Treatt H1 2025 Earnings Report

Treatt EPS Results

• Actual EPS: GBX 4.49
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Treatt Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Treatt Announcement Details

• Quarter: H1 2025
• Date: 5/13/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 4:30AM ET

We are a trusted ingredients manufacturer and solutions provider to the global flavour, fragrance and consumer goods markets from our bases in the UK, the US and China. We take pride in developing the ingredient solutions of the future and are supported by a global operational infrastructure that delivers results. Our people are creative, technically excellent and dedicated – allowing us to develop and supply a range of ready-made or bespoke systems to suit even the most adventurous needs.

Treatt H1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• In H1, the company saw revenue and profit decline due to sustained high citrus prices prompting customer reformulation and softer U.S. consumer demand in premium segments.
• Strong cash generation returned the business to a net cash position at mid-year, enabling a new share buyback scheme to be announced and progressed.
• For H2 the group has 50% of volume covered by confirmed orders, expects another 35% from repeat customers, and is pursuing a pipeline of projects—especially in sugar reduction, U.S. coffee, citrus and synthetic aromas—to close a £10–12 m gap.
• The strategic focus is shifting from two-thirds heritage to two-thirds premium revenue, underpinned by customer-centric commercial activities, digital tools, a new Shanghai innovation centre and a forthcoming powdered citrus platform.
• Administrative expenses remain flat year-on-year thanks to ongoing self-help cost measures, while operational spare capacity and disciplined capex support margin recovery as sales improve in the second half.

Presentation

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us this morning for our half year results. Great to be here. Usual format, I'll summarize H1, and then Ryan will take you through the financial results in more detail. Then I'll come back up and update on the key performance drivers we discussed in December and how those are progressing.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

In summary, the first half of this year has been challenging with both revenue and profit declining. As announced on the April 10, this was driven by two main headwinds, lower citrus sales as a result of sustained high prices affecting buying patterns as well as slower U. S. Consumer demand affecting our premium sales. On a more positive note, we're very pleased with the strong cash generation, leading us to be in a net cash position at the half.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

And we announced a share buyback scheme, which is progressing. I'm very pleased with the strategic progress made in H1, and I'll talk you through that later for you to really see and feel our strategy in action. We're still confident with H2, being in line with expectations. And through the presentation, we'll show you we'll show you how the building blocks that give us the confidence to deliver H2 and the full year. As I've referred to, we faced into two key headwinds in H1, the first being citrus and the second being US consumer demand.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Lower demand in heritage due to sustained high citrus prices affecting buying patterns has led to customer reformulation, resulting in a decline in value added citrus volumes, a trend we expect to continue for the remainder of the year. However, we continue to leverage our deep knowledge and product capabilities to provide alternative solutions to our customers against a challenging market backdrop. Consumer confidence in The U. S. Has softened, impacting demand in the beverage market, particularly in premium segments as consumers trade down.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Macro pressures, recent geopolitical uncertainty and tariffs have and are expected to continue to impact demand. Whilst these headwinds remain, we remain confident in delivering H2, and I'll now talk you through our plan. We have 50% of H2 covered already through our order book. We then expect another 35% of the half to come from repeat volumes with our top customers and spot business with the smaller customers. This leaves us with a 10,000,000 to £12,000,000 gap to fill.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

We have a targeted list of pipeline opportunities the sales team are chasing down, including 2,000,000 in sugar reduction, 3,000,000 of exciting new coffee projects in The US, citrus opportunities with some key customers, and a number of new opportunities for heritage and synthetic aromas presented by the developing trade situation between China and The US. This gap is similar to the h two gap of last year. And despite the macro uncertainty, we are focused on delivering these revised targets. I'll now ask Ryan to come up and present the financials.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Good. Thanks. Thanks, Dave. Good to see everybody today. So as Dave has explained, half one was a challenging set of financial results.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Let's try and have a look at things in a bit more detail. Revenue and gross margin declined in the first half of the year as a result of lower premium and value added citrus volumes. Admin expenses were broadly in line with the prior year, and I think we successfully managed to offset all of the inflation that we saw come our way as well as investing in the regional leadership structures. And so the good strong disciplines have come through again. These includes executing on self help measures, which we did towards the back end of the first half, and they will help the second half of the year.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

