高露潔 (CL) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to today's Colgate-Palmolive's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded and is being simulcast live at www.colgatepalmolive.com.

早安，歡迎參加今天的高露潔棕欖 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。本次通話正在錄音，並在 www.colgatepalmolive.com 上同步直播。

Now for opening remarks, I'd like to turn this call over to Chief Investor Relations Officer and Executive Vice President, M&A, John Faucher.

現在，我想將這次電話會議轉交給首席投資者關係長兼併購執行副總裁 John Faucher。

Thanks, Betty. Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter 2024 earnings release conference call. This is John Faucher. Today's conference call will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from these statements. Please refer to the first quarter 2024 earnings press release and related prepared materials and our most recent filings with the SEC, including our first quarter 2024 quarterly report on Form 10-Q and subsequent SEC filings, all available on Colgate's website, for a discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements.

謝謝，貝蒂。早上好，歡迎參加我們的 2024 年第一季財報發布電話會議。這是約翰·福徹。今天的電話會議將包括前瞻性陳述。實際結果可能與這些陳述有重大差異。請參閱2024 年第一季收益新聞稿和相關準備資料以及我們最近向SEC 提交的文件，包括我們關於10-Q 表格的2024 年第一季季度報告以及隨後向SEC 提交的文件，所有這些均可在高露潔網站上獲取，以了解以下內容的討論可能導致實際結果與這些陳述有重大差異的因素。

This conference call will also include a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, including those identified in tables 3, 5 and 6 of the earnings press release. A full reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP financial measures is included in the first quarter 2024 earnings press release and is available on Colgate's website.

本次電話會議也將討論非公認會計準則財務指標，包括收益新聞稿表 3、表 5 和表 6 中所確定的指標。 2024 年第一季財報新聞稿中包含了與相應 GAAP 財務指標的全面對賬，並可在高露潔網站上查看。

Joining me on the call this morning are Noel Wallace, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Stan Sutula, Chief Financial Officer. Noel will provide you with some thoughts on our Q1 results and our 2024 outlook, and we will then open it up for Q&A. Noel?

今天早上與我一起參加電話會議的還有董事長、總裁兼執行長諾埃爾華萊士 (Noel Wallace)；蘇圖拉 (Stan Sutula)，財務長。 Noel 將為您提供一些關於我們第一季業績和 2024 年展望的想法，然後我們將開放問答。諾埃爾？

Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us to discuss our strong start to 2024. I would like to make 2 points today on why we think we are well positioned to continue to drive shareholder value through delivering consistent, compounded earnings per share growth.

謝謝約翰，大家早上好，感謝您與我們一起討論 2024 年的強勁開局。

The first is the importance of balanced top line growth. You've heard me speak over the past several years of our focus on delivering balanced organic sales growth, growth in all of our categories, growth in all of our divisions and growth in both volume and pricing. That's what we did this quarter. We delivered organic sales growth in all 4 of our categories, all 6 of our divisions and volume and pricing growth on a total company basis. The balance allowed us to deliver on a base business, 6% net sales growth on top of 6.5% net sales growth in Q1 2023 despite a nearly 4% headwind from foreign exchange.

首先是所得平衡成長的重要性。在過去的幾年裡，您已經聽我說過，我們專注於實現平衡的有機銷售成長、所有類別的成長、所有部門的成長以及數量和價格的成長。這就是我們本季所做的。我們在所有 4 個類別、所有 6 個部門以及整個公司的銷售和價格方面實現了有機銷售成長。儘管外匯帶來了近 4% 的阻力，但這一餘額使我們能夠在 2023 年第一季淨銷售額增長 6.5% 的基礎上實現 6% 的基礎業務淨銷售額增長。

The focus on balance between pricing and volume growth allowed us to deliver solid volume growth this quarter, even with the continued volume softness in China and the expected headwind from lower private label growth as we transferred more Hill's volume into our Pet Nutrition manufacturing network. Oral Care, Personal Care and Home Care each grew volume in the quarter with volume growth of 3% for all 3 categories combined.

對定價和銷售成長之間平衡的關注使我們在本季度實現了銷量的穩健增長，儘管中國的銷量持續疲軟，並且隨著我們將更多Hill 的銷量轉移到我們的寵物營養品製造網絡，自有品牌成長預計將面臨阻力。本季口腔護理、個人護理和家庭護理的銷量均有所增長，所有 3 個類別的銷量合計增長了 3%。

Our revamped strategy and increased advertising spending have allowed us to drive growth across a greater percentage of our portfolio and our focus on core innovation is keeping our biggest brands relevant and vibrant in consumers' minds. We still have work to do, but our balanced strategy continues to yield results, including continued growth in our Global Oral Care shares, which leads me to my second point, which is flexibility in the P&L. Our focus on revenue growth management and driving our Funding-the-Growth initiatives enable us to achieve a 60% gross margin in the quarter despite significant headwinds from transactional foreign exchange.

我們改進的策略和增加的廣告支出使我們能夠推動更大比例的產品組合的成長，而我們對核心創新的關注使我們最大的品牌在消費者心目中保持相關性和活力。我們還有工作要做，但我們的平衡策略繼續產生成果，包括我們的全球口腔護理股票的持續成長，這讓我想到了我的第二點，即損益表的靈活性。儘管外匯交易面臨巨大阻力，我們對營收成長管理和推動成長融資計畫的關注使我們在本季度實現了 60% 的毛利率。

Our commitment to productivity in the middle of the P&L allowed us to drive 30 basis points of overhead leverage while still continuing to invest in strategic capabilities like digital, data and analytics, all topics we discussed at CAGNY, and prudent balance sheet management allow us to deliver 18% base business earnings growth despite the year-over-year increase in interest expense and the impact from devaluations around the globe.

我們對損益表中間生產力的承諾使我們能夠將間接費用槓桿提高 30 個基點，同時繼續投資於數字、數據和分析等戰略能力，我們在 CAGNY 討論的所有主題以及審慎的資產負債表管理使我們能夠儘管利息支出較去年同期增加以及全球貨幣貶值的影響，但仍實現了18% 的基本業務獲利成長。

And most importantly, despite an expected mid-single-digit negative impact from foreign exchange, we're guiding to mid- to high single-digit base business earnings per share growth. And we're doing this in the context of meaningful increases in brand investment that will set the stage for growth in the future. This is a testament to the ability of our team to consistently execute our strategy and seize growth opportunities while also preparing to better withstand the inevitable headwinds of running a global business.

最重要的是，儘管外匯匯率預計會帶來中個位數的負面影響，但我們預期每股基礎業務收益將實現中個位數至高個位數的成長。我們這樣做是在品牌投資大幅增加的背景下進行的，這將為未來的成長奠定基礎。這證明了我們的團隊有能力持續執行我們的策略並抓住成長機會，同時也準備好更好地抵禦經營全球業務不可避免的阻力。

So with that, I'll take your questions.

那麼，我將回答你的問題。

(Operator Instructions) The first question today comes from Steve Powers with Deutsche Bank.

（操作員說明）今天的第一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Steve Powers。

So really exceptional business performance this quarter, more or less on all fronts. But I wanted to drill down into your organic growth guidance raise for the year. It seems about half of that, that 2-point increase is being driven by inflationary pricing as an offset to FX and fair enough on that. But there also seems to be at least a point beyond that attributable to upside that you're seeing in real terms across the portfolio.

因此，本季的業務表現確實非常出色，或多或少在各方面都是如此。但我想深入了解你們今年的有機成長指導加薪。看來其中大約一半的成長是由通膨定價推動的，作為對外匯的抵消，這很公平。但除此之外，似乎至少還有一點可以歸因於您在整個投資組合中實際看到的上行空間。

So I'm curious if you could expand on where that upside is coming from versus your prior expectations. And if you'd say more of that is being driven by category growth or it's more being driven by your own market share momentum?

