콜게이트-팔몰리브(CL) 2026년 3분기 실적 발표회: 마진 전망 상향

핵심 요약

• 콜게이트-팔몰리브는 4개 카테고리 전체와 5개 사업부 중 4개 부문에서 자체 매출 성장을 기록했다. 신흥 시장은 인도, 브라질, 중국의 성장에 힘입어 한 자릿수 중반대의 성장률을 나타냈다.
• 연초 이후 잉여현금흐름은 7% 증가했으며, 회사는 3분기까지 주주에게 22억 달러를 환원했다.
• 경영진은 2026년 매출총이익률 전망을 기존의 전년 대비 보합 수준에서 상승 전망으로 상향 조정했다. '성장 재원 확보(Funding the Growth)' 생산성 프로그램을 통해 연초 이후 발생한 290bp 이상의 원자재 인플레이션을 상쇄했다.
• 힐스(Hill’s)는 PB 상품을 제외하고 6.5%의 매출 성장을 기록했다. 프레스크립션 다이어트 견용 제품은 한 자릿수 중후반대 성장률을 보였으며, 프레스크립션 다이어트 묘용 제품은 두 자릿수 증가율을 기록했다.
• 비용 압박은 여전히 높은 수준이다. 경영진은 원자재 가격 상승과 물류비가 4분기에 고점을 찍을 것으로 예상하고 있으며, 2026년 전체 비용 인플레이션은 3억 달러 안팎을 유지할 것으로 전망했다.
• 미국 시장 실적 개선은 여전히 최우선 과제다. 콜게이트는 프리미엄 혁신을 강화하고 옴니채널 실행력을 개선하며, AI 기반 맞춤화 및 프로모션 도구를 더욱 광범위하게 적용할 계획이다.

주요 재무 데이터

사업 및 영업 실적

힐스 펫 뉴트리션

힐스는 침체된 카테고리 업황에도 불구하고 경영진의 내부 예상치를 상회하는 분기 실적을 달성했다. 성장은 치료용 제품과 침투율이 낮은 고양이 사료 및 습식 사료 부문에 집중되었다.

사이언스 다이어트 묘용 제품은 한 자릿수 후반대 성장률을 기록했으며, 프레스크립션 다이어트 묘용 제품은 두 자릿수 증가율을 보였다. 프레스크립션 다이어트 견용 제품은 한 자릿수 중후반대 성장률을 기록했다. 경영진은 온라인 매출의 지속적인 강세와 습식 사료 추가 생산 능력도 강조했다.

PB 상품을 제외한 힐스의 판매량 성장률은 1분기와 2분기 각각 1.2%에서 3분기 1.8%로 개선되었다. 영업이익률은 콜게이트가 광고비를 늘리고 '힐스 프레시(Hill’s Fresh)'의 미국 시장 출시에 투자하면서 소폭 하락했다. 경영진은 프레시를 장기적인 기회 요소로 보고 있으며 통제된 속도로 단계적 출시를 추진 중이다.

지역별 실적

라틴아메리카는 3.9%의 판매량 증가와 2%의 가격 인상에 힘입어 6% 성장했다. 브라질은 두 자릿수 성장과 점유율 확대를 기록한 반면, 멕시코는 소비 심리 위축과 특정 유통업체 관련 차질로 어려움을 겪었다. 경영진은 멕시코 시장이 4분기에도 난관을 겪겠지만 2027년으로 접어들면서 일부 유통 이슈가 완화될 것으로 예상했다.

아시아·태평양 지역은 약 5%의 자체 매출 성장을 기록했다. 인도는 프리미엄 제품, 현대식 유통 채널, 이커머스에 힘입어 두 자릿수 성장했다. 콜게이트의 중국 사업은 한 자릿수 후반대 성장률을 기록한 반면, 홀리 앤 헤이즐(Holly & Hazel)은 오프라인 채널의 지속적인 약세로 한 자릿수 초반대 성장에 그쳤다.

유럽은 콜게이트 토탈(Colgate Total), 옵틱 화이트(Optic White), 엘멕스(elmex) 등 프리미엄 구강 케어 제품의 호조로 수혜를 입었다. 경영진은 프리미엄 혁신과 옴니채널 수요 창출이 사상 최고 시장 점유율로 이어졌다고 밝혔다. 사넥스(Sanex)에 대한 지원 확대 역시 바디워시 성장을 견인했다.

아프리카 및 동남아시아도 성장에 기여했다. 나이지리아는 강력한 두 자릿수 성장을 달성했으며 필리핀, 베트남, 태국 역시 이번 분기 성장을 기록했다.

미국 시장 실적 개선 및 AI 투자

경영진은 미국 내 치약 시장 점유율이 초기 개선세를 보였다고 보고했으나 실적 개선은 여전히 진행 중임을 강조했다. 콜게이트는 프리미엄 혁신을 가속화하고 핵심 브랜드를 강화하며 디지털, 소셜, 신흥 에이전트 기반 커머스 채널에 리소스를 집중할 계획이다.

회사는 판촉비 지출을 최적화하기 위해 주요 시장 전반으로 PromoAI 적용을 확대하고 있다. 또한 자체 AI 도구를 활용해 신제품 구상 주기를 단축하고 콘텐츠 제작 및 맞춤화를 개선하고 있다.

전략적 성장 및 생산성 프로그램(SGPP)은 이번 분기 동안 90bp의 간접비 효율화를 달성하는 데 기여했다. 이 프로그램은 2028년 말까지 운영되며, 절감액은 광고, AI, 데이터 및 역량에 대한 재투자와 순이익 개선 사이에 배분된다.

경영진 가이던스

경영진은 2026년 전체 매출총이익률이 전년 대비 상승할 것으로 예상하고 있으며, 이는 기존의 보합 전망에서 조정된 것이다. 이번 수정은 원자재 및 물류 비용이 높은 수준을 유지함에도 불구하고 생산성, 가격 인상, 제품 믹스 개선 효과를 반영한 결과다.

4분기 원자재 비용은 대부분 확정되어 전망치에 포함되었다. 경영진은 4분기가 금액 및 매출액 대비 비율 모두에서 연중 가장 높은 물류비를 기록할 것으로 예상하고 있다. 관세 비용 역시 4분기에 고점을 기록할 것으로 전망된다.

회사는 높아진 비용 압박이 2027년 초까지 계속될 것으로 예상하고 있다. 공식적인 2027년 가이던스는 내년 1분기에 제시할 예정이다. 경영진은 향후 가격 결정이 개별 시장, 카테고리, 환율 변동 및 경쟁 환경에 따라 달라질 것이라고 밝혔다.

