During Procter & Gamble's quarterly earnings conference call, important leadership changes were announced. The current CEO will transition to Executive Chairman on January 1, 2026, while Shale Djura Car will take over as President and CEO. The meeting also discussed the company's financial performance, non-GAAP financial indicators, and future growth strategies.

In the challenging fiscal year 2023, Procter & Gamble overcame the fluctuations in macroeconomics, geopolitics, and consumer dynamics to achieve growth in organic sales and core earnings per share. The organic sales growth for the full year was mainly driven by volume growth and price-mix contribution. All product categories and regions experienced growth, especially the household care and personal health care sectors performed well. E-commerce sales also saw a significant increase, accounting for a certain proportion of total sales. Despite the complex global market environment, Procter & Gamble maintained or increased market share in most product categories globally. Financially, the core gross margin slightly decreased, but the core operating profit margin improved due to cost controls and investment strategies. The company also returned a large amount of cash to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. In the fourth quarter, despite challenges such as retailer inventory adjustments, Procter & Gamble still achieved positive organic sales growth, especially in the North American and European markets. Overall, Procter & Gamble successfully achieved sales, profit growth, and strong cash returns in a difficult economic and geopolitical environment.

In the past fiscal year, despite facing multiple challenges such as tariffs, inflation, political and social divisions, the company still achieved growth in sales and profits, and returned a significant amount of cash to shareholders. Although not all targets set at the beginning of the year were met, the growth achieved in such a turbulent environment is still commendable. To continue improving in controllable areas and dealing with uncontrollable external factors, the company has announced a restructuring plan aimed at strengthening the execution of its integrated growth strategy. By focusing on driving category growth and value creation, the company plans to tap into market potential worth billions of dollars in markets such as North America, Europe, and Mexico by increasing brand penetration and raising consumer levels. To realize these growth opportunities and manage short-term challenges, the company will continue to execute its integrated growth strategy, including optimizing product portfolio, investing in innovation, enhancing brand communication, improving retail execution, and providing superior value.

Procter & Gamble showcases its innovation and growth strategy in different markets and product lines through its various brands such as Pampers, SK-II, Pantene, Whiffer, Align, and Tide. In China, Pampers has achieved growth in the high-end and supercar segments through continuous product upgrades and effective communication, while SK-II's LXP series has successfully attracted high-end consumers with its high-concentration Pitera ingredient and premium packaging. In Latin America, Pantene's deep hair care series has significantly increased market share through innovative formulas and marketing strategies. Additionally, brands like Whiffer, Align, and Tide Evo have achieved significant growth in their respective markets through product and marketing innovation, with Tide Evo's environmentally friendly packaging and high performance being well received in the market. Procter & Gamble continues to lead in new product innovation, with at least four products being selected for the U new products annual top ten non-food products list for five consecutive years, and being the company with the most selected products on the list for seven consecutive years.

The company is implementing the third strategic element, which is to improve productivity in all operational areas to support innovation, brand building, and market expansion, while addressing cost and currency challenges to increase profits and generate cash flow. The goal is to achieve total savings and product cost of up to $10 billion pre-tax. Through platform projects, global supply chain optimization, improved marketing efficiency, and digitization and streamlining of organizational structure, the company aims to achieve higher cost efficiency and operational efficiency. Additionally, the company plans to strengthen its market competitiveness through constructive disruption within itself and the industry, as well as building a more agile, efficient, and responsible organization. To further drive this strategy, the company has announced a restructuring plan including simplifying product portfolio, optimizing supply chain, and redesigning organizational structure, which is expected to reduce positions in non-manufacturing departments in the coming years to achieve higher value creation and market growth.

