What happened? We recently caught up with Carlsberg ahead of its closed period (it reports Q125 sales on 29th April) to get an update on what the company has been saying to investors over recent weeks. Carlsberg''s FY25 outlook is unchanged. BNPP Exane View: Carlsberg called out some of the same technical calendar headwinds to Q1 (lapping of leap year / Easter timing) as flagged by peers driving a slightly cautious tone with respect Q1 organic volume growth but overall, our sense was that Q1 has developed in-line with the company''s expectation in most markets. We believe consensus expectation for flattish Q1 organic sales (-0.2% per BBG cons.) looks reasonable. Points of colour below: Western Europe: Q1 sales growth in Western Europe will be negatively impacted by several technical headwinds: San Miguel UK license loss (c.-4% impact on regional vols); lapping of Kronenbourg UK price / mix benefit (c.-180bp impact); Easter timing and the lapping the leap year. Our sense was that Carlsberg has landed small price increases in most markets in-line with its own expectations without any major disputes. In France pricing will likely be negative as part of efforts to recovery some of the share loss observed last year. Asia: Carlsberg re-iterated its comment that it saw a solid start to the year in China with good demand pull from distributors in January. This was caveated with the comment that Carlsberg does not have visibility of sell-in for March and Q1 faces the toughest comp. of the year in China. Overall, we believe our forecast of flat organic volumes in China in Q1 is broadly reasonable. In Vietnam, Carlsberg has been impacted by share loss in Q1 in its Central stronghold. CEE and India: The strong momentum at Carlsberg''s India business has continued into Q1. In Ukraine the operating environment continues to be very tough with increased conflict activity in the quarter.