To give you context, in 2022, we had four twenty people in treat, while at the March, we have around three fifty people. Profit before tax and exceptionals reduced to 3,600,000.0, led largely by the decline in sales in the first half. And despite the weaker half one profit, the board has confidence in treats medium term outlook. Therefore, I am pleased that we have announced an interim dividend of 2.6p per share, which is maintained at the same level of dividends in the prior year. So Dave has highlighted the half one sales performance earlier, but let me briefly take you through each category.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Heritage is our largest segment and declined by 10% in constant currency. As you know, this is mainly as a result of of of the decline in citrus volumes. However, in synthetic aroma, despite falling raw material prices, we have managed to grow volumes by more than 10% in the period. This resulted in us maintaining our cash margins in that part of heritage. In the premium category, which is our higher margin category in treat, that declined by 3,000,000 in the period with softer consumer demand predominantly in The US.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Pleasingly though, towards the back end of the first half, we had an exciting customer win in North America with with with for us is a large and new customer where we co collaborated with our sugar reduction products to develop quickly and execute to get it launched. We expect some of those benefits to also come through in the second half of the year. In new markets, China and treat zest were good with coffee pausing as I've previously guided. Coffee, which we all know is still a nascent category for us at treat. However, we are encouraged by the more robust coffee pipeline that we have in the short and medium term.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

China sales grew by 2% in the period, and I think the team in China have continued to win business with those larger national beverage brands. We've also chosen to invest in the sales team in the country in the first half of this year, and that will allow us to drive both the short and longer term growth ambitions for us in China. I am particularly pleased with the return to net cash at the end of half one, and I am proud that we have delivered over 30,000,000 of cash over the last three years. This was driven by good working capital discipline and a more normalized capital spending pattern, which allowed most of our profits then to flow into cash. In the last twelve months, our inventory value has decreased by over 10%, and this was driven by a reduction in inventory volumes as we saw supply chains normalize.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

The capital expenditure over the last twelve months reflects the second year of normalized levels of spend. We obviously needed to prioritize fast returning CapEx projects, mainly focused on innovation. And let's remember, we still have very well invested facilities with plant capacity available in both sites. We have bank facilities in both The UK and The US with approximately £44,000,000 of headroom. And lastly, our capital allocation policy prioritizes three things, organic growth and strategic inventory, investing in growth CapEx projects, and returning to shareholders in the form of dividends, and more recently a share buyback.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

So moving over to the full year guidance, We we issued a revised guidance in April with 2025 revenue of at least a hundred and £46,000,000 and profit before tax and exceptionals of at least £16,000,000. As Dave has clearly laid out earlier, we need to deliver half two sales of 82,000,000. And to do that, we need to do three things. Convert the existing order book, of which we have 50% coverage, deliver repeat customer volumes a further 35%, and for the remaining 15% of sales gap, we need to convert our pipeline of opportunities. We expect to maintain admin costs on a full year basis broadly in line with last year, which I think is a good outcome given the investment that we've made in the new leadership structures in the year.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Operating margins are anticipated to improve in the second half of the year as they have done in the past, mainly as a result of higher sales, especially premium sales in North America. And despite the lower profits and the share buyback program, we still expect to maintain a marginal net cash position over the full year. As this is my last presentation for Treat, I want to thank all of my colleagues at treat for all the support they've given me, and I want to thank all of you in the room as well for the support that you've given me over the last three years. I've absolutely enjoyed my time at treat, and I wanna wish Dave all the success for the for the for the future. I think treat is a fantastic business. Back to you, Dave.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Thanks, Ryan. So I'm now going to give an update on some of the key performance drivers we announced back in December and how how those are progressing. Just a reminder of our strategy. Streets Streets heritage is a core strength, a solid foundation that continues to deliver value and reliability. Today, around two thirds of our revenue comes from this heritage portfolio, with the remaining third from our growing premium offerings.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Our vision, of course, is to reverse that ratio, to become a business where two thirds of our revenue is driven by premium while continuing to grow and enhance our heritage categories. This shift will drive margin expansion, deepen customer partnerships, and create long term value. To deliver it, we're accelerating our focus on high value areas of the beverage market and evolving how we go to market, becoming a truly customer centric organization with our customers' needs, ambitions and challenges at the heart of every decision. Three strategic enablers will power this evolution. Expanding our reach, getting closer to the customers that matter most, focusing on higher value categories where our capabilities deliver maximum impact, And thirdly, delivering a differentiated service model built on agility, insight, and partnership.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

The beverage market is evolving rapidly, and that presents a significant opportunity for treat. Consumers are more adventurous, health conscious and experience driven. Loyalty to legacy brands is fading, particularly among younger consumers, creating fertile ground for new entrants and challenger brands. Treat has been part of this disruptive movement for over a decade. We're behind the scenes of some of the most exciting innovation in the market.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

