, just keen to understand when you talk about constraining the distribution for Zhi Chu in particular, is that when you provided your sort of July update and you were sort of there or thereabouts at target inventory, is that against a constraint?
I'm just trying to sort of reconcile where we might have been forecasting to where you're sort of at now with a new view on the distribution in terms of releasing it slowly as you've got confidence?
David Bortolussi
Yeah. That's correct, Adrian.
It's against a constrained distribution that we're at target. Obviously, we factor in a certain number of weeks cover, and that's a forward-looking month cover or week cover measure that we have, and obviously the offtake was uncertain at that point.
Generally, you're correct that we were referring to us being roughly at target inventory on a constrained basis for the offline channels. Obviously, that's not relevant for online.
Adrian Allbon
Okay. Then, I think as you've talked about sort of 40% offtake to 100, would you expect that distribution would go back to where it is?
I know you've talked about possibly seating some of the constrained people with the new products initially, but is that a reasonable assumption as well?
David Bortolussi
I think that we'll head back towards in the order of sort of 25 to 30,000 stores that we had previously. I can't be specific on exactly when that's going to happen, but I think we'll head towards that by the end of the year.
If you sort of factor in that, there will be a little bit of trade inventory level expansion as we move from weighted distribution of around two thirds now to closer to 100% over time, if that's where you're coming from.
Adrian Allbon
Yep. No, that's fine.
Just in terms of the English label seemed to slow quite a bit in the second half, as you've sort of talked about the market commentary, and I guess your market share dipped a little bit in that fourth quarter relative to the Kantar stuff, if you sort of indicatively look at the Smart Path. Can you sort of talk a little bit more about what's happening right now relative to that exit rate?
David Bortolussi
I might hand over to Yohan, but we did definitely see a decline in offtake following the US recall announcement. Again, that product is a different product.
There's no physical issue with the product. It was just obviously the unfortunate similar name, etc., and being picked up in China.
Anyway, I'll hand over to Yohan.
Yohan Senaratne
As David said, if you look at the second half, the third quarter was growing strongly and was a continuation of the trend in the first half. Where I guess the biggest challenges was in May and June when the US label recall came out.
There was an indirect impact. Yes, you can see in the fourth quarter, probably Smart Path is the best indicator of the impact, where you can see it's effectively 10% down for May and June.
What we expect is, of course, that to rebuild in the first half. You can see it on the data on slide 33, fourth quarter '26 is 17.9 versus the MAT of 19.6.
Adrian Allbon
Okay. The expectation is that that dent would be sorted over the first half?
Is what you're sort of saying, you're already seeing progress
Yohan Senaratne
that
Adrian Allbon
that's coming?
Yohan Senaratne
Correct. Correct.
That's happening.
Adrian Allbon
Okay. Just a final question for me, just in terms of obviously the whole serolide and testing was a big priority for the company particularly over the period since you reported the February result.
Can you just sort of update us on where you're at with that? Is it sort of back to normal now against the new testing regimes that are required, or is there any outstandings required on that work program?
David Bortolussi
Adrian, I think the testing methodologies and levels have been reasonably well established internationally. However, I do know that New Zealand is really the only country that has introduced very definitive standards and requirements at some of the tightest levels, which is great.
We have no problem with that at all. It's just that it did evolve quickly over time for both regulators and company participants.
We have gone through testing of all of our product. We've made adjustments to our supply chain.
There is no concern around the safety of our product in relation to cerulide. As an infant company, you can't promise there's never going to be any quality or safety issues, but we have a really solid certificates of analysis from suppliers, we do testing on cerulide throughout the supply chain as part of our release processes.
We make those test results available to our consumers. I mentioned earlier in the call about the batch-by-batch testing results.
You can see nil detect on all of our products every batch. It's a very thorough process that we have in place now, no concerns whatsoever.
Most of the industry has adapted rapidly as well, but we've been very transparent about that.
Adrian Allbon
Thank you. That's great.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Marcus Curley from UBS.
Please go ahead.
Marcus Curley
Good morning, team. I just wondered if we could revert back to the high level of the guidance.
Is it right in assuming that in terms of the infant formula guide that you're talking about growth in English label and a decline in China label at a high level?
David Bortolussi
We haven't been explicit about that, Marcus, but certainly in the first half, that would be the case. Over the full year, it remains to be seen.
It's probably closer than you may expect. We'll just have to wait to see how that plays out.
We haven't provided specific guidance on that. Certainly in the first half, English label will outperform China label on a reported sales basis, yeah.
Marcus Curley
Okay. I suppose and then just on English label are you anticipating growth in English label for the year?