因此，我很好奇您是否可以詳細說明與您先前的預期相比，這種優勢來自何處。如果您認為這更多是由品類成長所推動的，還是更多是由您自己的市場佔有率勢頭推動的？

Great. Thanks, Steve. I'd come back to the points I made in my upfront comments around balanced organic sales growth. I mean we're getting really good quality coming through on the volume line. You saw the 1.3. That was with the headwind of private label that we're obviously exiting on the Hill's business. and strong pricing across the board, mid-single-digit pricing ex the impact of Argentina. And as you point out, we're seeing nice share growth consistently around the world that's driving obviously that top line organic growth and the top line sales growth. But we're most pleased with, I think, is the balance we're getting both on volume and price. We're able to still get pricing, not just inflationary pricing, but we still have pricing going through the categories, particularly in some of the markets where we've had more inflationary impact from raw materials.

偉大的。謝謝，史蒂夫。我會回到我在關於平衡有機銷售成長的預先評論中提出的觀點。我的意思是，我們在音量方面獲得了非常好的品質。你看到的是1.3。面對自有品牌的逆風，我們顯然正在退出 Hill 的業務。整體定價強勁，排除阿根廷的影響，定價處於中個位數。正如您所指出的，我們看到全球市場份額持續成長，這顯然推動了營收有機成長和營收成長。但我認為，我們最滿意的是我們在數量和價格上取得的平衡。我們仍然能夠獲得定價，而不僅僅是通貨膨脹定價，但我們仍然可以透過各個類別進行定價，特別是在一些我們受到原材料通膨影響更大的市場。

Hill's would be a good example of that. We took some more pricing in the first quarter. The pricing has obviously led to good value accretion in the category and allowed us to drive some value shares. The other important point is we've seen really good momentum in our volume shares. The U.S. had good growth on volume share in toothpaste. We've seen consistent volume share growth, both in Europe and in Latin America across our portfolio.

希爾就是一個很好的例子。我們在第一季採取了更多定價。定價顯然導致了該類別的良好價值增值，並使我們能夠推動一些價值股。另一個重要的一點是，我們在銷售份額方面看到了非常好的勢頭。美國牙膏銷售份額成長良好。我們的產品組合在歐洲和拉丁美洲都看到了銷售份額的持續成長。

So it's really broad-based across the strategy that we're trying to execute, balanced volume, balance price, good initiatives through the innovation that we're putting into the market. And then importantly, is the continued robust investment. We're seeing that really pay out in terms of driving not only category growth in the markets where we're spending, but most importantly, allowing us to grow share in the categories where we're spending money.

因此，我們試圖執行的策略非常廣泛，平衡的數量，平衡的價格，透過我們投入市場的創新而採取的良好舉措。然後重要的是持續強勁的投資。我們看到，這確實帶來了回報，不僅推動了我們所花錢的市場的品類增長，而且最重要的是，使我們能夠增加我們所花錢的品類中的份額。

So overall, it's, I think, a reflection of the strategy and a reflection of the balance that we have across both price and volume.

因此，總的來說，我認為這反映了我們的策略以及我們在價格和數量方面的平衡。

The next question comes from Melanie Schultz with Evercore ISI.

下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Melanie Schultz。

Robert Ottenstein here. Noel, let's kind of maybe do a deep dive on Oral Care. Can you talk a little bit about the market share trends by region? And more -- a little bit more specifically, are you gaining share more from other international players that may have more similar type of products or local players that are maybe more idiosyncratic? And what are the key drivers to the share growth. Is it more the fact that you're increasing share of voice? Or are there particular product areas like whitening that are really engaging consumers now more than they did in the past.

羅伯特·奧滕斯坦在這裡。諾埃爾，讓我們深入探討口腔護理。能談談按地區劃分的市場佔有率趨勢嗎？更具體地說，您是否從其他可能擁有更多類似產品類型的國際參與者或可能更獨特的本地參與者那裡獲得了更多份額？推動股價成長的關鍵因素是什麼？更重要的是你增加了話語權嗎？或是否有特定的產品領域（例如美白）現在比過去更能吸引消費者。

Yes. Thanks, Rob. It's a little bit of all of what you've just said. So overall, really pleased with the growth and the acceleration of market shares globally. You saw that -- in the prepared remarks. You saw that in some of the slides that we provided, particularly on the Whitening segment. And it's really a function of the strategy that we've been executing for the last couple of years and really starting to see the fruits of all that effort.

是的。謝謝，羅布。這只是你剛才所說的一點點。總的來說，我們對全球市場份額的成長和加速感到非常滿意。你在準備好的發言中看到了這一點。您在我們提供的一些幻燈片中看到了這一點，特別是美白部分。這實際上是我們過去幾年一直在執行的策略的一個功能，並且真正開始看到所有這些努力的成果。

So the growth is coming, obviously, from a good growth in Europe, which we talked about, we're at record shares in Europe, that's a balance between Colgate and our therapeutic brands of elmex and meridol, so good spending behind those businesses. And we're seeing, obviously, that translate into good share growth, particularly in some of the big markets across Europe.

因此，顯然，成長來自歐洲的良好成長，我們談到了這一點，我們在歐洲的份額創歷史新高，這是高露潔與我們的治療品牌 elmex 和 meridol 之間的平衡，因此這些業務背後的支出良好。顯然，我們看到這轉化為良好的份額增長，特別是在歐洲的一些大市場。

Likewise, we're seeing the benefits of that deployed across Africa, where we've launched some of those high-end therapeutic brands as well. North America, the scanner data has been improving as you've seen. But the shares will continue to be a bit choppy there as we move forward, given some of the strategic changes we've taken with some of the drug class that trade on the promotional environment. Latin America had growth in both value and volume. That was driven both from, I think, the mix and diversity of our portfolio across Latin America, both at the high end and at the entry price point, given the breadth of portfolio offerings that we have there, and obviously, the increased spending that we're putting behind some of the good innovation.

同樣，我們也看到了在整個非洲部署的好處，我們也在非洲推出了一些高端治療品牌。正如您所看到的，北美的掃描器數據一直在改善。但考慮到我們對在促銷環境下交易的某些藥品類別採取的一些策略變化，隨著我們的前進，股價將繼續有點波動。拉丁美洲的價值和數量都有成長。我認為，這是由於我們在拉丁美洲的投資組合的組合和多樣性，無論是在高端還是在入門價格點，考慮到我們在那裡提供的投資組合產品的廣度，而且顯然，支出的增加我們正在放棄一些好的創新。

So it's really broad-based, good spending, good innovation, across the board and importantly, a credit to the teams and their execution on the ground. And so we see that obviously continuing as we continue to hold investment through the balance of the year, and that share growth is coming from both the multinational competitors as well as local competitors. So broad-based across the board. We're pleased with where we are. We have more work to do, particularly in North America, but overall, a good performance.

因此，這確實是基礎廣泛、良好的支出、良好的創新、全面的、重要的是對團隊及其實地執行力的讚揚。因此，我們看到，隨著我們在今年餘下的時間裡繼續持有投資，這種情況顯然會持續下去，而且份額的成長來自跨國競爭對手和本地競爭對手。基礎如此廣泛。我們對自己所處的位置感到滿意。我們還有更多工作要做，特別是在北美，但總體而言，表現不錯。

The next question comes from Peter Grom with UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的彼得‧葛羅姆。

I had a question on the gross margin performance. And just kind of how to think about the path from here. We've kind of seen the sequential margin progression over the last 6 quarters or so. But in the prepared remarks, you touched on certain costs will increase as you move through the year. So just any thoughts on how we should think about the gross margin progression from here would be helpful. And then just within that cost savings, any commentary you can share in terms of how we should be thinking about funding the growth is in the context of a very solid start to the year.