We powered the launch of The UK's First ever non alcoholic spirit, a brand that went on to achieve commercial success and was later acquired by a global leader in the spirits industry. This strategic position working with both disruptors and global brands is a key strength as major players look to maintain growth by acquiring high performing entrants. More recently, like PepsiCo's acquisition of Poppy. Treat is uniquely placed to support both ends of the market. And we're already making strong progress.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

We have 27 new buying customers added in the first half, with many more in our active pipeline. Our sales activity, our sales calls are up 195% year on year, reflecting a more engaged customer focused commercial team. We're scaling in Asia, the fastest growing beverage market. We're in advanced discussions with a strategic partner with significant presence in the industry locally and expect to formalize that relationship in H2. Our new website and digital product catalog has just launched.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

I hope some of you may have already seen it. If you haven't, I'd I'd recommend I'd recommend you have a look. It's transforming the customer experience, improving discoverability, and enabling easier sample and quote requests. Finally, our our new Shanghai Commercial and Innovation Center is opening in August, a key investment in in long term customer collaboration in China. So we're not reacting to change, we're actually shaping it with a clear strategy and focused execution.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

We're accelerating growth in a market primed for innovation. Although premium sales recently have been difficult, it remains a huge opportunity for the future. Building on on our momentum, we're sharpening our focus on premium beverage categories, where health, functionality and bold taste define consumer expectations. Sugar reduction is a standout growth area, a global trend. We're already delivering strong results with leading global brands, and we're now scaling our efforts even more.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Our flavor first clean label solutions are seeing growing demand across high potential segments like flavored waters, energy drinks, and functional beverages. Of course, this is about more than just ingredients, it's about partnerships. We're working more closely with our customers to co create value, drive innovation, and support meaningful brand differentiation. To further extend our reach, we're investing in new technology and ingredient format delivery. With over a hundred and thirty years of citrus expertise, we know how to blend authenticity with innovation.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

And that's why this summer, we're launching a new powdered citrus platform, transforming our high quality liquid extracts into formats that deliver clean label appeal, extended shelf life, seamless use in ready to drink and ready to mix formats, and smart cost and use profiles. This will open doors to new customers, new applications, new regions, positioning treat at the intersection of speed, sustainability and standout taste. Our new regional structure is delivering results. It's giving us greater agility and bringing us closer to the markets we serve. We've established strong new leadership in The US and Europe, energizing local teams and sharpening our commercial execution.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Our regional R and D teams are already making an impact. We've launched three new botanicals in H1, each aligned with rising consumer demand for natural ingredients with a positive health halo. These innovations spark strong engagement from key targets in the region, turning market insights into meaningful opportunity. And seven more regionally tuned launches are planned for h two, a clear signal for our enhanced pace and local responsiveness. Operationally, we strengthened our European footprint with a new sample lab outside Paris, significantly reducing turnaround times by avoiding cross border shipping delays.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Our sampling activity is up sharply, and we're targeting a forty eight hour dispatch standard. Sampling is more than just a service. It's a leading indicator of commercial momentum. Alongside this, we continue to simplify and standardize our operations, streamlining systems and enhancing internal processes, with further updates on that to come later this year. Treat is becoming a faster, more focused and more customer driven business, all of which are key to winning in the flavor industry.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

So to close, while H1 presented challenges, particularly from elevated citrus pricing and macroeconomic uncertainty, treat as resilient, focused and strategically aligned for the future. We have exceptional products, differentiated technologies, world class manufacturing and outstanding team. Our growing customer focus and commercial intensity position us strongly to manage near term pressures and unlock long term opportunity. We enter H2 with 85% demand visibility. As we said earlier, 50% from confirmed orders and contracts and 35% from recurring business.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

We're moving decisively, accelerating our strategic initiatives and investing in the areas that matter most to our customers and shareholders. These will be the foundations of sustained profitable growth. And on a personal note, as I reflect on my first twelve months with Treat, I feel incredibly proud of the people, the energy and the ambition I've seen across this business. From our labs to our customer meetings, from Barrie to Lakeland to Shanghai, the commitment and capability of this team is second to none. This is a business with deep roots, a bold vision and clear momentum.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

We know where we're going and we're well on the way. And finally, I'd like to take a moment to recognize Ryan. This is his last results presentation as CFO of Treat. I really enjoyed working and partnering with Ryan over the last twelve months. Like to thank him for his contributions to the business and wish him well at Johnson's when he takes up the CFO role there in October.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

So thank you everyone and we'll stop there and, we'll open it up for some questions.