경영진은 글로벌 카테고리 성장률을 약 1.5%~3%로 추산했으며, 신흥 시장은 약 3%~5% 성장하고 선진국 시장은 이보다 느린 속도로 성장하고 있다고 설명했다. 이러한 광범위한 트렌드가 이어질 것으로 예상하면서도, 추가적인 가격 인상과 프리미엄 혁신이 카테고리 성장에 영향을 줄 수 있다고 덧붙였다.

리스크 및 관전 포인트

• 수지, 석유화학, 펄프 및 용지는 여전히 상당한 원자재 비용 부담으로 작용하고 있다.
• 연료비 상승으로 운송비가 늘어나고 있으며, 이는 재고를 거쳐 이동하는 원자재 비용보다 빠르게 손익계산서에 반영된다.
• 환율은 분기 말 회사에 불리하게 작용했으며 여전히 변동성이 크다.
• 미국 카테고리는 상대적으로 침체되어 있으며, 프리미엄 혁신을 통해 강화된 브랜드 가치를 구매로 연결해야 한다.
• 멕시코는 소비 심리 약세와 특정 유통업체 관련 과제에 계속 직면해 있다.
• 중국의 오프라인 유통 채널은 수요가 이커머스 및 소셜 커머스 플랫폼으로 이동함에 따라 계속 약세를 보이고 있다.
• 힐스가 점유율을 늘리고 있으나, 경영진은 반려동물 영양 카테고리의 둔화에서 완전히 자유로울 수는 없다고 경고했다.

애널리스트 Q&A 주요 내용

매출총이익률 전망 상향의 주요 요인은 무엇인가? 경영진은 가격 인상, 프리미엄 믹스, 제조 레버리지 및 생산성 향상을 원인으로 언급했습니다. '성장 재원 확보(Funding the Growth)' 프로그램은 연초 이후 약 300bp의 원자재 인플레이션에 대응해 290bp 이상의 개선 효과를 기여했습니다. 관세 환급금은 미미한 수준으로 실적 개선을 이끌지 않았습니다.

힐스는 성장을 지속할 수 있는가? 경영진은 브랜드 침투율이 상대적으로 낮은 고양이, 습식 사료, 소형 반려동물 영양식 및 치료용 사료 부문에서 추가적인 기회를 보고 있습니다. 그러나 카테고리 수요가 둔화되어 있으며, 프레시(Fresh) 제품은 단기적 성장 촉매제로 다루기보다는 단계적으로 규모를 확대할 것이라고 경고했습니다.

콜게이트는 지속되는 인플레이션에 어떻게 대응할 것인가? 회사는 권장 소비자 가격(list pricing) 인상, 가격-포장 구조(price-pack architecture) 개선, 프리미엄 혁신, 프로모션 최적화를 조합하여 사용할 예정입니다. 경영진은 선진국 시장의 경우 혁신 중심의 가격 설정에 더 의존할 수 있는 반면, 신흥 시장은 권장 소비자 가격 인상 여력이 더 클 수 있다고 밝혔습니다.

미국 유통업체의 재고 축소(destocking)가 실적에 영향을 미치고 있는가? 경영진은 이번 분기 동안 의미 있는 수준의 유통업체 재고 축소는 없었다고 밝혔습니다. 회사는 대신 시장 진출(go-to-market) 모델을 재편하고 유통업체, 데이터 플랫폼, 디지털 채널 전반의 연결성을 강화하는 데 집중하고 있습니다.

중국과 인도의 성장은 얼마나 지속 가능한가? 콜게이트는 중국의 한 자릿수 후반대 성장의 원인을 프리미엄 포지셔닝, 온라인 실행력, 창고형 할인매장(club channel) 및 AI 기반 콘텐츠 덕분으로 돌렸습니다. 인도의 두 자릿수 성장은 농촌 지역 실행력 개선, 가격 인상, 프리미엄 제품 라인업 확대에 따른 것입니다.

실적 발표 전화회의 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to today's Colgate-Palmolive 2026 Third Quarter 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 Executive Vice President, Investor Relations, Claire Ross. Please go ahead.

Claire Ross

Good morning, and welcome to our third quarter 2026 earnings release conference call. This is Claire Ross, Executive President, Investor Relations.

Today's conference call will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from these statements. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties and are made on the basis of our views and assumptions at this time. Please refer to the third quarter earnings press release and our most recent filings with the SEC, including our 2025 annual report on Form 10-K and our subsequent SEC filings, all available on our website, for a discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements.

These remarks also include a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, which exclude certain items from reported results. including these identified in tables 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 on the third quarter earnings press release. A full reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP financial measures and related definitions are included in the earnings press release. 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 his thoughts on our results and our 2026 outlook. We will then open it up for Q&A.

Noel Wallace

So thanks, Claire, and good morning, everyone. So a few thoughts. We're clearly pleased to have delivered another quarter of solid top and bottom line growth, particularly in the context of the continued global volatility we're seeing. Our strong results were broad-based with organic sales growth in all 4 of our categories and 4 of our 5 divisions. We delivered solid gross margin expansion in a challenging cost environment.

Base Business EPS came in ahead of our expectations even as we continue to increase our advertising. We are driving operating leverage through our Productivity Programs, including funding the growth and the strategic growth and productivity program, which drove lower costs. Our balance sheet and cash flow performance through the third quarter was also very strong with free cash flow up 7%, and we've returned $2.2 billion to shareholders year-to-date. Our strong on-the-ground execution, coupled with our continued investment in our AI capabilities helped drive our performance. As was the case last quarter, sales growth was led by emerging markets, which were up mid-single digits, driven by India, Brazil and China.

We also had strong contributions from our European markets where science-based premium innovation and our omnichannel generation model have led to record market shares. Our Hill's business also had a very strong quarter across both Therapeutic and Wellness businesses. We are pleased with our global momentum but remain focused on executing our U.S. turnaround. As mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have seen market share improvements in toothpaste, but remain focused on driving the long-term reset, which starts with scaling premium innovation, while we're reinforcing our core brands. We plan to increase both the pace and impact of innovation with a pipeline focused on premium opportunities that can grow at scale.

