Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the PostNL Half Year 2026 Results Call.

[Operator Instructions] Now I would like to hand over the conference call to Ms. Inge Laudy, Manager, Investor Relations.

Please go ahead, madam.

Thank you, operator, and welcome to you all. We have published our results over the first half of '26 this morning.

With me in the room are Pim Berendsen, our CEO, and Linde Jansen, our CFO. They will guide you through a short presentation to explain the results, and we'll then take your questions.

Please go ahead, Pim.

Thank you, Inge, and good morning to all of you. Thanks for joining this half year results update.

I'll start with talking you through some key takeaways and then some strategy slides, and Linde will then take over to go in more depth towards the financial performance. So on Slide 5, the highlights, resilient performance in challenging markets, revenue numbers of EUR 1.6 billion, closely and almost in line with last year, slightly improved normalized EBIT, significantly improved free cash flow.

And what is important strategically is that we see the volume-to-value strategy gaining traction and that, for instance, also can be seen in the average price per parcel that is up with 5%. We consistently see higher growth in European e-commerce activities and obviously declining volumes from Asian web shops predominantly also influenced by the introduction of the custom duties as per January -- July 1 of this year.

Crucial step has been the successful implementation of the shift of standard mail -- to standard mail delivery within 2 days. We obviously prepared for that change for the last 6 to 9 months, a huge effort for all the people involved both in the Mail segment as well in the e-commerce segment, and that implementation has gone very well indeed.

We have confirmed our 2026 outlook. And basically, there's 2 additions to the strategy or attention points that are noteworthy.

We have launched an initiative that will bring us EUR 75 million of additional cost savings, mainly in e-commerce as an answer to the more slightly unfavorable market circumstances in the e-commerce domain. And those savings are aimed to reduce the cost price per parcel, which allows us a bit more room on the commercial side of things to optimize the volume to value strategy in the e-commerce segment.

And the second point is that we have completely redefined our Out-of-Home strategy to strengthen the long-term competitive position on the Out-of-Home domain as well. On the nonfinancial KPIs, good progress has been made on the share of emission-free last-mile delivery from 32% to 39%.

We've maintained our average #1 position in relevant markets in terms of NPS and an improvement of absenteeism that still needs to come down a bit more, but at least it's trending in the right direction. So all in all, a resilient performance in challenging markets.

If we then move to Slide 6 -- 7, I should say, it is just to summarize the key elements of the strategy before we dive into those segments. As you know, we've presented this strategy in September in our Capital Markets Day.

At the very top, you find our purpose, connected to deliver what drives us all forward. And that is basically what holds everything together.

Just below our strategic intent, we grow our business, create sustainable value, lead through innovation and make impact that matters. And that is basically the lens through which we make our choices.

Then one step down, we translate this into ambitions for our 3 business segments. For E-commerce, it's about shifting from value -- volume to value through a differentiated approach and smarter network utilization.

For Platforms, it's all about capturing international growth with asset-light models. And for Mail, it's really transforming towards a future-proof mail service.

We make those transitions by strategic portfolio priorities through which we manage the transition that we're looking for and that leads then to 4 concrete objectives on financial KPIs, NPS, carbon efficiency and employee engagement. So that's basically the North Star that guides all our decisions.

If we then go to E-commerce on Slide 8, we clearly have been executing on the volume-to-value strategy in intensifying external challenge surroundings. Geopolitical uncertainty has impacted consumer spending, bringing down confidence of consumers down that has also ended up with market growth below our earlier expectations.

Furthermore, we see intensifying competition from new market entrants that quite often are tied or somehow related to the Asian platforms. And of course, there's a shift in market dynamics followed by the introduction of the import duty and handling fees for July 1 and still a bit to come by November 1.

At the same time, in terms of execution on our strategy, we're happy with the progress we're making, much more sharper customer segmentation, more differentiated propositions and better and more disciplined volume steering have led to better utilization of networks and margin improvements there. So those yield measures are gaining traction and cost savings momentum protects profitability even though we look at lower volumes than last year and also slightly lower than we anticipated in the beginning of the year, but we managed to compensate that by the yield measures we just discussed.

Important from a competitive position is that we keep our high NPS scores as being the #1 for both receiving and sending e-commerce clients. And as said, we have introduced a program that will lead to EUR 75 million of additional cost savings for '27 and '28.

