Acomo N.V. Aktie

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Acomo's Investor Call for the 2025 Full Year Results. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest in Acomo. My name is Jean-Mari Pretorius, and I will be hosting today's call. Joining me is our Acomo Group CEO, Allard Goldschmeding; and CFO, Mirjam van Thiel.

During this call, we will walk you through the highlights of our performance for the period, discuss developments across our business segments and provide further context around market conditions and our strategic priorities. The Q&A will take place at the end of the presentation where we will open the floor for questions. [Operator Instructions]

Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussion may include forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Please refer to the disclaimer included in our press release for further details. We will now continue with the 2025 full year results.

Firstly, I would like to hand over to our Acomo Group CEO, Allard Goldschmeding.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. In a world that continues to present both challenges and opportunities, today's call will focus on Acomo's strong performance in 2025 and the path forward. While the broader outlook for the global economy, sea freight rates and product availability in 2026 remains uncertain, navigating complexity is not new to our business. Last year, we successfully managed a range of external factors, including tariffs and significant cocoa price volatility.

Our resilient business model, combined with the expertise and commitment of our people, has once again enabled Acomo to adapt effectively and deliver solid results. Today's agenda will cover several topics. I will start with the key highlights that characterized our 2025 performance. I will also discuss how our results compare against our midterm strategy and objectives, which we shared during our Capital Markets Day last April. And I will discuss a few examples of the initiatives we took during 2025.

Mirjam will then cover in more detail the financial performance of the group and of the individual segments. At the end of the presentation, I will finish with a look ahead to 2026 before we take your questions.

2025 was another record year for Acomo in terms of sales, profitability and earnings per share. We are very happy with this overall performance, and this reflects the drive to perform of our people. Our teams bring unique capabilities that are highly relevant to our suppliers and our customers and enable us to support them effectively.

Excellent results in 3 out of 5 segments are proof of the ability and expertise of the Acomo teams in managing volatile market environments and the strong attributes of our business model that offers resilience through diversification. By a volatile environment, I mean mostly in terms of price developments, geopolitical developments and changing regulations.

In the Spices & Nuts segment, all our companies delivered record high results. The continued impressive performance and the attractive long-term market outlook make our Spices & Nuts segment a natural area of focus. We have expertise and we have scale, which provides a strong foundation for further expansion.

The Organic Ingredients segment showed a very healthy recovery from the negative impact of cocoa hedging in previous years. This recovery started in the second half of 2024 and continued in 2025. The Tradin Organic team was able to manage the price volatility and delivered strong results this year. Besides cocoa, the business also posted positive results for other product groups, reinforcing our confidence in the segment's portfolio. We also made substantial progress in improved alignment of the organizational structure as well as our portfolio investment decisions.

Food Solutions also delivered a record year in 2025. Demand for both dry and wet blends remained robust throughout the year, driven by sustained consumer interest in plant-based, clean label and culinary solutions. The business was further supported by the commissioning of the new wet blend facility in Oostende in 2025, which became operational before the summer. The new facility provides a significant increase in capacity and flexibility with the opportunity to triple the output.

The year was, however, not without its challenges. In particular, our Edible Seeds segment experienced a difficult year, driven by a mix of challenging market conditions and operational issues. Let me provide a brief overview as Mirjam will address this in greater detail later in this presentation.

The challenges that materialized in the first half year and which we spoke about in our H1 call continued into the second half. Tariff uncertainty in the North American market continued and made pricing decisions complicated. Alongside higher input costs, this placed pressure on margins. Next to that, the impact of restrictions on U.S. grown sunflower seeds to export markets continued to have an impact in 2025 as the measures to compensate with new growth avenues do take time.

On top of these market effects, our SunButter plant was affected by production issues, which caused a temporary stop in production in the fourth quarter. Production resumed towards the end of January 2026. The result is a more negative overall picture than is warranted based on the fundamentals of the segment, which remains solid. To address this, we have made the necessary strategic and organizational changes in North America, and the business is expected to largely trend back towards normal performance levels.

The Edible Seeds business delivered a resilient performance despite market price pressure on key seed categories. The Tea segment faced continuous pressure on sales volumes throughout the year, reflecting ongoing destocking by customers, oversupply and more fragmented buyer landscape. The implementation in 2026 of the new organizational and commercial model that I will explain later in this presentation is designed to respond more flexibly and effectively to changing market circumstances.

As discussed during our Capital Markets Day, M&A is a tactical growth lever. We are, therefore, pleased to welcome Manuzzi to the group as of November. This Italian company represents the first foothold of our Spices & Nuts segment in the Mediterranean region, giving us access to an attractive market in terms of consumption patterns. I also want to call out that despite the relatively high level of working capital, our balance sheet remains strong.

The characteristics of our business result from time to time in elevated levels of working capital. The unprecedented high prices of cocoa have resulted in higher inventory values. The strength of Acomo is that with our diversified portfolio, we can deal with higher market prices for individual product groups and can continue to make a sensible commercial calls. The 2025 performance resulted in a proposed full year dividend of EUR 1.40 per share, which is another record and an increase of plus 12% versus 2024. At the Capital Markets Day last April, we communicated our midterm targets in the areas of sales, EBITDA margin, balance sheet leverage and dividend distribution.

With a total 2025 group sales increase of plus 7% to EUR 1.5 billion and an adjusted EBITDA increase of plus 9% to EUR 180 million, we are on track with these targets. Our current leverage ratio is impacted, as I mentioned, by the higher working capital consumption linked to the increased inventory values due to the high prices for a number of our products, in particular, cocoa. However, based on our current knowledge, we would expect the leverage to go down during 2026. As stated, the full year dividend is an increase of plus 12% versus 2024 and is consistent with our communicated payout ratio policy.

The split of the results between the first half year of 2025 and the second half shows that the first half year was relatively strong. Historically, the performance was more or less evenly distributed between the first half and the second half. Since 2023, this has changed, mainly due to the enormous change in cocoa prices that had a material impact. Therefore, the half-year performance in those years was not a reliable indicator for the full year. For 2026, we expect price levels changes to be less extreme, which would result in an EBITDA distribution between H1 and H2 that is closer to historical patterns.

The vision we discussed during our Capital Markets Day remains relevant and up to date. And the 2025 results underpin the trajectory towards the ambitions we outlined. Our value creation shows our focus areas and the way in which we address the market dynamics. We continue to execute along the lines presented, and let me highlight some examples, which demonstrate this more clearly.

One of the elements of the 3 is scale. We strongly believe that scale is prerequisite to being effective and efficient in our industry and to create long-term value. In Q4 2025, we acquired Manuzzi, a leading Italian nuts and dried fruits company. Through this acquisition, we are expanding the Spices & Nuts segment footprint in Southern Europe.