We are also strengthening our marketing model and support behind our core equities, with a sharper focus on high-priority channels, including digital, social and emerging agentic commerce. Faster innovation, better use of AI and data and more consistent execution will underpin that work. On a global basis, we continue to invest in our revenue growth management strategies as well as our omnichannel demand generation. We're scaling our AI capabilities globally with PromoAI now in many key markets. as well as with our proprietary AI innovation platform that has made our new product ideation process significantly faster than before. This leaves us well positioned to deliver perceivable superior products to accelerate category growth and drive continued market share improvement.

We believe our efforts in RGM, AI and our Funding the Growth initiatives give us the flexibility needed to invest appropriately in advertising to build our brands while driving profit and compounding EPS growth, even in a period of significant cost inflation, which we expect to remain elevated in the near term. We are also focused on delivering against our SGPP program, which is helping us build a simpler, more agile organization. The goal is not simply to manage through volatility, it's to emerge with a stronger business and an even more resilient business moving forward.

We are pleased with our year-to-date results and while there are still some uncertainties ahead, we are optimistic that the strength of our global model will set us up for long-term success. And with that, let me take your questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from Peter Galbo of Bank of America.

질의응답

Peter Galbo

Noel, I noticed just in the prepared remarks, there was very little, if at all, commentary on 2027, and I know you're probably going through the planning process of that now. But maybe you could just give us some of the knowables for next year and some of the early puts and takes, particularly on the cost side. Clearly, you're delivering organic sales in line with plan, but I think there's just some concern around what the elevated cost environment might mean for next year? So just any early thoughts would be appreciated.

Noel Wallace

Yes. Thanks, Peter. Clearly, since we're in '26, we won't be sharing guidance on '27 until the first quarter of next year. But clearly, the business model we're executing right now is helping to offset a very stubborn cost environment that we're experiencing around the world. And as we said, as I said in my prepared remarks, that we expect the cost environment to continue through the fourth quarter and into the early part of next year. So what we're focused on are the levers we can control and executing our strategy in an environment where costs are clearly elevated. As we mentioned, tariffs would peak in the fourth quarter. FX is moving a little bit against us, but we have the levers and the flexibility, and we believe the growth opportunities to continue to accelerate as we see the opportunities come to bear. So again, we'll provide guidance on '27 in the first quarter next year. Right now, we're focused on what we can control and deliver against that as well as we can.

Operator

The next question comes from Dara Mohsenian of Morgan Stanley.

Dara Mohsenian

So I just wanted to continue along that line of questioning. Just can you give us a bit more specifics on what drove the gross margin upside in the quarter and the confidence on raising full year gross margin guidance strong internal performance, that's a bit incongruous with a worse-than-expected external cost environment. So just wondering what really drove that internally and what was better than expected?

And then just Noel, you mentioned some of the offsets you're focused on going forward. Maybe you can just touch on high level the pricing lever, number one? And then just second, on ad spend. You've had a 40% increase over a 4-year period with Q4 left to go, but it looks like about 40% huge increase over time. Can you just talk about the ROI behind that? And if you're comfortable you're getting a strong ROI and maybe if that's changing at all with some of these AI tech tools?

Noel Wallace

Yes. Thanks, Dara. So I'll let Stan talk in a minute about the cost environment, how we're dealing with that. A lot of the key initiatives that we've talked about, whether it's Funding the Growth, SGPP, have been a key driver of us helping to offset that. But let me talk to something that has been pretty consistent in our narrative over the last couple of quarters, and that's our ability to get ahead of costing with pricing. And if you go back to the first quarter of this year, we generated 220 basis points of pricing, 160 basis points in the second quarter, and 200 basis points more or less in the third quarter. So clearly, we're getting pricing into the P&L as quickly as we can. Our general managers are using that to obviously drive some margin and help offset the uncertainty and the continued volatility that we're seeing around cost. So it's imperative that we get that pricing on the P&L upfront as we see a continued challenging cost environment as well as potentially a challenging foreign exchange environment.

The second aspect of that is certainly outside the U.S. we have been extremely successful in premiumizing our bundle and driving more premium innovation, whether that's at Hill's, with a very strong Therapeutic business this quarter ,whether that's through some of the Optic White success and the total relaunch we've had around the world but that premium innovation is clearly driving a nice upside in margin. And the third is clearly the strong volume that we're consistently delivering through the P&L and the leverage we're getting in our manufacturing facilities with that volume. That's certainly helping to offset that. So with that, let me -- let Stan talk a little bit about the cost environment, what we're seeing and how we're dealing with it with a couple of initiatives we have in place.

Stanley Sutula

Thanks, Noel. So let's start with the gross profit here. We're pleased with the gross profit performance on a year-to-date basis. And as we look at that year-to-date performance, I think it's indicative of the comments Noel just made but in particular, the expansion, if you kind of go down through the drivers, obviously, material cost is a headwind. Material prices were roughly 300 basis points of a headwind in line with our expectations. But it remains a volatile environment around commodities, particularly around oil-based commodities. And helping to offset that was our productivity. So funding the growth drove over 290 basis points of offset to the material inflation. And that's really the hard work of all of the Colgate people around the world driving that performance.

Pricing, as Noel just talked about, contributed 80 basis points of favorable driven by RGM, and we had slight favorable from mix of about 20 basis points. As you kind of look, we guided for margin to be up on a year-on-year basis, up from roughly flat previously. And that's really driven by the performance we have, the confidence in the productivity as we exit the year, even though commodities are elevated. Our commodities right now are largely locked in for Q4. So as we look at the overall balance, we think we can expand our gross profit margin for the year.

Let me peel that back a little bit on raw materials. Raw materials and freight and logistics, I'll lump that in, continues to operate in a really volatile environment. While we raised our guidance, raw and pack costs remained a significant headwind in Q3, particularly resins petrochemicals as well as pulp and paper. Their productivity and that's funding the growth and SGPP helped us to mitigate that within the quarter. Now we expect that underlying cost commodity pressure to remain elevated in Q4 and the near term. Resins and petrochemicals remain high, but our cost projections for the balance of 2026 are largely locked-in and included in our guidance. But it will be, as you see the commodity volatility, I think, a headwind heading into 2027.

Now freight and logistics, we've all seen the escalating fuel costs, and those are having a direct impact on freight costs. And as you know, those hit the P&L faster than commodity costs, which flow through inventory. Logistic costs have increased. They're remain elevated and our guidance for Q4 has the highest logistics cost quarter of the year, both in dollars and as a percent of sales. We expect that continued pressure through the end of the year and heading into next year. overall, it's the balance of our portfolio. It's the balance of offsetting those elevated costs through pricing, productivity, both from funding the growth in SGPP that give us confidence to raise the guidance for the year.