So on Slide 9, we follow up with clear progress, monetizing capacity by optimizing customer mix and product mix. Contract renewals have been secured that bring a better balance between volume and margin development.

Important negotiations predominantly also in relation to Asian web shops have been concluded in the second quarter. And I think you can see in the half year results that kind of capacity management and more operational steering also on best day and network utilization have improved operational efficiency.

The expected cost savings for '26 are according to plan. We aim to get EUR 40 million to EUR 50 million; halfway through the year, we are at EUR 24 million.

And of course, we want to maintain to be distinctive where it matters. And that's also why we offer smart delivery suggestions in checkout and focus on best day delivery as well.

Then on Slide 10, it's in more detail, the kind of the protective measures that strengthen our competitive position going forward, and that will be there to support the path towards our breakthrough 2028 ambitions in a market which is significantly challenging and competitive positions are intensifying. That's why we've launched the cost savings program.

And I think the prerequisites to be able to do so now, we've worked on over the last year or so, and that will allow us now to further simplify the e-commerce organization to even focus more in operational processes to take out costs. A few examples maybe artificial intelligence technology allows us now even a better fill rate of roll cages that, of course, limits the transport capacity that you need, better planning and collection also takes out routes.

Those are examples of areas where we can take cost out next to procurement initiatives around big spend categories like IT will contribute to the EUR 75 million of savings and which will bring the total cost savings to EUR 170 million to EUR 180 million for this period. And of course, in that market space where it is quite challenging, being able to reduce the cost price per parcel is important and creates a bit more flexibility in that market to make the right choices in terms of volume versus value.

That's obviously helped by a reduction in the cost price per parcel. And that's why we've launched this additional EUR 75 million of cost savings initiatives.

On the other hand, we have fundamentally revisited and redefined our Out-of-Home strategy. It is increasingly an important differentiator in the E-commerce space.

And we really have changed it completely by taking a different view on the role of Out-of-Home and having a different proposition in terms of how the network setup should be, how UX/CX needs to be and also will require a step-up in the number of parcel lockers to 7,500 by 2031. So it's really an integrated platform that seamlessly combines merchant checkout, digital customer journeys and high-density network to accelerate the Out-of-Home adoption against cost price points that are attractive and will push some of the volumes towards the Out-of-Home network more quickly than with the current proposition.

I think what we've communicated also in the press release is that given the magnitude of messages, we'll have a deep dive on this new strategy around October time to give a bit more insight as to what we're aiming for and how the proposition has been developed going forward. If we then move to platforms, as I said, platforms is all about capturing the international growth through asset-light models.

We invest, as you know, in 2026 in improving and expanding the workforce that will allow us in different countries to attract more clients. We have been investing in the IT landscape.

The ease of use for asset-light platforms is, of course, crucial, and that gives us competitive edge as well. We've been expanding the network and predominantly the linehaul network, and we've seen double-digit growth of E-commerce volumes in Mainland Europe in the first half year.

And of course, we're strengthening our position in Asia beyond our position in China to further derisk the business and unlock new markets there. That is what we're strategically aiming for.

If you talk about progress in 2026, as said, intensifying external challenges, of course, we have seen a shift in market dynamics as Asian web shops redefine their commercial proposition and processes following the introduction of the import duty, and we see them behaving quite differently. If you compare them that has already -- in anticipation of July 1 that has impacted volume flows and is continuing to do so quickly after July 1, and we're adjusting the propositions towards that.

Of course, we're investing like in other areas in the elements we just discussed to expand our E-commerce base in Europe. And the performance includes those start-up costs as well as start-up costs in fulfillment activities that we also guided in the beginning of the year will be a negative impact for 2026.

Then let's move to Mail. Although as I just said in the beginning, we're very positive about the implementation to the D+ 2 network.

It should be clear for all that urgent political decision is still necessary because the transition to D+2 is by far not enough to get to a sustainable, affordable mail delivery in the Netherlands that is also economically viable, and it would take significantly more than this step to get there. And that's why we continue to push for the necessary changes in law to be able to move to a within 3-day delivery network later.