David Bortolussi
At this stage, if anything, English label is likely to be ahead of China label, but it depends. It depends on how the new products perform and everything.
It's early in the year, but yes, that would be our sort of expectation at the moment. If you're expecting English label to way outperform China label given what's happened to China label, that's not necessarily going to be the case.
It's probably a bit more nuanced than that.
Marcus Curley
Yes, I know. I suppose when you think about English label, I appreciate the comments around your market share in the fourth quarter.
You don't necessarily see that in the second half revenue performance. You've obviously got Vietnam going well, you're getting back into stock on new products.
Just trying to gauge what I'm missing in terms of the English label performance potentially in the next 12 months?
David Bortolussi
Maybe not in the next 12 months, but there's a little bit of movement in trade inventory as well that you might want to factor in as well in the second half, because we finished the December half slightly low in English label trade inventory, and then at the end of the year, slightly higher because of the late fourth-quarter drop-off in offtake. That explains a little bit of the relativity of the reported sales growth versus the market share numbers, that explains a little bit of that.
Marcus Curley
Right, okay. That drop-off
David Bortolussi
You've got underlying growth in the emerging markets, and then you get a little bit of trade inventory level movement as well.
Marcus Curley
Thank you. Then it looks like the two new China label products are both in the ultra-premium category.
Is that different to what you were initially thinking, and maybe you can just give us a little bit more color in terms of maybe the price points of those two products and how you plan to roll them out from a store perspective?
David Bortolussi
Xiao, do you want to talk to Yeah.
Li Xiao
Yeah. Both of the product is a position as a ultra-premium product because a2 Zhi Chu's heritage is both perceived by the consumer and the retailer as the ultra-premium product, and we also represent the ultra-premium segment.
For the digestion, it's going to be a lower-tier city expansion because a patent, MLCT and plus OPO plus full nutrition benefits really appeal to the lower-tier mom who want basically everything. Also, if you can see from the market, even in the lower-tier city, there's still a 40% above ultra-premium contribution in the lower-tier city, which mom inspire to buy the best product for their baby, yeah.
This product going to the lower-tier city with ultra-premium positioning, digestion, full nutrition benefits, and plus a higher trade margin, which is also very effective in the lower-tier city, because typically in the lower-tier city rely more on the retailer's recommendation, yeah. Then the a2 Zhichun, which is a2 organic, are serving as a ultra-premium product.
Typically organic is a very unique segment in China market, only appealing to certain consumer in the higher-tier city. This product has to be a higher price and also represent the best source of milk, a2 New Zealand, yeah, probably that's the best, most valuable, precious source of milk to make this product.
It's going to distribute along Zhi Chu in the higher-tier city, a top store key account, hopefully generate incremental volume appealing to this segment.
David Bortolussi
You're right, Marcus. When a year ago, as we were developing our plans, we thought this would either play in the super-premium to ultra-premium space, and we have leaned towards the ultra-premium.
As we've done more work on our go-to-market strategy, taking into account distributor and trade feedback on it as well. We think this is the right positioning, and the full nutrition formulation that that Chirun product has, we think supports that as well.
If, for whatever reason, it doesn't hold that price point, we can always wind that back a little bit. It's very difficult, as to take a product up after you've launched it at a certain price point.
Marcus Curley
Both products priced at a premium to the existing product?
David Bortolussi
The organic product will be at a premium to Zhi Chu, but we're not being specific about the Chirun product pricing relative to Zhi Chu at this stage.
Marcus Curley
Okay.
David Bortolussi
It'll be close. I'm not saying it's going to be above or below, but it'll be close, but in the ultra-premium segment.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Phil Kimber from E&P Capital.
Please go ahead.
Phil Kimber
Hey, guys. Just had a question on the market growth you expect.
I think you've given the total China infant formula market grew at 0.7%, but that was over the whole year, and at the half it grew 3.6% for just the first 25 or 26 weeks. It looks like it's gone backwards about 3% now and English label looks like maybe flat and China label down.
What's your expectation for the market to grow or decline in FY27? When you look at the various stages, should we anticipate that momentum increases, as in it declines faster, or am I sort of missing something in that?
David Bortolussi
It's always hard to definitive about the China infant market, but at the moment, our thinking is that the number of newborns will probably be up supported by the marriage rate, which increased last year. You've got the impact of the Dragon Year still working its way through the system in the later stages.
Then you've got birth rate obviously declined a lot last year, but will probably be up marginally this year. Overall, Phil, we'd expect the market to be down low single digits, only down slightly next year, low single digits.
Probably early stage reasonably robust, sort of flat to marginally up, and later stage to be down because of the tail end of the Dragon Year working its way through the system, if that makes sense.