The culture of this family business is a good fit with our Acomo entrepreneurial spirit and through cooperation with the Delinuts in the Netherlands and the Nordics, we will create synergies. These synergies will be focused on growing the top line. By using the available Acomo capabilities and the broad product portfolio we have, Manuzzi will be able to expand its offerings. The company also has its own state-of-the-art facilities, including modern packaging lines with sufficient room for further growth.

As part of creating resilient and responsible supply chains, Tradin Organic joined the Nature Positive initiative. These initiatives gather some of the world's largest sustainable business and finance coalitions to broader -- to support broader long-term efforts to deliver nature-positive outcomes. It supports farmers in adopting regenerative and resilient practices, which is aligned with a number of initiatives that Tradin Organic had already begun. The outcome is improved soil health and restored biodiversity, consistent with product quality and supply.

Then to increase the benefit from its global reach and have a closer connection with customers, Royal Van Rees Group is transitioning to a centralized business model that consolidates the commercial, trading and strategic functions within a central hub. This enhances customer intimacy and focus and offers our customers improved multi-origin solutions. Our customers will have a single point of contact that covers multiple origins and our local offices will enable efficient physical execution. The new setup will phase in during 2026.

Lastly, our value creation 3 is rooted in ESG, and I'm happy to report that for the second year in a row, we obtained limited assurance from our external auditors on the sustainability statement in our annual report. We achieved a substantial reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions as a result of our efforts to increase the use of renewable energy sources.

Other initiatives are an SBTi project at Delinuts and the installation of a lightweight solar panel construction at King Nuts & Raaphorst on the roof that could not carry the usual solar panel construction. Tradin Organic continues their dynamic agroforestry product in Sierra Leone and the farmer livelihood product in Indonesia next to the nature positive initiative that I mentioned.

With that, I would like to hand to Mirjam van Thiel to take us through the detailed financial performance.

Thank you, Allard. Let's start with the overall P&L of the Acomo Group. As mentioned by Allard, we achieved record growth this year with an increase in sales of 7.4%. On constant currency, the increase is actually much higher, close to 10% as we had some FX headwinds, in particular, stemming from the U.S. dollar to the euro.

Now from a cost management perspective, you will see that our COGS increased at a lower pace in proportion to sales, which in turn led to an expansion of our gross profit margin by 1.8 percentage points.

Looking at our G&A expenses, we see an increase of 5.8%, which reflects inflation and some additional costs due to M&A projects and investment in people. This resulted in an increase in our operating income of 43.5%.

Looking below the operating income, we benefited from lower financing costs because of lower interest rates. And this, together with the higher operating income, led to an even more significant year-on-year improvement of our net profit by 64% to EUR 74 million.

Let's then move over to the key KPIs on an adjusted basis. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 8.7% to EUR 118.2 million. The difference between reported and adjusted is mainly due to the impact of unrealized results on FX and sales hedges and exceptional items related to our Edible Seeds business in the U.S. On the next slide, I will share some further detail on this.

You see that there is an increase in the EBITDA margin from 8.0% to 8.1%. As communicated at the CMD, we want to move towards 9%. Excluding some of the exceptional items we had this year, we would have progressed further towards that goal. So overall, we are on track with our ambition.

Adjusted earnings per share improved by 8.8% to EUR 2.18, which is a record performance for the company. On the right, for added context, you will see the contribution share for each of the segments in which we are active, and I will discuss those in detail shortly.

Moving to Slide 14, where you see the bridge between the reported and adjusted EBITDA. As mentioned just now, the main difference is due to the unrealized noncash results on our CX and FX hedges. That includes the revaluation of outstanding hedges to the market value at the date of reporting. The main impact here comes from the outstanding hedge contracts on cocoa.

Last year, due to an increase in the cocoa market price towards the end of the year, the reported results included a negative impact due to the revaluation of outstanding hedges. This year, we saw the opposite. Cocoa prices declined towards the end of the year, which increased the value of the outstanding hedge contracts. We exclude this from the reported numbers. Once we settle the hedge contracts, we book the realized results, which normally we time together with the physical sales.

The other impacts specifically related to 2025 are the exceptional items in Edible Seeds. These exceptional items relate to organizational restructuring and the cost related to a production issue in one of our facilities. This relates to the Edible Seeds business in the U.S., which I will cover in a minute. We thought for transparency purposes, it will be clear to outline these items as they are clearly nonrecurring by nature.

Let me now take a closer look at the performance per segment. Let me start with Spices & Nuts, one of our key segments. This segment has been growing for several years. And in 2025, it delivered an all-time high performance. And what we are even more proud of is that every company in this segment delivered a record performance.

Revenue benefited from sustained demand and higher market prices for most products. To share some examples, one of our key products is desiccated coconut, which is grated and dried coconut. In the last 1 to 2 years, we saw a sharp increase in prices. And also in 2025, prices were elevated globally due to reduced coconut supply and strong export demand. And also for some of the key nuts such as cashews and almonds, we saw high prices in 2025.

There is sustained demand despite the high prices, and this is reinforced by the overall megatrend of increasing demand for plant-based products. All in all, we continue to expect this trend of increased demand to persist and hence, a relatively high pricing base. At the same time, how this develops year-on-year is to be seen. Also included in this segment are the 2 bolt-on acquisitions we made recently with Delinuts Nordics in August 2024 and Manuzzi in November 2025.

Turning to Edible Seeds, where we have faced a series of challenges due to a mix of market conditions and operational issues. Before I go into the challenges, I want to be clear that we strongly believe in the fundamentals of this business.

Let me take a step back. Within this segment, we have a sizable business in the U.S. in which we process sunflower seeds and use them to make various products, including well-known retail brands such as SunButter. In the U.S., we are also seeing an increase in demand for cleaner label, plant-based alternatives and allergen-free options. The attributes of sunflower seeds are perfectly aligned to these trends, and we have developed our leadership position in this market. In addition to the U.S. business, we have a smaller seeds business in Europe.

But back to 2025. Let me recap the challenges we flagged to you in our H1 investor call and explain more about what we have faced in the second half. First, we spoke about the impact of the restrictions of U.S. grown sunflower seeds to some export markets. As anticipated, it will take time to offset this lost stream with new business. Second, we saw tariff uncertainty continuing, making pricing decisions complicated. That, together with higher input costs, placed pressure on margins.

On top of that, our SunButter plant was affected by a production issue causing a temporary stop in production in the fourth quarter. The issue has been resolved and production resumed towards the end of January.

Now how we tackle these challenges and what are the prospects for the segment, turn with me to Slide 17. Consequently, you can see the margin decline in this segment. Our top priority is to restore profitability. The corrective actions we have taken include improvements, including full cleaning of all equipment, improved preventive maintenance and equipment modification. We also implemented organizational changes, including the appointment of a new CEO, and we created center of excellence.

