So, no doubt that they will come with innovation. Our self, as you can imagine, we’re going to continue to innovate as well. And we will see certainly innovation and maybe new things coming in the future. Now, after six, seven, almost eight years of launch of IQOS, I think in term of franchise, in term of impact, in term of strength, in term of brand power, I think we are really second to none. And we made a clear gap and differential. And I think that this is exactly what we did with Marlboro in the past, which Marlboro was a superior product and recognized for the brand that was unique. But on top of that, we managed to create a unique brand that was extremely appealing. And I think with IQOS, that’s what we are repeating today. So IQOS products are clearly better recognized as such.
It’s a different customer experience, but then the IQOS brand is also iconic, and people are seeing that as part of lifestyle and product they want to associate themselves with, which is a recipe for long-term success.
Owen Bennett: Cool. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
Operator: And we’ll take our final question from Jared Dinges with JPMorgan. Your line is open.
Jared Dinges: Yes. Hi guys. So, you talked about the ability to use sea freight finally to supply Japan as you progress throughout Q2. Would you be able to confirm that you’re no longer capacity-constrained on the TEREA sticks?
Emmanuel Babeau: Yes. So, we can confirm that for the market where we’ve been launching today, we have no constraint, and therefore that’s the reason why we’ve been able to move to sea freight. Now, there is still a ramp-up for the remaining markets that do not have ILUMA today. And this ramp-up is of course, accompanying the growing capacity. So, it doesn’t mean that today we could serve on the 1st of July 100% of all the market, IQOS market with I ILUMA consumable, but we have no longer pressure restriction and the fact that we are back to sea freight, and we have a plan to accompany the growth of the remaining markets in the coming months.
Jared Dinges: Got it. And maybe just to follow up on that, so you guys did call out Europe with IQOS, saw some further negative inventory move in Q2. Should we expect that to reverse in H2? Because actually it’s been – on the whole, in H1 it’s been somewhat sizable, the negative inventory.
Emmanuel Babeau: Yes. In fact, that’s – sure. In fact, that’s – Japan was finishing with lower shipment volume than consumer offtake in 2022. That has been reversing in 2023. And Europe went the other way round. Remember, we had too low because of uncertainty on the availability of product and energy supply in the manufacturing site. And that was expected, but the catchup has been happening mostly in Q1, but still a little bit in Q2. And now we expect to move to normal pattern of shipment versus consumer offtake or in-market sales. And therefore, we expect to have a strong H2, both in term of shipment progression and in-market sales in Europe, back to normal.
Jared Dinges: That’s clear. And if I can just follow up just one last one. On Russia, given the news last week or this week, just can you give an update on if that business is fully ringfenced at this point?
Emmanuel Babeau: Look, on Russia, we have nothing new to say. We’ve been explaining in the past communication that the situation was complex. There is no new element. I’m not going to comment on the situation of a company that I know nothing about. And we have nothing new to report on Russia at this stage.