The company expects the market environment to continue to fluctuate due to challenges such as costs, exchange rates, consumers, competitors, retailers, and geopolitics. Its expectations for the fiscal year reflect these market realities, including growth expectations for organic sales and core EBIT. The company also anticipates facing the impact of commodity costs, exchange rates, and tariffs, but will mitigate these effects through measures such as increasing capital expenditure, improving efficiency, and adjusting pricing. Additionally, the company plans to return cash to shareholders through methods like dividends and stock buybacks. These expectations and plans are based on current market growth rates, commodity prices, and exchange rates, and do not anticipate significant currency depreciation, substantial increases in commodity costs, or major supply chain disruptions.

Procter & Gamble expressed satisfaction with the sales and revenue growth achieved in a challenging and volatile environment, emphasizing its commitment to continue following its current strategy to achieve sustainable and balanced growth. The CEO detailed the extensive experience and unique qualities of the incoming Shy Le, believing he is the ideal candidate to drive the company's next phase of growth and value creation. At the same time, the company is taking proactive measures to create favorable conditions for its own growth through innovation and market strategies, aiming to achieve more significant overall performance in the current fiscal year.

Discussion on creating growth opportunities through implementing restructuring plans, focusing on key categories and brands, and optimizing the supply chain to accelerate growth even in challenging market environments. In addition, there is also a focus on investing in innovation and commercialization for the next steps, as well as trust and expectations for the future leadership and team capabilities.

In the past few quarters, Procter & Gamble's growth advantage relative to its category has gradually diminished, especially in North America. Facing this challenge, Procter & Gamble has pointed out that changes are needed in three key factors: declining category growth rates, reduced inventory at retail partners, and loss of leading positions in certain categories. The company is committed to restoring its advantage in innovation and market share growth through a restructuring plan, and plans to further discuss specific strategies and measures at an upcoming meeting.

Procter & Gamble discussed the challenges and strategies of maintaining market dominance in specific product categories, emphasizing the need for innovation and adjustments to accelerate business growth, especially in the baby care and skincare product lines. Additionally, the company plans to tap into $5 billion worth of new business opportunities through resource allocation and investments, focusing on markets and regions that have not been fully developed in the past.

The recent announcement of the organizational restructuring of the company was discussed, aiming to enhance organizational capabilities to deal with external technological developments, as well as the reasons and timing of the CEO's succession. It emphasized the rationality of the new leadership team taking over and the sustainability of the strategy. At the same time, it mentioned the significant achievements of the company since 2018 in executing strategies, including generating an incremental sales revenue of 5 million US dollars.

In the discussion, it was mentioned that the company has achieved performance in the top 80 percentile of the SP500 index, while creating an incremental profit of 6 billion US dollars, with a market capitalization growth of 180 billion US dollars, making it the 21st most valuable publicly traded company globally. In addition, the discussion also delved into the transformation of organizational design, emphasizing the importance of breaking down barriers between functional departments to improve decision efficiency, workflow efficiency, and employee value, while utilizing modern technology to seamlessly share data and drive overall optimization of business activity systems.

The discussion revolved around the company's performance expectations for the future fiscal year (FY 26), discussing the reasons for expanding the performance guidance range, including market uncertainty, fluctuations in category growth, the impact of tariff negotiations, and fluctuations in foreign exchange and commodity prices. At the same time, it was mentioned that the company hopes to achieve its goals in the upper half of the performance guidance range and expects an acceleration in earnings per share (EPS) growth in the second half of the year, partially due to pricing recovery, accelerated category growth, and cost savings from restructuring being realized in the second half of the year.

Procter & Gamble discussed the changes in consumer behavior under economic fluctuations, especially the slowing consumption trends observed in the United States and Europe. The company pointed out that consumers are worried about future uncertainties, leading them to become more cautious in their consumption and seek products or promotions that offer more value. Despite the uncertainties, Procter & Gamble emphasized its strong position in the daily necessities sector and stated that it will continue to drive its own and the industry's growth through innovation. At the same time, the company expressed frustration with the wide range of market growth forecasts, stating that this reflects the uncertainty in the current market environment.