Also on this slide, you see some more specific actions by each category, including price increases that have been implemented. Included in exceptional items and excluded from the adjusted EBITDA are items that are exceptional by nature, which include the cost for restructuring the organization and extraordinary cost items and under absorption due to the specific production issue.

So remaining in the adjusted EBITDA, but to some extent, temporary are missed sales in SunButter due to the Q4 production issue and lower margin due to misalignment between higher input costs and sales prices. On top of that, we are starting to see the impact of the other corrective actions we have taken.

So as I say, we fully believe in the strong fundamentals of this business, the power of the sunflower and a diversified business model. This supports our expectation of a recovery to a normalized performance level over the coming years.

Then looking at Organic Ingredients. We have achieved an excellent performance across all categories within this segment. We see in general an increase in demand for organic food and beverages in the market. For example, the Organic Trade Association in the U.S. reported that the organic sector was growing at more than double the pace of the overall food market.

Specifically on cocoa, as you all know, the market has been very volatile in recent years with big price swings. After the sharp increase in the first half of 2024, the price remained elevated up until the start of the second half of 2025 when it started to reduce and has reduced even further in the first months in 2026.

Within that dynamic market, the team has been able to secure supply and continue to offer the best quality and required specifications to our customers, which is a commendable achievement and has allowed us to continue to excel despite the external turbulence. It had an impact on working capital, which I will cover in a minute.

There was also some catch-up effect of delayed volumes from 2024, especially in H1, which contributed further to our strong 2025 performance. Besides cocoa, as I mentioned, we also saw a strong performance in the other categories. The fruit and vegetable business continued to show strong momentum with accelerated growth, while nuts and seeds and oils and fats delivered consistent sales growth with improved margins. Coffee achieved record high sales and succeeded in growing volume when prices were elevated.

Then moving on to tea. The tea business is operating in a challenging global environment. Some of the larger branded players are losing share. And as a result, we see a more fragmented customer base. Also, global tea supply remains elevated. Despite these challenges, the business demonstrated gross margin resilience.

As Allard already explained, we will strengthen the collaboration across the Van Rees Group by implementing a more customer-centric business model that will drive additional value to our customers.

For Food Solutions, we saw a record EBITDA performance, driven by strong volume development for the dry and wet plants, resulting from the sustained demand for plant-based, clean label and culinary solutions. Further commercial development was driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit in R&D, combined with new long-term partnerships with customers.

We are especially proud of these results as at the same time, the new wet plants facility became operational. The new facility is set to support scaled up production for the coming years, as mentioned by Allard.

Now over to the cash flow development. Looking at the operating cash flow, excluding working capital, we posted a year-on-year increase of 12%, effectively reflecting our profitability improvement. On the bridge, you can see the main drivers from the EUR 120 million in operating cash flow, excluding working capital to the net cash from operations. The largest swing is obviously driven by EUR 164 million working capital consumption during the period, and I'm going to spend a bit more time on this on the next slide.

Next to that, we had a reduced outflow from cash interest expenses due to lower interest rates and a slightly lower effective tax rate. Let me now go back to working capital. Here, you can see the development over the last 4 years with the orange line representing the total working capital and the green line, the investment in inventory. You will see that the increase in working capital is driven by higher inventory value.

Based on market prices, availability of stock in the market and the positions we take, the inventory value will move up and down. In 2025, the higher inventory value is mainly coming from 2 parts. One, due to shortages in the previous year, we are holding more cocoa inventory at higher prices. And besides, we saw higher market prices within the Spices & Nuts segment. So here, there is an extra outflow due to the prices of the various inventory we hold, but this is something that is fully embedded in our business model.

With everything remaining equal, our trade payables and receivables remain broadly unchanged. We expect working capital to go gradually downward in the course of 2026, mainly a reflection of the pricing dynamics of our commodities.

Finally, before handing back to Allard, let me talk briefly about our liquidity and leverage. As we explained at the CMD, we see working capital as a commercial instrument. And we have enough financial headroom to deal with this, which is where the added value of the holding comes into place.

The diversification of the portfolio gives us the financial headroom we need. The strength of our balance sheet enables us to deal effectively with increased working capital. We remain committed to our long-term targets. And we have also shown in the past that we could temporarily absorb a higher leverage and have also been able, you see it on the chart, to deleverage, a function of the EBITDA growth we want to achieve and lower working capital requirements as inventory levels will gradually reduce.

With that, I would like to hand back to Allard.

Thank you, Mirjam. As we move to 2026, I would like to share a little more on our views and initiatives for this year.

The market dynamic of a positive trend towards plant-based diets is expected to continue, providing a strong fundament for our business. I started this call by referring to the latest geopolitical development. The impact on the global economy and our business cannot be predicted. However, our people and our business model are positioned to deal with this in the most effective way as we have proven in previous years. We will continue to build routes to healthier foods.

A specific development for our organic business is the cocoa price development. Prices dropped from USD 6,000 per tonne at the end of 2025 to around $3,000 per tonne today. This level is not far from the historic normal levels. This would indicate that the cocoa market is moving to more regular price levels, although we still see major daily swings. A continued lower cocoa price level should lead to lower working capital levels, as Mirjam already mentioned, and normalized profitability.

The actions we have taken in our Edible Seeds business in the U.S. should allow us to progress towards improved profitability levels during 2026, considering that the fundamentals of the business are strong and attractive. Based on our 2025 performance and our expectations for 2026 and beyond, we are committed to the midterm ambitions we communicated during our Capital Markets Day.

Finally, I would like to mention that 2 new nonexecutive Board members will be proposed at the AGM in April as communicated in our press release that was issued this Tuesday. Jan Piet Valk and Barbara van Hussen have relevant Board, governance and M&A experience and will be a great addition to our Board.

With that, I would like to hand it back to Jean-Mari.

Thank you, Allard, Mirjam. To summarize, today, we have discussed our performance for the period, the key drivers across our segments and the broader developments impacting our business.

We now open the lines for the Q&A.

I see we already have one question coming through. The question states, will the trend of H2 2025 continue? And what is your view for 2026?

Thank you, Jeanie. Let me maybe comment on the second half to start with, the second half of 2025.

A few things important there is, one is our reported sales improved with 2%, but we had a currency impact, of course, of the dollar to euro. So if you look at it on a constant currency, we actually grew in the second half with 5% and that 5% is against a strong H2 we had in 2024. And what Allard already explained, the phasing has been a bit of, let's say, between H1 and H2, and we expect to go to a more evenly phasing going forward. But this H2, we were comparing versus a high H2 in 2024.

And then the last element which impacted the second half was, of course, the slow performance at Edible Seeds. And there really, we saw there the continuing of the market challenges and then compounded really in Q4 with the production issue that we faced. So those elements really impacted our second half performance. So maybe, Allard, you want to talk a little bit about 2026.