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

Great. Thank you both. Matthew Ebrahim from Berenberg. First question is just in reference to this new customer that you announced at the back end of the first half. Can you just explain or talk to the contribution you expect to make for that customer to make in H2?

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

And on an annualized basis, how we should think about that customer for the next financial year?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Yes. So this is a customer that we onboarded at the end of towards the end of the first half and currently going through a pipeline fill. Their customer's product is launching in North America over the summer, and we're working with them on a sort of a two year supply contract. In terms of I I would say, as guidance, it's anywhere between two point five million to five million pounds revenue per year is kind of what we're expecting. It's still early days because it all depends on how their customers' product how successful it is in the market, how successful their launch is.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

But I think 2,500,000.0 to £5,000,000 a year is kind of where we're forecasting at the moment. But we're excited because it's in this whole area of sugar reduction, and that is a global trend. Everybody wants low and no sugar. Everybody wants no and low sugar without compromising the taste of sugar containing product. And I think our product, sugar treaterum as it's called, has a brilliant role to play in that.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

And I think this is the first of many, many significant projects that are going to commercialize in the whole area of sugar reduction. It's a global trend and we have some great technologies including the sugar treater on that's been launched in North America to address it. So we're excited.

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

Okay, that's helpful. And is there much of a ramp up for that customer? Or can we broadly take half of that range as its contribution in H2?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

So there's a bit of a ramp up in the second half. Think we've got about £2,500,000 in the second half forecast. So that's already banked in our forecast. And with a sort of an annualized £5,000,000 next year is what we're expecting.

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

Okay, great. And then the 50% coverage rate that you've highlighted, how does that compare to the half that we've just gone through and prior second half years in years gone by?

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Yeah, I think that's sort of broadly similar. I think we had probably a bigger coverage as we went into the second half of last year in terms of confirmed orders. But I think we've got a much better pipeline of opportunities this year than I had twelve months ago. So that, along with a fully staffed sales team now who are all hunting at the moment, gives me a bit of confidence that we should be able to close the gap even though that confirmed orders is a bit lower than last year.

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

So the coverage for the first half of this year was around 50% as well, is that correct?

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Roughly, yeah.

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

Okay. And so then what contributed to there being such a, I guess, a significant drop off in that sales outcome given there was a similar degree of coverage?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

I think in the first half, as I've said before, high citrus prices has hurt this business this year, and it all comes back to reformulation. So what we see is, when citrus prices have been high, they've been high for a while now and sort of certainly ramping up in 2023. '20 '20 '4, a lot of our customers are figuring out what to do, a lot of them are reformulating and we start to see that impact in our business through H1 this year. And what generally happens is they buy less folded oil and they make it stretch further by blending it with cheaper terpenes. So what we've seen this year is a decline in volume of folded oil, which is much higher margin for a treat, and then a significant increase in volume of lower margin terpenes.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

That's kind of one of the reasons what's really impacted our revenue and and margin in the first half. I think as we look forward, citrus prices remain high, but I think I think there's a there's a belief that they're likely to come off, you know, over the coming months. I'm not quite sure how much. But I mean, things are cyclical and we've been here before. And what generally tends to happen is once once citrus prices start start coming back, people then go back to buying the the the folded oil, the folded orange oil.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Because that's that's the pure form of the oil, that's what people want. They don't want to blend. Blend blending, you lose the clay in the from the natural fruit, but, you know, they if people can afford it, they'd much rather buy the folded the folded orange. And we've been here before, so we do expect as we move forward, prices to start softening and demand for folded oils hopefully will start coming back. It's hard to predict the exact timing, but that's what we predict.

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

Okay. Thank you.

[Charles Hall, Head of Research at Peel Hunt]

Charles Hall from Peel Hunt. Just on behalf of the analysts, can I also thank Ryan for insight and all your time over the last few years best of wishes for your new role? A couple of questions. Firstly, on tariffs. Can you just say where you are on tariffs in terms of any additional costs, any prices that are being passed through, any opportunities out of The UK into The States, and any customer response?

