Coca-Cola Hellenic marked its seventh year of operation with its seventh consecutive year of excellent performance. We continued to meet and exceed projected growth targets, with strong volume and profit growth across our markets.

Reaching a landmark two billion cases in sales volume was a noteworthy achievement. Ahead of expectations, this represented a 13% increase over the previous year. Operating profit was up 22% to €703 million, while net profit increased to €472 million, 24% above the previous year.

These strong results demonstrate our ability to anticipate and meet changing consumer preferences. The highly successful launch of Coca-Cola Zero in eight markets during 2007 grew our light/diet carbonated beverages by 21% and the carbonated category overall.

Additionally, our innovation pipeline continued to deliver results, with the launch of over 150 new waters, juices and wellness beverages, which represented 73% of all new products introduced. In 2007, non-carbonated beverages grew to 37% of our volume, compared to 10% in 2001. In 2008, we will continue to extend our reach by exploring new business opportunities; our joint venture with The Coca-Cola Company and illycaffè S.p.A., for example, will offer premium ready-to-drink coffee across all our territories.

We further invested in production capacity, with the addition of four new aseptic lines and newbuilt plants in Nigeria and Crete. We also increased delivery and service for a wider range of beverages with our purchase of Italian vending operator Eurmatik, offering consumers convenient access to high quality hot beverages. And we invested in increased cooler placement, helping to grow the profitable single-serve packages.

As part of our 'Excellence Across the Board' strategy, we aim to build superior end-outlet execution. Route-to-market investments have driven improved sales effectiveness and we continue to enhance customer-centric capabilities.

Our new Coca-Cola Hellenic logo, 'Passion for Excellence' symbolises our progress. It reflects our consistently strong performance to date, as well as confidence in our future growth.

The year also saw further integration of our Social Responsibility strategy into our business. The expansion of our product range in response to changing consumer trends has resulted in average calorie content of our beverages of 29.7 Kcal/100ml, 19% lower than in 2001. In addition we voluntarily placed enhanced nutritional labels on the front side of packages in all European Union countries. These labels show calories and nutrients per serving in the context of guideline daily amounts (GDAs), key information to help consumers manage their calorific intake.

As part of our climate change strategy, we scaled up our commitment to combined heat and power technology. Following the more than 18,000 tonne annual reduction in carbon dioxide emissions achieved by our unit in Hungary since 2006, we have signed an agreement to construct a further 15 units in the next two years.

We also continued to strengthen our water stewardship, an issue the United Nations places as first priority for all countries. The programme to implement wastewater treatment facilities at all plants where municipal treatment is not available nears completion with the start of construction at the last four plants in Nigeria in 2008. Meanwhile, our watershed protection initiatives received international recognition.

Tackling the challenge of post-consumer packaging waste remains a primary focus. In 2007, we took a major step towards closing the recycling loop, with the new Austrian PET-to-PET plant that manufactures PET flakes from used bottles.

Although we are operating in an uncertain global economic environment with persistent commodity cost pressures, I remain confident for the following reasons: we continue to build management depth and capability in our rapidly growing business, we have broad geographic coverage and a widening product portfolio, and we focus on excellence in endoutlet execution and financial discipline. These factors together give me the confidence to say that we will be able to successfully execute our strategy to deliver another year of strong performance in 2008.