Phil Kimber
Yep. When you say are you talking fiscal '27 there or calendar '27?
David Bortolussi
Yeah. FY27, yeah.
Phil Kimber
For
David Bortolussi
the newborn numbers, I'm referring to calendar year, cuz that's basis which they're reported.
Phil Kimber
Yep. Then my second question, just around Synlait, and you mentioned having to work with them to improve supply.
There's been rumors on the wires around ownership changes there. I don't know if there's anything you can talk to on that, or where you think that might end up, that business?
David Bortolussi
Every six months there seems to be rumors about us doing something in relation to Synlait. Look, I won't comment on speculation.
All I'll say is that we had a long and strong relationship with Bright and Synlait, despite some of the supply challenges that we've had. We work day-to-day really closely with Synlait.
The Zhi Chu China label registration is very strategically important to us, and we intend to partner with them in the long term. I think the only other thing I'd say is that the acquisition of Mataura Valley Milk and the hundreds of millions of dollars that we've invested in that and the upgrade is probably indicative of our supply chain strategy.
Got nothing more to say on that, Phil.
Phil Kimber
Cool. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Stephen Ridgewell from Craigs Investment Partners.
Please go ahead.
Stephen Ridgewell
Good afternoon. David, first question from me is just on the new China label products.
Just wondering if you could please give us a broader indication as to the revenue contribution that's baked in to the guidance for flat overall infant formula sales from those new products. Then, just related to that, would you be expecting these new products to have a positive contribution at the EBITDA level in FY27?
Or, given launch costs, is that perhaps more of a expectation for FY28, please?
David Bortolussi
I'll go back to the comments I made earlier in the call, Stephen, in the Q&A session. I forget who it was to, but that last year, if you have a look, when we announced the acquisition, we said that the two labels would contribute incremental over $100 million of sales, and there's a chart in there which shows the sort of expected ramp-up of that.
For the reasons I said before, I'd expect that to be earlier than what that chart would indicate. The chart would indicate we'd probably expect $10 million or less this year, that's not quite right.
It'll be more than that, but it's certainly not going to be the majority. It'll be a reasonable number, but I'm not providing specific guidance on that.
In terms of the contribution, probably dilutive in the second quarter when they're launched, but accretive in the second half.
Stephen Ridgewell
Cool, thank you. Then going back to the broad-brush sort of recovery plan for China label sales, I guess at a high level, just given we're seeing social media sentiment improve, clear data you've provided, search rates are improving, and stock is broadly available for China label, I guess at a high level, why are we not seeing a stronger pick-up in sales already?
I think down 60% does seem pretty steep. It's quite a big mountain to climb to get back to 100% of pre-crisis levels.
When you look at the recovery plan, in the detail you'll be looking at it, do you sort of assume a large number of those customers are gone for good and that you're really relying on over-indexing market share gains for new mothers to get back to that pre-crisis level of sales? If that's the case, I'm just wondering if you're able to share more data points with us to provide comfort on that recovery plan.
Thank you.
David Bortolussi
I think, Stephen, being out of stock for most of the fourth quarter, as I said, has had a pretty significant impact on our user base, particularly early stage. That now at about 40% offtake run rate, we've lost the majority of our early-stage customers through forced product switching to other brands, and we're probably maintaining the majority of our later-stage users.
It's as I said before, it's challenging to get those early-stage users back quickly, but there will be opportunities, as I said, as they consume the pantry stock that they have and as they change stage going forward into stage 2 and stage 3. It'll be other opportunities to acquire them.
Overall, I guess by definition, given what we're saying, we are assuming that we will over-index in terms of our new user acquisition going forward. In terms of data point, the best thing I can offer you is that the conversion rates on the activities we have in place at the moment by the different channels and mechanisms that we go about are either at or above where we were pre supply chain disruption.
We're investing more in marketing this year in absolute terms, if you run the math on it, it's a significant increase in marketing, weighted to the first half as well. We've got the full support of our retailers as well and distributors.
For example, in these types of things, it's one of the most critical things in the trade is to hang on to the shelf space that you have. Overall, we've got the same, if not greater, shelf space despite being without product for a considerable period of time.
Some of our retailers have actually given us an extra bay as well, which is incredible support. Anyway, Xiao and the team are doing a terrific job in China to one, to manage the fourth quarter, but now in executing our recovery program.
Far, good. It's early days.
Stephen Ridgewell
Cool, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Julia Desteg from Morgan Stanley.
Please go ahead.
Julia de Sterke
Hi, everyone. Just wanted to come back to your comments around the outlook for the English label category into FY27.
