What happened? We recently caught up with Carlsberg ahead of its closed period (it reports H125 results on 14th August) to get an update on what the company has been saying to investors over recent weeks. Overall, we felt the tone was neutral and our sense is that Bloomberg consensus expectations for H1 (LFL vols -1.4%, LFL sales +0.1%, LFL EBIT +2.7%) are broadly reasonable at a group level. Carlsberg''s FY25 guidance is unchanged. Points of colour below: Western Europe: Carlsberg started Q1 well in April, while May was more mixed driven by the weather which was v. good in France and UK but colder YOY in the Nordics. June weather comps. are generally favourable. Overall, our sense was that Q1 vols could see a modest vol. decline (albeit depending on how June goes) with positive contributions from UK (ex. San Miguel), France and the Nordics offset by Poland and the San Miguel UK license impact. CEE and India: Ukraine is facing a sequentially tougher vols. comps and the operating environment was also challenging in Q2. However, momentum in India continues to be strong and the phasing of sell-in in the base period in Q1 vs. Q2 is favourable. Asia: The underlying beer industry in China in Q2 is broadly in-line with Q1 (in slight decline) and Carlsberg does not benefit from easy comps until H2. In Vietnam, while market shares continue to be in decline in Q2 the destock impact on sell-in observed in Q1 should not repeat. Britvic: The GBP250m guidance pointer Carlsberg gave for Britvic EBIT contribution in 2025 encapsulated a best estimate including assumption of some underlying YOY growth; some synergies; additional investments agreed with Pepsico; and some PPA allocation.