Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining this third quarter conference call.

I will start by making a few remarks on our performance and strategic progress, and then we'll open it up to Q&A. Trading in the third quarter was in line with our expectations, and consistent with the first half.

Our guidance for the full year remains unchanged. On a pro forma basis, and in constant currency, revenue was 2% lower in the quarter, reflecting continued muted market demand, with performance in all regions broadly in line with the first half.

On a reported basis, which includes CP Kelco from the date of acquisition on the 15th of November 2024, group revenue was 15% higher. For the 9 months to the 31st of December 2025, on a pro forma basis, revenue in the Americas was 2% lower, with modestly higher pricing more than offset by lower volume.

In Europe, Middle East and Africa, lower pricing resulted in 5% lower revenue. While in Asia Pacific, revenue was up 1%, driven by higher volume.

Turning to the renewal of customer framework agreements for the 2026 calendar year, which is well advanced. With our number one priority returning the business to top-line growth, we have selectively chosen to invest to drive volume and revenue growth.

This is the right thing to do for the business, giving us a stronger platform for future growth, and we are pleased with the engagement from customers to our expanded offering. We are making good progress on the series of actions we set out at our interim results to drive top-line growth and improve performance.

Let me give you one or two examples of progress. We continue to accelerate the rollout of our solutions chassis program, with a focus on mouthfeel.

We launched two new mouthfeel chassis in the quarter, one to improve the stability of pourable spoon salad dressings, and another to support egg reduction. The level of customer engagement on our enlarged portfolio remains high, with the value of the cross-selling opportunities in our new business pipeline increasing by more than a third in the quarter.

Revenue synergies from the CP Kelco combination are growing in line with our expectations, and we remain confident that run-rate cost synergies will exceed our target of $50 million by the end of the 2027 financial year. Finally, our 5-year, $200 million productivity program continues to operate well, with further savings delivered in the quarter.

Overall then, I am pleased with the progress we are making. There is a real determination and focus across the business to deliver on the actions we are taking, and I am confident that in the near term they will improve the top-line performance of the business.

We will give you more detail on our progress when we announce our full-year results in May. At that time, as usual, we will also provide guidance for the 2027 financial year.

To conclude, with our leading positions in sweetening, mouthfeel, and fortification, we remain well placed to benefit from the growing global trends towards healthier and more nutritious food and drink. With the breadth of our portfolio, our formulation expertise, and the targeted investments we are making to accelerate customer wins in key growth areas, we are well positioned to drive profitable revenue growth over time.

With that, Sarah and I would be happy to take any questions.

Yes, good morning, all. Thanks for taking the question.

I have two questions. The first one is in regards to the price investment you mentioned to sustain volume growth or to improve volume growth.

Can you be a bit more specific which markets you decided to invest in and what that might mean for pricing going forward? The other question is around fiber.

I think more and more evidence or discussions in the public domain about fiber, that fiber being the new protein, etc. What kind of engagement do you see with your customers on the fiber ingredients you sell?

Thank you.

Karel. Let me pick up on the fiber question first, as I think it's an important one, and I'll let Sarah handle the selective view on pricing.

Look, fiber clearly is a big global trend. In fact, there was an article yesterday in Bloomberg about fiber-maxing, and we're seeing very encouraging progress with customers on our fiber portfolio, both products going into market, mostly in the US market, where, both beverages and dairy, we're seeing fiber fortification as a trend, and increasingly the pipeline for fiber is growing.

It's a global trend as well, and we're seeing that trend across Europe and Asia, too. I expect that to continue as we think about the continued desire to create more nutritious processed foods, especially in a world where people have a significant shortfall of fiber in their diets, and all of the nutritional trends we're seeing point towards fiber addition as a strong growth opportunity for us going forward.

Thanks, Nick. Karel, good morning.

When you think about our framework agreements, I think it's worth taking a step back and we're all very aware that market demand remains muted. As we've stated, our number one priority is to deliver the top-line growth.

That's volume and mix-driven top-line growth. We've taken the decision to set our business up stronger for the future is that we're selectively investing to drive that volume momentum and the revenue growth.

When we think about this, we're being very selective, it's by product, by customer, by region to ensure that we're setting ourselves up for that growth, given we now have the broader portfolio following the acquisition of CP Kelco.

