高露潔 (CL) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, welcome to today's Colgate-Palmolive third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. This call is being recorded and is being simulcast live at www.colgatepalmolive.com. 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.

早安，歡迎參加高露潔棕欖公司2025年第三季財報電話會議。本次電話會議正在錄音，並透過www.colgatepalmolive.com網站進行同步直播。現在，我謹將電話會議交給首席投資人關係長兼併購執行副總裁約翰‧福徹先生，請他致開幕詞。

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to our third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Today's conference call will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from these statements. Please refer to our third quarter 2025 earnings press release and related prepared materials and our most recent filings with the SEC, including our 2024 annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent SEC filings, all available on Colgate-Palmolive's website for a discussion of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements.

謝謝。早安，歡迎參加我們2025年第三季財報電話會議。今天的電話會議將包含前瞻性陳述。實際結果可能與這些說法有重大差異。請參閱我們 2025 年第三季收益新聞稿及相關準備資料，以及我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，包括我們的 2024 年 10-K 表格年度報告及後續向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，所有這些文件均可在 Colgate-Palmolive 網站上查閱，以了解可能導致實際結果與這些聲明存在重大差異的因素。

Our remarks will also include a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, which exclude certain items from reported results, including those identified in tables four, six, seven, eight and nine of the earnings press release. A full reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP financial measures is included in the third quarter 2025 earnings press release, and is available on Colgate-Palmolive's website.

我們的演講還將包括對非GAAP財務指標的討論，這些指標從報告結果中剔除了某些項目，包括盈利新聞稿表格四、六、七、八和九中列出的項目。2025 年第三季財報新聞稿中包含了與對應 GAAP 財務指標的完整調整表，可在高露潔棕欖公司的網站上查閱。

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 Q3 results, and our future plans, and then we will open up for Q&A. Noel?

今天早上與我一起參加電話會議的有董事長、總裁兼執行長諾埃爾·華萊士，以及財務長史丹·蘇圖拉。Noel 將向大家介紹我們第三季的業績和未來計劃，然後我們將進行問答環節。諾埃爾？

Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today as we discuss our Q3 results and more importantly, the steps we are taking to accelerate our performance in this volatile operating environment. Importantly, focused on the priorities and actions set out in our 2030 strategy.

謝謝你，約翰，大家早安。感謝各位今天與我們一起探討第三季業績，更重要的是，探討我們在當前動盪的經營環境下為提升業績所採取的措施。重要的是，要專注於我們在 2030 年策略中製定的優先事項和行動。

As you will hear today, consumer uncertainty, tariffs, and geopolitics, high cost inflation and other factors are all pressuring sales and profit growth across the consumer sector. Despite these headwinds, we are operating with determination and focus. We have healthy brands and growing categories with strong market shares and a diverse global footprint, with nearly 50% exposure to faster growth in emerging markets and a best-in-class global supply chain to service that demand.

正如您今天將聽到的，消費者的不確定性、關稅和地緣政治、高成本通膨和其他因素都在給整個消費產業的銷售和利潤成長帶來壓力。儘管面臨這些不利因素，我們仍將以堅定的決心和專注的態度開展工作。我們擁有健康的品牌和不斷增長的品類，市場份額強勁，業務遍及全球，近 50% 的業務集中在新興市場，這些市場增長速度更快，並且我們擁有世界一流的全球供應鏈來滿足這些需求。

We remain committed to our goals of delivering organic sales growth, net sales growth and dollar-based EPS growth and to our capital allocation priorities, to drive total shareholder return towards the top end of our peer group. We have done that over the past five years and have confidence in our ability to continue to do that.

我們將繼續致力於實現有機銷售成長、淨銷售成長和以美元計價的每股盈餘成長的目標，並堅持我們的資本配置優先事項，以推動股東總回報達到同業領先水準。過去五年我們一直這樣做，並且有信心繼續這樣做。

What drives this confidence is our ability to execute on our 2030 strategy to accelerate change as we adapt to this complex and changing environment. Coming off our 2025 strategic plan, we've improved our innovation, built and scaled our capabilities, improved organic sales and market share performance and delivered consistent annual dollar-based EPS growth.

驅動我們信心的，是我們有能力執行 2030 年策略，以加速變革，適應這個複雜多變的環境。在 2025 年策略計畫實施後，我們提高了創新能力，建構並擴大了自身能力，提高了有機銷售額和市場份額，並實現了持續的年度美元每股收益成長。

This is the perfect time for our strategic transition as we're coming off our 2025 plan, which built the organizational muscle necessary to execute our strategy and focus on global alignment. This is not wholesale change, but rather, we are working to accelerate the rate of change as we embark on our 2030 strategy.

現在是進行策略轉型的最佳時機，因為我們即將完成 2025 年計劃，該計劃建立了執行策略和專注於全球協調所需的組織實力。這並非徹底的變革，而是在我們著手實施 2030 年策略之際，努力加快變革的腳步。

We have made and are continuing to make the changes that are required to drive out-performance and over the strategic time horizon of our 2030 strategy, we will emerge a stronger and more effective company.

我們已經並將繼續進行必要的變革，以推動業績超越預期，並在我們 2030 年策略的策略時間範圍內，成為更強大、更有效率的公司。

As I outlined in September, we are taking concrete intentional steps to accelerate our growth going forward. Steps that will drive performance in end market environment, but particularly important now. These include, a new innovation model with additional resources focused on delivering more impactful science-based innovation across all price tiers.

正如我在九月概述的那樣，我們正在採取切實有效的措施來加速我們未來的發展。能夠提升終端市場環境績效的措施，但目前尤其重要。其中包括一種新的創新模式，該模式投入更多資源，致力於在所有價格層級提供更具影響力的科學創新。

This new model includes investment in people, process improvement and resources and tools, including AI, to make us faster and better able to prioritize the innovative products and packaging that matter most to our customers and consumers. We are focused on omnichannel demand generation, including up-skilling our commercial organization to be more consumer-centric by adopting how we deliver the right products, with the right content, with the right message, to the right people at the moments that matter.

這種新模式包括對人員、流程改進以及資源和工具（包括人工智慧）的投資，以便我們能夠更快、更好地優先考慮對我們的客戶和消費者最重要的創新產品和包裝。我們專注於全通路需求創造，包括提升我們的商業組織技能，使其更加以消費者為中心，透過改變我們如何在關鍵時刻將正確的產品、正確的內容和正確的訊息傳遞給正確的人。

This will help continue to build the strength of our brands and drive brand penetration.

這將有助於持續增強我們的品牌實力，並推動品牌滲透。

Having scaled new capabilities we prioritized as part of our 2025 strategy, including digital, data, analytics and AI we will drive more dynamic change by accelerating our investments and efforts in areas like RGM and agenticAI, working to drive efficiency, disrupt our own processes and integrate new ways of working across the company. And using predictive analytics and automation more and more across our supply chain to deliver personalization at scale drive optimal asset utilization, minimize downtime, improve our service levels and enhance our quality systems.

我們已經擴展了作為 2025 年策略一部分的優先發展的新能力，包括數位化、數據、分析和人工智慧，我們將透過加快在 RGM 和 agenticAI 等領域的投資和努力，推動更動態的變革，努力提高效率，顛覆我們自己的流程，並在公司內部整合新的工作方式。我們正在供應鏈中越來越多地運用預測分析和自動化技術，以大規模實現個人化服務，從而優化資產利用率，最大限度地減少停機時間，提高服務水平，並增強品質系統。

Underpinning many of these initiatives is our Strategic Growth and Productivity Program. While this program will enable us to fund incremental investments and deliver savings to drive dollar-based earnings growth, it is even more vital as a strategic enabler to facilitate the changes in behaviors and processes needed to accelerate organizational change, making us more flexible and simplifying our processes to increase speed and efficiency. Because of these actions and the fundamentals of our business, we believe we are well positioned to outperform in the context of the current global category slowdown for several reasons.

我們的策略性成長和生產力計劃是支撐這些舉措的基礎。雖然該計劃將使我們能夠為增量投資提供資金並節省開支，從而推動以美元計價的收益增長，但它作為戰略推動因素更為重要，它有助於促進行為和流程的改變，從而加速組織變革，使我們更加靈活，簡化流程，提高速度和效率。由於這些措施以及我們業務的基本面，我們相信，在當前全球品類增速放緩的情況下，我們有能力取得優異的業績，原因有以下幾點。

The strength of our business in emerging markets gives us the ability to drive faster category growth as developed markets remain sluggish. Hill's underlying performance remained very good in a softer category, given our robust innovation and our ability to gain market share in low development segments like Cat, Vet and Small Paws.

我們在新興市場的業務實力使我們能夠在已開發市場成長乏力的情況下，推動品類更快成長。在整體疲軟的市場環境下，希爾思的基本面表現依然非常出色，這得益於我們強大的創新能力以及在貓、獸醫和小型寵物等低增長細分市場獲得市場份額的能力。

The health of our brands across categories following years of investment provides us with opportunities to drive pricing to offset raw material inflation. Across our business use, we continue to have well-funded advertising and innovation plans, and we're operating with an even greater focus on revenue growth management, particularly with prescriptive analytics and AI. And we continue to generate strong cash flow to invest in the business and help drive TSR.

經過多年的投資，我們旗下各品類品牌的良好發展狀況為我們提供了透過價格上漲來抵銷原物料通膨的機會。在我們的商業應用方面，我們繼續擁有充足的資金支持廣告和創新計劃，我們更加重視收入成長管理，尤其是在預測性分析和人工智慧方面。我們持續產生強勁的現金流，用於投資業務並幫助提高總股東回報率。

The timing for us to be kicking off our 2030 strategy could not be better. We are seeing this moment as the 34,000 Colgate-Palmolive people around the world work to deliver on the change needed to reaccelerate growth and outperform. And with that, we'll take your questions.

現在正是我們啟動2030年策略的最佳時機。我們看到，全球 34,000 名高露潔棕欖員工正努力實現必要的變革，以重新加速成長並取得卓越成就。接下來，我們將回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Dara Mohsenian with Morgan Stanley.

（操作說明）摩根士丹利的 Dara Mohsenian。

Hi, good morning.

您好，早安。

Hey there. Good morning.

嘿。早安.

So clearly, a difficult operating environment here in terms of category growth in household products, as you mentioned, Noel, with all the consumer pressure points. Can you just give us some perspective on if you expect the category softness to linger as we look out to 2026?

所以很明顯，正如你所提到的，Noel，就家庭用品類別成長而言，這裡的經營環境非常艱難，消費者面臨著各種壓力點。您能否就此談談您對2026年該品類疲軟狀況是否會持續的看法？

You also highlighted a number of focus areas for your own business in 2026 within that landscape. So just how impactful and quickly do you think those levers might be in improving your own organic sales growth performance, again, as we look beyond this year?