我對毛利率表現有疑問。以及如何思考從這裡開始的道路。我們已經看到了過去 6 個季度左右利潤率的連續成長。但在準備好的發言中，您提到某些成本會隨著一年的推移而增加。因此，任何關於我們應該如何思考毛利率進展的想法都會有所幫助。然後，就在節省成本的範圍內，您可以分享的關於我們應該如何考慮為成長提供資金的任何評論都是在今年良好開局的背景下進行的。

Great. Let me talk about more conceptually strategically, and I'll let Stan handle some of the more specifics on your question. So overall, as we think about the year unfolding, as we've talked about, I think, quite consistently, we'll see pricing start to ladder down as we move through the balance of the year, although we will get inflationary pricing, we still have some pricing that we're taking in some markets.

偉大的。讓我從更概念性的策略角度談談，然後我將讓史丹處理有關你的問題的一些更具體的細節。因此，總體而言，當我們考慮這一年的發展時，正如我們所討論的那樣，我認為，隨著今年剩餘時間的推移，我們將看到定價開始逐步下降，儘管我們將獲得通膨定價，我們在某些​​市場上仍然有一些定價。

And I would say we're deeply pleased with the revenue growth management efforts that we have around the world and the -- what that's delivering for us in terms of pricing in the market and driving category value.

我想說，我們對我們在世界各地所做的收入成長管理努力以及這在市場定價和推動類別價值方面為我們帶來的成果深感滿意。

You've seen, obviously, the impact on raw materials in the first quarter. We'll start to see that elevate a bit more in the back half. And obviously, the significant impact from transactional due to the foreign exchange headwinds that we face. That being said, we feel very good about the guidance that we provided, strategically about growing gross margins in 2024. We'll get that through, obviously, the funding the growth efforts that we have, good mix in terms of how we're deploying some of our therapeutic brands around the world. Taking pricing where we need to take to offset particularly inflationary foreign exchange and obviously, a very focused on the middle of the P&L, making sure we continue to get leverage there.

顯然，您已經看到第一季對原材料的影響。我們將開始看到後半部分的提升更多一些。顯然，我們面臨的外匯不利因素對交易產生了重大影響。話雖這麼說，我們對我們提供的關於2024 年毛利率增長的戰略指導感到非常滿意。這一目標。在我們需要的地方進行定價，以抵消特別是通貨膨脹的外匯，顯然，我們非常關注損益表的中間部分，確保我們繼續在那裡獲得槓桿作用。

So overall, strategically, we feel good, but we'll see pricing ladder down. It won't have as much impact in the year to go as it just had in the first half, but overall, we feel good about where we are. Stan?

因此，總體而言，從戰略上講，我們感覺良好，但我們會看到價格階梯下降。它對今年的影響不會像上半年那麼大，但總的來說，我們對自己的處境感覺良好。史丹？

Yes. So I'd pick up that -- look, we're very pleased with the margin performance in Q1, up 310 basis points year-to-year and improved sequentially. We had a slight benefit from Argentina, but the overall underlying margin improvement was quite good. We've guided for margin expansion for the year, and we're confident we can deliver. There's a couple of headwinds in here and tailwinds. We talked about the modest raw material inflation, as you've heard from others as well. We expect that will slightly escalate as we go through the year.

是的。所以我想說——看，我們對第一季的利潤率表現非常滿意，比去年同期增長了 310 個基點，並且連續改善。我們從阿根廷獲得了一點好處，但整體的潛在利潤率改善相當不錯。我們已經為今年的利潤擴張提供了指導，並且我們有信心實現這一目標。這裡有一些逆風和順風。我們談到了溫和的原料通膨，正如您也從其他人那裡聽到的那樣。我們預計隨著這一年的推移，這種情況會略有升級。

And then we've all watched FX. FX, the transactional impact has been bouncing around, but that will be a headwind as we go into the year as well. On the tailwinds, Noel mentioned earlier, we've got great revenue growth management programs in place globally, and we're seeing the benefit from all of those. And we have a proven track record on our funding the growth. We had a very good start to funding the growth. We've got a very good pipeline for funding the growth and the teams, I think, have that dialed in here as we go forward.

然後我們都看過FX。外匯方面，交易影響一直在反彈，但這也將是我們進入今年的阻力。諾埃爾之前提到，順風順水，我們在全球範圍內製定了出色的收入增長管理計劃，並且我們看到了所有這些計劃帶來的好處。我們在為成長提供資金方面擁有良好的記錄。我們在為成長提供資金方面有一個良好的開始。我們有一個非常好的管道來為成長提供資金，我認為，隨著我們的前進，團隊已經在這裡撥通了。

And then importantly, we've talked about the return to volume growth. And in that, we get some scale benefits and leverage as that volume flows through our manufacturing facilities. So overall, we expect to expand margin. You'll see that on a year-on-year basis. I think as you think sequentially, that will be more modest, but we expand margin for the year, and the efforts around RGM and FTG will be able to compensate for the headwinds that we see in FX transactional and raw materials.

然後重要的是，我們討論了銷售成長的回歸。這樣，當產量流經我們的製造設施時，我們就獲得了一些規模效益和槓桿作用。因此總體而言，我們預計將擴大利潤率。您會在逐年的基礎上看到這一點。我認為，正如您依次想到的那樣，這將更加溫和，但我們擴大了今年的利潤率，圍繞 RGM 和 FTG 的努力將能夠彌補我們在外匯交易和原材料方面看到的不利因素。

The next question comes from Filippo Falorni with Citi.

下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Filippo Falorni。

So Noel, you mentioned in the prepared remarks for the Hill's pet food business that you're expecting sequential volume improvement throughout the year. Maybe can you give us some color on the puts and takes with the less impact from private label volumes in top line? And also, just any sense of the contribution from innovation expansion into wet pet food and any color on the trajectory of the business, would be helpful.

諾埃爾，您在為希爾寵物食品業務準備的評論中提到，您預計全年銷售將持續改善。也許您能給我們一些關於看跌期權和看跌期權的信息，以減少自有品牌銷售對營收的影響？此外，任何對濕寵物食品創新擴張的貢獻以及業務發展軌跡上的任何顏色的貢獻都會有所幫助。

So as we said in the prepared remarks, really pleased with the performance at Hill's in the quarter in what's a pretty tough operating environment. Volume was closer to flat ex the impact of private label and that was sequentially up, which is good. And we had very good pricing, as we discussed, coming out of the year in 2023 and our need to continue to offset some of the agricultural inflation that we saw in the back half of '23 moving into '24.

正如我們在準備好的演講中所說，在相當艱難的營運環境中，我們對 Hill 在本季的表現感到非常滿意。排除自有品牌的影響，銷量接近持平，並且連續上升，這很好。正如我們所討論的，我們的定價非常好，從 2023 年開始，我們需要繼續抵消 23 年下半年進入 24 年的部分農業通膨。

Category volume overall has been a bit sluggish in the category, but I think what's most important is to see that the sluggishness has been more of a decline in treats and a little bit of conversion from wet to dry, and that's obviously important for us to think about as we strategically move some of the bigger part of our businesses, which are in the dry segment going forward.

該類別的整體銷量有點低迷，但我認為最重要的是看到這種低迷更多的是零食數量的下降以及從濕到干的一點轉變，這對我們來說顯然很重要考慮一下我們戰略性地轉移我們業務中的一些較大部分，這些業務屬於乾水領域。

Really importantly, though, is the fact that we generated really strong share growth in the first quarter of the year behind the Hill's business. We're cross up in pet specialty, up in neighborhood pet, penetration continues to grow. We had both share growth in our Science Diet business as well as Prescription Diet. And I think this is a reflection of the continued strategy that we're deploying, great innovation, great partnership with pet specialty in terms of driving their categories and making sure that we have ample advertising to talk about the science-driven nutrition that we provide to the market.