Yes. Thank you, Mirjam. I mean based on, let's say, what Mirjam just said, there are a couple of components that in 2026 will be different than in 2025. So one of them, obviously, is what we mentioned, the edible seeds development. It was impacted, and we expect that during 2026, this will trend back to the normal or the normalized performance levels.

So I think that's important. The other thing is that cocoa prices will come down. The question is what is going to happen to other commodity prices or prices in our portfolio. So what the exact sales development will be, that's to be seen.

Like we said that the split between H1 and H2 had a major impact in 2025 versus 2024. But also if we look at 2026, we expect it to be more even. And if it would be more balanced and more even, you should expect or you can expect that the EBITDA potentially can be in H1 2026, a little bit below H1 2025 and that we will catch up in the second half of 2026.

So it's important to understand that we will look at the full year performance and our objectives and that the split between H1 and H2 in 2026 can be very different than we saw in 2025. So I think that's important to mention.

Okay. Thank you. I see we already have our first caller on the line. It is Reg Watson from ING.

Allard and Mirjam, I have a number of questions for you both, please. So I'd like to take them in turn.

Firstly, the working capital. I think, Allard and Mirjam, you've both highlighted higher cocoa prices and I think, in particular, higher volumes. When I look at the evolution of cocoa prices, '25 is no different from '24. In fact, on average, probably slightly lower.

But -- so I'm not sure if that's the reason for the higher working capital. Mirjam, you mentioned higher volumes. And then my question on that then is, if it was higher volumes, why would you take higher volumes in '25 when in '24, you were suffering a demand shock, and you actually had too much volume. So I'd like to understand the dynamics of that. That's the first question.

Yes. Right. We were actually coming from a shortage, right? So in 2024, inventory was actually in volume very low. So we -- there is indeed an impact when you compare '25 volume levels, specifically in cocoa in '24 on higher volumes because '24, the base is very low. So we really build up normal stock levels again. And then on average, of the stock we are holding, the price is higher now in 2025. So there's, of course, a little bit of a lagging impact versus the market price development in the inventory value that we're holding.

Reg, maybe to build upon that, when we contract the volumes, it's not evenly spread out over the year, right? So we contract the crops. And that is at a specific point in time of the year where the price can be much higher than what you have seen at the end of the year. So I understand you're right, the average price during the year is different, but that's not the price we contracted against.

Okay. Okay. So that accounts for the variability. And then I'd like to move on to Edible Seeds. It's been a thorn on your side. I think at the time of the Capital Markets Day, correct me if I'm wrong, but there was an expectation that we would have run through the anniversary of the problems by the time we got into the second half of the year. And it seems that the problems continue. Have I misunderstood that, misremembered that? Or have additional problems arisen in the intervening period?

No, I don't think you misunderstood it. What we've seen is that the consequences were more severe than we anticipated originally. It took longer to get rid of the products that we still had. So the exports issue, which you probably referred to, indeed, we mentioned and at the time, we thought that, that would fade out. But in reality, the aftermath of that was longer and had a bigger impact than we expected. So yes, but we should be through that now.

And -- okay. But you are confident that, that is now done and dusted?

Yes, because we still had to clear all inventory and let's say, the price levels against which we could clear that inventory was below what we -- below our expectations.

Right. Okay. And then just a technical question on the dividend, Allard, I think in your prepared remarks, you mentioned that it was in line with policy. But again, I seem to recall that the dividend policy is 70% payout ratio. And I think unless I'm much mistaken, the ratio is lower than that for this year.

Yes, the ratio is 65%. So you're right, that's a little bit below the 70% that we communicated. But 70% is an average, right? And we look at different things. So first of all, it's the performance of the company. Secondly, it's available cash or the cash position we have. Thirdly, it's other investment opportunities we see like M&A opportunities. So when you put that all together, we came to this proposed dividend, which we feel is completely in line with our communicated policy.

And then final question on tea. You very helpfully provided a slide in the presentation pack, which sort of noted some of the changes that you're making. Could you perhaps flesh -- give us some flesh to those bones, perhaps a work example of how things have worked in the past and how they will work in the future and what benefits you expect those changes to bring?

Yes. No, fair. Now what we've seen is that historically, Van Ree very much operated from a local level. So yes, there was central oversight, and the strategic direction was obviously set at the central level. But the local offices, to a high degree, maintained their own commercial operations and approach themselves the customers they had.

What we've seen changing basically in the industry that the customers are looking more for -- are more flexible, let's say, in buying tea and in looking for what I tend to call multi-origin solutions. So for example, if a certain grade or a certain price of tea in Kenya is not competitive to Ceylon or to Indonesia, we can -- they are basically looking at other origins as well. And my belief is that we can be more efficient and more effective by centralizing that approach and to be a sparing partner for our customers to help them actually making the right calls.

So the central multi-origin solutions that we can offer to the key customers will be crucial to be closer to customers to better understand them and therefore, be more effective. So it means, in the essence, a little bit of a shift or it means a shift from certain responsibilities that were embedded in the local organizations. And again, whether it's in Africa or in Asia or whatever, to more the central hub where they will make the calls and that will be a change to the organization, which, in our view, will be for the better because, again, the tea market has changed, and tea buyers have changed their behavior.

Okay. So just so I'm clear, so reading between the lines there, basically the local organizations were more incentivized to promote their local origins rather than helping customers source more efficiently other origins of tea. Is that my understanding, correct?

Well, the way I would phrase it that they had less visibility on alternatives for the origin. So their knowledge was on their local origin. And they -- it took more time to react to changed consumer or customer behavior and now we centralize that. So we can now proactively offer other origins if we see that the preference of certain customers is changing. So I think we will be faster and more effective.

And with that centralization, will that come -- will therefore -- will there have to be exceptional costs taken in the local organizations then for this?

No, no, no.

Great. Those are all my questions. Sorry to monopolize the performance.

Thanks, Reg.

Thank you, Reg. We have another question coming through. This question states, what M&A projects is Acomo working on? If you can prioritize on a segment basis, what would have priority and why? Example, consumer preferences and diets, food safety, price development, raw materials, labor cost development.

As we stated at our Capital Markets Day that M&A, and I think we also included that in the presentation today. The M&A is an important part of our growth trajectory and our ambition towards where we want to be in the midterm. So we are looking at different M&A opportunities.

What we've communicated before is that our prime focus will be our Spices & Nuts segment, and that will be in Europe and in the U.S. We will look at Edible Seeds, which will be a little bit more geared towards the U.S. Organic, we are looking at how can we strengthen the portfolio. Tea, like I said, we focus more on changing the organization, and that's our prime priority now. And thirdly, we will look if we can expand our Food Solutions presence, but that will be mainly in Europe. Those are the priorities.