您還重點介紹了貴公司在 2026 年在這個背景下的一些重點領域。那麼，展望今年以後，您認為這些措施在提高貴公司本身的有機銷售成長績效方面究竟能有多大的影響和速度呢？

And if I can just slip a Part B in. Can you just review Hill's, specifically, volume mix dropped off in the quarter? I know there are some factors exaggerating that, but it did look like the underlying performance was perhaps weaker. So just an update on Pet category trends and Hill's market share performance, specifically would also be helpful.

如果我能再加個B部分就好了。能否具體分析一下希爾的銷量組成，特別是本季銷量下降的情況？我知道有些因素誇大了這種情況，但看起來實際表現可能確實較弱。所以，如果能提供寵物用品類別趨勢以及希爾思市佔率表現的最新資訊就更好了。

Great. Thanks, Dara. So clearly, a lot of volatility in the market, particularly in the quarter, we're seeing month-to-month swings that are quite frankly, pretty surprising through the quarter. August was very difficult, but September shipments did get better. But just not enough to make up for the August softness we saw.

偉大的。謝謝你，達拉。顯然，市場波動很大，尤其是在本季度，我們看到的月度波動坦白說，相當令人驚訝。8月情況非常艱難，但9月的出貨情況有所改善。但這還不足以彌補八月的疲軟表現。

So if I look back at my upfront comments, which I think clearly lay out exactly how we're thinking about the business, both short term and long term. As we switch to our 2030 strategy, we feel we're in a position of strength here. We're executing against the changes that we implemented through 2025 and the new changes that we believe contemplate the current environment, which we expect to continue in the short term, certainly to be sluggish.

所以，回顧我之前的評論，我認為這些評論清楚地闡述了我們對業務的短期和長期思考方式。隨著我們轉向 2030 年策略，我們感到我們在這方面處於優勢地位。我們正在執行到 2025 年實施的各項變革，以及我們認為考慮到當前環境而做出的新變革。我們預計當前環境將在短期內持續低迷。

The SGPP will provide the right organizational structure and the capabilities while funding importantly, increased investment in helping us drive that dollar-based earnings per share growth you talked about. So if I go around the world perhaps in terms of the operating environment, on an underlying basis, we think North America was actually a little better for us this quarter, and particularly ex-Skin, but we're still not where we need to be there. And I'm pleased to see how [Shane] and [John Koeman] are truly tackling the opportunities that we see on the business.

SGPP 將提供合適的組織結構和能力，同時提供資金，更重要的是，增加投資，以幫助我們實現您所說的以美元計價的每股收益成長。所以，如果我放眼全球，從營運環境的角度來看，我們認為北美本季的情況實際上對我們稍微好一些，特別是剔除 Skin 業務之後，但我們仍然沒有達到我們應有的水平。我很高興看到[Shane]和[John Koeman]正在積極應對我們在業務中看到的機會。

Categories were slightly weaker in Q3 in North America, but our performance improved sequentially, and we expect that to continue sequentially, particularly excluding Skin Health. Consumer still remains relatively weak across North America, as you point out. We're seeing higher levels of couponing. Hispanic traffic is still down. And if you've heard from others category takeaway in the U.S., particularly in September, was a little softer than most of us anticipated and a little softer than preceding months.

第三季北美各類別表現略顯疲軟，但我們的業績環比有所改善，我們預期這一趨勢將持續下去，尤其是在排除皮膚健康品類後。正如你所指出的，北美地區的消費依然相對疲軟。我們發現優惠券的使用率更高了。西班牙裔用戶的流量仍然較低。如果你從其他人那裡了解到，美國市場（尤其是9月）的消費品銷售量比我們大多數人預期的要低一些，也比前幾個月要低一些。

So -- and if I move on, again, we expect that to continue. But this SGPP plan, Dara, what I'm really trying to get across here is we're anticipating a continued sluggishness, but we're making the changes necessary to stimulate growth, not only for our business but for the categories, and that's going to be consistent all over the world. As expected, let me get into Europe.

所以——如果我繼續前進，我們預計這種情況還會繼續。但達拉，我真正想表達的是，關於SGPP計劃，我們預計增長將持續低迷，但我們正在做出必要的改變來刺激增長，不僅是為了我們自己的業務，也是為了各個品類，而且這將在全球範圍內保持一致。不出所料，讓我進入歐洲吧。

We're seeing a little less pricing than before. Volume was in line, maybe slightly lower than we were expecting. Western Europe was strong, better than we expected some incremental weakness in Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland. Latin America is mixed. Although Mexico and Brazil, better for us and for some others.

我們看到價格比以前略有下降。成交量符合預期，可能略低於我們的預期。西歐表現強勁，好於我們的預期；東歐則略顯疲軟，尤其是波蘭。拉丁美洲的情況比較複雜。雖然墨西哥和巴西對我們和其他一些人來說更好。

Organic was up mid-single digits in both Mexico and Brazil. Conversely, Colombia and Central America were a little softer as they're dealing with more economic weaknesses in those markets and more political volatility that's impacting consumption across those regions.

墨西哥和巴西的有機食品銷售量均實現了個位數中段的成長。相較之下，哥倫比亞和中美洲的情況則略顯疲軟，因為這些市場面臨更多經濟疲軟和更多政治動盪，這些都影響了這些地區的消費。

So if I move on now to perhaps China. China is a mixed bag for us. Colgate continues to do well. As E-commerce and innovation are key drivers for us in that market and doing exceptionally well. We were up mid-single digits on the Colgate side. However, -- continued to see some weakness, particularly in Premium E-commerce. We are taking aggressive steps to address our innovation and our E-commerce business there, but it's taken a little longer than we anticipated to see the changes.

所以如果我現在去中國的話。中國對我們來說是喜憂參半的。高露潔的業績持續良好。電子商務和創新是我們在該市場的主要驅動力，我們在這方面做得非常出色。我們科爾蓋特隊領先個位數。然而，——仍然看到一些疲軟的跡象，尤其是在高端電子商務領域。我們正在採取積極措施來解決我們在當地的創新和電子商務業務問題，但看到變化所需的時間比我們預期的要長一些。

As you saw in the announcement, India was a little softer, but we expect that to improve moving forward. The GST came through in the quarter, medium- and long-term positive, we think, for the benefit. It created some additional headwinds as we went into the quarter -- as we exited the quarter. But importantly, we are really focused on getting some big core innovations executed across that country and pushing our premium innovation, particularly in the urban class of trade where we've seen some sluggishness.

正如你在公告中看到的，印度的情況稍微疲軟，但我們預計這種情況未來會有所改善。我們認為，本季消費稅的實施對中長期發展是有利的。進入本季時，這給我們帶來了一些額外的阻力——在本季末也是如此。但重要的是，我們真正專注於在全國範圍內實施一些重大核心創新，並推動我們的高端創新，尤其是在城市貿易領域，我們已經看到那裡出現了一些成長放緩。

And so let me move on to Hill's quickly to balance out your question at the end. Hill's from the category remains a bit soft, but we particularly saw a Dog dry-down but Cat way-up. U.S. growth slowed a bit, but that included some headwinds from lower E-commerce inventory that got pulled out at the end of the quarter, a little softness in Canada due to the buying Canadian sentiment. But overall, we're pleased with Hill's.

那麼，為了平衡你最後提出的問題，我接下來快速談談希爾的觀點。希爾斯在該類別中的表現仍然有些疲軟，但我們尤其看到狗狗的干燥程度有所下降，而貓咪則大幅上升。美國經濟成長略有放緩，但這其中包含了一些不利因素，例如季度末電子商務庫存減少，以及由於加拿大消費者購買意願低迷導致加拿大市場略顯疲軟。但總的來說，我們對希爾的產品很滿意。

If you take ex-private label up some good growth there, and we're gaining share there across almost every strategic growth segment there is -- and that again is, I think, a testament to the strategy we put in place in the last couple of years, the increased capacity we have in areas like Vet, and we obviously are expecting the category to remain a little bit sluggish in the short term, but the opportunities for growth remain real and particularly in those faster-growing segments like Cat and Vet and we believe we've got the plans in place to do that.

如果把自有品牌業務也算進去，就會發現那裡增長勢頭良好，而且我們在幾乎所有戰略增長領域都獲得了市場份額——我認為這再次證明了我們過去幾年制定的戰略，以及我們在獸藥等領域不斷增長的產能。我們顯然預期該品類在短期內仍會略顯疲軟，但成長機會依然存在，尤其是在貓用和獸藥等成長較快的細分市場，我們相信我們已經制定了相應的計劃來實現這一目標。

So despite a positive growth in our categories, but slower than we anticipated in the quarter, raw material inflation, tariffs. Obviously, some -- destocking, we're still delivering dollar-based earnings per share and strong cash flow. And overall, that's exactly how we expect this to continue to trend.

儘管我們的產品類別實現了正成長，但成長速度低於我們預期，原因是原物料價格上漲和關稅上漲。顯然，儘管去庫存了一些影響，但我們仍然實現了以美元計價的每股收益和強勁的現金流。總的來說，我們預計這種趨勢還會持續下去。

Peter Grom with UBS.

Peter Grom，來自瑞銀集團。

Great, thank you. Good morning, guys. I wanted to ask on Latin America, Yes. So first, just the prepared remarks, there was a comment regarding a decline in Oral Care due to the replacement of trade inventories in connection with the formula change. So can you just give more color on what happened there? And is there a way to quantify the impact it had on the quarter?

太好了，謝謝。各位早安。我想問的是拉丁美洲的情況，是的。首先，就準備好的發言稿而言，有人提到由於配方改變導致貿易庫存更新，口腔護理產品銷售量有所下降。能再詳細說說那裡發生了什麼事嗎？有沒有辦法量化它對該季度的影響？

And then second and related growth in the region has been more in this low single-digit range this year as pricing has moderated. And Noel, your commentary to Dara's question was helpful. Just as we look ahead, would you expect more of the same? Or do you see an opportunity for growth to improve from here?

其次，由於價格趨於緩和，今年該地區的次要及相關成長較多處於個位數低點區間。諾埃爾，你對達拉問題的解答很有幫助。展望未來，您是否預期情況會與現在相同？或者，您是否看到在此基礎上還有提升的空間？

Sure. Thanks, Peter. So yes, Latin America organic was 1.7%. But if you include -- which includes 150 basis points negative from the volume impact from the Colgate Total replacement, which I'll talk to perhaps in a second here.

當然。謝謝你，彼得。是的，拉丁美洲的有機產品佔比為 1.7%。但是，如果將高露潔全效牙膏的替代產品帶來的銷售影響（例如 150 個基點的負面影響）也考慮在內，我稍後可能會談到這一點。

As I mentioned just a second because we were pleased with Mexico and Brazil, both up around 4%. So overall, those markets continue to perform well. Pricing is improving but a little bit in expensive volume. We saw volume a little bit sluggish in our categories, not to be expected given some of the prolonged pricing we've taken there. So let me explain a little bit more on Colgate Total.