但真正重要的是，我們在今年第一季實現了強勁的份額成長，落後於 Hill 的業務。我們在寵物專業領域、社區寵物領域都有交叉，滲透率持續成長。我們的科學飲食業務和處方飲食業務的份額均有所增長。我認為這反映了我們正在部署的持續策略、偉大的創新、與寵物專業的良好合作關係，以推動他們的類別並確保我們有足夠的廣告來談論我們提供的科學驅動的營養去市場。

So overall, we feel very good about where the Hill's business is, that business grew high single digits ex the impact of private label. So we feel we're well positioned, but we're not immune to some of the sluggishness in the category. But again, as we've talked about in the past, we have low brand awareness and low brand penetration. So a lot of upside to continue to go after as we execute our strategy.

總的來說，我們對 Hill 的業務狀況非常滿意，除去自有品牌的影響，該業務實現了高個位數成長。因此，我們覺得我們處於有利地位，但我們也不能倖免於該類別中的一些低迷。但正如我們過去談到的，我們的品牌知名度和品牌滲透率較低。因此，在執行我們的策略時，我們需要繼續追求許多優勢。

The only thing I'd add there is that the investment in capacity has also enabled us to bring in some product that was being co-manufactured before, which improves reliability and delivery and also will improve our margins over time.

我唯一要補充的是，產能投資還使我們能夠引入一些以前聯合製造的產品，這提高了可靠性和交付，並且隨著時間的推移也將提高我們的利潤率。

And to your point on, Filippo, on wet, obviously, there's some opportunities for us as we're very low indexed in wet. And particularly in segments like cat, where there's a lot of wet food consumed, we have an opportunity to leverage the new manufacturing that we have and get more formulas into the market and obviously, more growth for the business.

菲利波，就你的觀點而言，在濕地比賽中，顯然我們有一些機會，因為我們在濕地比賽中的指數非常低。特別是在像貓這樣消耗大量濕糧的細分市場，我們有機會利用我們擁有的新製造技術，將更多配方奶粉推向市場，顯然，這將為業務帶來更多成長。

The next question comes from Andrea Teixeira with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Andrea Teixeira。

Noel, we spoke to the underlying volume growth in all regions and your revenue growth management definitely sets you apart, but can you comment on how you see the consumer behavior, in particular in the low-end consumer in the U.S. and China, which seems to be a concern to some of your peers.

諾埃爾，我們談到了所有地區的潛在銷售成長，您的收入成長管理絕對讓您與眾不同，但您能否評論一下您如何看待消費者行為，特別是美國和中國的低端消費者行為，這似乎成為一些同行的擔憂。

And you have historically protect your price points and keeping consumers in the category, but I would love to see the examples that you may highlight by your team in the U.S. and in China and how they've been using this portfolio management to barbell between affordability and premiumization.

歷史上，你們一直在保護自己的價格點，並將消費者留在該類別中，但我很想看看你們在美國和中國的團隊可能會強調的例子，以及他們如何利用這種投資組合管理來區分可負擔性和高端化。

Yes. I think as we've talked about, thanks for the question, the consumer has been quite constructive. I mean, we've seen obviously the significant inflation move through the category over the last year. We expected that we would see a return to volume growth as inflation became more benign and as pricing started to stabilize in the categories, and that's principally what's happened. Interesting to note that as you take the aggregate of our categories, by and large, the categories are still negative. So the volume growth that we had and delivered in the quarter, which suggests obviously, that we're growing good volume share. And I think that's a reflection of the broad-based strategy that we're deploying.

是的。我認為正如我們所討論的，謝謝你的提問，消費者非常有建設性。我的意思是，我們顯然已經看到去年該類別通貨膨脹率大幅上升。我們預計，隨著通貨膨脹變得更加溫和，並且隨著類別的定價開始穩定，我們將看到銷售成長的回歸，而這主要是發生的情況。有趣的是，當你對我們的類別進行匯總時，總的來說，這些類別仍然是負面的。因此，我們在本季度實現和交付的銷量增長，顯然表明我們的銷量份額正在增長。我認為這反映了我們正在部署的廣泛戰略。

One, we have good innovation at the top end of the category, particularly on the therapeutic side, whether that's in whitening, in the premium side, whether that's the Total Plaque that we've launched, whether that's therapeutic with meridol and elmex as well as a lot of big core innovation. We talked about the fact that a lot of our big core portfolio, particularly in toothpaste, is at that entry or mid-price level. And so we've spent a lot of time innovating at the core to ensure that we keep those brands vibrant and we offer consumers real value and real benefits as they come into the category or they're trading down from mid-price to perhaps entry.

第一，我們在該類別的高端有很好的創新，特別是在治療方面，無論是在美白方面，還是在高端方面，無論是我們推出的 Total Plaque，還是與 meridol 和 elmex 一起治療作為很多大的核心創新。我們談到了這樣一個事實，即我們的許多大型核心產品組合，特別是牙膏，都處於入門級或中等價格水平。因此，我們花了很多時間進行核心創新，以確保我們保持這些品牌的活力，並在消費者進入該類別或從中間價格降到入門價格時為他們提供真正的價值和真正的好處。

You've seen some of the sluggishness in China, to your point, come from the rural segment. Clearly, that consumer is a bit more challenged in China right now. The premium segment continues to be quite robust. But our Darlie franchise is well positioned longer term, we think, to continue to leverage some of the rural softness that we're seeing in the category and make sure that we drive share.

您已經看到中國的一些經濟低迷，就您的觀點而言，來自農村地區。顯然，目前中國的消費者面臨更大的挑戰。高端市場仍然相當強勁。但我們認為，從長遠來看，我們的 Darlie 特許經營權處於有利位置，可以繼續利用我們在該類別中看到的一些農村疲軟因素，並確保我們提高份額。

The Colgate business had a terrific quarter in China. And that's, I think, a reflection of the move to the premium side of the business as we've really gone a lot more on to e-commerce with premium offerings, but overall, we're seeing, I think, a balanced consumer. The key is making sure that we're providing the reasons to use our products and the advertising that we're executing across the market is very, very important to, one, justify the price increases that came through the category last year, but really to drive trade-up in the categories to ensure consumers see the real value and science-driven benefits of our products in our portfolio.

高露潔在中國的業務季度表現出色。我認為，這反映了業務向高端領域的轉變，因為我們確實在電子商務領域投入了更多精力，提供優質產品，但總的來說，我認為，我們看到了一個平衡的消費者。關鍵是確保我們提供使用我們產品的理由，並且我們在整個市場上執行的廣告非常非常重要，一是證明去年該類別的價格上漲是合理的，但實際上推動品類升級，確保消費者看到我們產品組合中產品的真正價值和科學驅動的好處。

The next question comes from Bonnie Herzog with Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的邦妮·赫爾佐格。

I had a question on your ad spend, which is one of the highest as a percentage of sales among your peers. Noel, you touched on this, but hoping you could talk a little further about your strategy to continue to increase spend. And then ultimately, what you believe is the right level of marketing spend moving forward as well as maybe opportunities to improve ROI.

我有一個關於你們廣告支出的問題，你們的廣告支出佔銷售額的百分比是同業中最高的之一。諾埃爾，您談到了這一點，但希望您能進一步談談您繼續增加支出的策略。最終，您認為未來行銷支出的正確程度以及可能提高投資報酬率的機會。

Yes. Thanks, Bonnie. I'll start with the end of your question, which is we're seeing terrific ROI in the business. And I think that's translated into the results in the quarter. Obviously, good volume growth, helping to -- certainly above the category, share growth pretty consistently around the world in both value and volume. We're seeing our premium innovations take share, and we're obviously spending a disproportionate amount of our advertising to drive premiumization and category value.