Noel Wallace

Yes. Thanks, Stan. Just perhaps one additional clarification. We had an insignificant amount of tariff refund come through in the third quarter. So that was not the driver there. And we're not anticipating in the fourth quarter to have any further tariff refunds.

Let me come back to your last part of your question, Dara, which is on advertising. Clearly, the strategy that we've been deploying for the last years is to drive consistent top line growth with the accelerated advertising spend that we're deploying around the world. And clearly, that model seems to be working for us. We're spending a significant amount of time with understanding ROI as I've talked about, and we feel very good about the ROIs that we're seeing. Now the folks moving forward is to continue to accelerate advertising, but we're going to continue to use the tools we have at our disposal to optimize that spending as efficiently as possible. We've got a good handle of what's going on with the advertising line. We feel very good about the spend. And you see that playing out in the market share growth across the world.

So this quarter, on Oral Care, toothpaste up, toothbrushes up, mouthwash up. So all, we think, consistent with the innovation strategy and the brand building that we have. And if we talk about some of the sluggishness that we've seen in categories around the world, it's also important that we continue as leaders in the category to support the growth with value-oriented premiumization to accelerate the advertising -- excuse me, the category growth as we move forward.

Operator

The next question comes from Peter Grom of UBS.

Peter Grom

Great. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I hope you're doing well. I wanted to pivot to top line and maybe with the emphasis on Hill's, a very impressive organic sales growth this quarter. So can you maybe unpack how the quarter came in relative to your expectations? What you're seeing from a category and market share standpoint? And how do you see growth evolving from here?

Noel Wallace

Yes. Thanks, Peter. Hill's had a terrific quarter, probably above our expectations, but that team is pretty consistent in delivering against that, which is great to see. So a lot of things happened in the quarter that were quite interesting. Clearly, the top line was good, 6.5% ex private label. And as we talked about, the categories are relatively sluggish. We're not seeing any material moves that we've talked about at least through the first 9 months of the year. So most of that growth is the strategic focus we have on growing segments particularly cat and wet and market share growth. So it's pleasing to see the fact that in a tough environment with increased competition, we're seeing good market share growth and very much the deliberate efforts we're placing in country category combinations and the segment growth opportunities that we're seeing, we're seeing good return on that investment.

Therapeutic, as I mentioned earlier, had an excellent quarter. So Prescription Diet Dog was up high mid-single digits. Prescription Diet Cat was up double digits. So clearly, the Therapeutic side of the business and the advocacy we're driving through the profession, is playing out on the prescription side, and that's having a halo effect, obviously, on the rest of the business.

The other piece I'd call out is we've been on this long-term journey to truly optimize our manufacturing and capacity that we have around the world and the increased capacity we put in the wet, is certainly delivering some of the improvements we're seeing there. But overall, with the strong growth -- volume growth we had in the quarter and the continued pricing, we saw gross margin up 170 basis points. And that's allowing us back to maybe dovetail some of the comments I made to Dara's question to continue to accelerate the advertising spend on Hill's because the ROI is absolutely there for us, and we're very happy with the campaign we're deploying, with the innovation that we're bringing across both Prescription Diet as well as the Wellness side of the business. So overall, doing quite well. But it's a challenged category, and we need to continue to execute well to drive that consistent growth moving forward.

Operator

The next question comes from Lauren Lieberman of Barclays.

Lauren Lieberman

One thing that jumps out at me this morning was the overhead efficiencies, 90 basis points in SG&A, and that was -- it's been growing each quarter of the year sort of benefit. So just curious like how much of that's from the SGPP versus kind of ongoing productivity initiatives? Like how has -- I guess, what you're doing internally allowed that productivity on the SG&A line to become a bigger component of the P&L? And should we think of it like a new run rate? What's the forward look on SG&A efficiencies?

Stanley Sutula

Yes. Thanks, Lauren. I'll take that one. So on overhead efficiencies, it's really a combination of underlying productivity, but our sales and growth and productivity program has certainly been a driver. The teams have done a very nice job to implement that. And remember, when we looked at this, we're going to use the proceeds from that in two forms. We're going to invest back into the business that's in things like advertising, like skill sets, AI, data and analytics, and we're going to take some of that to the bottom line. There are still escalations underneath the covers as we are doing merit increases and those vary around the world, we're investing back in the business. But under the covers, even with that 90 basis point improvement, there's a lot of activity going on. So SGPP, as a reminder, goes out through the end of 2028. So we have more that will be coming, and we've talked about that in the past.

But there's a nice mix here of underlying productivity plus the SGPP contributing to that. This is part of our business model that we're looking at. So trying to drive margin improvement, manage overheads, grow the business, to invest back in the underlying business and deliver compounding profitable growth.

Operator

The next question comes from Steve Powers of Deutsche Bank.

Stephen Robert Powers

Latin America remains a very, very solid growth driver. But as you called it in the prepared remarks, Mexico slowed this quarter, and there have been maybe some external questions on forward momentum in Brazil. So maybe just an update on the puts and takes as you look around the region and how you feel your business is positioned as we exit '26 and move into '27?

Noel Wallace

Yes. Thanks, Steve. Yes, as you said, another solid quarter for Latin America, up 6%, which is pleasing given some of the economic and political changes that we've seen across the region. But that's a testament to the team that we have in place and their ability to be highly resilient and agile as they adjust to things across the region. And I think what's particularly pleasing is to see the strong volume growth in Latin America as well, so up 3.9% and delivering that with 2% pricing in a tough environment.

I'll get to both Brazil and Mexico in order. So Brazil, obviously up double digits, another very strong quarter, nice market share acceleration, largely driven by, I think, the strong advertising support, but importantly, the portfolio and focus we're putting on premiumizing Oral Care with shares up there, driving execution in some of the faster-growing categories like [indiscernible] and others and doing a nice job executing broadly across the portfolio. And we feel pretty good about where things will go. We'll need to watch the Riyal carefully here, as you've seen it inch up or inch down, so to speak, as the dollar is appreciated against that currency quite considerably over the last week or 2 post the elections, and we hopefully, we'll see that settle down here soon.

Mexico was hit with a difficult consumer backdrop, obviously, some uncertainty in the categories in which we compete, but also some very specific retailer challenges that we had in the quarter. We'll see some of those challenges start to subside as we exit the fourth quarter, and we feel comfortable that those will be behind us as we move into '27 but we need to get those behind us. Executionally, we've got a really strong plan for next year. So I feel good about that. And the slowness in the quarter, hopefully, will be resurrected a bit as we move into the fourth quarter.