正如我剛才提到的，我們對墨西哥和巴西的經濟成長感到滿意，兩國經濟成長率都在 4% 左右。所以總體而言，這些市場持續表現良好。價格有改善，但大宗商品價格略高。我們發現某些品類的銷售量略顯疲軟，考慮到我們先前對這些品類採取的長期定價策略，這種情況並不令人意外。那麼讓我再詳細解釋一下高露潔全效牙膏。

Globally, through the third quarter, Colgate Total continues to do well, driving organic sales growth and premiumization as we've been able to take pricing on this pretty significant innovation. We've rolled it out around the world with new regimen claims and toothpaste, mouthwash and toothbrush are seeing some good share growth in general around the world. So we're pleased with that.

從全球範圍來看，截至第三季度，高露潔全效牙膏持續表現良好，推動了有機銷售成長和高端化，因為我們能夠對這項非常重要的創新進行定價。我們已在全球推出新的護理方案，牙膏、漱口水和牙刷在全球範圍內的市場份額總體上都取得了不錯的增長。我們對此感到滿意。

If I go back to Latin America, we noticed an increase in consumer complaints, including some temporary mouth irritations, in Latin America early in the year, with the majority coming from consumers who had used the Clean Mint variant. This was mostly people who brush their teeth three, four sometimes even 5 times a day. We determined this is primarily due to the new flavor. So we adjusted the formula and in collaboration with the Brazilian health authorities we voluntarily replaced the impacted variance in Brazil with the reformulated product, and we've seen Colgate Total market share to begin to improve subsequent to that change.

如果我回到拉丁美洲，我們注意到今年年初拉丁美洲的消費者投訴增加，包括一些暫時的口腔刺激，其中大部分投訴來自使用過清新薄荷口味的消費者。這主要是那些一天刷牙三、四次，有時甚至五次的人。我們認為這主要是由於新口味造成的。因此，我們調整了配方，並與巴西衛生部門合作，自願用改良配方的產品替換了巴西受影響的產品，我們看到高露潔全效市場份額在這一改變之後開始改善。

We are currently also replacing the impacted variance in other markets in Latin America. This was the gross margin impact that we discussed in the prepared commentary, 40 to 50 basis points, while we did not see the same level of complaints in other markets. We are proactively adjusting the formula for the impacted variance around the world. There may be some further costs going forward. But at this point, we believe the majority of costs have already been incurred.

我們目前也在拉丁美洲其他市場替換受影響的差異。這就是我們在準備好的評論中討論過的毛利率影響，40 到 50 個基點，而我們在其他市場並沒有看到同樣程度的投訴。我們正在積極調整公式，以應對全球範圍內的差異。未來可能還會產生一些額外費用。但目前我們認為大部分成本已經發生。

Coming back to some of the categories in Latin America still growing but have slowed a little bit in the recent periods, driven by particularly volume while we're still getting pricing in the categories, and this, as I mentioned just a moment ago, is more acute in -- in Central America, where we're seeing a little bit more price competition in those markets. We're making the necessary changes to adjust to that. and we're working on sharpening our price points to improve our volume shares. Overall, Latin America, volume shares for our Total Oral Care business were flat slightly down in value, as I mentioned, due to perhaps the Total replacement. We're starting to see those shares come back nicely.

回到拉丁美洲的一些品類，它們仍在增長，但最近一段時間增速有所放緩，這主要是由於銷量下降，而我們仍在對這些品類進行定價。正如我剛才提到的，這種情況在中美洲更為嚴重，我們看到這些市場的價格競爭更加激烈。我們正在做出必要的調整以適應這種情況，並努力優化價格策略以提高銷售份額。總體而言，在拉丁美洲，我們的口腔護理業務的銷售份額持平，略有下降，正如我所提到的，這可能是由於 Total 的替代方案。我們開始看到這些股票出現不錯的反彈。

The next question comes from Kaumil Gajrawala with Jefferies. Please go ahead. But don't cry for anybody who is spending all that money on it. Go to the next question. The next question comes from Filippo Falorni with Citi.

下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Kaumil Gajrawala。請繼續。但不要為那些在這上面花那麼多錢的人哭泣。請看下一題。下一個問題來自花旗銀行的菲利波·法洛尼。

Hi, good morning. Everyone. Welcome. Good morning. On the Asia Pacific business, Noel, you mentioned the GST tax change, obviously, impact on India. Any sense of quantifying that impact also and you mentioned an improvement going forward. Is that the main driver? Are you expecting also an improvement in the macro conditions there? And any comments on the local competition in the market will be helpful. Thank you.

您好，早安。每個人。歡迎。早安.諾埃爾，關於亞太地區的業務，你提到了商品及服務稅（GST）的稅收變化，這顯然會對印度產生影響。您是否考慮過量化這種影響，並且您提到未來會有所改進。這是主要驅動因素嗎？您是否也預期那裡的宏觀經濟狀況會有所改善？任何關於當地市場競爭情況的評論都將不勝感激。謝謝。

Yes. So Filippo, let me address India first. Thank you. As you saw from the India -- results, organic was down mid-singles. Underlying demand in India, mostly in the urban part tends to be a bit sluggish rule.

是的。菲利波，那我先談談印度吧。謝謝。正如你從印度的調查結果中看到的那樣，有機產品銷售在單打中段有所下降。印度的潛在需求，尤其是在城市地區，往往比較疲軟。

Rural seems to be holding up okay. We had very difficult comparisons, as you well know, pleasingly, comps get easier, and we feel we've got really good plans moving forward, and we expect better performance in the fourth quarter and returning obviously to growth in 2026.

農村地區似乎一切安好。如您所知，我們面臨著非常艱難的比較，令人欣慰的是，比較情況會逐漸好轉，我們感覺我們已經制定了非常好的未來計劃，我們預計第四季度業績會更好，並顯然會在 2026 年恢復增長。

The GST tax in our categories, particularly Oral Care and Toothpaste went from 18% to 5%. As you can imagine, this led to some price reductions and disruptions in trade inventories. I think our team did a really good job to manage that and get ahead of it and get it cleaned up as we move into the fourth quarter. Longer term, we would expect the GST reduction to benefit consumption in the category, which has been challenged by the inflationary pressures there. So overall, we think this will be a net positive for us.

我們類別的消費稅，特別是口腔護理和牙膏類商品的消費稅，從 18% 降至 5%。可想而知，這導致了一些價格下降和貿易庫存中斷。我認為我們的團隊在處理這個問題上做得非常好，我們提前做好了準備，並在進入第四節時解決了這個問題。從長遠來看，我們預計消費稅的降低將有利於該類別的消費，而該類別一直受到通膨壓力的挑戰。所以總的來說，我們認為這對我們來說將是一件好事。

Moving forward, we're obviously very focused on addressing some of the sluggishness we're seeing in the rural areas. We've got a strong premiumization strategy to continue to grow share in the modern trade and particularly in urban areas, and we'll be reviewing that business in detail with the teams next week, but we're excited about some of the strategic areas that we're going after and the long-term growth potential of that market.

展望未來，我們顯然會非常注重解決農村地區出現的一些發展滯後問題。我們制定了強而有力的高端化策略，以繼續擴大在現代通路，尤其是在城市地區的市場份額。下週我們將與團隊詳細審查這項業務，但我們對我們正在追求的一些策略領域以及該市場的長期成長潛力感到興奮。

Robert Ottenstein, Evercore ISI.

Robert Ottenstein，Evercore ISI。

Great. First, a quick follow-up just on Latin America. If you can give us just a sense of where the market share is ended up with the relaunch and your thought of the impact of the formula change on that? And do you -- what is the outlook for 2026?

偉大的。首先，快速跟進一下拉丁美洲的情況。您能否簡要介紹產品重新上市後的市佔率狀況，以及您認為配方改變對市佔率的影響？那麼，您認為2026年的前景如何？

And then my main question is on the drugstore channel in the US, very weak, not a great channel to shop in, products under locking key. How are you dealing with that, the challenges of that channel? And then perhaps related to that, Elmex has been a huge success in Europe. -- drug store channel in the US, not the greatest venue for that. How are you thinking about that dynamic, the weakness of the drug store channel as well as the potential of Elmex in the US?Thank you.

然後我的主要問題是關於美國的藥妝店管道，非常弱，不是一個好的購物管道，產品都鎖在櫃子裡。您是如何應對該通路所面臨的挑戰的？或許與此相關的是，Elmex 在歐洲取得了巨大的成功——但在美國，藥局通路並非其最佳銷售管道。您如何看待這種動態變化，包括藥局管道的疲軟以及Elmex在美國的發展潛力？謝謝。你。

Yes. Thanks, Rob. So let me try to take those in turn. First, on Colgate Total, we got out of the gate really, really strong with that relaunch. So market shares grow incrementally for the business.

是的。謝謝你，羅伯。那我就依序來回答這些問題吧。首先，在Colgate Total的重新上市方面，我們開局非常非常強勁。因此，企業的市佔率會逐步成長。

As you can imagine, we stay very close with our consumers. And as I outlined, made an adjustment to the flavor in order to address some consumer complaints and the irritation associated with select variants. The good news is that product is -- new product is rolling in, particularly in Brazil and Mexico and across the region as we speak. And the early indications is we're starting to see the shares come back quite nicely. We have a really strong marketing plan for the year -- for the quarter to go, the quarter we're in right now.

正如您所想，我們與消費者保持著非常密切的聯繫。正如我之前所述，我們對口味進行了調整，以解決一些消費者的投訴以及某些特定口味引起的不適。好消息是，新產品正在源源不絕地湧入市場，尤其是在巴西、墨西哥以及整個地區。初步跡象表明，股價已經開始好轉。我們制定了一個非常強大的年度行銷計劃——包括即將到來的季度和我們現在所在的季度。

So we're quite confident that we will see the business rebound nicely.

因此我們非常有信心，業務將會良好反彈。

As I mentioned, it was about 150 basis points of negative organic in the quarter for Latin America, about 40 to 50 basis points of total gross margin hit. So the good news is we're moving forward and confident in what we're seeing with Colgate Total.

正如我之前提到的，拉丁美洲本季的有機成長率下降了約 150 個基點，毛利率總下降了約 40 至 50 個基點。好消息是，我們正在穩步推進，並且對高露潔全效牙膏的前景充滿信心。

If I move to Asia, particularly where we're seeing some very strong results on Colgate Total, we're very encouraged by the progress we're seeing in that region. As I refer to your question around the drug class of trade, it is challenged. The good news is we have reengaged them in conversations in the middle store, about how to drive more traffic back into those stores. I mean, obviously, CVS announced a more improved results this week as you may have seen. So we're hopeful they're committed to getting the middle of the store addressed, and certainly, the therapeutic end of the business, our Whitening business continues to do quite well there.