是的。謝謝，邦妮。我將從你問題的結尾開始，即我們在業務中看到了很高的投資回報率。我認為這已轉化為本季的業績。顯然，良好的銷售成長有助於——當然高於同類產品，在全球範圍內的價值和銷售方面的份額增長相當一致。我們看到我們的優質創新佔據了份額，而且我們顯然花費了不成比例的廣告來推動高端化和品類價值。

You heard Diana talk at CAGNY about I think a lot of the discipline that we're putting into our media spend on using data and analytics to really justify the spend everywhere we are, drive more personalization and return on that investment. So again, we're very pleased with the increase in advertising and ultimately what it's delivering.

你聽到戴安娜在 CAGNY 談到，我認為我們在媒體支出中使用數據和分析來真正證明我們在任何地方的支出都是合理的，推動更多的個人化和投資回報。再說一遍，我們對廣告的增加及其最終帶來的效果感到非常滿意。

As I mentioned in my upfront, what's also terrific for the business right now is the broad-based spending we have on the portfolio. And what I mean by that is we've moved from exclusively Oral Care and Pet, which was getting a significant amount of spend over the last couple of years to making sure that some of our strong brands around the world are getting their fair share of the advertising, and we've seen a great return on that investment.

正如我在前面提到的，目前對業務來說也很棒的是我們在投資組合上的廣泛支出。我的意思是，我們已經從專門的口腔護理和寵物業務（在過去幾年中獲得了大量支出）轉向確保我們在世界各地的一些強勢品牌能夠獲得公平的份額廣告，我們已經看到了這項投資的巨大回報。

Europe would be a great example of that. We're spending behind our Personal Care business in Europe. Sanex is just an extraordinarily strong brand there, the spending behind some of our innovations driving good share growth and good execution in store. So overall, that's having a pretty systematic impact on the business, and we're pleased with the results that we're getting.

歐洲就是一個很好的例子。我們正在大力投資歐洲的個人護理業務。 Sanex 是那裡一個非常強大的品牌，我們的一些創新背後的支出推動了良好的份額成長和商店的良好執行。總的來說，這對業務產生了非常系統化的影響，我們對所獲得的結果感到滿意。

Moving forward, as I've said, consistently, I think, over the last 3 or 4 quarters, we will continue to invest in this business for the long term and building brand saliency and keeping our brands vibrant is the best way to driving that consistency.

展望未來，正如我所說，我認為在過去的三四個季度中，我們將繼續長期投資這項業務，建立品牌顯著性並保持我們的品牌活力是推動這項業務的最佳方式。性。

The next question comes from Olivia Tong with Raymond James.

下一個問題來自 Olivia Tong 和 Raymond James。

I wanted to ask you a little bit about your organic sales guide for the rest of the year. Obviously, contextually understand why you wouldn't flow the 10 points continuing. But why would organic sales decelerate as the comp fees? Presumably, you're getting more pricing? Clearly, we understand that this is a very dynamic environment, but would love to get a little bit more color in terms of your expectations for the rest of the year because it sounds like you're very bullish on innovation, on pricing capabilities, and volume acceleration, et cetera. I would appreciate a little bit more color there.

我想問一下您今年剩餘時間的有機銷售指南。顯然，根據上下文理解為什麼你不會繼續使用這 10 點。但為什麼有機銷售會隨著補償費用而減速呢？想必您會得到更多的定價？顯然，我們知道這是一個非常充滿活力的環境，但希望在您對今年剩餘時間的期望方面獲得更多的色彩，因為聽起來您非常看好創新、定價能力以及體積加速度等。我希望那裡有更多的顏色。

Sure. Thanks, Olivia. So clearly, some of the comps get more difficult as we go through the year to go. We took obviously a lot of pricing. We'll see that pricing become more benign or slow in the back half of the year that will -- to be determined how much of that comes back into volume. The good news is the first quarter and some of the success that we saw in the fourth quarter, give us confidence that the volume is returning as we expected. The elasticities are in line with as we expected.

當然。謝謝，奧莉維亞。很明顯，隨著我們進入新的一年，一些比賽會變得更加困難。顯然我們定價很高。我們將看到今年下半年定價變得更加良性或緩慢，這將取決於其中有多少會恢復到銷售量。好消息是第一季和我們在第四季度看到的一些成功，讓我們相信銷售正在按我們的預期恢復。彈性符合我們的預期。

So we feel pretty good about where we are. Again, I think the biggest differentiator here in terms of how we think about is we're only in the first quarter. There's a lot of economic uncertainty out there in terms of what's happening. We still see foreign exchange being a headwind. That will certainly have an impact as we have to take pricing in some markets. Interest is going to stay stubbornly high. We expect through the balance of the year.

所以我們對自己所處的位置感覺很好。再說一遍，我認為就我們的思考方式而言，最大的區別在於我們只處於第一季。就正在發生的事情而言，存在著許多經濟不確定性。我們仍然認為外匯是一個阻力。這肯定會產生影響，因為我們必須在某些市場定價。興趣將持續居高不下。我們預計今年剩餘時間。

So overall, we're still early in the year, very confident in the guidance we've provided and the strategy that we're executing, but we want to make sure we maintain operational flexibility through the balance of the year to ensure we continue to execute the strategy that we've been communicating to drive consistent compounded earnings share growth.

因此，總的來說，我們仍處於今年初期，對我們提供的指導和我們正在執行的策略非常有信心，但我們希望確保在今年餘下的時間裡保持營運靈活性，以確保我們繼續執行我們一直在溝通的策略，以推動持續的複合收益份額成長。

The next question comes from Chris Carey with Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的克里斯凱裡。

One quick follow-up on gross margin and then a question on North America. So on gross margin, I think there was an expectation that Q1 would be down quarter-over-quarter relative to Q4, clearly, very strong delivery in the quarter. Stan, you mentioned a bit of benefit from Argentina. Or are you seeing better developments elsewhere, whether that's in commodities, perhaps some of the new pricing on Hill's or maybe you're over-delivering on productivity. So just maybe contextualize what seems to have come in a bit better there?

首先是關於毛利率的快速跟進，然後是關於北美的問題。因此，就毛利率而言，我認為第一季將比第四季環比下降，顯然，該季度的交付非常強勁。史丹，你提到了阿根廷的一些好處。或者你是否在其他地方看到了更好的發展，無論是在大宗商品方面，也許是希爾的一些新定價，或者也許是你在生產力方面的超額交付。那麼也許可以將那裡似乎更好的內容結合起來？

And just on North America, it was the best volume growth in nearly 2 years. I realize Fabuloso was a benefit there. But Noel, you also mentioned needing to work on market shares. Can you maybe just help us understand the underlying momentum of the business right now and how to think about this going forward?

光是在北美，就實現了近兩年來最好的銷售成長。我意識到 Fabuloso 在那裡有一個好處。但是諾埃爾，您也提到需要研究市場佔有率。您能否幫助我們了解目前業務的潛在動力以及如何思考未來的發展？

Sure. Thanks for the question. Let me take the North America and then I'll let Stan jump into some of your questions around gross profit. Overall, the strategy in North America that we're executing, we feel good about it. We've been very focused, as we've talked about before on improving the middle of the P&L, getting gross margins back to where they needed to get to, getting operating margins where they need to get back to and reinvesting that into the business in order to drive market shares.

當然。謝謝你的提問。讓我以北美為例，然後我請史丹回答你們關於毛利的一些問題。總體而言，我們對北美正在執行的策略感到滿意。正如我們之前談到的，我們一直非常專注於改善損益表的中間值，使毛利率回到需要達到的水平，使營業利潤率回到需要達到的水平，並將其再投資到業務中以推動市場占有率.