All right. Thank you.

Hi. Thanks for taking the questions.

Just one for me. We've talked a bit in the past about the sort of 4Q improvements.

Could you just provide a bit of an update on that? What's going well and where you have visibility on some of those factors coming through?

Thank you.

You mean the four in the fourth quarter?

Yes. Yeah.

I just want to make sure I get clarity on the question. Look, I think we're seeing encouraging signs of increased customer engagement on reformulation.

It's very clear the sentiment in the market is our customers at least, increasingly think about the need to put price back in to drive momentum. We're not assuming any improvement in market outlook in the fourth quarter in our underlying guidance for this financial year.

What we saw in the third quarter was consistent performance with the first half, and very clearly in line with our expectations, and so far as we've entered the fourth quarter, we'd say the same. Always, as you go from Q3 to Q4 across a calendar year, you get some kind of plusses and minuses between December and January from a phasing perspective, but we're seeing the kind of customer demand that we would expect given the underlying guidance given for this year.

That's very clear. Just one one more if I may.

On the price investments for the year ahead, can you give any kind of quantification or indication of the scale of those, maybe in relation to the current year? Thank you.

Look, I think we haven't finished yet because we're still closing out the the the the renewal of agreements for this calendar year, and we'll give you a precise view on that when we get to our our May results as things have settled down. I think it's fair to say that we're doing a little bit more this year than we did in this calendar year than we did in the last calendar year to ensure that we're really driving momentum with key customers, and you're obviously offsetting that with real focus on productivity and the benefits of the of the combination coming through in both cost synergies and the revenue synergy support.

Because let's not forget this is now the second year of the new business, and this is the first year we're entering as one combined business.

Hello, good morning, all. Quite a few of my questions have been asked, but maybe just could you provide more color on trends by regions and category, for example, which category has been doing well, or you're seeing more uptake with customers?

You mentioned a bit about fiber, is that more driven by innovation in beverages, for example, and supported by GLP-1 users taking more fiber? My second question is do you have any indication of how FX will be like for the next year?

Lastly, maybe an update on CP Kelco's volume and margin recovery, please. Thank you.

Let me give you some headlines on the overall shape of what we're seeing in the market, and then maybe Sarah could pick up on the forex and the CPK question. Overall, what we saw in the third quarter was quite consistent with the first half.

In the Americas, we're seeing modestly higher pricing more than offset by lower volume, and that's very consistent with the Nielsen volume data that we saw in the first half where you saw volume down and value driven by pricing, which was part and parcel of CAGNY at the time if you remember. That's been pretty consistent.

In Europe, volume pretty flattish, volume mix, with the pricing investment driving lower revenue. Then in Asia, encouragingly, some revenue growth driven by higher volume, some signs of momentum.

I think underlying that, though, it is important to say what we're seeing with customers in terms of trends is some clear benefits of the combination flowing through. In the quarter, the cross-selling pipeline was up over a third having been strong at the first half, and we're seeing double-digit growth in our innovation pipeline to customers.

That's driven by some key themes. As we've already talked on the call, we're clearly seeing a focus on fiber fortification across many categories.

John, I think it may well be driven by this need for nutritional density driven by nutritional needs for processed foods and the GLP-1 point you made. We're seeing that especially in beverages and dairy in the US.

In EMEA, we're seeing dairy and beverages being more resilient, bakery and snacks a bit softer. In Asia actually, overall robust category performance.

We talked about recovery in China at the half driven by CPK. Beyond fiber fortification, the other trends we're seeing is renovation for value.

Cost efficiency and product renovation. We're also seeing continued focus on sugar reduction, and that links to mouthfeel that we talked about at the half where as you take sugar out, being able to control the texture and mouthfeel of a product is really important, and that's where the combination is really helping us build a stronger pipeline which we expect to build as we go into next year.

Thanks, Nick. John, next question's about FX.

Indeed we saw a headwind of given the US in the in the first 9 months, which is approximately 2% to 3% of revenue, and that we expect to continue. That is partly offset by the strength in Europe.

Remember with the acquisition of CPK we now have a broader footprint, there's also some impact of Brazilian real, Danish krone, etc. Overall, you a headwind in the sort of the 2% to 3% on the top line.