如果我搬到亞洲，尤其是在高露潔全效牙膏取得了一些非常強勁的成果的地方，我們對該地區取得的進展感到非常鼓舞。至於你提出的關於藥品交易類別的問題，我對此表示質疑。好消息是，我們已經重新與他們展開了關於如何吸引更多客流回到這些門市的對話。我的意思是，很顯然，正如你可能已經看到的，CVS本周公布了更改善的表現。所以我們希望他們致力於解決商店中部的問題，當然，還有治療類產品，我們的美白產品業務在那裡繼續發展得很好。

But they are challenged right now, and we're working very closely with them, to improve the category dynamics through some of the revenue growth management initiatives and more importantly, some of the high-end therapeutic premium innovation we're bringing to it.

但他們目前面臨著挑戰​​，我們正在與他們密切合作，透過一些收入成長管理措施來改善該品類的動態，更重要的是，透過我們正在引入的一些高端治療性創新來改善該品類的動態。

Elmex, wonderful business. I won't get into the discussion on Europe at this stage, but driving record shares for us in Europe. We have taken that bundle to your point, Rob, into other key strong pharmacy markets around the world. It requires a strong professional underpinning in order to launch that. Clearly, we have opportunities to take that into other markets.

Elmex，一家很棒的公司。現階段我不想過度討論歐洲市場，但歐洲市場確實為我們帶來了創紀錄的市場份額。羅布，我們已經將你提到的那套方案推廣到世界各地其他重要的藥局市場。要啟動這個項目，需要強大的專業支援。顯然，我們有機會將這種模式推廣到其他市場。

And as we decide to roll that into new markets around the world, we'll be sure to let you and other investors know because it's a wonderful bundle with great upside potential.

當我們決定將這項計劃推廣到世界各地的新市場時，我們一定會通知您和其他投資者，因為這是一個極具發展潛力的絕佳方案。

Robert Moskow, TD Cowen.

Robert Moskow，TD Cowen。

Hi, thanks for the question. I noticed in the script that in the U.S., you mentioned some increased competitive activity, getting more promotional. You described it as fairly rational. Can you be more specific as to the degree to which it's intensifying and what you expect going forward?

您好，感謝您的提問。我在劇本中註意到，你提到美國出現了一些競爭活動加劇、促銷活動增加的情況。你認為這相當理性。您能否更具體地說明這種情況加劇的程度，以及您對未來發展的預期？

Yes. Thanks, Rob. Yes, we've seen a slight uptick in promotional weights more couponing, a little bit more volume on deal, but nothing that would suggest that we're back to pre-COVID levels and higher. It's still, in my view, quite constructive. But you can imagine, as we've seen some volume slowdown in the categories in which we compete, I think all of the retailers and all the competitors are looking for solutions in order to drive more turn and more velocity in store and ultimately, that turns to volume.

是的。謝謝你，羅伯。是的，我們看到促銷力度略有上升，優惠券的使用有所增加，促銷活動的數量也略有增加，但沒有任何跡象表明我們已經恢復到新冠疫情前的水平甚至更高。在我看來，這仍然很有建設性。但你可以想像，隨著我們所處競爭品類的銷量放緩，我認為所有零售商和所有競爭對手都在尋找解決方案，以提高店內週轉率和銷售速度，最終提高銷量。

What's interesting is when you look at the volume characteristics in the U.S., we still see the premium and the super premium growing very, very nicely. It's the value-oriented brands or SKUs or segment as well as the mid-price segment that seems to be suffering.

有趣的是，當你觀察美國市場的銷售特徵時，我們仍然可以看到高端和超高端市場成長得非常非常好。似乎是注重性價比的品牌、SKU 或細分市場以及中價位市場受到了衝擊。

And importantly, as I outlined in our 2030 strategy, we are very deliberately looking at more core innovation across our franchises to stimulate more demand, particularly at the lower end, why we continue to focus on the significant growth opportunity we have in the premium segment around the world. So the strategy is much more intentional in getting more innovation out to stimulate demand, not only here in North America but around the world.

更重要的是，正如我在 2030 年策略中所概述的那樣，我們正在非常有意識地關注我們各個特許經營業務的更多核心創新，以刺激更多需求，尤其是在低端市場，這也是我們繼續專注於全球高端市場巨大增長機會的原因。因此，該策略更加重視推出更多創新產品來刺激需求，不僅在北美，而且在世界各地。

Lauren Lieberman, Barclays.

勞倫·利伯曼，巴克萊銀行。

Great, thanks so much. I just wanted to ask about the pricing environment in Europe. And we had a few years, obviously, post-COVID, where there's pretty constructive pricing. This quarter is still positive, but just curious about kind of the longer-term outlook and ability to keep driving positive price in Europe? Thanks.

太好了，非常感謝。我只是想了解一下歐洲的定價環境。顯然，在新冠疫情後的幾年裡，價格走勢相當合理。本季依然保持正成長，但我很好奇長期前景以及在歐洲持續推動價格上漲的能力如何？謝謝。

Yes. Thanks, Lauren. So clearly, as we said, we're really pleased with continued pricing in Europe. And I think we've learned a lot in the last couple of years, on how to manage price effectively, notwithstanding the fact that it will continue to be a challenge in the longer term, getting positive pricing every quarter, but we have certainly built a much stronger muscle on the importance of ramping up our innovation. And again, I come back to the SGPP and the focus we have on putting more resources into innovation, and that's going to allow us to take price-based innovation, particularly at the premium side of the business, and that will be our focus.

是的。謝謝你，勞倫。所以很明顯，正如我們所說，我們對歐洲持續的定價策略感到非常滿意。我認為在過去的幾年裡，我們在如何有效管理價格方面學到了很多，儘管從長遠來看，每個季度都實現正定價仍然是一個挑戰，但我們肯定已經更加深刻地認識到加大創新力度的重要性。我再次回到SGPP，以及我們對投入更多資源進行創新的重視，這將使我們能夠進行基於價格的創新，尤其是在高端業務方面，這將是我們的重點。

Overall, the retailers have to be pleased with the category growth they're seeing on dollars and our ability to get pricing in the category, but it's going to be a balance. We need to bring real science-based innovation to drive the premiumization and take more pricing. I would expect that pricing our anticipation is that we can keep getting positive pricing as we move forward, but it will certainly be a little bit more challenged given the prolonged inflation that we've seen in the categories and our need to balance both pricing and volume growth moving forward.

總的來說，零售商應該對他們在該品類中看到的銷售成長以及我們在該品類中獲得定價的能力感到滿意，但這需要找到一個平衡點。我們需要引入真正基於科學的創新來推動高端化，並獲得更高的價格。我預計，隨著業務的推進，我們能夠繼續獲得積極的定價，但考慮到各品類持續的通貨膨脹以及我們需要在未來平衡價格和銷售增長，定價肯定會面臨更大的挑戰。

Bonnie Herzog, Goldman Sachs.

邦妮·赫爾佐格，高盛集團。

All right, thank you. Good morning. I had a question on your implied Q4 organic sales growth. I guess for the full year, guidance assumes a step-up in Q4 at the midpoint. So I guess, just hoping you could talk through the puts and takes for Q4 to get there? I guess I'm asking in the context of the still subdued end market backdrop and certainly the greater headwinds from private label pet food exit. Thank you.

好的，謝謝。早安.我有一個關於您預估的第四季度有機銷售成長的問題。我估計全年業績指引是基於第四季中期業績成長的假設。所以我想問的是，您能否談談第四季實現目標的買賣策略？我想我是在當前終端市場仍然低迷，以及自有品牌寵物食品退出市場帶來的更大阻力的背景下提出這個問題的。謝謝。

Hi, Bonnie, it's Stan. So yes, let's talk a little bit about Q4. So we said in our guidance that Q4 organic or that full year organic will be roughly in line with the year-to-date. So if you look at the year-to-date, we're roughly 1.2%. So getting to the full year would indicate that we'd improve over the performance in Q3.

嗨，邦妮，我是史丹。那麼，我們來談談第四季吧。因此，我們在業績指引中表示，第四季有機成長或全年有機成長將與年初至今的成長大致持平。所以，如果從今年迄今為止的數據來看，我們大約是 1.2%。因此，如果能達到全年水平，就意味著我們的業績會比第三季有所提升。

If you think about the drivers that would help there, we had in the past that Noel articulated earlier around Total to the Total company, that's going to improve here as we go. And you also have heard in both our prepared commentary and some of the questions thus far that there was some de-stocking in certain markets and certain products. And so as that levels out, that also becomes a benefit year heading into Q4.

想想那些能起到幫助作用的因素，就像諾埃爾之前向道達爾公司闡述的那樣，隨著時間的推移，這些因素會得到改善。而且，從我們事先準備好的評論和目前的一些問題中，你們也聽到了一些關於某些市場和某些產品去庫存的討論。因此，隨著這種情況趨於穩定，進入第四季後，這也將成為受益之年。

In addition, on private label, the impact that you saw in Q3 year-on-year will roughly be about the same impact that you'll see in Q4 as we have completely exited the private label business, but we still have that year-on-year impact. So right now, as we look at Q4 and coming off of Q3 and the momentum that we see, we feel pretty good about that in line of our guidance of roughly in line with the Q3 year-to-date, which is around 1.2%.

此外，在自有品牌方面，您在第三季度看到的同比影響將與您在第四季度看到的同比影響大致相同，因為我們已經完全退出了自有品牌業務，但我們仍然會有同比影響。所以現在，當我們展望第四季度，並結合第三季度的良好勢頭，我們對此感覺相當不錯，這與我們對第三季度迄今為止的預期大致一致，約為 1.2%。

Kevin Grundy, BNP Paribas.

凱文·格倫迪，法國巴黎銀行。

Great, thanks you more. No question for you. I wanted to kind of take a step back and get your thoughts on top line challenges. How much of this do you believe is cyclical versus how much you believe maybe your Colgate-specific challenges, 1% organic sales growth in the quarter. I'm sure you're not pleased with it.

太好了，非常感謝。你無需提問。我想退後一步，聽聽您對當前面臨的主要挑戰有何看法。您認為其中有多少是週期性因素造成的，又有多少是高露潔特有的挑戰造成的，例如本季1%的有機銷售成長。我相信你對此並不滿意。

It's levels that investors are less accustomed to seeing from Colgate. So number one, at a global level, where do you see industry growth at the moment, kind of rolling up everything, looking across your business relative to the 3% to 5% longer term? And then two, how much of this do you see as cyclical versus how much is company-specific and you think you can address with the strategy that you've outlined so far in the call.