The value shares, as I mentioned, we have been a little bit choppy and will continue to be a little bit choppy for the reasons I stated earlier. However, we are seeing better execution of our innovation and our promotional strategies, and that's helping to drive nice volume share in the quarter, both across toothpaste, which was up nicely and toothbrushes from a volume standpoint.

正如我所提到的，價值股一直有點波動，而且由於我之前所說的原因，我們將繼續波動。然而，我們看到我們的創新和促銷策略得到了更好的執行，這有助於在本季度推動良好的銷售份額，無論是牙膏（從銷售的角度來看，牙膏和牙刷都有不錯的成長）。

So again, we feel good about that, and we still have a lot of work to do across the business, as we've talked about on prior calls, and I've got great confidence in Jesper and his team and the strategy that we're deploying with real patience because we know it's going to take some time, but we feel in the long term, we're going to end up in a much better place from that.

再說一遍，我們對此感覺良好，而且正如我們在之前的電話中談到的那樣，我們在整個業務中仍有很多工作要做，我對 Jesper 和他的團隊以及我們的戰略充滿信心我們正在以真正的耐心進行部署，因為我們知道這需要一些時間，但我們認為從長遠來看，我們最終會取得一個更好的結果。

The other thing I'd say is that non-Nielsen business in the North America business continues to grow at multiples of the Nielsen business. And obviously, that's not captured in the market share. So we feel good about overall health in the business, but we'll consistently continue to drive the opportunities that we see in the Nielsen-based accounts.

我要說的另一件事是，北美業務中的非尼爾森業務繼續以尼爾森業務的倍數成長。顯然，這並沒有體現在市場佔有率。因此，我們對業務的整體健康狀況感到滿意，但我們將始終如一地繼續推動我們在尼爾森帳戶中看到的機會。

And Chris, your question on the sequential margin improvement, first of all, I'm pleased with that sequential margin improvement. Argentina was a little bit less of a headwind. And as you watch that FX, it's been very volatile. We've taken actions to address it, including sourcing changes, pricing changes et cetera. And then the team candidly executed really well.

克里斯，你關於連續利潤率改善的問題，首先，我對連續利潤率改善感到滿意。阿根廷的逆風稍微小一點。當你觀察外匯時，你會發現它非常不穩定。我們已採取行動來解決這個問題，包括改變採購、改變價格等等。然後團隊坦誠地執行得非常好。

I mean we get a little bit of scale benefit from volume we get some improvement from RGM and the funding the growth was great execution starting the year. So we love the start to the year, and we know FX is going to continue to be volatile, not just in Argentina but in many areas around the world. So a solid start to the year, slightly better than we anticipated on a sequential basis, but pleased with the progress.

我的意思是，我們從數量上獲得了一點規模效益，我們從 RGM 獲得了一些改進，並且從今年開始為成長提供的資金執行得很好。因此，我們喜歡今年的開始，我們知道外匯將繼續波動，不僅在阿根廷，而且在世界許多地區。因此，今年的開局良好，比我們預期的環比略好，但對進展感到滿意。

The next question comes from Lauren Lieberman with Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的勞倫·利伯曼。

I was wondering if you can talk a little bit about Europe. Numbers were super strong. A little bit of context around where you're seeing particular areas of strength and volume would be great. And then just any recent thoughts on private label Unilever brought up yesterday seeing a little more incremental pressure from private label in Europe. So I was just curious to hear your perspective on that as well.

我想知道你能否談談歐洲。數字非常強勁。如果能提供一些關於您所看到的特定力量和體積區域的背景信息，那就太好了。然後，昨天提出的有關自有品牌聯合利華的最新想法，看到了更多來自歐洲自有品牌的增量壓力。所以我也想聽聽你對此的看法。

Yes. Thanks, Lauren. A great quarter for Europe. And again, a terrific execution from the team on the ground. Overall, really, really strong with growth across the vast majority of our business, and it wasn't just Oral Care, it was pretty broad-based. And obviously, as you saw, volumes inflected positively given that we're still getting pricing in the category.

是的。謝謝，勞倫。對於歐洲來說，這是一個偉大的季度。再次，現場團隊的出色執行力。總的來說，我們絕大多數業務的成長確實非常強勁，而且不僅僅是口腔護理，它的基礎相當廣泛。顯然，正如您所看到的，鑑於我們仍在該類別中定價，銷量出現了積極的變化。

So pricing will ramp down as we move through the balance of the year. The big change, I think, is our investment strategy in Europe. We see real opportunities for growth, particularly in the Oral Care and Personal Care segment, as we execute some of the innovations that we have there, the meridol and elmex shares broad-based across Europe are at record levels and growing really, really nicely.

因此，隨著今年剩餘時間的推移，定價將會下降。我認為最大的改變是我們在歐洲的投資策略。我們看到了真正的成長機會，特別是在口腔護理和個人護理領域，當我們執行我們在那裡的一些創新時，整個歐洲的 meridol 和 elmex 股票都處於創紀錄的水平，並且增長得非常非常好。

Again, that is a shift in strategy and what's nice is we're getting the complementary growth on the Colgate side of the business, particularly as we're more focused on the whitening opportunity that we have. So a great portfolio of brands that we're leveraging, we think, more strategically around the region. So the market shares overall look pretty good.

同樣，這是策略的轉變，令人高興的是我們在高露潔方面獲得了業務的互補增長，特別是當我們更專注於我們擁有的美白機會時。我們認為，我們在該地區更具策略性地利用了一個偉大的品牌組合。因此，市場佔有率整體看起來相當不錯。

In terms of private label, as you know, private label has higher penetration in Europe than it does anywhere else in the world. We have seen some acceleration in some of the home care categories, whether it's dish liquid or fabric softeners or floor cleaners, but that being said, we continue to have good growth across our business, particularly as we -- as I mentioned earlier, broadened the investment strategy across a wider array of our brands in Europe.

就自有品牌而言，如您所知，自有品牌在歐洲的滲透率比世界其他任何地方都高。我們看到一些家庭護理類別有所加速，無論是洗碗精、織物柔軟劑還是地板清潔劑，但話雖這麼說，我們的整個業務繼續保持良好增長，特別是當我們——正如我之前提到的——擴大業務範圍時我們在歐洲更廣泛的品牌的投資策略。

The next question comes from Bryan Spillane with Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Bryan Spillane。

Stan, just had a couple of questions just related to cash flow. One, I don't know -- maybe I missed it, but if we have a guide for capital spending for the year? And then I think you refinanced or you funded a maturity in the middle of the quarter with commercial paper, just kind of curious there, did you just looking to pay it down? Or will you look to refinance that or term it out at some point?

史丹，剛剛有幾個與現金流相關的問題。第一，我不知道——也許我錯過了，但我們是否有今年的資本支出指南？然後我認為你在本季度中期用商業票據進行了再融資或融資，只是有點好奇，你只是想還清它嗎？或者你會尋求再融資或在某個時候終止它？

And then maybe just more broadly, as you're thinking about cash flow given where exchange rates have moved, interest rates have moved, just any other thoughts on how we should be thinking about like free cash flow conversion this year and uses of free cash flow.

然後也許更廣泛地說，當你考慮現金流時，考慮到匯率變動、利率變動，以及我們應該如何考慮今年的自由現金流轉換和自由現金的使用的任何其他想法流動。

Yes. Bryan, thanks for the question. So first, we're pleased with the cash flow performance, a really solid start for the quarter. We're down a little bit year-over-year, but I remind you, last year was a terrific cash quarter, and this was really driven by receivables, which were impacted by the timing of Easter. In fact, we've looked at the first couple of days of the quarter and that collection period completely brought DSO back in line. So we're very comfortable with that.