But as I mentioned, we're anticipating another tough quarter in Mexico, but the rest of the Latin America doing well. I'd also call out Andina (sic) [ Andean ] and Central America, good regions for us, both had very positive organic growth and executing very, very well against that. As I look at some of the categories, we had strong category growth across Latin America and Oral Care with double digits up in Oral Care with low single to mid-single-digit growth in Home Care, and a slight decline in Personal Care. But broad-based, the Personal Care was driven somewhat by a softer Shampoo business in Mexico specifically. But across the board, Oral Care up very strongly and Home Care up as well. So we're really pleased with that.

The other thing I'd say is share, shares were up across on Oral Care, both for toothpaste, toothbrushes and mouthwash in the quarter. So again, we think across the board, executing well with the diversity of opportunities we have in Latin America. Brazil will continue to perform well. We need to get Mexico back on track, and that's some challenges that we're facing and dealing with and the consumer, hopefully, will be a little bit more resilient as we move into a more settled environment potentially in '27.

Operator

The next question comes from Filippo Falorni of Citi.

Filippo Falorni

I want to ask on the U.S. business. You mentioned in the prepared remarks that you're seeing some early signs of improvement in U.S. toothpaste. Maybe in all, can you expand a bit on what parts of your plan are starting to work. What more you have to do there in terms of seeing further improvement?

And then just bigger picture, what you're seeing from a category standpoint in the U.S. Obviously, there's been a lot of focus on price and promotional activities. Do you see an environment of potentiality. You're more pricing in your categories as we enter into next year? Given the cost pressure that we talked already about earlier in the call.

Noel Wallace

Yes. Thanks, Filippo. Let me take the last part of your question first because it's more holistically across the world. And the one thing to bear in mind is the escalating cost environment that we're seeing impacts everyone, right? So my expectation is that you'll have to see some pricing, as you've heard from others, back into the business, and that will be executed differently by different brands and different competitors, but there'll have to be some pricing to offset some of the raw material and logistics headwinds that that everyone is faced with. And we are pleased, obviously, that we got pricing pretty broad-based in the quarter as we've done in the second and first in the business, which, as I mentioned earlier, is critically important to maintain that gross margin and spending.

So a little bit more specifically on North America. Our focus is on repowering our marketing model really across the board, particularly focused on premium innovation. But at the same time, we've got big core equities that we need to continue to support. So we're going to be increasing over the next couple of quarters, the pace and impact of our innovation and with a pipeline more specifically focused on premium opportunities, which is where the growth in the categories is coming from. We're going to step up omni demand, which has been a big focus structurally, and I'll talk about that maybe in just a second. Supporting our core equities with omni demand generation, supporting the new premium innovation we're bringing into the market and making sure that we're more deliberate and intentional about the priority growth channels that we're seeing across the U.S., whether that's digital, agentic and emerging social commerce business as well.

Capabilities will be critical to invest in the capabilities in that organization, and we're very much in the process of seeing that now, very much work in process. And that is the innovation resources to deliver breadth and quality moving forward. We're stepping up our AI and data deployment with a series of multiple verticals in different parts of the organization. Stronger execution fundamentals across different channels. And then importantly, let me spend a minute talking about our go-to-market structure, which is clearly an area of opportunity for us in North America.

Structurally, we've built our go-to-market for a world of channels. And what we're seeing today is a world that runs on connections, connections with data, connections with retailers, connections with different platforms, that ultimately get to the consumer. So we're restructuring to win that connection. So we get more premium innovation that earns its full value with the consumer. And so that premium innovation in terms of how we're structuring our commercial teams on the ground is continuing to be optimized because we think we can execute more effectively moving forward, particularly with the increased advertising we're putting into that region.

You mentioned categories. Categories maybe improved a bit as we exited the quarter, but still relatively sluggish. But overall, there's more or less where they've been to the first half of the year, and anticipate that as we get a strong innovation cycle in '27 coming in that we'll see those categories and at least a little bit more pricing start to inflect more positively moving forward.

Operator

The next question comes from Bonnie Herzog of Goldman Sachs.

Bonnie Herzog

I had a question on consumption trends across your markets. With gas prices still elevated, curious to hear from you if you've seen any further deterioration in consumption across your markets? Or has it been more of the same? And then I'd love to hear which markets are doing well and maybe which ones have been more pressured recently? And then lastly, what is your expectation for category growth for the rest of this -- or this year, and then for next year? Does the guidance assume sequential improvement in trends over the course of the year?

Noel Wallace

Thank you, Bonnie. So let me -- there's a lot there. Let me start, I guess, big picture category growth overall globally. We're seeing growth in the 1% to 5% to 3% globally with obviously emerging markets driving a faster growth in that 3% to 5% range and the developed markets driving growth in that 1.5% to 2% range. So overall, 1.5% to 3% globally with emerging at the higher end, 3% to 5%. And the expectation is that will continue.

Now that being said, there will be some probably more pricing that needs to be taken globally that will take that up. a lot more premium innovation because that's where the growth is in the categories across the board. So we'll see that come into it. But we're going to watch that very carefully. And our focus on increased support and increased premiumization is intended to obviously grow our retailers' categories. So let me walk around the world.

I guess I'll start with emerging markets, which were up mid-singles. Asia had a really good quarter, although I would say the China business continues to be challenged from a category standpoint, has not really changed from what we've seen over the last 9 months. India still pretty good. We had obviously a really strong -- another really strong quarter in India with double digits, and that was really driven by a lot of the premium innovation that we're seeing. In terms of our China business, pleased that Greater China was up mid-single digits and high single digits for the Colgate part of the business and low single digits for Holly and Hazel, as we exited the quarter. The category is still somewhat challenged. You're seeing brick-and-mortar very, very soft and a significant migration continues to the online part of the business, particularly in more social-driven platforms like [indiscernible].

Latin America, obviously, as I mentioned just earlier, I won't get into more detail there. Another strong quarter categories pretty much consistent, maybe inflected a little bit positive towards the end of the quarter, particularly in Brazil, maybe a little softer in Mexico, as I mentioned, but good numbers in Central America and Andina. EMEA on the emerging side, overall, the African markets continue to perform well. We had some blips in the Middle East with some some pricing challenges there. But overall, EMEA from an emerging market standpoint, is performing quite well from a category standpoint.