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Yes. So I think, generally for us, there is an impact on tariffs, a cost impact on tariffs for us in treat. Whilst a large chunk of our business is regional, so we can go local to local in parts of the world, we have some net impact on tariffs. Now, there's a couple of ways that we look to mitigate that, Charles. The first is to pass on price, and we've already started to do that.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Yeah, think that's one of the benefits of TREIT's dynamic pricing model. We have the ability to pass on prices. We're doing it through a surcharge, much like we did a freight surcharge a few years ago. So tactically, it's embedded in the business. I think we'll be able to recover most of that through tactical surcharges.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Customers understand this and treats not in a unique position on this. So it's fairly well received. However, the opportunity for us is as important. We can make products in Europe, which which we could sell into North America, for instance, which, you know, in the past, North American customers would buy from China. So there are sort of shorter term opportunities for us to explore there.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

For instance, in our synthetic aroma division, we can try and exploit those opportunities. And then we obviously produce in different parts of the world, Charles. So again, lots of mitigating factors. I don't think we're saying there's no risk, but I think we're quite confident that we can mitigate that.

[Charles Hall, Head of Research at Peel Hunt]

And then on the pipeline, can you just give a feel for your confidence in landing that pipeline? Obviously, you'll have a much bigger pipeline than the gap you're trying to fill. So just give us a feel for the scale of the pipeline. And obviously, you need that to land over the next couple of quarters, so timing of that pipeline.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

I think, yes, the pipeline is circa 25,000,000 pounds Our gap is 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 pounds Sounds quite a high conversion rate, I get that. I think within that pipeline, there's some quite chunky opportunities that are quite well advanced. So in tea and coffee and sugar reduction, for example, some citrus, high value citrus opportunities as well. So I think we're confident that we can absolutely deliver that. Yes.

[Charles Hall, Head of Research at Peel Hunt]

And the timing of those orders, is there risk of slippage in

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

I mean, it's an interesting business, right? So every every it's a seasonal business, right? We all know the first half is obviously is softer than the second half. And even in the second half, it's the summer season is the busy season. So those opportunities in the pipeline are starting to come through now, right?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

So we would expect that to come through in the second half Q3 that we're in now and early Q4.

[Charles Hall, Head of Research at Peel Hunt]

That's great. Thanks, Dave.

[Matthew Webb, Consumer Analyst at Investec Group]

Good morning. Matthew Webb from Investec. Two questions, please. The first is on the new customer wins, this number of 27 in H1, which sounds like a terrific number. I just wonder whether you could give a bit more detail there in terms of which geographies particularly contributed to that, any of bias by product area?

[Matthew Webb, Consumer Analyst at Investec Group]

That would be very interesting. And then my second question is on administrative expenses, which clearly under very tight control, particularly in terms of the projected H2 admin expenses. And clearly, this is despite you having invested quite a lot of additional dollars in the sales resource. So I just wonder how you're managing that. What have you managed to cut effectively to keep that broadly flat? You.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

I'll take the first one, you take the second Yes. Yes, I'm really pleased with the number of new customers that we brought into the business over the last six months. So 27 new buying accounts and we've got a lot more new customers in our pipeline as well. I would say half of those are actually in Asia, right, which is great. Half of them are in Asia and then there's others in The U.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

S. And Europe. And I think that's just a it's a result of us becoming much more customer focused. And I think I said on the slide, our customer activity, our customer visits are up 200 odd percent this year versus last, which is fantastic. Our sample activity is up, which is great as well.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

And that's very much strategy in action. We said back in December, we need more this business needs more customers. This is a market that's fragmenting. There's lots of many new entrants that entering the space all the time. We have to be talking to them, we have to be finding them, whether that's in person sales calls, whether that's through digital marketing and the new website.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

We're casting the net wider to find these new customers. And I we're starting to see that coming through in the numbers. Of course, it takes time and we will build that over the coming months and years. But I think that it's pleasing to see that in six months, we're becoming much more customer centric and we're starting to bring in some new customers, which is exactly what we want to do.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Yeah. So Matthew, on the admin expenses, absolutely right. I think we did a great job over the last couple of years. Last year, again, did a good job to manage admin expenses, whilst if you remember last year, we still invested over $1,000,000 in parts of the business. So so this is 2024, we invested heavily in the North American sales team at that time.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

And this year, we chose to use a similar type of value to invest in the leadership teams, both in The UK and The US. What I think we do well at TREIT though, is we look for self help measures to self fund those investments. I think the key though for us is we will not cut in any spend that's R and D focused, that's sales focused, that's front office of the business that's going to drive customer growth, right? So actually, lot of stuff that Dave spoke about, lot of the strategic investments, those are all good investments, and we'll continue to do that. However, if there's efficiencies elsewhere in the business, we'll absolutely look at that.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

The other thing we've got to think about beyond admin costs is we've got lots of spare capacity in the business, and as we drive more volumes into the future, we'll get the operational benefits of that, which you won't see in admin costs in the future, but you will see in gross margin.