We're still continuing discussions and legal proceedings around net costs. As you know, the transition up to the point that we have a real full functioning D+3 delivery model are quite substantial, and we believe it's unfair that the company needs to pay for those transitional costs because they really relate to the obligation that is put forth to us in terms of the universal service.

So we have the '25 and '26 submissions already done, and we are currently preparing the application for net cost contribution over 2027. And without quick and decisive action in the political domain, it stays -- a very, very uncertain period for our employees, our consumers that use Mail and customers alike.

And so it's really crucial that as quickly as possible after recess, the discussions in Parliament will continue to get to a decision that gets us to an economically viable universal service. On Slide 14, it's the summary of the successful transition to D+3 delivery as of July 12 and the implication for the segment performance that we also guided for in the beginning of the year.

It's really been a major transformation both in terms of network redesign in the Mail side, but of course, also at the same moment in time, the letter box parcels for D+1 delivery moved from Mail to the E-commerce network. We've introduced a new tariff model to accommodate those changes for our delivery partners.

And so far, we are happy with the implementation on both sides. If you talk about the cost savings those are in the middle.

And in the beginning of the year, we said, of course, there will be cost savings for half year. On the Mail side, there will be also additional costs in relation to the implementation, but also more importantly, additional costs related to the transfer of the letter box parcels through the E-commerce network.

So the impact in the year of this change will be around EUR 12 million negative for Mail, but of course it is crucial and a prerequisite to be able to move to a D+3 change later on. On the E-commerce side, full year, we expect 50 million to 60 million extra items, 30 million -- basically around 30 million for half year.

And also within the E-commerce segment, it will be negative EBIT impact for the first half of the year driven by transition cost as well and of course over time that will lead to a margin accretive business model as of 2027. On that note, I think, it's now time to look in more detail on the financial performance in total and perfectness, so Linde I hand over to you to take us through those elements.

Thanks, Pim. Let's move to Slide 16.

Let me start with this slide showing an overview of the key reported figures per segment. For Q2, it shows volume and revenue and for half year we also show normalized EBIT.

Just to note in the remainder of the presentation, I will focus on the developments on the first half year. For total PostNL, so for the group as a whole, we saw, as Pim just mentioned, stable revenues and a resilient normalized EBIT in challenging markets.

But let's have a look at how that looks like per segment, starting with E-commerce on the next slide. Overall, starting with revenue, we see in E-commerce good progress on our targeted yield measures.

This is demonstrated by 5% increase in the average price per parcel despite the challenging external environment, which Pim also just referred to. The revenue amounted to EUR 937 million compared to EUR 961 million last year, a decrease of 2.4% with volumes declining by 6.4%.

If you only take the volume-related revenue, the decline was only minus 1.8%. Let's dive a bit deeper into the key drivers for this, starting with domestic.

Domestic volumes declined by 4.2% due to weaker market growth, weaker than expected and a limited market share loss, which was in line with our expectations following our volume-to-value strategy. Good to see, of course, that the decline in the second quarter was less than in the first quarter.

If you then look at our international volumes, those declined by 15%, mainly coming from our Asian web shops. This also reflects weaker market conditions our volume-to-value strategy here as well and the new low-cost entrants being mentioned earlier.

And very important, we also see first impact especially of the large Asian players to prepare for the introduction of the import duty on the 1st of July. The volume decline overall was partly offset by a positive price/mix impact of EUR 36 million.

I mean that follows our further progress on our strategic yield measures, so that sticky price increase. The EUR 36 million includes EUR 5 million from fuel surcharges.

These kicked in, in the second quarter and we are able to pass through the higher fuel prices, although with a small time left. The yield measures developed in line with plan and were supported by a very limited unfavorable shift in mix.

As said, overall, the average price per parcel increased by 5% compared to half year 2025. In the last column, you see the step down in the bucket other, and that is predominantly explained by the sale of PS Nachtdistributie in Q2 last year.

Let's move on to the normalized EBIT bridge for E-commerce on Slide 18. This shows the reconciliation from EUR 15 million in half year 2025 to EUR 12 million in current half year.

As just explained on the revenue slide, the decline in volumes driven by weaker market growth, the impact of our volume-to-value strategy and first effects from the introduction of import duty and handling fees and a positive price mix effect that was predominantly driven by price increases and -- including the EUR 5 million fuel charges just mentioned. The organic cost increases amounted to EUR 38 million, including EUR 7 million related to higher fuel costs.