是的。布萊恩，謝謝你的提問。首先，我們對現金流表現感到滿意，這是本季的一個非常好的開始。我們同比略有下降，但我提醒您，去年是一個出色的現金季度，這實際上是由應收帳款推動的，而應收帳款受到了復活節時間的影響。事實上，我們已經研究了本季度的前幾天，該收集期完全使 DSO 恢復正常。所以我們對此感到非常滿意。

So our cash profits really have been helped from the top line growth. And the net working capital execution, I was very pleased with what the team accomplished here in first quarter, particularly around inventory. So even with the Red Sea challenges and building up a little safety stock in certain areas, great execution on inventory. We saw the inventory days improve, DSO strictly timing.

因此，我們的現金利潤確實得益於營收成長。就淨營運資本執行而言，我對團隊在第一季的成就感到非常滿意，特別是在庫存方面。因此，即使面臨紅海挑戰並在某些地區建立了一些安全庫存，庫存執行也很好。我們看到庫存天數有所改善，DSO 嚴格計時。

In regards to your question on CapEx, we had said previously that we expect CapEx as a percent of sales to be lower than last year. And it's really driven by [Tide] and Oxy, kind of coming online and that investment dollar is dropping off. If we look at our leverage, the strong cash flow and execution has allowed us to bring our leverage using the S&P methodology down to 1.8x, so an improvement from year-end.

關於您關於資本支出的問題，我們之前曾說過，我們預計資本支出佔銷售額的百分比將低於去年。它實際上是由 [Tide] 和 Oxy 推動的，有點上線，投資金額正在下降。如果我們看看我們的槓桿率，強勁的現金流和執行力使我們能夠使用標準普爾方法將槓桿率降低至 1.8 倍，比年底有所改善。

And to your point, we did pay back a bond here in first quarter of $500 million, and we did that with CP and 2 reasons. One, we had very good strong cash flow; and two, at some point, we expect interest rates will come down, though that appears to be sliding further out to the right, and that will help us keep our fixed floating back in balance.

就你而言，我們確實在第一季償還了 5 億美元的債券，我們這樣做是出於 CP 和 2 個原因。第一，我們擁有非常強勁的現金流；第二，在某個時候，我們預計利率將會下降，儘管利率似乎會進一步向右滑動，這將有助於我們維持固定浮動利率的平衡。

So again, as we look at cash flow, strong performance and as we think about that, it kind of goes back into the capital allocation, and I think you've seen that manifest ourselves in our strategy, that capital allocation hasn't changed, invest in the business, and you're going to see CapEx go up and down, we're investing in advertising. Return to shareholders, we had a dividend increase, and you saw our share buyback in the quarter and then M&A, where we look at options to improve our overall portfolio.

所以，當我們考慮現金流、強勁的業績時，當我們思考這一點時，它又回到了資本配置上，我認為你已經看到這在我們的策略中得到了體現，資本配置沒有改變，投資業務，你會看到資本支出上下波動，我們正在投資廣告。回報股東，我們增加了股息，您看到了我們在本季度的股票回購，然後是併購，我們在其中尋找改善我們整體投資組合的選擇。

Yes, Bryan, the only thing I would add is, again, picking up on the theme of flexibility, it's not only flexibility throughout the P&L, but it's having a really strong balance sheet that gives us the flexibility to deploy capital as we see the best return on that investment. And I give Stan and the finance organization huge credit and the discipline that they're bringing around the world to ensure that the cash generation continues to be robust.

是的，布萊恩，我唯一要補充的是，再次強調靈活性的主題，它不僅是整個損益表的靈活性，而且還擁有一個非常強大的資產負債表，使我們能夠靈活地部署資本，正如我們所看到的那樣該投資的最佳回報。我對史丹和財務組織給予巨大的信任，並給予他們在世界各地帶來的紀律，以確保現金產生持續強勁。

The next question comes from Mark Astrachan with Stifel.

下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Mark Astrachan。

I wanted to go back to North America and the outperformance of these untracked channels. We can now start to see in some of the data, the distinction between the new and the legacy channels, and it's pretty stark in your business, in particular, Hill's specifically, but overall, there's just a lot more growth in those channels, I guess that they're smaller.

我想回到北美，看看這些未經追蹤的頻道的出色表現。我們現在可以開始在一些數據中看到新管道和舊管道之間的區別，這在您的業務中非常明顯，特別是Hill 的業務，但總的來說，這些管道的成長要大得多，我猜想它們更小。

But curious on your take on what is driving that, that exceptional outperformance. And how sustainable is it in terms of these other places like Costco, Amazon, et cetera, that's contributing to that growth overall, and I'm specifically looking to at Hill's, which is really doing quite well in those new channels.

但很好奇你對是什麼推動了這種非凡的表現。就 Costco、亞馬遜等其他地方而言，它的可持續性如何，這對整體成長做出了貢獻，我特別關注 Hill's，它在這些新管道中確實做得很好。

Yes. Thanks. So again, we've been talking about that for quite some time, and that has been, I think, a reflection of the strategy that we've talked about for 3 years, which is core adjacencies and channels and getting back to real focus and understanding the consumer journey across all of the markets in which we compete has been fundamental to making sure that we have strategies to capture and deploy our investments in areas where we think we're going to get the best return for that.

是的。謝謝。再說一次，我們已經討論這個問題很長一段時間了，我認為這反映了我們三年來討論的戰略，即核心鄰接和渠道，並回到真正的焦點了解我們參與競爭的所有市場的消費者旅程對於確保我們制定策略來捕獲並將我們的投資部署到我們認為將獲得最佳回報的領域至關重要。

And some of these emerging channels that are not captured by Nielsen are very, very important, whether that's hard discount stores in parts of the world. Whether that's the club store environment, where the value pack in large sizes continue to be a big growth driver, whether that's the ease and convenience of shopping online and some of the digital execution and understanding the digital shelf and the discipline that we brought to that, that ultimately is being seen through the success that we're having in those alternative channels.

尼爾森沒有捕捉到的一些新興管道非常非常重要，無論是世界部分地區的硬折扣店。無論是俱樂部商店環境，大尺寸的價值包仍然是一個巨大的成長動力，無論是在線購物的輕鬆和便利，以及一些數字執行和對數位貨架的理解以及我們為此帶來的紀律，這最終可以從我們在這些替代管道中所取得的成功中看出。

We don't anticipate that, that will change. I think as some of the classical brick-and-mortar retailers really up their game, and we're certainly seeing that across the U.S. markets where the big players are certainly becoming far more sophisticated and progressive with their offerings and their shopper experience. We're partnering with them to ensure that we're -- our brands are involved in that journey that they're on, and making sure that we're bringing our digital capabilities to the entire omnichannel environment and making sure that Colgate and the brands that we offer at the forefront of that.

我們預計這不會改變。我認為，隨著一些經典的實體零售商真正提高了他們的遊戲水平，我們當然看到在美國市場上，大型參與者在他們的產品和購物體驗方面肯定變得更加成熟和進步。我們正在與他們合作，以確保我們的品牌參與他們正在經歷的旅程中，並確保我們將我們的數位能力帶入整個全通路環境，並確保高露潔和我們提供的處於最前沿的品牌。

So it's, again, shopper journey the experience that the shoppers are getting, the value orientation on some of those channels and our ability to be much more targeted with some of our spend, and that's particularly related to the online retailers.

因此，購物者旅程再次是購物者獲得的體驗、某些管道的價值取向以及我們更有針對性地進行某些支出的能力，這尤其與線上零售商有關。

Next question comes from Brett Cooper with Consumer Edge Research.