That's a slightly higher impact on EBITDA given the important contributions from the North American the profitable North American business. Turning to CPK, clearly the integration continues to go well, cost synergies well in hand, and

as Nick has spoken about, now obviously the attention on the on the pipeline growth of those cross-sells, and it's been really powerful going into these the the conversations this year as a combined portfolio, crunching up our you know the combined commercial staff, really demonstrating the ability and the and the strengthening capability of the portfolio and the and the stronger together. I think very powerful.

Good to see.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi. My question is on the selective investments.

How should we think about the margin impact of these re-investments as we move into FY27? Are you viewing this as a one-year reset to drive volume recovery or a more structural change in pricing intensity?

My second question would be regarding to what extent can the ongoing productivity program and CP Kelco cost and revenue synergies offset the margin impact of these investments? Should we expect net margin pressure or stability as we bridge from FY26 into FY27?

I think let me start by saying we'll give very clear guidance on fiscal 2027 when we get to our full-year results as we need to complete our planning process for next year and see how trading evolves in quarter one of the calendar year. The way I think about it is if you think about the building blocks going into next year, we clearly because of the market demand remaining muted, putting some selective investments into price to drive the top line, both volume and revenue.

Alongside that, we've got clear offsets from productivity delivery and accelerating the benefits of the CP Kelco combination. Different to last year, we've also got the benefits of the combination flowing through in terms of the pipeline and the cross-selling opportunities to support the framework agreement renewals.

We're confident that that builds a strong platform for growth. Where that leads us to on overall earnings delivery and margins, we'll be much clearer about when we get to our full-year results.

The key here is the quality of the portfolio to build the growing pipeline of business with customers. As we see markets start to improve, and the trends that are our friend from a positioning of the business perspective, we fully expect to drive profitable growth going forward into the medium term.

We'll give very clear guidance on the near term when we get to our May results.

Thanks for that. Just a follow-up on the fiber thing.

Thanks for giving some color on that. Are you seeing a meaningful increase in customer briefs or RFP activity linked to high-fiber formulations, and how does the current pipeline compare with the times last year?

If you think about our pipeline in the last quarter, it grew double-digit overall, and that is driven by a focus on things like fiber fortification. I think the question always is at what pace do those pipeline projects convert into innovation in the market.

As we haven't really seen an increase in innovation pace yet, but we're anticipating that coming as these projects start to flow through.

Nick, maybe I'll just add, it's not simply just adding fiber to a product. With fiber, you really need the mouthfeel.

That's really where plays to our sweet spot, because you really need the appealing mouthfeel for the fortified product to be successful in the market.

Thank you. That's quite helpful.

Yeah.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question.

I just kind of wanted to talk about some of the themes you're seeing in the market longer term. We had a lot of feedback at CAGNY last week about clean label reformulation, including away from artificial sweeteners like sucralose and several emulsifiers, some of which I think are in your portfolio.

What proportion of products are being reformulated this way, and is the increased customer opportunity that you're seeing with CP Kelco for fortification and protein and fiber, is that enough to offset this headwind? Are you still seeing structural growth in the way that customers are reformulating with your ingredients?

Thank you.

Thanks for the question. Look, all of those trends that were talked about at CAGNY just this month actually plays to the reshaping of the portfolio.

I think it's important to say that sucralose clearly is an important part of our portfolio as our artificial sweetener of choice. It's growing in demand, and we're selling every kilo of sucralose that we can make because it's the best tasting artificial sweetener out there.

It's also important to say that if there was a shift away from artificial sweeteners, we've got lots of non-nutritive natural sweeteners in the portfolio, everything from stevia, we're the only company with a all-America supply chain for stevia, for example, through to monk fruit and allulose. We're well placed for the reformulation to more natural and clean label.

Emulsifiers actually aren't part of our portfolio. We do a lot of replacement of emulsifiers, and that's where the CP Kelco portfolio comes in as well.

All of the trends that we're seeing people talk about are the trends we really believe the combination of our three core platforms can help customers win. Because that sugar replacement or artificial sweetener replacement that we talked about also comes with the need for mouthfeel modulation, as Sarah just talked about.