So in the first half year, a EUR 2 million negative gap on fuel exists. But as said before, the surcharges have a time lag, which is a common mechanism in the industry for pass-through of higher fuel prices.

Overall, PostNL achieved EUR 24 million in cost saving in the first half year, for example, through a leaner and more efficient operating model in first and middle mile and the shift to Out-of-Home delivery. These cost savings were partly offset by, for example, higher costs related to sustainability and equipment designed to reduce physical workload.

And remember that we expect to overall achieve EUR 40 million to EUR 50 million in cost savings in 2026 for E-commerce. Let's move on to Platforms on Slide 19 with the revenue bridge.

And yes, as known, there is some overlap with the E-commerce story I just explained as part of the Spring volumes are in feet in our E-commerce network. Overall, revenue was up 1% to EUR 379 million compared to EUR 375 million last half year, with volumes down minus 7.1%.

Please note that at constant currencies, the revenue increased by 2.7% instead of 1%. In line with our strategy, European e-commerce volumes continued to grow strongly by 28% in the first half of the year and were offset by declining low-margin traditional mail items, which was predominantly visible in the second quarter due to phasing and the general declining trend in Mail.

Please note that we've already transitioned to become an E-commerce player in the European market with roughly 75% of revenue in Europe currently derived from e-commerce. Looking at volumes, the split is a bit different.

Around 40% of volumes is e-commerce. But in short, so the demand dynamics here are growth in e-commerce and a decline in traditional mail.

Looking at the Asian volumes, the Asian volumes, as mentioned earlier, declined and reflect the weaker market conditions. And we see here also the impact from our volume-to-value strategy and the preparations that were initiated by the Asian web shops for the introduction of the import duty on non-EU parcels for the 1st of July.

Looking at price/mix, we see a very positive delta here. Prices were up in Europe approximately 4%.

And obviously, the mix effect is favorable, particularly in Europe, explained by the strong growth in e-commerce volumes versus the declining mail and of course, also the shift in mix between European and Asian volumes play a role. Looking at other revenue that showed a decline and includes MyParcel other services as, for example, fulfillment and some intra-segment eliminations.

Let's move to Slide 20, showing the normalized EBIT bridge for Platforms, showing the reconciliation from EUR 3 million in half year 2025 to minus EUR 3 million this half year. And that the root cause, therefore, is mainly related to our strategy to invest in international expansion.

The revenue drivers I just explained, so I won't repeat that, but let's look at the cost. The organic costs for Platforms increased by EUR 9 million, and that is mainly related to increasing third-party costs for international transport and distribution.

PostNL continues to invest, as mentioned, in the expansion of its intra-European activities, MyParcel and other services. That means more marketing efforts, expansion of staff and investing in IT, as Pim also earlier on referred to.

For our fulfillment activities, we have opened a center in Germany this year. So in the bucket other results, you also see the impact of the start-up cost thereof.

Good to mention that the overall net FX impact on normalized EBIT was 0. And then moving to the last and third segment, Mail.

Starting with the revenue bridge on Slide 28 -- 21, apologies. Revenue rose by 0.5% to EUR 623 million compared to EUR 620 million last year.

This is mainly explained by the combined impact from volume development and tariff increases. The Mail volumes were down only 5.3% in the first half year.

The main reason for this limited decline are the elections in the first quarter of 2026 of around 19 million items. If you adjust for this election mail, volume decline was 7.9%, evidencing the continuation of the underlying trend of structurally declining mail volumes.

The impact from volume decline was more than offset by a positive price/mix effect. Stamp prices were up 6.9% as of the 1st of January of this year and 8.3% as of mid-2025.

In the bucket other, you see an EUR 8 million decline, and that is amongst others, related to international mail. Then moving to the bridge, the normalized EBIT bridge for Mail on Slide 22.

The volume decline and price mix effects I just explained. Looking then at the cost, the organic cost increases of EUR 15 million are mainly due to wage increases and other inflationary pressures.

And then you see the cost savings of EUR 12 million, of which the majority is related to adjustments in sorting and delivery processes. And we also see that cost for IT, partly related to the transition to D+2, which we just completed, and transport costs increased.