Great. Thank you, Allard. Another question here is this is a question on artificial intelligence, so AI. Is AI also applicable in a company like Acomo? And do you see AI as an opportunity or a threat?

It's an interesting question. I think AI, I think, is in everybody's mind at the moment, and it's impacting, of course, all of us, I think, in a certain way. I think for us, it really is about our processes, right? How can we make it more efficient?

And you can imagine that in the trading that we're doing, we're collecting a lot of data. We need to get everything in order for all the certifications for all the quality requirements, et cetera. So there's a lot of data we are processing. So I really see the benefit in more -- making our processes more efficient. So for sure, there is an opportunity for us there.

I think really, if you look into the core activities of what we are doing, that is a people business. So in that sense, we are less impacted because really the work of the traders, the knowledge of the traders, making means out of all the different data that is there, yes, we very much believe that, that is really the human capital that we have. And hence, yes, that is less impacted by AI. So it's more about the processes than the core of our business model.

Thank you, Mirjam. Well, this concludes today's call based on our time.

Thank you once again for your time and your continued interest in Acomo. We look forward to speaking with you again for the 2026 half year results. Have a good day.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Acomo Investor Call for the 2025 Half Year results. We would like to thank you all for joining the call today. In this investor call, we will highlight and discuss the main drivers of the results for the first half of the year, next to a number of other topics and initiatives for the Acomo Group. My name is Jean-Mari Pretorius, and I'm Acomo's Group Risk and Internal Audit Manager, and I'm pleased to be the moderator for this call today.

The Q&A session will take place at the end of the present. The platform is already open and available. [Operator Instructions] Today, our Acomo Group CEO, Allard Goldschmeding; and CFO, Mirjam van Thiel will guide you through our 2025 half year results. I would like to state that this call may contain forward-looking statements. These statements, however, do not guarantee future performance, and therefore, no reliance can be placed upon them.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly correct or update any forward-looking statements made during today's call, except as may be required under the applicable security laws. We will now continue with the 2025 half year results. Firstly, we give the word over to the Acomo Group CEO, Allard Goldschmeding.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on today's call. The overall performance of our group in the first half year was very strong, as you may have read in our press release that was issued this morning. We achieved a record performance in both sales and profit, and our net debt-to-EBITDA leverage ratio significantly decreased. In today's call, I will discuss in more detail the business environment of the first 6 months, our overall results and several initiatives we took. Mirjam will cover the financial performance in more detail. At the end, I will summarize the key takeaways.

The environment our business operates in continues to be influenced by several factors. Firstly, market prices for a number of key products either increased or remained at high levels, especially nuts and some spices increased substantially. Major nuts like cashews and almonds saw higher price levels of more than 25% versus same period last year and walnuts and macadamias increased even more. Cocoa market prices were somewhat lower versus the end of 2024, but are still materially above the levels of 1 year ago.

Desiccated coconut market prices almost doubled versus H1 2024 and increased by more than 50% versus the end of last year and are at all-time high levels. Cocoa market prices continue to be volatile at high price levels, although somewhat lower than at the end of last year. Due to the high price levels, there was some pressure on demand in the first 6 months, but not materially.

The constant changing news regarding U.S. tariffs on imports created uncertainty and affected the buying horizon and purchase timings of customers. This resulted in both postponed ordering in case of uncertainty about the actual tariffs and conditions as well as accelerated ordering to be ahead of the date tariffs would be applicable. Our people dealt with constant changing customer inquiries and requests, which required to be fully up to date with the latest developments. I am impressed with how our teams dealt with these challenges.

Our supply chains were impacted by the continued tensions in the Red Sea, leading to longer lead times for products from Eastern Africa and Asia to Europe. Another development that started to be reflected in our financials is the weakening of the U.S. dollar. For the P&L, the translation effect on the operational results was limited in the first half year. In case the U.S. dollar remains at current levels, this may also affect consumer purchase power in the U.S., especially in case of the announced tariffs will actually be implemented. On the other hand, market price changes of raw materials may outweigh the impact of U.S. dollar movement.

Given the economic environment, the overall financial results of the group for the first 6 months are very strong. Sales increased by 14% to EUR 758 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 85% to EUR 68 million and the adjusted earnings per share increased even more with 143% to EUR 1.36 per share. This performance proves the professionalism of our people to do effectively with a constantly changing environment and the value we provide in the supply chain.

Several important highlights of the first half year, I would like to call out. Firstly, the performance of our Spices & Nuts businesses. In this segment, all our companies, Catz International, King Nuts and Raaphorst and Delinuts continued the growth trajectory, resulting in record sales and profits. This is a great achievement in a complex market with a wide variety of products and origins and underlines the attractiveness of this segment to us.

Tradin Organic also reported a record half year, supported by strong cocoa results. The major positive change in performance of the organic cocoa business that started in the second half of last year continued in the first 6 months of this year. A lot of focus was put on getting the beans in, process them into better liquor and powder and shipping these products to our customers. After the delayed shipments from the origins, we caught up during the last 6 months.

The other desks of Tradin also performed well, and the organization is well positioned to further develop the business. The Edible Seeds segment was impacted by a poor performance in the U.S. where the European business developed well and reported solid results, the U.S. organization was facing margin pressure and was not able to offset the lost export business. In addition, uncertainties around tariffs for imported ingredients further impacted volumes and margins.

The focus going forward will be to develop the domestic business further under local leadership. The foundation of the U.S. organization is solid and provides a platform for healthy growth. Our tea business reported disappointing sales volumes. The customer landscape is changing and becoming more scattered as major packers are losing position to smaller player in some cases. Despite the lower volumes for these management under the leadership of the new Managing Director, [indiscernible] was able to increase margins and effectively control costs. We will organize the commercial function into a coordination hub that further utilizes the unique global network and expands the multi-origin offerings to customers.

Our Food Solutions business performed very well, especially as the team established a new [indiscernible] facility while continuing the day-to-day business. The new facility became fully operational ahead of planning, which is a big complement to the Snick EuroIngredients organization. Increased sales and higher market prices for a number of products resulted in higher working capital. Our balance sheet enables this increase and continues to be healthy. Based on the performance, the Board has decided to set the interim dividend at EUR 0.45 per share, which is an increase of 12.5% versus prior year.

At the Capital Markets Day on April 7, we presented our strategic direction and our financial goals. The goals are around sales growth, delivering healthy margins, maintaining a strong balance sheet and continuing to be an attractive dividend payer. The sales growth of plus 14% reflects the actual growth opportunity we have. The presented goal of 9% EBITDA margin proved to be achievable as we realized this 9% over the first 6 months. The leverage ratio remains strong, and the interim dividend supports our dividend distribution objective.