[Matthew Webb, Consumer Analyst at Investec Group]

Can I just have one quick follow-up on the orange oil situation? David, you said that the consensus expectations for those prices start coming down. I mean is the key swing factor the Brazilian harvest, because I see the latest reports or forecast projections for this year's Brazilian orange harvest are much more positive, back to a much more normal harvest. That sort of the key

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

100%.

[Matthew Webb, Consumer Analyst at Investec Group]

Thank you.

[Damian McNeela, Director at Deutsche Numis]

Hi there. I'm Damian McNeither from Deutsche Numis. A couple for me, please. Just firstly on the guidance, I think you talked about falling citrus prices and I think we've sort of just heard the reasons behind that. But is there an expectation built into the guidance that prices will fall and that underpins your conviction in that 35% recurring proportion of 2H volumes 2H revenue?

[Damian McNeela, Director at Deutsche Numis]

That's the first question. Second question is on powdered citrus. Can you give us an indication of how big that market maybe is, how competitive is, who the key players are at the minute? And then just finally on coffee, I know that you're sort of taking your time on how you progress that coffee opportunity, but could you give us some sort of color around how quickly the coffee market itself is growing, please?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Okay. I'll take two and three, you can take the first one. On powdered citrus, look, this is a new technology that coming to market with in the coming months and we're excited about it because I don't think there's anybody else with the quality of citrus products that we make or treat offering them in a powdered form. That gets us into different applications within beverage, right? So, you know, you take sports and energy drinks, a lot of them now become available in sachets, powdered forms where you add water.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

But it also, it's a microencapsulation technology that has a controlled release. So what our customers the benefit for our customers is you can actually use less oil and you get a more controlled release of flavor over a longer period of time. So you don't need as much oil, which is great because it lowers the cost in use for our customers. So I think it adds a bit a point of differentiation around our current business, but I think it also gets us into new applications within beverage, but it also opens up opportunities outside of beverage, where in the wider food industry, where having powdered formats are much more preferable to liquids. So I think this differentiates us around where we play today, opens up doors in the wider beverage space, but also gets us into new markets as well.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Hard to put a number on it right now, it's early days, but I think it's an exciting area to be in. Coffee, we remain excited about coffee. We've got, as you know, plenty of spare capacity in The US on coffee. Coffee remains predominantly a US opportunity. Ready to drink coffee, cold brew coffee in America is still very popular.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Our coffee pipeline over the last two years really has been building and it's now circa 5,000,000 pounds 6,000,000 pounds in our coffee pipeline, not including one opportunity that's significantly larger than that, that we're working with as well. So I think there's coffee is definitely an area that we still remain very committed to and excited about. It's been quite a slow burn, I think, the last two or three years, pipeline is progressing very nicely. We've actually just employed a new salesperson in California who is a coffee expert and he's opening doors daily coffee across The US for us and bringing in lots of new pipeline opportunities. We're pretty excited about coffee.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

So Damian, on the question on recurring volumes in the second half of year, I think orange prices reducing will give customers an incentive to buy more. However, orange prices reducing also gives customers an incentive to hold back on their buying, if they know that the future price is going to be lower than the current So what you're seeing, when we talk buying patterns, what you're seeing is tactical buying by customers rather than strategic volumes. A couple of years back, I would have said to you, we're looking at eighteen to twenty four month volumes and hooking in those volumes for longer term contracts. That today is not in the market. Very understandable, because even ourselves in treat, we keep our raw materials on orange low, because there is an opportunity when prices fall.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

I think the biggest shift on the second half of giving confidence on that 35% is the uptick that we always expect to see for the spring and summer volumes. So these are recurring volumes, right? These are not the yes they spot, but they are recurring. Our top 40 customers have a very good pattern of how they buy. And then our smaller customers, with our inside sales team, again, have a very good pattern of how they buy.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

So, I think, I'm not sure exactly that the change in orange prices are going to lead to that. I think it's more the confidence in the repeat business.

[Andrew Clark, Director - Investment Banking - Consumer, Retail & Leisure at Peel Hunt]

Thanks. It's Andrew from Peel Hunt. Just a couple from me. And sorry if I'm laboring the point, but the nature of the pipeline, I wonder if you could give a bit more detail on that. I know that it's similar to last year.