Flipping over to the developed part of the world, categories, as I mentioned, in that 1.5% to more or less 2.5% growth rate. North America is where we're seeing the most pressure, but a little bit of improvement as we exited the quarter. Europe categories remained roughly flat. No big change there in the second quarter and the third quarter from what we've seen. However, we continue to drive really nice market share on the premium side of the business, particularly in Southern and Northern Europe where we saw nice growth as well. And Hill's, as I mentioned just now, the category remains somewhat subdued, but we're seeing nice growth in certain segments. So in segments, particularly where we're under-indexed. Like cat, like wet, and we're generating very nice growth against that. So that's more or less how I characterize the consumption around the world. And clearly, I think we'll see that continued trend in the fourth quarter, and we'll talk about '27 when we get there.

Operator

The next question comes from Olivia Tong of Raymond James.

Olivia Tong Cheang

I want to follow up on Hill's, given the strong volume-led acceleration. Can you talk about the sustainability of that? And whether you're seeing more distribution with recent innovations. You called out Therapeutic and Cats. Obviously, those are still the biggest growth drivers. But are the growth drivers widening or -- or is that still the lion's share of the growth?

And then just on margins, a bit surprising that you saw a decline given the sales upside. I know it's a small decline. But given the sales upside, obviously, overall strength of margins for Colgate as a whole, can you talk about the drivers there and whether its investment levels behind new innovation or marketing or what happens -- what needs to happen to get better operating leverage on pretty strong top line results?

Noel Wallace

Yes. Olivia, so again, the strategy that we're executing against Hill's perhaps very redundantly boring because it's working for us. And we clearly see growth opportunities in the growing segments, and we're executing against those really well. So the wet business was up really, really nicely. The Cat business was up really, really nicely, both across prescription diet and Science Diet. So just to give you a couple of facts there. Science Diet Cat on the wellness side was up high single digits. Science Diet Prescription Diet was up double digits. So clearly, we're growing in the growth segments.

Likewise, very similar trends on Science Diet Wet as well as Prescription Diet Wet. So we're focused on those opportunities where we see real upside despite the fact that some of the other parts of the business, particularly Dog Dry is relatively flat to down, and we're seeing that migration to smaller pets and we're capitalizing on the strategies to do that. Our Online business continues to perform very well, and we still continue to be able to execute against those initiatives there.

The other aspect moving forward, we haven't necessarily talked about it is Fresh. Now Fresh was insignificant in the quarter. As I've talked about in previous meetings, we announced the launch of our Single Protein Diets in late June with 3 diets, chicken and brown rice, beef and carrot and lamb and pumpkin making everyone hungry here, I'm sure. But the key is that we're in a very deliberate and methodical rollout of that. We're doing it very carefully. We're trying to ensure that the quality that we bring to the vets and the reputation that we have behind the Hill's brand name is executed and consistent with where we want that business to be long term. We're looking to drive this business in a way that we create long-term sustainable growth of the business.

So it's a disciplined rollout, and we'll see that continue to roll out as we move through the balance of this year and into I would say that the prime launch in Australia, the prime business in Australia, that team continues to execute exceptionally well with that business, and we're transferring those learnings over to us. On the margin side, I'll let Stan give you a couple of more details on that.

Stanley Sutula

Yes. So not clear if your question is on Hill's operating margin, which is down just slightly. That really represents these investments, the investments into advertising, growing the brand the margin and launching of fresh because on an operating basis for the total company, the EBIT margins are actually up slightly year-on-year. So again, we always look to balance the investment portfolio. So our capital allocation remains the same. We're going to invest back in the business. It ties into why we launched the SGPP program to invest back in the business as well as take to the bottom line, you're going to see us make those investments in innovation and functional capability. Noel talked several times about how we're applying AI and then in some day-to-day operational efficiencies in our manufacturing, in our advertising and in new categories like fresh launch in the U.S. So we always balance those out. And again, we delivered bottom line EPS growth faster than top line organic.

Operator

The next question comes from Chris Carey of Wells Fargo Securities.

Christopher Carey

Just one follow-up on North America. I just wanted to ask a question about APAC. In North America, was there any de-stocking in the quarter? Or is this some elasticity to new pricing? I think just like the price versus volume dynamic was a bit different than what we had expected coming in. So I'd just love to get any context for that and how you see that trending from here and whether there was any noise in Q3?

The question on APAC. It's been a more challenging segment to model over some recent years. But clearly, really nice momentum this year. What about what's going on is durable versus coming off a tough year last year. Maybe just give us a sense of if the business has turned a corner, with both Colgate China and H&H back to growth?

Noel Wallace

Yes. Great, Chris. Thank you. Let me take the inventory. No, we did not see any meaningful inventory destocking in the quarter. Clearly, I think as the categories are somewhat stabilized in the U.S., the retailers are a bit more comfortable. But if they see the category soften that is typically where you see action being taken from a working capital from an inventory standpoint. But we'll watch that very carefully.

Asia, another good quarter, roughly 5% organic across the Asia Pacific regions and geographies. Growth was led this time, as you saw, again, as we delivered in the second quarter by a very strong India business, which was up again double digits. And that's pleasingly largely driven by acceleration of our Premium business in Asia. So we're deliberately focusing on the opportunities to grow that in the modern trade and the e-commerce channels and executing quite well. So my congrats to the team there. Holly & Hazel another quarter of growth, low single-digit growth in the quarter, largely driven by a good combination of BTC and being able to at least hold the brick-and-mortar business which as you heard me mention is from a category standpoint, is down, and they're doing well to explore and optimize some of the new platforms that we're seeing like [indiscernible] particularly with some premium innovation. So a lot more work to do. I would say Holly & Hazel themselves is not 100% pleased where we've had 3 quarters of [indiscernible] growth. They're still implementing quite a bit of structural change to the business that they believe will set them up for more long-term success, particularly like we're seeing in CP China.

And China, CP China, as I mentioned, have high single-digit growth. And it clearly has figured out how to execute really well against the premium segments in that market. So our Online business is terrific. Our retailer, brick-and-mortar, particularly Club business is very, very strong there. And so they've really figured out social incubation and how to translate that into our broad-based growth across the enterprise through their portfolio management and their content creation using a lot of AI-generated content in that market to make sure that we're personalizing our message as effectively as possible. So overall, good and India, I think, is hitting stronger now, getting the execution done well in the rural trade, getting the pricing where it needed to be, consistent and now trying to optimize the premium part of the category, which continues to be a nice growth opportunity for the business.