The discussion delved into the impact of tariffs, inflation, interest rates, and market promotions on the supply chain, product pricing, and market growth. The speaker emphasized that despite the many uncertainties, the company's strategy remains unchanged, focusing on creating sustainable value through innovation and driving market growth, while avoiding protectionist practices aimed at short-term market share. Additionally, the company is demonstrating its commitment to moving forward in the face of uncertainty through restructuring.

The conversation revolves around the uncertainty of global trade environment, especially the impact of changes in tariff policies on business. The discussion points out that although recent trade agreements seem to alleviate some tariff pressures, the specific details are still unclear, so one should not be overly optimistic prematurely. The company reminds internal stakeholders not to assume that reduced tariffs will bring significant benefits, as market prices may not sustain high levels due to the decrease in tariffs. In addition, several examples of increased uncertainty factors were mentioned, including the ongoing Section 232 investigation, potential retaliatory tariffs, and tariff exemption issues under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Faced with these uncertainties, the company emphasizes focusing on controllable areas such as restructuring, expense optimization, and innovation to adapt to the ever-changing trade environment.

The conversation discussed the phenomenon of slowing consumer consumption in the American market, especially with the more significant impact of inventory adjustments on the market. The speaker asked why this phenomenon is particularly evident recently, and whether this negative impact will continue into the next quarter. The discussion also explored the situation at the retail level and which specific categories have been affected.

In the conversation, it is mentioned that the retail industry continues to observe the trend of channel shifting, especially strong performances on online channels, Walmart, Costco, and platforms like Amazon. However, this trend poses challenges to traditional retail inventory efficiency, creating ongoing unfavorable factors. In addition, retailers also need to deal with the impact of tariffs, which forces them to make choices in cash and inventory allocation, especially in the fast-moving consumer goods (CPG) category, as these categories have the fastest turnover and become the preferred option for adjusting cash flow.

The conversation delved into the inventory management strategies in the global retail industry, especially considering the impact of changes in consumer demand on inventory levels. Specific cases from the US and Brazil markets were mentioned, as well as how these changes affect the company's financial guidance and operational efficiency. In addition, special attention was paid to the situation in the Chinese market, including the sustainability of consumption trends, the impact of innovation on sales growth, and the potential influence of tariffs on the economy and consumer behavior. The discussion emphasized the importance of adapting to market changes, optimizing supply chain management, and enhancing consumer value.

The discussion focused on Procter & Gamble's response strategies to the risk of consumer trade-down, especially the performance of its premium product portfolio in the current market environment. Procter & Gamble has addressed historical challenges such as the global financial crisis by expanding its price range, but consumers now seem to prefer products with high value for money, which has somewhat affected Procter & Gamble's market share and category growth. The discussants inquired about Procter & Gamble's assessment of this phenomenon and its plans for handling the risk of consumer trade-down in the future.

The phenomenon of increasing trade pressure and intense competition in commodity prices in the global retail industry was discussed. This is due to retailers driving price promotions, particularly in Europe and the United States. While private brands have maintained stable market share in terms of sales, there has been a decline in terms of value share, indicating that retailers are adopting more aggressive pricing strategies. Additionally, there has been a high level of promotion for mid-range laundry products, further pushing consumers towards lower-priced products, but this strategy has not resulted in long-term value share growth. Despite this market pressure, the companies mentioned in the discussion are sticking to their strategies of innovating to meet the needs of consumers at different value levels in order to address potential issues with commoditization.

The dialogue emphasized the low satisfaction of consumers in multiple product categories, such as laundry detergent and diapers. Only 25% of consumers are satisfied with the performance of laundry detergent, and 50% of diapers still have leakage issues. The spokesperson firmly believes that by innovating and improving product performance, not only can category growth be driven, but market share can also be increased. Using the test market results of Ti vivo in Colorado as an example, even with product prices 50% higher than average costs, the market is still growing, demonstrating that the long-term advantages brought by innovation far outweigh short-term promotional activities. Finally, the spokesperson expressed confidence in the upcoming innovative technologies and commercialization, believing that this will help address consumer dissatisfaction, drive category growth, and increase market share.