Besides the financial goals, we also presented the building blocks that lead to these goals. The group's strategic vision is based on our value creation capabilities reflected in the shape of the tree and the dynamics of the markets we're active in. I would like to share a few examples of how we address these market dynamics. Last year, we acquired the Nuts organization in the Nordics from Caldic. We incorporated this business into our Delinuts organization with the aim to utilize our existing expertise and create synergy opportunities.

The 2 organizations work together in expanding the business in the Nordics, and we're jointly present at one of the major fairs for product concepts in Belgium for the private label industry. Our [indiscernible] organization has insight in the latest food trends in relation to nuts and can provide a broader portfolio range to customers in the Nordics than the Nordics organization could previously offer. This resulted in a very successful fair.

With the organic portfolio, Tradin is very well positioned to further strengthen our better for people and planet profile. Through the agroforestry in Sierra Leone we can expand the production of organic cocoa and at the same time, improve the sustainable land use and living income for farmers. Besides supplying ingredients to the food and beverage industry, Snick EuroIngredients also supplies own developed functional dry and wet blends.These blends are developed to meet specific requirements of customers.

As we were facing maximum capacity for our wet blends production, a new dedicated facility was established in Belgium for the production of these wet blends. The facility became fully operational in the first half of this year and it enables us to meet the growing demand for tailor-made functional solutions through flexible processing equipment. In the area of sustainability, we reached 3 out of 4 target scores that are related to our sustainability linked loan.

We took several initiatives to further progress ranging from increased usage of renewable energy, an increased number of certifications, initiatives to increase living rates of farmers and new agroforestry projects. Our aim remains to deliver long-term growth in a sustainable way.

Now I would like to hand over to Mirjam van Thiel, our Group CFO, to take us in more detail through the financial performance.

Thank you, Allard. We have a diversified portfolio across 5 growth segments, active in over 100 countries. I want to start with a summary of the performance of each of the segments, Spices & Nuts, Edible Seeds, Organic Ingredients, Tea and Food Solutions.

First, the Spices & Nuts segment, a very strong performance with a sales growth of 16% and an EBITDA growth of 41%, with all companies within this segment contributing to the growth. As Allard already explained, we have seen higher market prices for most spices, desiccated coconut and nuts, which supported the segment's sales and profit performance.

On the other hand, the higher prices put some pressure on demand. The Nordics business that was acquired in August of last year is included in the results and further strengthened the segment's footprint. Then over to Edible Seeds. First, good to note that our European seeds businesses had a solid performance. However, we saw a few dynamics that impacted our North American business.

First, we have the restrictions in export markets for U.S. grown sunflower seeds, which we already saw in the second half of last year as well. Then second, the uncertainty around tariffs resulted in volatility in supply and demand. And last, we see pressure on our margin. As a result, sales of the segment declined with 7% and EBITDA was lower with 34%. Good to note that the performance in the first half of this year showed improvement compared to the second half of last year. The focus for this segment is to grow in the domestic market with proven concepts in SunButter, Jammies and our Wildlife portfolio and our strong partnerships for the co-manufacturing business.

Then over to Organic Ingredients, a very strong sales and EBITDA performance. We see that the demand for organic products is picking up again, powered by the trend towards healthier and sustainable foods, which you see reflected in our performance with improvements across the board in the organic portfolio. A large part of the improvement over last year is coming from cocoa, which is partly due to last year's results being materially impacted by hedge losses, but more importantly, by the strong result of the cocoa business with the momentum that we saw in the second half of last year continuing into this year.

Included in here is a catch-up of delayed volume from the beginning of last year as well. We have strengthened our fundamentals in a structurally tight market. Our team successfully completed sourcing the Africa crop season ensuring supply to fulfill our demand for the coming period. Looking at the other products within the organic segment, the food business continues to demonstrate a good momentum and consistent growth.

The organic nuts and seed business line has delivered a solid performance with volume growth complemented by a more substantial improvement in margins, contributing to stronger profitability in categories like nuts, chia and sunflower kernels. Also, our coffee business had record high sales.

And moving on to Tea. The tea business is operating in a challenging environment. Some of the larger branded players are losing share. And as a result, we see a more fragmented customer base. Through improved margins and strong cost control, the impact of lower volumes was partly mitigated. To address the changing environment, our tea business will migrate to a new commercial model.

For Food Solutions, we saw a record EBITDA performance in the first half of the year, driven by strong volume development for the dry and wet blends. Further commercial development was driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit in R&D, combined with new long-term partnerships with customers. We are especially proud of these results as at the same time, the new wet blend facility became operationally, enabling higher production and sales. The new facility is also set to support scale of production for the coming years.

And then if we look at the overall P&L, combining all of the segments, we see that sales improved with 14%, driven by strong performance for Spices & Nuts and organic ingredients, partly offset by a decline in Edible Seeds and Tea. The gross profit percentage increased from 13.3% to 16.9%, an increase of 3.6% points. Of this, 2.5% is coming from organic ingredients, mainly cocoa and the other 1.2% from improvements within the other segments. This is driven by focusing more on value-added activities and also supported by the increase end-market prices.

General and administrative expenses show an increase of 15%, mainly driven by higher personnel expenses. That results in an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 68 million, which is an increase of 85% year-on-year. As a percentage of sales, the EBITDA margin is 9%, which is in line with our long-term ambition. Also important to note that in the first half of the year, the FX translation impact on the P&L was minimal. However, depending on how the U.S. dollar, euro rate will develop, we are anticipating a bigger impact in the second half.

Then moving over to the cash flow. Cash flow from operating activities, excluding working capital, more than doubled versus prior year. Including the changes in working capital and interest and taxes, we have a negative cash flow. So let's take a look at the next slide on how the working capital has developed over time.

In the graph, you see that working capital declined towards the end of 2023 and started to go up again in 2024 and that continues to increase in 2025. The increase is mainly driven by the higher purchase prices, especially driven by cocoa, which almost doubled, coconuts plus 18% and also along with Spices & Nuts plus 20% to 30%. This is where the added value of Acomo is.

Our inventory levels play an important role in our commercial policy. As a group, we have a strong balance sheet and the financial strength to invest in working capital. We still have more than enough headroom in our borrowing facilities. By end of June, we utilized 40% of our funds or approximately 50% based on the borrowing base, which then also brings me to the key ratios looking at our balance sheet.

Our solvency ratio is healthy at 47%, although a decline versus prior year due to higher working capital. Driven by strong EBITDA performance, both in the second half of last year and this year, the leverage ratio improved to 2.1. Then over to my last slide. We hope you appreciate we are stepping up the communication and interaction with you, our investors. In April this year, we held our first Capital Markets Day.

Based on our mission, building roots to healthier foods, we talked about our plant-based ingredients portfolio and how it links to current market trends. We talked about the value-added capabilities of the group and the role in a responsible and resilient supply chain and the potential for scaling up organically as well as through M&A.