Operator

The next question comes from Kaumil Gajrawala of Jefferies.

Kaumil Gajrawala

I want to try to maybe just understand the cost curves. It sounds like you're hedged for 4Q, but often it's a 6-month hedge, 9-month hedge, that sort of thing. And when you think about the various initiatives of taking pricing RGM, all the various things to sort of protect margins, are we sort of ahead of what might be an acceleration in the cost pressure based on where you're positioned and maybe the pricing and stuff has come in early, and that's why margins look pretty good? Or do you feel reasonably comfortable that where costs are now is about what it's going to look like for, I guess, the near term period?

Stanley Sutula

Kaumil, I'll take that one. So I don't have a magic crystal ball on cost curves. I mean we look at the inflation in commodities as they come around. And we can't directly control those. What we do is try to control how we implement our purchasing, how we optimize our productivity to deal with those. So as we've guided for this year, because we're not going to provide guidance on '27, we have good insight for what was coming in fourth quarter. We've locked wherever possible. So we're comfortable with our guidance and our ability to execute that for Q4. What we see is continued volatility and escalation in Q4 will be probably the highest level of commodity inflation on a year-on-year basis. And that ripples into logistics, as I mentioned before, that one hits the P&L faster.

So we try to do, and I think as we headed into the year, driving our SGPP program, that timing is clearly helpful. That additional productivity has helped us to mitigate this. While we're not going to provide '27 guidance. I don't see the headwinds on commodities lightening up here as we exit the year, and we have to deal with the movement in FX that Noel referenced earlier. So we've had FX move just over the past couple of weeks here. that's volatile. We deal with that regularly. But again, we don't have a way to predict exactly where that will go into the future. So we focus on what we can control. And what we can control is our productivity, our RGM and executing day-to-day.

Operator

The next question comes from Robert Ottenstein of Evercore ISI.

Robert Ottenstein

A couple of follow-up questions. No, a lot of puts and takes on Hill's, mostly positive. But if you step back and look at the traction that you're getting in a lot of the innovations and particularly the potential for Fresh. In sum, does it feel -- and it was a great quarter. Does it feel like the business in a tough market is accelerating as the year went forward and can continue to accelerate? That's question number one.

And then the second question is on emerging markets in general, and particularly the ones that we don't talk about. So Africa, Southeast Asia, individually, maybe not significant, but in some, given the growth rates is interesting. So any thoughts about, one, are you managing those markets differently in the past? And do you see continued strong growth kind of healthy mid-single digit there. And any kind of comments about strategy in all those markets not obviously individually, but how you're managing emerging markets in general outside of the main ones that we talk about all the time?

Noel Wallace

Yes. So let me take the Hill's question first. Clearly, we're not immune to the sluggishness in the category. So we need to ensure executing the strategy against where we see the growth opportunities. And we talked about that quite openly, about where we're seeing growth. We've been investing in small pause for the better part of 5 years. We put a significant amount of capital into understanding the nutritional values and health needs of small pets and using that to leverage some of the innovations that we're bringing into the market. We had some good innovation in the category that was in the prepared remarks on comorbidity diets, which we think is an opportunity for further growth.

But the biggest opportunity we see is obviously the continued low brand penetration that we're seeing in some of the growing segments like cat, like wet, like Small Paw. So if we're deliberate and intentional about focusing on those opportunities, we think we can continue to drive nice growth. But we're not immune to the softness of the category, and we're going to be focused on, obviously, the opportunities that we see in the levers that we can control around the world. I didn't talk about the broad-based nature of the business. Clearly, the U.S. had a strong quarter, and that's the bulk of our business. But a call out to the EMEA group and the European group had a really strong quarter as well, and continue to execute against the business in a very promising and positive way with a lot of the consistent strategies that I've talked to. And nothing but delighted to say this is the last quarter we have to talk about private label. I've been assured that, that will not be in our nomenclature moving forward. So you'll get clear reads. But obviously, the volume growth, which is where I wanted to go to next, Robert, it looks terrific.

If you take the the trends ex private label, 1.2% in the first quarter, 1.2% in the second quarter, 1.8% in the third quarter. We're going to be comping a little bit more aggressive comp in the fourth quarter next year. So don't get too far ahead of yourselves on that. But overall, the team is executing well. And as you said, the Fresh opportunity is a long-term opportunity. We're not looking to any home runs quarter-to-quarter. We're looking to build this business in a really sticky way to drive long-term durable growth of the business over the next couple of years, and that's how we're executing the bundle and how we're executing our market strategies as well.

On Africa. Obviously, we've moved to restart with that. We've moved that into our new division segmentation. So that sits under Jean Luc and his team in Europe. John Luc ran Africa previously before he was in European job, and the U.S. job. So he knows that region extraordinarily well. And what's interesting is you see the European influence across many of the growth markets we have in Africa. And so we're doing a lot of work to align the portfolio and optimize the sourcing to really leverage some of the European innovation that has been so successful for that group over the last couple of years, particularly on the premium side, where [indiscernible] makes sense, that's particularly in the Middle East, where we've seen some nice opportunities there.

So overall, I think that integration into the European business with the strategies that we're doing across that region will play out nicely for Africa as we move forward. And we had -- speaking of Africa, one of the regions we haven't talked about is we've invested quite considerably over the last couple of years in Nigeria. We did see a very strong double-digit growth in Nigeria, continued market share growth. That's a long-term play for us as I would say, some of the Asian markets that we've recently invested in, like Bangladesh, as well where we're investing for long-term growth, and we're seeing that starting to play out nicely as we get the fundamentals in the distribution right.

But Africa truly a growth opportunity, but the caveat there is a region that's wrought with volatility and uncertainty, but the teams on the ground doing an exceptional job, dealing with that and being quite resilient. On

the Asia side, listen, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, all nice growth in the quarter. I think it speaks to the broadness of our portfolio. We've been in these regions and geographies for a long, long time. They are a little bit more volatile, but the good news, I think the execution we have on Oral Care, the premiumization, the move to digital that's been so forward thinking for the China business that we're applying those learnings across most of Southeast Asia and seeing nice growth from it in some of those markets I just mentioned. So overall, it doesn't necessarily move in a straight line [indiscernible] in that region. But the fundamentals and the basic underlying aspects of the category and the growth opportunities we see are encouraging.

Operator

The next question comes from Andrea Teixeira of JPMorgan.