The things that we heard from CAGNY are precisely the reasons that we've repositioned the business the way we have done over the last 5 years.

Thank you.

Morning, all. Thanks for taking my questions.

Just first, one related to the fiber fortification services you've touched on. Just wondering if you can provide a sense of the margins from those services relative to the rest of the group.

If fiber demand does accelerate meaningfully, could that be a broader impact on overall group margins? Then the second question just relates to the price investment commentary that you've provided.

Is that a reflection of a perception of improved demand elasticity, or is it more a reflection that demand is such that it requires stimulation through price investment? Thank you.

On your first question on fiber, our fiber portfolio generates very nice margins for us. Obviously it depends on a customer-by-customer basis how much fiber we're using, what other components we're putting in to help with that solution.

I think the key is the fiber fortification trend is driving a solutions model where typically that business is stickier business and good margin business, it's certainly helpful in that regard. In terms of your question on price and price elasticity, we're clearly in a world where consumers are more challenged.

Food is 20% to 30% more expensive than it was pre-pandemic because of all of the geopolitical challenges we've seen over the last 3 or 4 years, and there clearly is a requirement for some price stimulation to drive demand. More importantly for us, we're trying to balance the way we think about growing our business to make sure we're well positioned for growth through the cycle.

In a cycle where demand is more muted, we want to make sure we're stimulating growth so that we're well positioned as markets start to improve.

Brilliant. Thank you.

I'll pass it on.

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions.

I have two. First, can we talk a little bit about what you're seeing in APAC?

Various players in this reporting season have noted an improvement in China specifically, and I believe your sequential local currency growth is modestly better in APAC, any color on that would be great. That's one.

Secondly, can you provide a little bit of color on how your raw materials are trending into this year on average? How should we think about the direction for cost input inflation or deflation?

Thank you.

Maybe let me pick up the APAC question, and Sarah can pick up the input cost one. Look, we're encouraged by the progress we're seeing in Asia.

As you mentioned, we did see some improvement in China in the first half, and that continued through the third quarter. It's difficult to talk about Asia as one region, it's such a vast vast vast area, but we're seeing good progress in China, solid demand in North Asia, across Japan and Korea, and that gives us some encouragement for the future.

If you look at APAC in the broader sweep, we've grown that business significantly over the last 5 years. Where we're now a $500 million business revenue, where we were round about $100 million 5 years ago.

It's a huge growth opportunity for us still because it's 60% of the world's population, and a lot of the trends we've talked about on the call are true in Asia as well. The opportunity there is very clear, and the fact that we're starting to see some stability and improvement is very encouraging as we go into the next 12 months.

Thanks, Nick. Then Lisa, on the raw materials, I think it's worth reminding you that we've now got a much broader array of raw materials post the acquisition of CPK, it's not just corn, it's also pectins and seaweed, etc.

Broadly, it's a more benign environment, there's not a strong inflation push coming through that, it's more benign, and we're well diversified.

Thank you.

I think it's fair fair to say we're seeing pretty flat year-on-year year costs in it overall. With some ups and downs, but nothing significant.

Yeah.

Hello. Sorry, guys.

Just squeezing in one more question because everyone seems to be asking about margins. Nick, you've historically talked about how important it is to protect unit margins.

Has this changed? Are you confident of maintaining unit margins this year?

No,

I think the focus on unit margins hasn't changed at all. I think in the near term, we're trying to balance all the levers we have to get the business back into top-line growth.

Doing that in an environment where markets are more sluggish means by having to make some choices about where we invest and what choices you make. Fundamentally, over time, we expect to focus on maintaining unit margins and using mix to improve margins because of the quality of the portfolio.

We're in a cycle at the moment where we're having to make some choices.

It's reassuring to hear that you're confident of maintaining the unit margins. Thank you very much.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everybody, for your questions. Just to summarize, trading in the third quarter was in line with our expectations and consistent with the first half, and importantly, our guidance for the full year remains unchanged.

As we talked a lot about on the call, our number one priority is returning the business to top-line growth, and we're clear on the actions we're going to take to improve top-line performance of the business in the near term. We remain focused on top-line growth, execution, and delivering for our customers.

Thank you for your time and questions, and I wish you all a very good day.