[Andrew Clark, Director - Investment Banking - Consumer, Retail & Leisure at Peel Hunt]

The bridge is similar and the pipeline is probably not too dissimilar. But whether the customer has changed, the size of the customers or the other products that they're looking for, just wondered if you could give a bit more sort of detail on that. And then another question just on China. Obviously, the innovation center sort of opened up there. Is there any I know there's some saw some growth in the half.

[Andrew Clark, Director - Investment Banking - Consumer, Retail & Leisure at Peel Hunt]

Just wondered if there's any further detail you can give on that, what you're seeing, if there's anything that's surprising or different than what you expected or if that's, operating as you thought?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Okay. I mean the pipeline, I think the pipeline is the overall pipeline for trade is significantly richer than it was this time last year, right? And we're very pleased with that. Again, back to the point of being much more customer centric. I think the pipeline the piece of the pipeline that's going to deliver H2, as we said, is GBP 25,000,000 and there's some chunky projects in there that can get us over the line if they come off.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

And the team are very much focused on delivering that. So there's a whole there's a number of big chunky projects and then there's a whole stream of smaller projects with many, many different customers.

[Andrew Clark, Director - Investment Banking - Consumer, Retail & Leisure at Peel Hunt]

And is that similar to last year, what you had on the pipeline in the second half in terms of that large customer, small customer split? Or is that

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Yes. No, I think in terms of large customer, small customer split, yes, similar. I think the types of products are a bit different. So more health and wellness this year, less tea. Last year was the sum of tea, for instance, where we had a couple of tea wins and we expected that to come through.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

This year, we expect it to be in health and wellness and then many, many more projects. Think the diversification of the pipeline though, I think is great.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

On China, yes, I mean we're very happy with how things are progressing in China, both the commercial and innovation center should be ready in August, our team are going move in August, we're going to have a grand opening probably towards the end of the year with our customers. We're very happy with that. And to be honest, we're very happy with how our business in China is progressing. I mean, you probably saw in the RNS, mean, it was positive in the first half. So we're very happy with that.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

We've bolstered up our sales team in China. We've got two new heads that are doing very well, bringing lots of new customers into the pipeline, but also buying customers as well, as I mentioned earlier. So yes, we're very pleased with how China is developing.

[Analyst]

Marcus from Jefferies. I I was just gonna ask basically about your kind of upper end of the full year guidance. So that that 15% gap that we're talking about is basically to achieve like the low end of guidance. Going on to try and reach that top end, is that just assuming that you are going to convert more of the pipeline? Or is there maybe any kind of like macro considerations that you've been taking into that?

[Analyst]

And then the second question I had was just a quick one, is that in your full year results, you kind of gave like a rough split for the pricing and volume breakdown of your constant currency growth. I was wondering if you could kind of give a rough group level indication. I'm assuming it's more volume driven, but if they had any more kind of color on that, that would be great.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Yes. Mean I think I mean you can come in. I think on on guidance, I think I think, know, it's it's it's a challenge, right? So business conditions are tough out there, right? And and and we we are focused on delivering, I think, the bottom end of our guidance.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

And and I mean, that's that's that's where we we are focused on. I think I think if the star is completely aligned, you know, it it it could be better than that. But but I but I think at the moment, given the challenging conditions that that remain, I mean, I don't think anything is particularly going to change in the next six months versus what we experienced in the first half. But given the seasonality of our business, given the recurring spot business that we see every year that comes through our books and then given the pipeline that we see that's achievable, I think the lower end of the guidance is kind of where we're at.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

And in terms of price and volume, you're absolutely right. I mean, most of the decline has been a volume decline. And when you say volume, I'm talking value added volume, which we know that some of our sort of byproduct volume has gone up, that doesn't really add to lots of revenue and margin. Part of the decline in the first half of the year is definitely volume. I mean, we've tried really hard on price, and we know we've got sticky prices, especially in premium.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

So where we can increase price, will absolutely do that.

[Analyst]

That's great, thank you.

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

Sorry, just one more follow-up for me. Just in tariffs, following up to Charles' question, can you just provide an overview of the base case tariff scenario that you have embedded in your full year guidance? And to the extent that there is any, are you assuming any price action in response to the impact of tariffs?

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Yes, so the net in the second half of the year is very minimal, because we've already started the price action. So all of the tariff impacts that we are seeing where we can't move our supply chain around, we've already started to pass that price on to customers. And we're doing it through a price surcharge, so it's very clear to customers what's driving that price increase. Very similar to our competitive set.