I know many of you are able to join. But if not, the slides as well as the recordings are available on our website. Also, we are working on a new improved website, telling the Acomo story based on the mission, building roots to healthier foods. We expect to go live in the coming months.

With that, I would like to hand it over back to Allard for closing remarks.

Thank you, Mirjam. To summarize, our main messages of today's call are the following: the group delivered a strong overall performance in the first half of 2025. Our teams got very well with the volatile and uncertain environment. Our balance sheet remains healthy despite the higher working capital levels, and we have taken several initiatives to address existing opportunities and challenges.

The environment we're in is very volatile and the effects on our company of, for example, U.S. tariffs in the second half of the year cannot be predicted. However, given our scale and geographical spread as well as the flexibility, knowledge and dedication of our people, we are good positioned to deal with these effects in the best possible way, and our business fundamentals are solid.

As we have now covered all topics of the agenda, I would like to hand back to Jean-Mari.

We will now be taking questions from the platform together with calls from our analysts. We then have our CEO and CFO here to answer your questions. I think we are ready. Okay. Let's start with the first question of the day. The first question that came in is, what is the impact of the tariffs on Acomo? And what is the impact on U.S. businesses and European businesses?

Well, what we tried to explain in the -- well, both in the press release as well as in the call earlier is that it's a little bit difficult to predict what the impact of tariffs will be. What we have said before in previous communications is that out of our U.S. business, what we import, around 60% what we sell in the U.S. is imported from different origins and different regions.

The tariffs that are set in the U.S. or announced differ per region. And what we are very good at is that we can find alternative sourcing. If in one country the tariff is rather high, we can try to switch to other countries and origins where tariffs are lower.

So we feel we're in a very good spot to deal with them, like we said, in the best possible way. But the actual effect will be -- is difficult to see. And if you look at the European U.S. relationship, well, we all read today or yesterday even that it's expected that there will be a deal. And what the deal exactly will look like, we don't know. So hopefully, next week, we will know more.

Thank you, Allard. We have one caller on the line. It's Reg Watson.

I have a few questions, if I may. So starting with the first one, it relates to the revenue figure, the 14% year-on-year improvement. How much of that is down to volume versus price and mix? Because obviously, you've called out a lot of commodities, which have significantly increased over the last year. That's the first question.

Shall I take the question or you want to ask more first?

No, I think we'll take it a piece at a time. Otherwise, we'll forget where we are.

Sure. Very good. Thanks for asking the question. We have a 14% sales increase and mainly driven by 2 segments, which is Spices & Nuts and Organic Ingredients, then somewhat mitigated by a decline in Tea and Edible Seeds. So the main increase is coming in Spices & Nuts, but that is for a very big part, really market price driven. And we see there are high prices, what Allard quoted a few of them in his -- when we're going over the slides, which you see increases in most of the nuts. You see increase in the spices and not so much versus the end of last year, but we do, let's say, year-on-year. So within Spices & Nuts, it is really driven by prices.

In Organic Ingredients, we see growth in all the segments, but a very big part is coming from cocoa. And within cocoa, you see 2 dynamics. One is the pricing, but also there, we do see a volume impact. As you maybe remember that last year, in the first half year, we did have lower volumes coming in ahead of our challenges with the crops, with the weather conditions in Africa. And as a result, some of that volume delayed, and we do have now very good volumes as well. So in the organic segment, it's a combination of both volume and price.

Yes, that's really helpful. And then that's quite a neat segue then into the significant turnaround in EBITDA performance in the Organic Ingredients business. Now the trials and tribulations of the hedging, et cetera, have been well flagged. But how much of that approximately EUR 30 million turnaround was due to cocoa?

Yes. So I understand the question, but we are not disclosing specific information about the product groups. And I think also in the last year's numbers, a big part of the downside was coming from cocoa. So now also a big part of the upside is coming from cocoa. But on average, if you look at total Acomo, yes, the cocoa is still -- well, an important segment for us, but still, yes, between, let's say, 5% and 10% of our total business.

Okay. I think then, just to sort of elaborate on this further, I appreciate you don't want to disclose anything, but I'm sure you can understand from sort of analyst perspective and investors' perspective, you had a very big negative last year, and you're now reaping the positive this year. It's quite difficult still to understand where the sort of the truth lies in between somewhere. Should we simply take an average of the performance over, say, 24 months or 12 months? How should we think about this? Because clearly, we need to be able to have an idea going forward of what the underlying sort of steady-state profitability of this business really is.

Yes. Yes. So I think if you look at the year-on-year movement, it's coming one from the losses that we had in the first half of last year. But second, also the strong performance in this last half year is really coming from a strong volume development as well as high prices.

Now if you would look at the results specifically of the last half year, roughly, and it's very hard to predict. But because we are still selling some of the additional volume coming in from 2024 and the cocoa prices are still relatively high on a kind of moving forward basis, you can expect roughly between the EUR 5 million and EUR 7 million of that to be more still a catch-up and kind of benefiting from those very high prices at the moment. I hope that gives a bit more of a...

That does. That's very helpful. That's definitely useful. And then, on your sort of preprepared remarks, you mentioned that the G&A cost was up materially due to personnel costs. Can you break that down, please, between salaries and FTE headcount?

No, we don't have those details. I do, but -- it is a combination. So there is some FTE investment in some of our locations, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia, we are getting more people on the ground. Also here at the holding, we are invested in some more people if you think about the sustainability area, the whole -- we are stepping up, let's say, on the Investor Relations, et cetera. So we are investing here in the holding. But the majority of the increase is really coming from -- yes, from more salary increases. There's also some investments in consultancy fees, audit fees related to ESG and those kind of areas, yes.

So should we expect this to continue or how long should we expect this to continue going forward?

You mean the increase in the personnel expenses, Reg?

Yes. So I mean, should we see another similar increase in the second half year-on-year, for example?

No, I think there are a few components. Like Mirjam said, we did make an investment in the organization. On top of that, part of the remuneration is performance-based. And if the performance goes up, then obviously, the personnel costs go up as well. And we did make additional investments in, for example, marketing for SunButter for the introduction of the Jammies. So it's -- I would not expect, let's say, the same percentage increase. It depends on the performance of the company.

The more the better, I guess. And that came to hold the line here. But then just a final question. I'd say, Mirjam, you mentioned a new commercial model in tea. Can you elaborate on that, please, and how you expect that to sort of arrest the decline in that business?

Yes. I think, Reg, I will take that one. The way how [indiscernible] has been organized was very much based on local origin offices and a few sales offices. What we've seen is that due to, let's say, changing requirements of customers, we feel the need to bundle our commercial efforts more in a central way. So we are better equipped to meet the changing needs of customers, meaning have a better understanding of the customer needs or an improved understanding.