Given noted in the release around kind of competitor recall impacts in the second half, given they seem to be normalizing now, could you just speak to maybe in more detail your outlook for the next kind of 12 months on both the competition side and therefore prospects for customer acquisition, as well?
David Bortolussi
Yohan, do you want to talk about category Yes.
Yohan Senaratne
I think obviously if we look at the English label market overall, and you look at the first half, it was growing strongly. Obviously, the second half was impacted by the competitor recalls, all right?
Although English label now makes up 20% of the total China IMF market, obviously the second half has been impacted by all of that. Of course, the major brands within the EL segment have had challenges in this space.
For ourselves, of course, May, June, we had our own challenges. What we observe from competitors is that it does take a few months for that to rebuild, and so we would expect the same from ourselves.
I guess if we look at the English label market, the underlying demand for the product coming from overseas is still there, notwithstanding the challenges that the sector's had with those recalls. We would expect that our Platinum and Genesis will support our growth and rebuild into FY27.
Julia de Sterke
Got it. Then just on the reformulation of the Genesis product, I think you mentioned earlier that it was to kind of reinforce the premium positioning of the product.
Maybe not in those specific words. Could you just speak to kind of why the upgrade of that product now, and what you're seeing in the market that might potentially be a catalyst for improving that kind of premium positioning?
Yohan Senaratne
Yeah. If we look at Platinum, the product has been in market for a number of years, but we haven't really upgraded the formulation meaningfully since 2022.
Of course consumer expectations along ingredient profiles such as HMO have changed in that period. What we want to do is make sure that we improve the formulation of the product, plus also improve the usability of the product.
A good example of that is the new Platinum product has the scoop in the lid. Historically we have had the scoop in the powder, which we know can be a bit annoying for consumers.
We've improved both the formulation and the usability to keep in line with consumer expectations. Then also on the Genesis product, we've upgraded the formulation to have six HMOs.
We know consumers are looking for variety of HMOs within their formulation. Of course, once we've launched, we had three HMOs and we've upgraded to six HMOs, plus upgraded the probiotic itself to a human-resident bacteria.
That also improves the positioning of the product. Both the upgrades for the English label products are to keep in line with consumer expectations.
Julia de Sterke
Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from Will Twiss from Forsyth Barr.
Please go ahead.
Will Twiss
Morning, guys. If you look at kind of the initial recovery campaign that's underway, a lot of it is quite heavily focused on product quality and testing.
Is that actually in response to anything you're seeing from consumers in terms of being concerned about the quality of the product and not just the product availability of the fourth quarter?
David Bortolussi
No, not specifically for our product, but there has been a lot of concern amongst Chinese consumers in the infant and toddler category, given what's happened in the market in the first quarter of this year, and also in other categories like nappies or diapers have had issues as well. There's been another recent sort of infant formula of another brand, I won't comment on it specifically, but another concern recently as well.
I think generally Chinese consumers, mothers are very conscious about the importance of quality in our category and they're very sensitive to it. We're just doubling down on that and making sure they've got 100% confidence in our brand in the category.
The other part of the confidence, it's not the quality, it's the supply, which is what the main issue that we had, which is we didn't have product in market. We're giving them confidence around the availability of product and the distribution retail and being back in all the national key accounts with in some accounts with additional shelf space is really positive.
will be refreshing our point of sale and everything going forward. There's a lot of work around that just providing our consumers with trust on quality and supply, which is the most important thing in our category.
Will Twiss
That's helpful. Thank you.
Then if we think about supply chain costs, we know there were some additional costs kind of embedded in the cost base for FY26. Can you just talk to or provide some more color around how much cost is in there relative to a normal baseline and then what the outlook is for some of those items into FY27?
Dave Muscat
Hi, Will, it's Dave. We're not really getting into the ins and outs of the second half supply chain costs, gross margin.
There's significant additional costs. There's some mitigating factors and some going the other way.
I think the best way to think about it, like I said before, is start with a clean year, which is FY25, and build it from there. I sort of gave you the building blocks a little bit earlier.
Operator
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time.
I'll now hand back to David Bortolussi for closing remarks.
David Bortolussi
Thanks, everyone, for joining the call. Before I finish, I'd like to thank our a2 team for their incredible effort and impact during the year.
It's been a challenging end to the year, and I think our teams, particularly our China team and supply chain team, have done a wonderful job mitigating that impact and now focused on our recovery plan going forward and all the other growth opportunities we have in the business. Thank you to our team, and for our investors and analysts, look forward to catching up with you shortly over the next week or two.
Thanks for joining the call. Cheers.
Operator
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating.
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