In the conversation, the reduction of inventory in the company's experience was discussed, pointing out that this phenomenon is not limited to specific categories, but is more influenced by the turnover rate. In addition, the specific effectiveness of testing the market for the company's new organizational design was discussed, emphasizing that this new design can significantly reduce operating costs, improve decision-making efficiency, expand the work scope and influence of employees, all of which have become important factors driving the overall structural adjustment of the company. Through the positive experience of testing the market, the company plans to further promote these changes to achieve greater efficiency and cost savings.

In the discussion, intense competition within the industry and the market challenges it brings, especially the superiority gap resulting from changes in the supply system in the Chinese market, were mentioned. Faced with these challenges, the company is actively monitoring the situation and formulating strong innovation plans to regain market advantage at all price levels. Meanwhile, the change in CEO is not due to internal difficulties or external complexity, but more related to industry competition and market dynamics. The company emphasizes that, despite the challenges, the ability to continue executing established patterns has not been affected.

Even though consumers face challenges, they are still willing to accept price increases and product upgrades. This is mainly attributed to the company's focus on everyday use categories, where performance is a key factor in brand selection, and value is more than just price. The company expects this trend to continue with ongoing innovation. At the same time, the company also expresses expectations for contributions from key markets and enterprise markets in the future market.

Procter & Gamble discussed its pricing strategy in long-term growth, emphasizing the importance of innovation and product performance in driving value. The company stated that over the past 20 years, pricing and index have been positive contributors to its revenue growth and expects this historical pattern to continue. By mentioning products such as Tide Evo, the company showcased examples of significant growth in both high-end and entry-level markets, demonstrating its commitment to innovation. Furthermore, Procter & Gamble also mentioned its focus on value and affordability, including optimizing packaging sizes, cost-efficient formula innovations, and manufacturing processes to enhance the affordability of products while ensuring they provide the best value within selected price ranges. The company stressed that its goal is to provide diverse, affordable choices of high-quality products for different consumer groups.

In the conversation, the questioner first expressed blessings to John and Shala and their families, and appreciation for the excellent performance of the company. The questioner then asked strategically about the performance and growth expectations of PNG Company in the consumer health sector, discussing whether growth is more inclined towards organic growth or achieved through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In addition, the questioner also asked about specific details regarding the company's financial guidance, including whether tariff relief efforts and potential impacts of tax decisions were considered in EPS guidance, and how the cost savings from the 200-year restructuring would affect the guidance for fiscal years 26 and 27.

The discussion focused on the company's personal healthcare business, emphasizing its outstanding performance even in the face of mild cold seasons. The main drivers of double-digit growth in recent years have been organic growth and geographic expansion. The company expressed interest in enhancing growth and profitability through acquisitions in certain categories, such as the acquisition of OTC product portfolio from Germany's Merck, which not only increased revenue but also strengthened supply chain and commercial capabilities. In the future, the development of the personal healthcare business will rely on organic growth and selective acquisition opportunities.

The discussion focused on whether the company will raise prices in the U.S. market this year to counter the impact of tariffs, and whether the performance guidance range includes widely expected pricing. The company stated that the price adjustments for products affected by tariffs will see a mid-single digit growth, accounting for approximately 25% of total SKU, with overall pricing strategy aligned with inflation trends. In addition, pricing uncertainty is a part of the performance guidance range, while uncertainty in consumer demand is considered the biggest unknown factor affecting performance.

The meeting discussion emphasized the unprecedented challenges and opportunities facing the company, expressing ambitions to achieve the highest goals within the scope of medium to long-term guidance. At the same time, it also cautioned against being overly optimistic and reminded that a cautious attitude, especially considering the progress of the previous fiscal year, is more conducive to future development.

In the summary of the annual conference, the speaker expressed appreciation for the role that participants play in helping others make important life decisions and manage family resources, and looks forward to more opportunities for learning and interaction in the future to narrow the gap and have a successful year together.