That's about the segments. Let's now have a look at the free cash flow.

I'm really pleased with the development that we report over the first half year of 2026. We see the free cash flow coming in at EUR 17 million minus, which is a significant improvement compared with last year.

The strong improvement reflects our continued focus on proactive working capital management and also partly relates to prior year phasing effects. Thanks to our well-executed cash and balance sheet management, we are on track to deliver full year free cash flow within our outlook range.

Then let's wrap up at Slide 24 and look at our outlook. We confirm -- as said by Pim, we confirm our outlook for the full year 2026 and which was shared with you on the 23rd of February.

For normalized EBIT, our outlook is between EUR 40 million and EUR 70 million, and we expect that to translate into a free cash flow of somewhere between 0 and minus EUR 30 million. The outlook is based on an assumed total revenue growth of between 5% and 7%, where it's obviously fair to assume that we will end up closer to the lower end of the range, taking the volume development in the first half of the year into account.

As just explained, despite the volume decline, the bottom line result was resilient, where we expect further momentum in operational efficiency going forward. In 2026, we continue to invest in our strategic focus areas with CapEx expected to be around EUR 125 million while lease payments will be at the same level as in 2025.

Expected organic cost increases remain high around EUR 140 million, mainly labor related and other inflationary pressures. But price increases are expected to be more than sufficient to mitigate this.

Our focus will continue to be on strong cost control and further efficiency improvements, building on our proven efforts to reduce cost. Please note that the outlook 2026 assumes limited impact from changes in treatment of the de minimis threshold in the EU and in the U.S.

or in related customs handling and clearance fee structures. The scope and timing could evolve during the year and could therefore impact performance.

In the past half year, we have implemented a valid and working operational solutions for customs handling and clearance fees as of 1 July and later on also in November. Furthermore, the outlook excludes -- the prolonged geopolitical uncertainty may increase inflationary pressure and impact consumer spending.

I will now hand back to Inge.

Thank you, Pim and Linde, for explaining the visuals, and I hand back to the operator to ask to explain the procedure for Q&A.

A question on the E-commerce volumes. If I recall well, you started the year with an assumption of 1% to 3% volume growth, yet we're now at minus 6.4% for the first half.

So what is fair to assume for the full year? What is currently reflected in your guidance on volume growth?

That is my first question. And a bit related to that on the pricing, the average price per parcel went up 5%.

Is it fair to assume that it will go up even further in the second half given the lag in the fuel price surcharges? Any comments on that would be helpful.

Thanks, Frank, for your questions. Regarding your first question on the 1% to 3% E-commerce volume growth, you are correct as the developments in market growth were lower than we anticipated at the beginning of the year.

It is fair to assume that the volumes for full year will not meet the 1% to 3% mentioned earlier. At the same time, as you also see in our current performance, the drivers underlying price mix, our operational efficiency are gaining traction and are showing also bottom line results, and we expect further momentum there in the second half of the year.

And then on your second question on the price per parcel, well, yes, of course, you can also given our seasonal pattern, you can expect with pricing with peak charges, et cetera, that trend will accelerate in the remainder of the year.

I've got a few. So first question is on your statement that some important contracts have been concluded in Q2.

What does that mean for the second half? I think you just mentioned that pricing shall further accelerate in the second half.

But should we also expect an improvement in volumes on a year-over-year basis versus the first half? I guess that will be the first question.

My second question is on the Platform business. So in Q2, we have seen a proper slowdown of volumes versus Q1.

Now in the slides, you mentioned there was already some impact from the de minimis in Q2 or in the guidance, you don't expect any impact in the second half? So just if you can clarify this point, what is the expectation for the volumes in the Platform business and why we should expect any impact if -- I mean there are already some data out there showing some slowdown of growth from Asia to Europe.

And the third question is on your Mail business. Pim mentioned before that you're working on submitting a request for the cost of USO for '27, but you are still, let's say, fighting for the '25 and '26.

So at the same time, you received a fine for quality of service a couple of years ago. So the backdrop sounds quite challenging in terms of negotiations.

Any color you can give that any progress you've made any sort of confidence that...

Okay. Let's go one by one.