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

Okay, and what degree of tariff imposition is that predicated on?

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Well, it really depends. I mean, we're buying raw materials from all different parts of the world, so it's based on that tariff that comes into The US from those various parts of the world. But if you want values rather than percentages, I would say you've got a net million pound tariff cost offset by a million pound price that goes with the surcharge. And that's much easier to talk than percentages because it's too diversified a supply chain coming into The US.

[Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg]

Okay, thank you.

[Executive]

Firstly, a few from Setyu Shada of Barclays. First half sales decline suggests treat underperforming FNF industry. Are you losing market share? Have you seen an increase in competitive intensity?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Yes, good question. I think you have to be careful comparing treat to the F and F industry. Treat, we play within F and F, but we're quite narrow within F and F. We play in a subset of the beverage industry as where our business is positioned. So and I think that, from what we understand from peers and competitors in the space, everyone is feeling the challenges right now.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

So I don't think we're losing market share. I think we're playing in a difficult environment. We're playing in a competitive environment, don't get me wrong. But we are blocking and tackling, we're winning and losing just like everybody else. So we are I don't believe we're particularly losing market share, but when you compare us to the wider, broader FNF space, then we're a very small slither of the broader market.

[Executive]

Why aren't repeat customers expected to cover the whole of H2 sales? Have you lost any major contracts?

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

I'm not sure I fully understand the question, but I think let's go back to the bridge, right? So 50% is covered through our confirmed orders, which is great, we need to get that shipped, which we'll do through the second half of the year. Another 35% is repeat recurring volumes. And that's the bit I explained with Damon's question earlier. So hopefully that sort of makes sense that we expect that with large customers as well as with our smaller customer base.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

But we've got good trend history that shows that those kind of volumes come through on a year on year basis. And you've got the seasonality uptick, which Dave explained. And then I think we were quite clear that there is this 15% gap where we've got a pipeline of opportunities that needs to fill the gap. I hope that answers that bit of the question.

[Executive]

Thank you. Elevated citrus prices is expected to sustain throughout H2. What gives you confidence to bring back the citrus division to growth?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

I mean, yes, elevated citrus prices will likely remain certainly through a good portion of H2. I think it goes back to our customer focus, the customer activity, the ramp up in customer visits, getting closer to our customers, finding new customers. I think we have a very small market share in the industry that we play in, we know that. And we don't the industry to be growing for us to grow. We can grow by finding new customers and casting the net wider.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

So I think we're doing all the right things and if we continue doing what we're doing, we will naturally grow our citrus business.

[Executive]

We have a few questions from Kahal Kenney from Davy. Can you remind us of your U. S. Dollar sales exposure and what's the translation impact of a weaker dollar?

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

Traditionally, about half of our business is U. S. Dollar based. We have seen there is a profit translation impact, which we obviously work well to mitigate against our admin costs and our operational efficiency. So, we try and do that within the region even before it gets translated across.

[Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director at Treatt]

And then we've got, in terms of managing our exposures, this is transactional FX exposures, we've got good FX hedging policies in place that should do that.

[Executive]

Can you comment on your H1 sales growth dynamic and trends between direct and indirect channels? Your sales pipeline of 25,000,000, is it weighted towards direct or indirect customers?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

I think it's weighted all towards direct customers. Yes, I mean, that's our business model is direct selling. Don't use that much distribution in our business, particularly in The U. S. And Europe. It's all direct selling, selling directly to our customers.

[Executive]

Finally, can you comment on trading for April and early May?

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

April, early May is in line with expectations. It's in line with expectations, but recognizing that this business is certainly second half weighted. Back end of Q2 Q3 and Q4 is kind of when the business really motors. So I think April and May have so far gone in line with expectations.

[Executive]

There are no further questions.

[David Shannon, CEO & Director at Treatt]

Okay, thanks, everyone. Thanks for your time and attention this morning. Again, the best to Ryan, and we'll see you next time. Thank you.

Participants

Executives

• David Shannon, CEO & Director
• Ryan Govender, CFO & Executive Director

Analysts

• Matthew Abraham, Vice President, Equity Research - Consumer at Berenberg
• Charles Hall, Head of Research at Peel Hunt
• Matthew Webb, Consumer Analyst at Investec Group
• Damian McNeela, Director at Deutsche Numis
• Andrew Clark, Director - Investment Banking - Consumer, Retail & Leisure at Peel Hunt
• Analyst
• Executive