下一個問題來自消費者邊緣研究中心的布雷特‧庫柏。

A question for you on the competitive environment and outlook. It would appear to date that promotional activity and competition hasn't ramped to the extent that some of your peers and some of your large peers are looking to accelerate growth via reinvestments. So would love to hear first whether that assessment on the environment is accurate generally. And then your perspective on whether there's enough opportunity to elevate category growth via things like household penetration growth, premiumization and share gain to net higher levels of growth? Or is all of this reinvestment just the new cost of doing business?

關於競爭環境和前景的問題。迄今為止，促銷活動和競爭似乎還沒有達到一些同行和一些大型同行尋求透過再投資加速成長的程度。因此，我很想先聽聽對環境的評估是否整體準確。然後，您認為是否有足夠的機會透過家庭滲透率成長、高端化和份額收益等方式來提升品類成長，從而實現更高的淨成長水準？或者所有這些再投資只是新的經營成本？

Yes. Thanks, Brett. What's interesting is you're seeing -- I think you're hearing that a lot of the competitive set has focused on building healthy category growth, and that's two ways: one, with increased media investment and the second is with increased innovation. We have not seen a fundamental shift around the world to more volume sold on promotion. It's still below where we were pre-COVID. Now as volume becomes the important aspect here, you may see some players move to that strategy of doing more promotions. But overall, the category has been very constructive in terms of big players spending money on media, driving value to the categories through innovation, and offerings that are differentiated in the marketplace. And so it's incumbent upon us to ensure that our innovations continue to drive real value to the category and the differentiation in a very competitive market and making sure that we're using the analytics and the data that we have to drive balanced promotional strategies in the categories.

是的。謝謝，布雷特。有趣的是你看到的——我想你聽說很多競爭者都專注於建立健康的品類成長，這有兩種方式：一是增加媒體投資，二是增加創新。我們還沒有看到世界各地透過促銷提高銷量的根本性轉變。它仍然低於新冠疫情爆發前的水平。現在，隨著數量成為這裡的重要方面，您可能會看到一些玩家轉向進行更多促銷的策略。但總體而言，該類別在大型企業在媒體上投入資金、透過創新推動類別價值以及在市場上提供差異化產品方面非常有建設性。因此，我們有責任確保我們的創新繼續為該類別帶來真正的價值，並在競爭激烈的市場中實現差異化，並確保我們使用分析和數據來推動平衡的促銷策略類別。

We'll be competitive where we need to be. I mentioned we've made some difficult decisions in the U.S. business to not chase a lot of deep down in promotions, particularly in certain retail environments that will have a short-term impact on the Nielsen shares, but long term, we feel we're going to deploy that money in an effective way. And again, it's making sure that we continue to drive saliency of our brands and the health of our brands long term, and we do that through media and innovation, not necessarily through promotions.

我們將在需要的地方保持競爭力。我提到我們在美國業務中做出了一些艱難的決定，即不追求大量深入的促銷活動，特別是在某些零售環境中，這將對尼爾森股票產生短期影響，但從長遠來看，我們認為我們「我們將以有效的方式部署這筆資金。再說一次，它確保我們繼續推動我們品牌的顯著性和長期健康，我們透過媒體和創新來做到這一點，而不一定是透過促銷。

The next question comes from Alejandro Zamacona with HSBC.

下一個問題來自匯豐銀行的亞歷杭德羅·紮馬科納 (Alejandro Zamacona)。

Just a kind of follow-up on Latin America. So given the strong organic sales growth in the last few quarters, what should we expect going forward? I mean, to what extent the consumer is willing to continue to accept meaningful price increases without giving up volumes.

只是拉丁美洲的後續行動。鑑於過去幾季的強勁有機銷售成長，我們對未來應該有何期待？我的意思是，消費者在多大程度上願意繼續接受有意義的價格上漲而不放棄銷售量。

Yes. Again, let me contextualize Latin America. Obviously, a really strong organic sales growth quarter, with and without Argentina, there was good volume growth across every single hub led by Brazil, which was up double digits. If I take the last 4 quarters of Latin America in terms of volume, 0.5, 5.4, 8, and 6.2. So again, very consistent with what we talked about.

是的。讓我再次介紹拉丁美洲的背景。顯然，無論有沒有阿根廷，有機銷售成長都非常強勁，以巴西為首的每個樞紐的銷量都有良好的成長，成長了兩位數。如果我以拉丁美洲最後 4 個季度的數量計算，分別是 0.5、5.4、8 和 6.2。再說一次，這與我們談論的內容非常一致。

Our ability to get pricing early in the market has allowed us now to see the volume return to the categories and ultimately into our business. Our marketing is really strong and innovation is very strong on the ground, and so we feel very good about where we're seeing. And that's been translated into really positive share growth for the business.

我們能夠儘早在市場上獲得定價，這使我們現在能夠看到銷售回歸類別並最終回歸我們的業務。我們的行銷非常強大，創新也非常強大，因此我們對所看到的情況感到非常滿意。這已轉化為該業務真正積極的份額增長。

So ex Argentina, very good organic growth. Organic up significantly in the region. I think you saw double-digit growth in Brazil, which has been terrific. Oral Care, particularly has been really strong in the quarter. That was up double digits, excluding Argentina. Shares in value and volume up. It's been quite some time since we saw both of those move in the right direction, and again, a reflection, I believe, of the strategy of increased investment and making sure that we have a breadth of offerings in that market.

因此，在阿根廷，有機成長非常好。該地區的有機成長顯著。我認為巴西實現了兩位數的成長，這真是太棒了。口腔護理尤其在本季表現強勁。不包括阿根廷，這一數字增加了兩位數。股市價值和成交量上漲。自從我們看到這兩個方向朝著正確的方向發展以來，已經有一段時間了，我相信，這再次反映了增加投資並確保我們在該市場提供廣泛產品的策略。

That is a market that's accustomed to inflationary pricing across many of the markets in which we compete. Being key for us is making sure that we continue to advertise strongly in the markets, and we bring real innovation across the entire portfolio that keeps the categories vibrant, allows us to work with our retailers to drive category growth and hopefully capture share at the same time.

在我們競爭的許多市場中，這個市場已經習慣了通膨定價。對我們來說，關鍵是確保我們繼續在市場上大力宣傳，我們在整個產品組合中帶來真正的創新，使品類保持活力，使我們能夠與零售商合作，推動品類增長，並希望同時獲得份額時間。

So overall, we think Latin America is well positioned for continued growth, and we like what we're seeing there.

總的來說，我們認為拉丁美洲處於持續增長的有利位置，我們喜歡我們在那裡看到的情況。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Noel Wallace, Colgate's Chairman, President and CEO, for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想請高露潔董事長、總裁兼執行長諾埃爾華萊士 (Noel Wallace) 致閉幕詞。

Great. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining the call today. Obviously, we're really pleased with the quarter and how we've gotten off to a strong start that we believe sets us up for continued sustainable growth moving forward and generating that long-term algorithm that we've been talking about for quite some time for our shareholders.

偉大的。好的，謝謝大家今天加入電話會議。顯然，我們對這個季度以及我們如何取得一個良好的開端感到非常滿意，我們相信這將為我們的持續可持續增長奠定基礎，並產生我們一直在談論的長期演算法是我們股東的時間了。

Let me particularly reach out to all of the Colgate employees around the world for their incredible dedication and resilience and their hard work in really executing a strategy around the world and for getting us off to a great start. So thanks, everyone. We'll see you and talk to you soon.

讓我特別向世界各地的所有高露潔員工致敬，感謝他們令人難以置信的奉獻精神和韌性，以及他們在真正執行全球戰略方面的辛勤工作，讓我們有了一個良好的開端。謝謝大家。我們很快就會見到您並與您交談。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。