Yes, I think as part of the volume-to-value strategy and as you know, not all contracts end at the same date, there has been a lot of negotiations concluded with -- from the Asian web shops also into and throughout Q2. Those contracts have now been secured and we know against which conditions, which rates, which volume we expect to carry for them.

And that will go a long way in continuing the strategy from volume-to-value. Of course, an overall volume that we get is a function of how they commercially perform themselves.

But those contracts work in volume buckets. So if they are below a certain threshold, then also the price volumes will move up even more than at the base volumes that we contracted them on.

So I think important key contract renegotiations yet -- we enforce our conviction that we're on the right path in terms of -- from volume-to-value strategy. I think the second question in relation -- or the follow-up question in relation to, what do you expect improvement of volumes on that international side in the second part of the year?

Yes, overall, we do expect an improvement from the minus 6.4% to a better number full year also based on the answer that Linde just gave on the question of Frank . I'll take question 3 and then Linde can come along question 2.

You say challenging backdrop, yes, but at the same time, we feel strongly that it cannot be our problem, that we need to pay for the transition cost, that we need to pay for net costs that are out there as a function of an obligation that is put for us. So we make a distinction between kind of ACM quality fines that are related to the quality standards in the current postal law versus net costs and future required changes to the USO that make the mail business sustainable going forward.

And the first one is clearly with ACM and we'll go to court because we think that fines are unacceptably high. And also the basis for those fines in our perspective aren't there.

With government and chambers, we continue to discuss the required changes to the postal law, that will allow us to make changes to the obligations or subsequently need net cost compensation if the obligation is not changing in a way that we can deliver the mail business against an economically viable rate. Linde, those are the answers on 1 and 3, may be you can say something about -- in relation to the outlook statement.

Yes. So on your question with the de minimis volumes amongst others for Platform and Asia, et cetera.

Yes, we say in our outlook that we assume limited impact. Obviously, that is still the case.

So we, of course, face ourselves now, as also mentioned by Pim earlier, impacts thereof. However, these are the first weeks and those parties are now also well, trying to organize themselves and make sure how their new logistics model work.

And well, we assume overall in the long term, no structural impact for the longer term. And therefore, we hold on to our performance.

And in addition to that, also good to note, as you also see in our current performance that given our -- this time, volume decline, we are adapting well to that to scale down and adjust our costs accordingly.

Okay. And if I may, just a quick follow-up on this.

So you are saying that some of the international clients are adjusting the business model, given the new regulation for 1st of July. Can you give just examples of what has been made so far?

So, are we seeing those clients building more warehouses or more inventory in Europe? And what does that mean for you?

So are you working for them?

Yes, good question. Let me take it.

I think -- there you need to be very precise. I think all relevent platforms make different choices as to how they handle this current market situations.

There are platforms that basically say, "We will manage value on a basket size basis and we will own that basket, swallow the vast majority of the EUR 3 fee and then may be slightly push a bit of the external cost of up through the price points of the baskets." That's one option.

So basically a client that isn't really thinking about a new logistical process because they think they can offset this fee in the value of the basket in a split between what the consumer will then most likely pay more and what they will take as additional cost on their side. Others take a different view and want to move to higher value product categories that can substantiate those fees better and move away from the really, really low and very cheap products where a EUR 3 increase in cost is still material.

And you will probably see others that will continue down the road of those low-value goods, but then through European warehousing solution. So increasing warehousing capacity in Europe, flying it in or cargoing it in bulk, so not at a 2C delivery parcel, but in bulk to circumvent the handling fees and duties and then pick and pack from there and distribute it through various carriers towards the final consumer.

So there's different parties taking different routes. But at the end of the day, yes, it's all about where will the volume go and it will be shifting in competitive landscape between those Asian platforms.

There will probably be new entrants taking the lower end of the value chain and there will potentially also be comparative implications for the European web shops where some of the Asian players really intend to move up to higher value products, in which they will then subsequently compete with the current existing European platforms in those spaces. So a lot is going on there.

And yes, we, of course, follow this closely. It's important that we maintain a good share of wallet in the way that most important clients that are willing to pay for service.

That is what we secured throughout the contracts that I've given you answer on one of your earlier questions. So that's how the market evolves at this point in time.

First of all, compliments for the degree of disclosure of numbers, which makes me very happy. But despite that, I have a couple of questions.