And the other thing is being faster in offering what we call multi-origin solutions. So in case, for example, from one origin, the tea quality or the price would be different compared to another one, we can offer different solutions to our customers. And that is something where we see an increasing need for. And given the global network we have, we have the capabilities to offer that to customers, not just single lines and single origins. So with a changed structure, we feel we are better equipped to utilize the unique position that [indiscernible].

Okay. That makes sense. And then how -- is that already in place? Or how long do you think it will be before that starts to bear fruit?

No, we will -- it's a very good question. No, it's not in place yet. We are migrating into this model in the months to come. It's not something we do overnight because we want to do it in a controlled way. But the end state is very clear where we will go to this more centralized model for commercial activities.

Okay. And do you expect that to result in increased volume or decreased cost or possibly both?

Well, I would say it's not per se a cost saving exercise. It's much more being able to serve customers more. So in the end, it should grow the top line rather than it's about cost savings. We feel the opportunity in the market is there, and that's what we want to go after.

Thank you, Reg. We have another question here from one of our analysts, Patrick, which reads, you have been mentioning synergies from the Delinuts Nordics acquisition. Can you quantify the contribution of the Nordics acquisition on adjusted EBITDA of Spices & Nuts?

Yes, Patrick, it's still very, very small, I would say, and it's early days. I have to say that the synergies we are after is, again, also they're not so much about cost savings, but much more about commercial opportunities and the synergies of using the knowledge and the capabilities we have in the organization elsewhere in the group to utilize that for the Nordics market.

We made a business case. Again, it's not huge, but -- not material to the results of Spices & Nuts. But going forward, we have plans and we feel we can scale it up. And so far, I would say it looks good, and we're happy. But it's not material to the bottom line of the Spices & Nuts segment. So it doesn't really play a role in the change year-over-year.

It seems like we lost Reg. I don't know if you want to call in again, Reg? Okay. We also have a question coming through from one of the dialers in. The question is, can you elaborate on the increase in working capital also related to the volume and price inventory developments?

Yes, let me take that. You see an increase in our working capital, which indeed is coming from the higher purchase prices. And the good thing is really this is, I think, really where you see the value of Acomo we have, but I also said already, we have enough room in our borrowing facilities to really fund this. So yes, but it is coming from the higher purchase prices.

Thank you, Mirjam. Another question coming through is you presented your strategy during the CMD, Capital Markets Day with a focus on the U.S. With all the political developments in the U.S., do you now look differently at the U.S.?

It's a very fair question. The strategic direction we laid out in our Capital Markets Day is -- reflects our long-term objectives and our belief in our business and the markets we're active in. We don't want to change our approach based on short-term developments. We believe, like we said before, we actually are in a decent position to deal with them in an effective way. So based upon that, our interest in the U.S. market has not changed, and we will continue to execute the strategic direction that we communicated during the Capital Markets Day.

Thank you, Allard. Since we have Reg back on the line. Reg, do you have some more questions for us?

I did -- so they relate to the Edible Seeds business. And I guess they're twofold. One is, I was under the impression, obviously mistakenly that the pressure from the export market restrictions for U.S. sunflower seeds was effectively over in the first half. But can you confirm that we should now have anniversaried it for the second half of the year? So that's the question number one.

Then on top of that, you mentioned in your release this morning that there are -- the volatility in supply and demand impacted the Wildlife business. Again, I thought last year, I think we had weather, the weather this year was better. So can you perhaps elaborate on why the tariff uncertainty created a problem there? And was it a supply issue or a consumer demand issue or possibly both?

And then finally, I think, Mirjam, you also again highlighted the fact that you're reviewing sort of the operational structure of that business with a view to improvement. Please, can you elaborate on the steps you're taking there and the action you're taking and the time lines you expect to see some recovery in that?

Yes. Thanks, Reg. Look, the export business, so what happened is that we had the U.S. sunflower seeds that we were selling to European markets that due to change in regulations, we couldn't sell it anymore. Now what we saw last -- at the second half last year, we had the impact of that sales going away, but also we had a one-off impact because we had to -- we had still old inventory that we had to revalue that inventory.

In this year, we are still missing that sales. So in that sense, also this half year, the sales is still impacted by lagging where last year, we still had that sales and we didn't have that this year. So that is still the impact that you see in the first half of the year. Now in the second half, you will have that impact, let's say, year-on-year and not anymore. But we still need to, of course, to get back to the old levels, really offset that lost sales by more sales domestically. And that is really what we are focusing on and what we're trying to accomplish.

Now if you then look at the business that we have there, we have the Wildlife portfolio, we have the SunButter, Jammies portfolio, and we do some co-manufacturing. Now if you -- the impact of the tariffs is we start to feel that and we start to feel that maybe in 2 ways. One, we already have some higher costs coming in, and we are not always able to just immediately translate that to the customers. Now we are often dealing with the retail markets there with SunButter, for example, if we increase the prices, it immediately will hit the consumers. So to just pass it on, that is quite a delegate game, so to say.

So as a result, the tariffs, we start to feel a bit in the margin as well as because of the uncertainty in the markets, you see certain supply and demand being disrupted. We are sourcing from China, for example, and we have experienced some delays in goods coming into the U.S. and those kind of things. So that are our impacts that we are seeing that are impacting, let's say, the remaining business that we have there.

Now what we are doing? We are getting local leadership to really work on building that business in the U.S., where both with SunButter as well as Wildlife as well as the co-manufacturing business, we really see the opportunities for growth, but it will take some time to really take on, let's say, that missed sales from the export business.

And that covers the sort of the change of strategy that you're alluding to there?

Yes.

I think the effects of our actions taken will phase in, in the months to come, how much in H2 and how much after we will see. But we do believe, like we said, in the fundamentals of the business, and that's both SunButter and Wildlife as well as the contract manufacturing business. So it's not a really a change in the market, but much, much more -- or a structural change, but much more short term, the challenges we have due to the changing environment. But longer term, there's -- we don't have a different view on that side -- that part of the business. Reg, are you still there?

Shall we wait and see if there's any other questions. Okay. I think we have one more question. It's the last question for this call. Please comment on the acquisition pipeline.

Well, in the Capital Markets Day, we obviously announced that besides autonomous growth, we also will strive to grow further through M&A activities. We are -- as we always did, we are looking at almost at any given point in time at potential acquisition opportunities. Some may be more attractive than others, but that we are evaluating opportunities that always is the case, but there's nothing to be announced now. But it's part of the future strategic direction of the company. So we will pursue opportunities where we can and where it makes sense.

Thank you, Allard. Then there's no more further questions. So thank you to everyone for dialing into the Acomo Half Year 2025 Results Investor Call. Please remember that this webcast will be available shortly after the call on our Acomo website. Thank you, and have a good afternoon.