這是投資人不太習慣看到高露潔達到的水平。首先，從全球層面來看，您認為目前產業成長點在哪裡？綜合考慮所有因素，從您的業務角度來看，相對於3%到5%的長期成長目標而言，成長前景如何？其次，您認為其中有多少是週期性的，又有多少是公司特有的，您認為您可以透過在電話會議中概述的策略來解決這些問題。

Yes. Thanks, Kevin. So let me just tackle the categories first. They obviously slowed, as I mentioned, in Q3 on a global basis, particularly for developed markets. The initial slowdown was driven by lower pricing across many of the categories, but that inflationary pressure as the inflationary pressure abated, we didn't see it necessarily coming back in volumes.

是的。謝謝你，凱文。那麼，我先來梳理一下各個類別。正如我之前提到的，第三季全球經濟成長明顯放緩，尤其是在已開發市場。最初的放緩是由許多類別的價格下降造成的，但隨著通膨壓力的緩解，我們並沒有看到銷量必然回升。

And clearly, underpinning all of this is just the continuous consumer uncertainty as we talk to consumers and evaluate consumers around the world, it's not a question of them being confident. It's just the uncertainty with all the moving parts, that are going on and all the noise and rhetoric.

顯然，所有這一切的根源在於消費者持續的不確定性。當我們與世界各地的消費者交談並評估他們的消費情況時，我們發現，這並非是他們是否自信的問題。問題就在於各種變數帶來的不確定性，以及各種喧囂和言論。

So ultimately, on a global basis, categories are now for us growing roughly 2% on a global basis, probably more like 3% in the first half. So obviously, it's a bit slower. And that's versus the 4% to 5% exit run we had in 2024. So volumes today basically flat with pricing more or less too. So if you go back Kevin, historically, over the last 10 years, I mean, clearly, these are low levels of market growth.

因此，最終，從全球範圍來看，目前各類別的成長率為 2% 左右，上半年可能達到 3%。所以很明顯，它的速度會比較慢一些。而這與我們2024年4%到5%的退出率相比，簡直是天壤之別。所以今天的銷量基本上持平，價格也差不多如此。所以凱文，如果你回顧過去 10 年的歷史，很明顯，這些年市場成長水準很低。

So whether you want to call it cyclical or not, I mean, it's clearly way below the historical averages. And so our anticipation is, yes, things will get better. But I want to reiterate, if things don't get better, we are preparing our plan and our strategy to address what we need to do to grow faster in this current environment. That's not only faster top line but faster margin growth and faster EPS to ensure that we're putting steps in place if this is to linger on for another couple of quarters.

所以，不管你稱它為週期性現象還是其他什麼現象，我的意思是，它顯然遠低於歷史平均值。因此，我們預期情況會好轉。但我想重申，如果情況沒有好轉，我們正在製定計劃和策略，以應對在當前環境下我們需要採取哪些措施才能更快地發展。這不僅意味著更快的營收成長，還意味著更快的利潤率成長和更快的每股盈餘成長，以確保我們正在採取措施，以應對這種情況可能持續數個季度的情況。

I do think it's somewhat cyclical versus historical numbers. But we're not waiting to see if it turns. We're taking steps now to ensure that we accelerate organic growth moving forward.

我認為這與歷史數據相比，在某種程度上是週期性的。但我們不會坐等風向轉變。我們正在採取措施，確保未來加快有機成長。

Peter Galbo, Bank of America.

Peter Galbo，美國銀行。

Hey, good morning, Nolan Stan. Thanks, for taking the question. I wanted to ask a little bit on the gross margin performance in the quarter. I know you called out maybe the acceleration in palm oil costs. And I just wanted to understand, A, how much of that is just base period effect? I mean the raw material pressure in the margin build clearly stepped up versus the second quarter. So I just want to understand, is that base period effects?

嘿，早安，諾蘭·斯坦。謝謝您回答這個問題。我想問一下本季的毛利率表現。我知道你提到了棕櫚油價格可能加速上漲的問題。我只是想了解一下，A，其中有多少是基期效應？我的意思是，與第二季相比，原料成本對利潤率的影響明顯加大了。所以我想了解的是，這是基期效應嗎？

Or is that something else? And then B, Noel, I know there's a lot of kind of geopolitical noise around it, but obviously, we have some Southeast Asia trade deals. We have political unrest in Indonesia, a lot of places where you source from. So maybe just the latest and greatest on what you're seeing kind of in the live market from a palm oil perspective? Thanks very much.

還是另有隱情？還有，諾埃爾，我知道這其中有很多地緣政治因素，但很顯然，我們與東南亞有一些貿易協議。印尼政局動盪，而你們的許多採購地都處於動盪之中。所以，您能否從棕櫚油市場的角度，分享您在即時市場中看到的最新情況和最熱門的市場動態？非常感謝。

Let me start with the gross profit. First, gross profit margin was down year over year in the quarter versus Q3. But I would point out, Q3 of last year was the highest gross profit margin we've had since 2020. So the year-on-year impact is primarily driven through greater-than-anticipated raw materials inflation, and that is -- and oil is the biggest driver there. The impact of lower volumes on our fixed cost leverage from our production facilities, tariffs and other transactional FX. We also saw an impact that we talked about earlier from the formula change in Colgate Total Latin America, as we mentioned in the prepared commentary.

我先來說說毛利。首先，本季毛利率年減，低於去年同期的第三季。但我要指出的是，去年第三季的毛利率是我們自 2020 年以來最高的。因此，年比影響主要源自於原物料價格上漲超出預期，而石油價格上漲又是其中最大的驅動因素。產量下降對我們生產設施、關稅和其他交易外匯的固定成本槓桿的影響。我們也看到了先前提到的高露潔拉丁美洲全效配方變化的影響，正如我們在準備好的評論中所提到的。

For our guidance, what we've laid out is that our year-to-date margin is 60.1%. We expect the full year gross margin to be roughly in line with that, which would put you for at 60% plus or minus. The sequential improvement for Q4 versus Q3, we're confident in, because we expect that there will be less material inflation on a year-on-year basis. Transactional and Colgate Total impact will be partially offset by slightly greater tariff impact. So we're confident on the gross profit improvement as we go quarter-to-quarter which would deliver a gross profit margin for the year that's roughly in line with the year-to-date.

供您參考，我們公佈的數據顯示，今年迄今的利潤率為 60.1%。我們預計全年毛利率將大致與此持平，即在 60% 左右。我們對第四季相對於第三季的環比改善充滿信心，因為我們預期年比物質通膨將會減少。交易和高露潔全效產品的影響將被略微增加的關稅影響部分抵消。因此，我們對毛利逐季改善充滿信心，這將使全年的毛利率與年初至今的毛利率大致持平。

Chris Carey, Wells Fargo Securities.

克里斯凱裡，富國證券。

Hi, everybody. Thanks so much. Just to clarify that, was there -- were there anomalies than Q3 gross profit that should be easing from here over and above just the rising commodity backdrop? I just wanted to clarify that quickly. But really, the question is around advertising spending. Colgate has increased ad spending over the years. Obviously, this is allowing for a very full and rich source of investments to support your brands?

大家好。非常感謝。為了澄清一下，除了大宗商品價格上漲的大背景之外，第三季毛利是否還有其他異常情況導致毛利從目前水準開始下降？我只是想快速澄清一下。但實際上，問題的關鍵在於廣告支出。這些年來，高露潔不斷增加廣告支出。顯然，這為支持您的品牌提供了非常充足和豐富的投資來源？

I'm also conscious that you have peers that are looking at AI and automation to drive savings in advertising. Clearly, you talked about AI quite a bit in the prepared remarks. And I just wonder with sales and categories doing what they're doing. Is there any, I guess, desire or thought to think a bit more strategically about advertising spending going forward, and maybe less concentrating on percentage of sales? And how can the organization be more efficient with the spending so as to get the right return profile.

我也意識到，你們的同行正在研究如何利用人工智慧和自動化來節省廣告成本。顯然，你在準備好的發言稿中談到了很多關於人工智慧的內容。我只是好奇銷售和品類目前的發展趨勢。我想，大家是否有意願或想法，在未來的廣告支出方面進行更具策略性的思考，而減少對銷售額百分比的關注？企業如何更有效地利用資金，從而獲得理想的回報？

Chris, let me start with the gross profit. So just again, the kind of quarter-to-quarter anomalies as we think about what will drive that. From the total impact that we talked about in Latin America, that was roughly 50 basis points or so margin. And we believe that most of that is behind us, so that would be a benefit. And then we do see materials, gross materials easing a year-on-year basis.

克里斯，我先來說說毛利。所以，我們再次強調，季度間的異常情況，以及我們思考是什麼因素會推動這種情況發生。從我們在拉丁美洲討論的總影響來看，大約是 50 個基點左右。我們相信大部分困難都已經過去，這將是一件好事。然後我們看到原材料，尤其是原材料總需求，比去年同期有所下降。

So that will also be a help. And now we're completely out of Private Label so that does -- not going to impact the current period GP. Obviously, it's still in the prior year. So we're confident in the GP improvement here as we go quarter-to-quarter.

所以那也會有所幫助。現在我們已經完全退出了自有品牌業務，所以這不會影響本期毛利。顯然，這仍然是去年的情況。因此，我們對每季GP的改善充滿信心。

Yes, Chris, let me talk about the advertising question because I -- this is one I'm spending significant amount of time on. And as we laid out our 2030 strategy, and we've talked about in previous meetings, AI and ultimately, the application of AI across a various vectors in our company is strategically very, very important, and we've been investing now over the last three years in that space, but we'll continue to accelerate our investment there.

是的，克里斯，讓我來談談廣告方面的問題，因為我——我在這個問題上投入了大量時間。正如我們在製定 2030 年策略時所討論的，人工智慧以及最終在公司各個領域應用人工智慧，在策略上非常非常重要。過去三年，我們一直在該領域進行投資，但我們將繼續加快在該領域的投資。

So if I look at the year-to-date spending on advertisement, which is roughly in line with last year's full year number, and we expect the fourth quarter to be roughly in line with the year-to-date. So advertising dollars and percent down slightly year-on-year as we lap obviously, the strong level of spending that we had in the year ago quarter in 2024.

因此，如果我看一下今年迄今為止的廣告支出，它與去年全年的數字大致持平，我們預計第四季度也將與今年迄今為止的數字大致持平。因此，廣告支出和百分比同比略有下降，顯然，我們已超過了去年同期（2024 年）的強勁支出水準。

But we are still spending very robustly against our brands, although we pulled back a little bit in some markets where we saw the consumer is much more challenged, and we delayed some of the innovative launches that we had to -- so we adjusted spending accordingly. But we're still spending against what we call return on investment. You're very much looking at leveraging our media efficiencies to, as you pointed out, to get a much better return on the overall investment. We still expect advertising to be roughly flat this year on a percent of sales basis as we move forward. And as I talked about, we will look to the savings from our SGPP to continue to fund advertising and accelerate how we're thinking about building our brands moving forward.