First of all, Pim, you talked a lot about the Platform business and about the Chinese business. But last week, I listened into the CTT conference calls.

They said that [indiscernible] had suffered because a lot of volume was now flowing to the Benelux countries, instead of Madrid, for example, into the Central and Eastern European countries. What am I missing in the case of Spring because I see a quite clear dip in these Asian volumes at Spring.

Is that pure value over volume? Or is it something else?

And what is triggering the European volume so much? Does it have to do with the opening of the fulfillment center in Germany, I believe it's one of the Spanish retailers.

And the second question I have is on E-commerce and about domestic volumes in particular. You've been giving deliberately up some market share by means of the value over volume strategy.

And if I look at the average value per parcel, if I look at the slides, I believe it is Slide 16, the development of the EBIT, it is quite clearly visible that improves your yields. But how far can you go in giving up volume?

Because at the same time, we see parties like GOFO was doing a lot of work for the Chinese and Dragonfly has been handling volumes for Amazon. We have JoyExpress, a new name.

Bear has 85% nationwide coverage at least that's what they plan. They have got traditional players stepping up.

Impulse has entered the market as well. How do you deal with that?

Is it the cost savings element and reducing the cost per item is, of course, one part of the story, but what can you do to make the volumes grow again? And then the final question I have is on Mail.

In December, there was ruling by the CBb on the merger with Sandd. I know it's a sensitive subject.

ACM basically got this right and basically was saying, "We're going to see how we deal with this situation right now." Have there been any developments on that front?

Those are my questions.

The first question had some sub-questions. So, correct me if I've not, let's say, answered them completely.

I think there's a couple of elements that I want to single out. I think Spring Europe's e-commerce volume is double-digits number that Linde talked about.

And that is function of expanding the pan-European line hauls from Italy to Spain, from Spain to Germany by attracting local clients that fill those trade lanes and bring us in a more competitive position. And not necessarily always, but there also the fulfillment proposition comes into play, and that really not capital-intensive fulfillment activities where we also manage warehouses and fulfillment activities for bigger clients that want to ship throughout Europe.

So I think there, the growth is as we would like it to be, is a function of the growth plan that we launched in September and as said, is going according to plan. The overall Spring volumes are depressed by the development in quarter by phasing on the European international mail volumes that don't contribute that much.

So in terms of revenue, not that significant, but in terms of volume that makes a very good 28% e-commerce volume growth, diluted a bit. On the Asian side, I don't see more volume coming to Amsterdam or Asia.

What we do see is that our custom clearance solution is working and has been working from the get-go, which is, of course, important because that clarifies towards consumers under which conditions they can still buy from other parties and we're able to administer and also fulfill the custom duties in the chain. And I think there, of course, we already saw based on examples that we've had in Romania and Italy that goods in transit has been a big issue.

In other words, how do we exactly know that a product that is bought just before July 1 doesn't get any duty if it accesses the country on July 1 or July 2. So that basically has led a lot of those parties to 3, 4 weeks in advance, stop marketing campaigns, not push more products towards Europe to avoid goods in transit being treated in a different way.

And that has impacted Q2 numbers. We've, of course, seen the drops in volume.

We also now see the Asian web shops adjusting their business model, adjusting their pricing strategies, reentering the marketing arena to do the marketing campaigns again. And that's why we said that we don't expect a longer-term structural impact that is going to be material in terms of EBIT contribution from those changes.

That could, in the meantime, still lead to very volatile volume developments. We quite often have share of wallet arrangements with those parties.

So although there are new entrants, they sometimes forced by our volume-to-value strategy, have kicked out other carriers, and now our share is just a function basically on how successful they are to adjust their commercial models after the July 1 implementation. I think that is the answer on the first set of questions.

If you then go to the E-commerce domestic volume, yes, it is a delicate balance between volume development, yield and market share. I think the market share loss is within the boundaries of what we find acceptable.

Domestic volume development has obviously also impacted by lower consumer spending. So I think the flywheel of yield improvement could have worked even better with a bit more consumer spending as we also anticipated in the beginning of the year.

But to -- well, to alleviate or to compensate or to derisk on this dilemma or these commercial game plans, it's obviously helpful to reduce your cost price per parcel, and that's why we introduced the 75 additional costs. Another point in competitive landscape is our redefined Out-of-Home strategy will also be significantly better equipped to compete with some of the other players you mentioned.

That also strengthens our competitive position and over time, will also strengthen the domestic volume development. So far, not unsatisfied with the domestic performance, but a close monitoring of market share development and yield and volume increases remains crucial, and that's what we do on a daily basis.

And that's also why it's important to look at the answers that Linde gave that we have been able to adjust the network and create efficiencies in the network utilization so that yield isn't suffering that much with lower volume than anticipated. On the third point, yes, this is sensitive.

I don't think that ACM got it right. They said something about the permit, and on [indiscernible] basis.

So it's up to ACM to do their research. Of course, we feel that there is no need at all to amend anything.

We've adhered to the conditions of the permit. The permit was there at the day that we acquired and was there when we integrated the business, but let's say I don't have clarity right now as to where ACM is in their research or in their investigation.

So I cannot tell you more about it right now.

One question left. Can you give a bit more color on the phasing and what is behind the additional EUR 75 million of cost savings?

How should we phase it in the model and what is really the driver of the EUR 75 million?

Thanks Marc. Well, as mentioned, so it is mainly within E-commerce, but also in the related support function, so HR, finance, IT.

And, well, we refer to the phasing for the total both years, so 2027 and 2028. And I would say you can calculate with approximately 50/50 over those both years involved.

I've just got one, again, on the business model of the Platform business. Because you were mentioning before noncapital-intensive fulfillment activities.

You are making the example of Italian volumes into Spain, into Germany and so on. So can you just explain to us really what is the activity here?

And what -- I mean how you are offering noncapital-intensive fulfillment center activities? And is this the business model doing more of that in the next year?

Yes, it is really what it is. So if there's clients that say, "We're happy with the logistical solution, but can you also help me out with fulfillment activities?"

We, in conjunction with that client, think about the best way to do so. So quite often, it's, for instance, a lease obligation the client takes and we just operate the location.

Sometimes it's us taking the leasehold, but back-to-back commitments from the client to compensate for that. But given the type of business we're in, given the type of clients the Spring country support, it's not highly automized fulfillment activities.

It's for the largest part a traditional pick and pack with some efficiency improvements there and that's why it is less capital intensive than for other segments.

Got it. And is the plan to, let's say, build up a proper fulfillment business, which is unrelated to the...

Only in relation to our European growth business and only in relation to the type of customers that Spring serve, so that will not lead to big investments in fulfillment centers. So it's an organically developing model only to the extent that it helps us creating more density in the pan-European trade lanes, as how to make Spring even more competitive.

Given that I've got the opportunity also to maybe ask the last one. When we think about the new EUR 75 million cost savings, shall we think about those cost savings as an offset to maybe lower volume decline or a way to protect your margins?

Or this is actually in your business plan offers further upside to where you think you are...

As I said, it's really derisking, created room to maneuver in slightly more competitive market circumstances. So don't add this just to the ambitions of 2028.

It will derisk the plan. If that comes with slightly better volume development, then performance will accelerate beyond the ambition, but let's get first to the ambition levels that we set for 2028, and this de-risks this, for the combination of the factors that you said.

So it could help de-risking a slightly lower volume development. It could help being more precise as to which price points on the volume-to-value strategy we want to entertain.

It helps maintaining the market share at the level we think we need to maintain it for. And it actually then, as said, de-risks the commercial elements of the E-commerce plan, that gives us more confidence that we can get to the 2028 objectives.

Okay. And when you say that we will add up to EUR 170 million to EUR 180 million, you are adding those adding those costs to the sort of...

That was -- the EUR 170 million to EUR 180 million was the -- is the total number of cost savings over the period, where this EUR 75 million has been included in.

The base you are adding the EUR 75 million cost on is the group cost savings or is it specifically E-commerce or?

It's mainly E-commerce because we do this to derisk for the competitive environment in the E-commerce. But as Linde said, it also involves some support functions that are also working on behalf of E-commerce.

So it aims to impact the E-commerce cost base.

Yes, thank you all for joining today. If you have any questions, you know how to reach us.

Thank you and speak to you in October.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating.

You may now disconnect.