但我們仍然在自有品牌方面投入大量資金，儘管在一些市場，我們發現消費者面臨更大的挑戰，因此我們略微減少了投入，並且推遲了一些我們不得不推遲的創新產品發布——所以我們相應地調整了支出。但我們仍然在進行所謂的投資回報方面的支出。正如你所指出的，您們非常注重利用我們的媒體效率，以獲得更好的整體投資回報。我們預計今年廣告支出佔銷售額的百分比將基本保持不變。正如我之前提到的，我們將利用 SGPP 節省下來的資金繼續為廣告提供資金，並加快我們未來品牌建立的思路。

So let me talk a little bit about AI, and this is one that certainly I've hoped that our investors have seen that we've been really out in front of this as I talked about at CAGNY, it's a very important focus for us and a key strategic enabler for both growth and productivity as we move into the 2030 plan, and we're very, very excited about that. We've spent a significant amount of money in the last two

那麼，讓我來談談人工智慧。我當然希望我們的投資者已經看到，正如我在紐約國際會議（CAGNY）上所說，我們一直走在人工智慧領域的前沿。人工智慧是我們非常重視的領域，也是我們邁向 2030 年計畫的關鍵策略推動因素，能夠促進成長和提高生產力，我們對此感到非常非常興奮。過去兩年我們投入了大量資金

years, training and up-skilling our teams on horizontal AI and their ability to apply that to drive more productivity. Our independent surveys that we see would indicate that we're making strong progress versus our peer growth in terms of using AI and its implementation across the company. We've launched AI hubs, using the world's leading generative AI models to ensure our people have secure access to the most advanced AI capabilities, and as I think I may have mentioned at CAGNY, this is, to me, a huge unlock to drive productivity across the organization.

多年來，我們一直在培訓和提昇團隊在橫向人工智慧方面的技能，以及他們運用該技術提高生產力的能力。我們看到的獨立調查顯示，在人工智慧的應用及其在公司內部的實施方面，我們比同行取得了顯著的進步。我們推出了人工智慧中心，利用世界領先的生成式人工智慧模型，確保我們的員工能夠安全地存取最先進的人工智慧功能。正如我可能在 CAGNY 上提到的那樣，對我來說，這對於提高整個組織的生產力來說是一個巨大的突破。

We'll move it into the next phase, certainly, as we go into 2030 more on a vertical basis, to really reengineer our processes and drive a lot more efficiency. But I thought I could talk about a couple of the areas that we're very focused on with regards to advancing AI and particularly as we move into agentic AI, which is the next big frontier for us that we're quite excited about. So marketing and content, we will be using generative AI, will be pivotal to transforming all of our marketing and digital strategies. We're going to significantly enhance consumer engagement through optimized real-time and compelling visual storytelling through AI-developed content. That's going to be exciting for us.

我們肯定會將其推進到下一階段，隨著我們邁入 2030 年，我們將更加垂直地進行改革，真正地重新設計我們的流程，並提高效率。但我認為我可以談談我們在推進人工智慧方面非常關注的幾個領域，特別是當我們邁向智能體人工智慧時，這是我們下一個重要的前沿領域，我們對此感到非常興奮。因此，我們將利用生成式人工智慧進行行銷和內容創作，這對於轉變我們所有的行銷和數位策略至關重要。我們將透過人工智慧開發的內容，以優化的即時和引人入勝的視覺故事敘述方式，顯著提升消費者參與度。那對我們來說真是令人興奮。

We have some pilots in some pretty significant markets. They're showing very early -- success. The second big focus areas, as I mentioned in my upfront comments is around innovation and how we're going to truly step up the quality and quantity of our innovation using AI and our ability to much more efficiently generate more consumer-centric concepts and get those tested and validated much quicker and incubated across core markets. So that's exciting for us.

我們在一些非常重要的市場開展了一些試點計畫。他們很早就展現了成功跡象。正如我在開場白中提到的，第二個重點領域是創新，以及我們將如何利用人工智慧和我們更有效率地產生更多以消費者為中心的概念的能力，真正提高創新的品質和數量，並更快地對這些概念進行測試和驗證，並在核心市場進行孵化。這對我們來說很令人興奮。

As we look at some of the collaboration as we think about agentic commerce moving forward, an area that we're really thinking about collaborating closely with some of our big retailers, whether it's Walmart and OpenAI, whether it's Amazon, all of these will afford us the opportunity to unlock the potential that agentic commerce will bring, and we're certainly thinking about strategically how to make sure our brands play at the forefront of that and that exciting change that we're going to see from shopper behavior.

當我們展望未來智慧商務的發展方向時，我們正在考慮與一些大型零售商密切合作，無論是沃爾瑪和 OpenAI，還是亞馬遜，所有這些都將為我們釋放智慧商務的潛力提供機會。我們當然也在策略性地思考如何確保我們的品牌走在時代的前沿，引領消費者行為即將發生的令人興奮的改變。

So rest assured AI is central in terms of our strategic growth enablers for the 2030 strategy and the investments that we put in place over the last couple of years we think position us very well to continue to maximize on the trends that we're seeing with that exciting technology.

因此，請放心，人工智慧是我們 2030 年策略成長推動因素的核心，我們認為，過去幾年我們投入的資金使我們能夠更好地利用這項令人興奮的技術的發展趨勢。

Michael Lavery, Piper Sandler.

麥可·拉弗里，派珀·桑德勒。

Thank you. Good morning. Thanks for the question. Covered already, there's been good stuff already just maybe a couple of quick ones on Pet. Cats are gaining share of the U.S. pet population. You pointed out some innovation in the EU. Is there a similar shift there in terms of the market dynamics favoring Cats?

謝謝。早安.謝謝你的提問。已經介紹過了，已經有很多好東西了，可能只有關於寵物的簡短介紹。貓在美國寵物數量中所佔份額越來越大。你指出了歐盟的一些創新之處。市場動態方面是否存在類似的有利於貓咪的轉變？

And you also pointed to the 20,000 distribution point gain in the U.S. Can you give a sense of maybe some of the timing and how much of that wraps into 2026? And maybe just on inventories as well. You cited a little pressure there. Are those at the right levels now? Or should we expect any more retailer reduction still to come?

您也提到了美國新增的 2 萬個分銷點。您能否大致說明一下時間安排，以及其中有多少會持續到 2026 年？或許也包括庫存方面。你提到了其中存在的一些壓力。現在這些數值處於適當的水平嗎？或者我們應該預期零售商還會進一步降價？

Thanks, Michael, for the question. So let me more broadly cover Hill's again, and I'll address in turn some of your specific questions. Overall, given the category slowdown and impressive quarter for Hill's and what I would characterize as pretty tough circumstances. Overall, we delivered 2.5% organic ex-Private Label and that came with some E-commerce inventory reductions we saw at the end of the quarter from some of our retailers. Therapeutic, which I didn't talk about in my upfront comments, continues to be a real growth driver for us.

謝謝你的提問，麥可。那麼，讓我再更廣泛地介紹一下希爾的觀點，然後我將依序回答你們一些具體的問題。總的來說，考慮到品類成長放緩、希爾思本季業績亮眼，以及我認為相當艱難的情況。總體而言，我們實現了 2.5% 的有機產品（不包括自有品牌）銷售額，這得益於我們在季度末從一些零售商看到的電子商務庫存減少。治療性業務（我在前面的評論中沒有提到）一直是我們真正的成長動力。

The Prescription Diet business is doing exceptionally well with market share growth, which is obviously helping our mix and gross margin and operating margins on that business moving forward.

處方減肥業務的市佔率成長非常強勁，這顯然有助於提高該業務的產品組合、毛利率和營業利潤率。

We saw a greater impact, as we've mentioned in the upfront comment on Private Label this quarter to the tune of about 300 basis points. Clearly, strategically, we're not in the business for producing private label. So this is going to get cleaned out as we move through the fourth and into the first half of 2026, which will be terrific for the business allow us to really focus on the short-term growth opportunities and longer-term strategic growth opportunities that we've talked about.

正如我們在本季自有品牌業務的初步評論中提到的那樣，我們看到了更大的影響，大約有 300 個基點。顯然，從策略角度來看，我們並非從事自有品牌生產業務。因此，隨著我們進入第四年並進入 2026 年上半年，這些問題將會得到解決，這對公司來說將是件好事，使我們能夠真正專注於我們討論過的短期增長機會和長期戰略增長機會。

So if I go back to the year-to-date and importantly, in the third quarter, we grew organic sales in almost every combination of Vet, Dry, Treats, Cat, Dog, Prescription Diet and Science Diet. So it was very broad-based strength despite the slowing category. So we're really pleased with the underlying structure of the business. Continued strong margin performance on the business. That's driven by the fundamentals aided to be sure, by a little bit lower private label, but we're obviously getting more leverage through the P&L as we continue to optimize the supply chain.

所以，回顧今年迄今為止的情況，尤其重要的是，在第三季度，我們在獸醫處方糧、乾糧、零食、貓糧、狗糧、處方糧和希爾思處方糧的幾乎所有組合中都實現了有機銷售增長。儘管該類別增速放緩，但整體表現依然非常強勁。所以我們對公司的基本架構非常滿意。業務利潤率持續強勁成長。這主要受基本面因素驅動，當然，自有品牌銷售額略有下降也有幫助，但隨著我們不斷優化供應鏈，我們顯然在損益表方面獲得了更大的優勢。

And we're able to do that despite obviously softer volumes in general. And as the category remains sluggish and ultimately should come back medium and longer term, we'll get obviously more leverage moving through our facilities.

即使整體銷售明顯疲軟，我們仍然能夠做到這一點。由於該品類仍然低迷，但最終應該會在中長期內復甦，我們顯然會在我們的設施中獲得更大的槓桿作用。

We're gaining share across channels as well, which is terrific. The science-based innovation that we're bringing behind the increased brand investment is clearly working. Active biomes, multi-packs, a series of price pack architecture moves getting better assortment in store, particularly on the growing segments like Cat and Vet are generating real benefit for us.

我們在各個通路的市佔率也在不斷成長，這真是太棒了。我們為加大品牌投入而引入的基於科學的創新顯然正在發揮作用。活躍的生物群落、多包裝、一系列價格包裝架構調整，使得店內商品種類更加豐富，尤其是在貓科和獸醫等增長的細分市場，這些都為我們帶來了真正的利益。

And my compliments obviously, to the supply chain with all the changes that we've executed over the last couple of years, our supply chain now really seems to be executing well, to talk about the ramp-up of -- obviously unlocking a lot of opportunities for growth in the Vet segment and driving more efficiency. So overall, a pretty strong performance despite the slowdown in the market.

當然，我要讚揚供應鏈，經過過去幾年我們實施的所有變革，我們的供應鏈現在似乎真的運作良好，談到產能提升——顯然釋放了獸醫領域的許多成長機會，並提高了效率。所以整體而言，儘管市場放緩，但表現依然相當強勁。

And I think longer term, as we've always said, the dynamics of this category will continue to be excellent. Even though we're seeing some slowdown, the strategic growth segments are growing fast, and we have an opportunity to get our fair share in those segments. And lastly, I would say is the Prime acquisition that we made in Australia continues to perform really, really well ahead of expectations. We're learning a lot about fresh in that market, and we will continue, obviously, to fuel that growth in Australia, and learn from that important segment.

而且我認為，從長遠來看，正如我們一直所說，這一類別的發展勢頭將繼續保持良好。儘管我們看到一些成長放緩，但策略成長領域仍在快速成長，我們有機會在這些領域獲得應有的份額。最後，我想說的是，我們在澳洲收購的 Prime 公司繼續表現出色，遠遠超出預期。我們正在學習很多關於澳洲生鮮市場的知識，顯然，我們將繼續推動澳洲生鮮市場的成長，並從這個重要的細分市場中學習。

Andrea Teixeira, JPMorgan.

Andrea Teixeira，摩根大通。

Thank you. Good morning. Noel, are you planning any selective pricing to offset the additional commodity headwinds? And then a second part of that is that, with effect coming in better than anticipated is any positive, for especially LatAm transactional effects into 2026 and even in the fourth quarter as you phase out the Total impact?

謝謝。早安.諾埃爾，你是否打算採取選擇性定價策略來抵銷大宗商品價格上漲帶來的額外不利因素？其次，如果實際效果好於預期，那麼對於拉丁美洲的交易影響，尤其是在 2026 年甚至第四季逐步取消整體影響的情況下，是否會有任何正面影響？

Yes. So Andrea, why don't I take the first one. So on the pricing, as you go through, Noel has covered, pricing here and what we would look at, the pricing actions we have in place try to address in balance with competition as well as the commodities that we see. And FX clearly did come in favor here over the past quarter, and if it stays in the current place, should be a tailwind for us heading forward.

是的。安德烈亞，那我先選第一個吧。所以關於定價，正如諾埃爾所介紹的，這裡的定價以及我們將要考慮的因素，我們採取的定價措施旨在平衡競爭以及我們所看到的商品。過去一個季度，外匯市場顯然受到了青睞，如果它能保持目前的水平，應該會對我們未來的發展起到積極作用。

Now at the current spot rate, we still see it as a flat low single-digit negative impact for the year, but Q4 would be more favorable than Q3. Europe has the biggest marginal benefit, but most currencies in channel have moved favorable. And in fact, you mentioned Latin America currencies. Those have also moved recently, which is a benefit to the business. So FX becomes a bit of a tailwind here at the current spot rates.

以目前的即期匯率計算，我們仍然認為這將對全年造成個位數百分比的負面影響，但第四季的情況會比第三季好一些。歐洲的邊際收益最大，但該通道中的大多數貨幣都出現了有利走勢。事實上，您也提到了拉丁美洲的貨幣。這些公司最近也進行了搬遷，這對公司來說是件好事。因此，在目前的即期匯率下，外匯市場會發揮一定的利好作用。

Yes. And the other thing, Andrea, I'd mention is that we were positive pricing in every single division in the third quarter, which, again, I think is a clear indication that, our brands are strong. The investment we put behind them over the years is allowing us to offset some of the commodity inflation and some of the foreign exchange inflation that we've had in the first half. But overall, we're encouraged with that, and we will continue to look for pricing opportunities as we move forward, certainly, as we look to bunch the volume component of the business in the medium and longer term.

是的。安德里亞，我還想提一下，第三季我們所有部門的定價都是正的，我認為這再次清楚地表明，我們的品牌很強大。多年來我們對這些領域的投資使我們能夠抵消上半年部分大宗商品通膨和部分外匯通膨的影響。但總的來說，我們對此感到鼓舞，我們將繼續尋找定價機會，當然，我們也希望在中長期內集中業務的銷售部分。

Olivier Cheang, Raymond James.

Olivier Cheang，Raymond James。

Great, thanks. Can you talk a little bit about offset EPS unchanged. Gross margin guide obviously came in 50 basis points but you're maintaining the low single digit EPS. Are you expecting to be on the lower end of the range? Or is there some kind of offset that we should be mindful of? And then as we think about this more challenged environment. Is there more that should be done with respect to restructuring given the current backdrop? Thanks.

太好了，謝謝。您能談談每股盈餘不變的偏移量嗎？毛利率預期雖然只有 50 個基點，但你們仍維持個位數的低每股盈餘。你預期價格會處於該價格範圍的下限嗎？或者是否存在某種我們應該注意的偏移量？然後，當我們思考這種更具挑戰性的環境時。鑑於當前形勢，在重組方面是否還有更多工作要做？謝謝。

So let's talk a little bit about the guidance on EPS. So if you kind of go back and look at the overall guidance, we said that we still expect -- to be up low single digits and that's including a flat to low single-digit negative impact from foreign exchange, so that improves as we get to the back half of the year. We updated our organic sales growth to be roughly in line with year-to-date, which would indicate to be around 1% to 2% for the year. And that includes a 70 basis point impact from the exit of private label. So as you're thinking about run rate going out, it's important to keep that in mind.

那我們來談談每股盈餘的指引。所以，如果你回顧一下整體指引，我們說過我們仍然預計——將實現個位數低增長，其中包括外匯匯率帶來的持平或個位數低負面影響，但隨著我們進入下半年，這種情況會有所改善。我們將有機銷售成長預期更新為與年初至今大致持平，這意味著全年成長率約為 1% 至 2%。其中包括自有品牌退出市場帶來的 70 個基點的影響。所以，在考慮出局率時，一定要記住這一點。

And then on gross profit margin, we said to be roughly in line with the year-to-date gross profit margin of 60.1%. And and including advertising, roughly in line with the full year of last year. And we've held our EPS guidance. And I think if you step back in our commentary the last few years, we've made significant changes to the business model. The strength of that business model enables us to weather the challenges that we had here in Q3 and still deliver bottom line dollar-based EPS growth, and we expect to be able to continue that here for this year.

至於毛利率，我們表示與今年迄今的毛利率 60.1% 大致持平。包括廣告費用在內，與去年全年大致持平。我們維持了每股盈餘預期。我認為，如果你回顧我們過去幾年的評論，你會發現我們對商業模式進行了重大改變。這種商業模式的優勢使我們能夠克服第三季度遇到的挑戰，並繼續實現以美元計的每股收益成長，我們預計今年將繼續保持這一成長勢頭。

On the restructuring question, for our sales Growth and Productivity Program. This is designed for two facets. First, we're doing this, we believe, we're in a position of strength to enable us to fund incremental investment as well as the second piece of delivering savings to continue to deliver dollar-based earnings growth. It facilitates the changes that help us make us more flexible, simplify our processes, increase our speed and efficiency. Now the program is consistent with what we announced last quarter with estimated charges of $200 million to $300 million and concluding by the end of 2028.

關於重組問題，針對我們的銷售成長和生產力計劃。這是為兩個方面設計的。首先，我們相信，我們這樣做是因為我們有能力為增量投資提供資金，其次，我們有能力節省開支，從而繼續實現以美元計價的收益成長。它有助於我們做出改變，使我們更加靈活，簡化流程，提高速度和效率。目前該計劃與我們上個季度宣布的計劃一致，預計費用為 2 億至 3 億美元，並將於 2028 年底結束。

And we anticipate those kind of first charges to start to roll through in the fourth quarter. So we're doing a lot of planning. We're going to execute this carefully because we're changing the way we work and not just slashing cost.

我們預計這類首批費用將在第四季開始陸續到帳。所以我們正在做大量的規劃工作。我們將謹慎執行這項計劃，因為我們要改變的是工作方式，而不僅僅是削減成本。

So it's important that we're looking to design and allow the future -- our organization, which aligns with our 2030 strategy. That's going to include investments in things like omni demand gen, increased innovation, scaling our capabilities and Noel has just covered AI and agentic AI, deep investments in those areas and educating our teams at the same time to be able to go execute that. This also will help continue to drive flexibility in personalization in the supply chain. We talked about those investments that we made, and we think that will continue to benefit us going forward.

因此，我們必須著眼於設計和建構未來——我們的組織，使其與我們的 2030 年策略保持一致。這將包括對全通路需求產生、增強創新、擴大我們的能力等方面的投資，Noel 剛才也談到了人工智慧和智慧人工智慧，我們將對這些領域進行深度投資，同時培訓我們的團隊，以便他們能夠執行這些投資。這將有助於繼續推動供應鏈個人化方面的靈活性。我們討論了我們所做的那些投資，我們認為這些投資將繼續使我們受益。

Oliviia, if I can just add one thing to what Stan said, we spent a lot of time over the last 12 months talking about building flexibility into the P&L. And I think that is the key thing from that standpoint, which is we work all through '24 to build that. We use some of that. We're still building flexibility in the P&L. So again, when we think about achieving our targets, we're still continuing to think about that.

奧利維亞，如果我可以補充斯坦所說的一點，在過去的 12 個月裡，我們花了很多時間討論如何在損益表中建立靈活性。我認為從這個角度來看，關鍵在於我們要在整個 2024 年裡努力實現這一點。我們會用到其中的一些。我們仍在努力提高損益表的彈性。所以，當我們思考如何實現目標時，我們仍然在繼續思考這個問題。

And I think if you look at the '25 results, we've had incremental tariffs, year over year, we have foreign exchange. We've had higher raw materials, the category slowdown, what have you, it's that focus on the flexibility that allows us to get to that. And yes, we're going to use that up as we go through the year to deal with headwinds, but that's really the focus of building that up in the first place.

我認為，如果你看看 2025 年的業績，我們會發現關稅逐年遞增，而且我們還有外匯收入。我們經歷了原物料價格上漲、品類成長放緩等等情況，正是對彈性的關注使我們能夠實現這一目標。是的，我們將在這一年中利用這些資金來應對逆境，但這正是我們最初建立這些資金的重點。

Steve Powers, Deutsche Bank.

史蒂夫鮑爾斯，德意志銀行。

Great, good morning. And I guess picking up on some of that. So Noel, when you step back and you think about the initiatives that you opened and then Stand just walk through in support of SGPP, innovation model, omnichannel diversification, RGM, et cetera, they're all underpinned by AI and predictive analytics. Those all seem like the right points of emphasis. But I guess, a couple of questions around, how do you think about the upfront cost of all those things in the aggregate? Number one.

太好了，早安。我想我從中也領悟到了一些道理。所以諾埃爾，當你回顧你發起的各項舉措，以及斯坦德為支持SGPP、創新模式、全通路多元化、RGM等所做的努力時，你會發現它們都以人工智慧和預測分析為基礎。這些似乎都是應該重點關注的面向。不過我想問幾個問題，您如何看待所有這些事情的總前期成本？第一。

Number two, to what extent are they really points of category acceleration or points of Colgate-specific differentiation versus more just the cost of doing business these days. Because if i was going to be devil's advocate, I'd say that the thematically, that's what a lot of companies are doing. And I guess all of that in terms of how that plays into your '26 planning? Thanks.

第二，這些究竟是品類加速發展的點，還是高露潔特有的差異化優勢，還是只是現今的經營成本？因為如果我要唱反調的話，我會說從主題上看，很多公司都在做。我想，這一切都與你的 2026 年計畫息息相關吧？謝謝。

Yes. Thanks, Steve. So listen, I think we clearly want to look at these as a way to gain a competitive advantage in the market, but more importantly, utilize the capabilities to drive incremental category growth for our retailers and for us. So let me start with innovation. We're learning a lot about how to use technology to innovate faster and to get better premium innovation in the market that's validated expeditiously in terms of how we looked at it before.

是的。謝謝你，史蒂夫。所以，聽著，我認為我們顯然希望將這些視為在市場上獲得競爭優勢的一種方式，但更重要的是，利用這些能力來推動我們的零售商和我們自身品類的逐步增長。那麼，就讓我們先從創新開始吧。我們正在學習如何利用科技更快地進行創新，並在市場上獲得更好的優質創新產品，這些產品能夠以比我們以前更快的速度得到驗證。

So all of that is intended on giving us a way to go to our retailers, partner with our retailers with better innovation, faster and in more quantity than we've done before. So it's going to allow us to hopefully accelerate that if we gain a competitive advantage on that.

因此，所有這些努力都是為了讓我們能夠以比以往更快、更多的速度和更好的創新方式與零售商合作。因此，如果我們能在這方面獲得競爭優勢，就有望加快這一進程。

Getting a clear understanding of how to use -- let's take agentic AI and how to make sure that we're participating in them. Once again, drives premiumization, drives more purchase intent, the three more is more money, more households, more volume allows us to really get much more personalized with our messaging, which will drive incremental consumption in the category. So all of that if we believe we're doing it right and partnering with our retailers in an effective way, should drive more category growth.

清楚了解如何使用—以智能體人工智慧為例，以及如何確保我們參與其中。再次強調，高端化能夠提升購買意願，而「三倍」指的是更多的資金、更多的家庭、更大的銷量，這使我們能夠更加個性化地傳遞訊息，從而推動該品類的消費成長。因此，如果我們相信我們做得對，並且與零售商建立了有效的合作關係，那麼所有這些都應該會推動品類成長。

Now getting the -- taking AI aside from the top line aspect of the company and the growth aspect it's using it to really effectively be more productive internally within the organization. So let me take demand planning as an example. Clearly, we have -- we see real opportunities in demand planning space to use AI to more automated demand planning and demand replenishment, which allows us to generate more cash for the business and lower working capital.

現在，撇開人工智慧對公司營收和成長的影響不談，它正在利用人工智慧來真正有效地提高組織內部的生產力。讓我以需求計劃為例。顯然，我們看到了在需求計劃領域利用人工智慧實現需求計劃和需求補貨自動化的真正機會，這使我們能夠為企業創造更多現金流並降低營運資本。

So clearly, opportunities for us to gain an advantage there. So not dissimilar to how we embarked on the whole SAP journey 20 years ago, we feel technology can be a real competitive advantage for us as a company, and we're making sure we're putting the training and the investments in place.

所以很明顯，我們有機會在那裡獲得優勢。因此，與我們 20 年前開始 SAP 之旅的方式非常相似，我們認為科技可以成為我們公司真正的競爭優勢，我們正在確保落實培訓和投資。

And we've been doing that for the last three years given some of the flex that John mentioned in the P&L. So it's not like we're starting from square one here. Our teams are well equipped to understand the applications of technology, and we're investing in the right capital given the strong cash flow that we have to ensure that we're positioning ourselves for success moving forward.

過去三年，我們一直都在這樣做，正如約翰在損益表中提到的那樣，我們採取了一些靈活的措施。所以，我們並不是從零開始。我們的團隊具備充分的專業知識，能夠理解技術的應用，並且鑑於我們擁有強勁的現金流，我們正在投資合適的資金，以確保我們為未來的成功做好準備。

Yes, I'd just pick up on your question on the upfront cost. We're not starting. We're well underway and have been for some time. And in fact, as we look at our 2030 strategy, one of the things that's changed over the last few years is that the total number of investment you see may look relatively static, under the covers, we're practicing good resource allocation.

是的，我只是想回答你關於前期費用的問題。我們不開始。我們已經順利開展工作，而且已經持續了一段時間。事實上，當我們審視我們的 2030 年策略時，過去幾年發生變化的一件事是，你看到的投資總額可能看起來相對穩定，但實際上，我們正​​在進行良好的資源配置。

So we are driving productivity, getting more efficiency, using AI to help us drive that and then making strategic investments, which we've been doing over the last several years on data, digital, AI, those investments on educating our people, all help enable this going on.

因此，我們正在提高生產力，提升效率，利用人工智慧來幫助我們實現這一目標，並進行策略性投資。過去幾年，我們在數據、數位化、人工智慧以及員工培訓方面都進行了策略性投資，所有這些都有助於實現這一目標。

So it's not like we're going to come and say we have to make this big, large incremental investment. We're reallocating resource, making strategic investments and have been for some time, and we'll continue to do so as part of our 2030 strategy.

所以，我們不會突然說我們必須進行一筆巨大的增量投資。我們正在重新分配資源，進行策略性投資，而且已經這樣做了一段時間，作為我們 2030 年策略的一部分，我們將繼續這樣做。

Edward Lewis, Rothschild & Company Redburn.

愛德華路易斯，羅斯柴爾德公司雷德伯恩。

Thank you very much. Yes. Noel, I wanted to return to China. I guess it's another quarter of familiar trends with growth at -- China and then challenges at the H&H subsidiary. Can you talk about what's going on at the latter and how you're looking to turn around performance? I mean, is it as simple as a bricks-and-mortar business essentially losing share to online?

非常感謝。是的。諾埃爾，我想回中國。我猜想這又是一個熟悉的趨勢季度，中國市場將實現成長，而 H&H 子公司將面臨挑戰。您能談談後者的現況以及您打算如何扭轉業績嗎？我的意思是，事情真的就這麼簡單，實體店的市佔率被線上業務蠶食了嗎？

Yes. Thanks, Ed. So clearly, we're we're not pleased with the overall performance in China. We see real opportunities for longer-term growth. Clearly, that market is challenged from obviously a little bit slower growth and a more intense competitive environment.

是的。謝謝，埃德。顯然，我們對在中國的整體表現並不滿意。我們看到了長期成長的真正機會。顯然，該市場面臨著成長速度明顯放緩和競爭環境更加激烈的挑戰。

and a pretty transformational transition into E-commerce, which our Colgate business has managed exceptionally well and our Holly and Hazel business now is putting the right investment in place to get the premium side of their business, which is what's driving that marketplace right now.

並且向電子商務進行了相當大的變革性轉型，我們的高露潔業務在這方面做得非常出色，而我們的冬青榛子業務現在正在進行正確的投資，以獲得其業務的高端部分，這正是目前推動市場發展的因素。

So we spent some time, as I alluded to in previous calls, as you well point out, getting the go-to-market fixed on Holly and Hazel. And I think the go-to-market, particularly in brick-and-mortar is quite advanced now and we'll start to see benefits at in the next couple of quarters.

正如我在之前的通話中提到的，正如您所指出的，我們花了一些時間來解決 Holly 和 Hazel 的上市問題。我認為，尤其是在實體零售領域，市場推廣已經相當成熟，我們將在接下來的幾季開始看到成效。

Where we're really doubling down now is on building the brand more effectively through our online communication and how we do that and move from both -- from basically a more transactional business today with some of the strong aligned platforms to a more strategic basis and how we advertise top of the funnel, what we talk about, to build the brand, and ultimately drive ultimately persuasion and conversion.

我們現在真正加倍投入的是透過線上溝通更有效地打造品牌，以及我們如何做到這一點，並從目前以交易為主、擁有一些強大合作平台的業務模式，轉向更具戰略性的業務模式，以及我們如何在銷售漏斗頂端進行廣告宣傳，我們談論什麼，以打造品牌，並最終推動說服和轉化。

And that's going to require a more deliberate focus on how we spend our money online with intentionality in my view and a better understanding of how Colgate has done it successfully, which we're sharing those learnings and then more importantly, getting the premium side of the Holly and Hazel business stepped up and.

在我看來，這需要我們更有意識地關注如何在網路上花錢，更了解高露潔是如何成功做到這一點的，我們正在分享這些經驗，更重要的是，要提升冬青榛果牙膏的高端業務。

Excited that we've got a pretty significant premium innovation coming in the fourth quarter. which they will introduce, and they're really ramping up the '26 grids to ensure that we have much more online e-commerce ready products to launch to that segment of the market, which seems to be growing quite nicely.

令人興奮的是，我們將在第四季推出一項非常重要的高階創新產品。他們將推出該產品，並且他們正在大力推進「26 網格」項目，以確保我們能夠向該細分市場推出更多適合線上電子商務的產品，而該細分市場似乎正在穩步增長。

This concludes the Q&A portion of our call. I will now return the call to Noel Wallace, Colgate-Palmolive's Chairman, President and CEO, for any closing remarks.

本次電話會議的問答環節到此結束。現在我將回撥電話給高露潔棕欖公司董事長、總裁兼執行長諾埃爾華萊士，請他作總結發言。

So thanks, everyone, for your questions. Not a lot more to add, but obviously, while the external environment provides challenges, I hope you feel we are very confident in our ability to continue to execute against our strategy, we're particularly excited about the changes we're making to adapt to the current environment to ensure that we accelerate growth, both for Colgate-Palmolive and for our retailers.

謝謝大家的提問。沒什麼要補充的了，但顯然，儘管外部環境帶來了挑戰，但我希望你們能感受到我們對繼續執行策略的能力非常有信心。我們尤其對為適應當前環境所做的改變感到興奮，這些改變將確保我們加速成長，無論是對高露潔棕欖公司還是對我們的零售商。

And let me make sure I thank again the incredible tireless effort by Colgate-Palmolive all around the world to continue to drive our results, and we look forward to talking to you again in the first quarter. Thanks, everyone.

我再次衷心感謝高露潔棕欖公司在全球為持續推動績效成長所付出的不懈努力，我們期待在第一季再次與您交流。謝謝大家。

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

會議已經結束。感謝您參加今天的電話會議。您現在可以斷開連線了。