Andrea Teixeira

Noel, I was just trying to piece together like the commentary about the North America, in particular in the U.S., you said you have seen some signs of green shoots of improvement in toothpaste market share. I was wondering if you can comment on how we should be thinking as a progress there. Should we basically competitive environment getting normalized? Or there is a lot of -- still a lot of promo there and how Colgate is going to be able to continue to improve that metric?

Then a follow-up also in Europe, you had very strong numbers, and you called out Northern European, also saw the [indiscernible]. Just wondering how we should be thinking as I'm assuming you're going through the process of like discussing pricing into next year, like your ability to pass on some of the cost pressures, which I'm assuming for the consumer in Europe is even more pronounced than it is in U.S. or other developed markets?

Noel Wallace

Yes, Andrea let me start with North America again. Clearly, this is very much a work in process. And as I mentioned on the second quarter, this is going to take some time. We want to do this the right way. Premium bundles require real value orientation and connection. As I mentioned earlier with the consumer, we need to ensure that we get that premium innovation seeded in the market effectively, and you're going to start to see that translate into a better portfolio in 2027. So we're clearly gearing up for that, and that will be important for us to establish that from a long-term standpoint because that's where the growth is. And the growth numbers are quite struggling.

When you look, particularly within the toothpaste category, the difference between the super premium, the premium and the mid pricing value multiples of 2x to 3x, and the growth is certainly at the top end of the premium segment, and that's where we need to get our portfolio right. The other thing I mentioned is clearly the advertising effectiveness that we want to push even harder in the U.S. We're seeing -- obviously, it translate into good brand equity but we need to see it translate into more purchase. And so we're going to be much more deliberate and intentional analytical about the spending in the U.S. and the teams gearing up for more data personalization using some of the AI models we have in place. to truly optimize that as we move forward. So structurally, I already talked about some of the changes we're making. We've got a new team in place there, very energized, very excited in bringing some very fresh perspective to it. So we'll watch that carefully. Clearly, our objective is to get back to sustainable top line organic growth and market share growth, and we'll keep everyone well apprised of that as we move forward.

On Europe, again, strong execution from a premium standpoint, particularly on our Whiting and the relaunch of Colgate Total and the continued very strong growth we're seeing on elmex, which has been terrific. So I give the team a lot of credit and a more difficult consumer environment, as you rightfully alluded to, they're able to execute against the premiumization, and that's being done, as I mentioned in my upfront comments, through really effective omni demand generation. So truly understanding the myriad of different media opportunities we have and how to connect those much more systematically to drive brand equity and drive persuasion across the premium part of our business. And the elmex market shares are a good testament to that. and we need to clearly continue to step that up from an innovation standpoint and from an advertising standpoint.

Likewise, we had some under-supported brands as I alluded to, I think, in the first or second quarter across Europe, particularly the Sanex brand, and that is driving really nice growth on body wash that we see our ability to sustain moving forward because of the unique nature and the positioning of that brand and the fact that we haven't supported it very strongly historically and seeing a good return on that investment.

Operator

The next question comes from Michael Lavery of Piper Sandler.

Michael Lavery

I just wanted to wanted to come back to pricing and you pointed out how you've got a nice pretty steady pace and making efforts to get ahead of it and just keep that going. But maybe can you give a little sense of the composition and how much is list pricing versus mix or price power architecture? And then maybe as you look ahead, there's still a lot to figure out for next year and your planning process. But is this recent level about right? Would you expect for it to have step up? If cost pressures stay elevated, is this about how we think about where pricing needs to be? Or is it something a little different?

Noel Wallace

Yes. Thanks, Michael. So I haven't really talked a lot of revenue growth management and a lot of the work that we're doing in that space. I mentioned it in my upfront because it's very important for everyone to understand the PromoAI tools that our team has generated here. We're starting to obviously scale that much more systematically around the world and seeing a really nice return on that proprietary tool, which is giving us incredible insights on how to optimize our promotional spend by analyzing hundreds of millions of data points historically and particularly high-low retailers and how effective the promotions have been or haven't been. And so that continues to learn and effectively generate improvements as we move forward.

So on the essence of your question, how much is new price, list price versus other aspect. We have 6 or 7 levers we pulled under revenue growth management, every year and every quarter, there's different aspects. If we have a really strong premium innovation lineup, that's going to drive more of the pricing if we have more -- if we don't have that necessarily and we see a lot of cost inflation, we'll take less price increases. But we're very deliberate and thoughtful about how we take those pricing in the category and every 10 basis points is important to us. So it is price pack architecture. It is premium line innovation. It is a promo optimization, and [indiscernible] overall, how we effectively drive our everyday pricing versus our promotion pricing. So over the teams, I think it's discipline around the revenue growth management and making sure that they're using the levers at their disposal and the capabilities and technology that we're offering them to be more effective in how they execute it.

Moving forward, listen, we've got a couple of new components to deal with. We'll see where foreign exchange ends up. That's moved obviously against us, and we're going to have to look that compounded with some of the cost inflation that we're seeing in the categories. And I think that's -- as I mentioned earlier, that's going to impact everyone. And so in some markets, we will lead with pricing and others, we will follow. But it's a challenge that everyone is dealing with. And the good news is we've been able to afford some of the pricing in the category, certainly not all, to offset this, but I think the effectiveness of how we're executing our portfolio and our funding growth and the fact that we're getting some margin growth in a very challenging environment is encouraging and gives us confidence we're doing the right things.

Operator

The next question comes from Robert Moskow of TD Cowen.

Robert Moskow

Just to kind of finish up. I didn't hear a number for cost inflation in absolute terms. I think last quarter, you said a little below $300 million. Where are you now? Is it higher than that? And then secondly, there's a lot of talk about pricing. We're all wondering whether it's possible in developed markets when will we know whether the pricing is going through? Is January a typical time frame for raising list price?

Stanley Sutula

So why don't I start with the cost inflation. So we originally said $300 million. We said coming out of the last quarter's earnings call that at the time, oil had been lightening up a little bit, that it might be a little bit less Obviously, we saw what happened through the quarter is escalated again. I'd say roughly, it's still in the same original range of $300 million plus or minus. And that's with our locked in. So we don't have a price for fourth quarter because we have a series of lock-ins that occur over time. But I'd say we're roughly in line with the original guidance.

Noel Wallace

Yes. On the pricing, Robert, it's a tough question. Clearly, it's -- we're not going to necessarily guide to where we are in '27 with regards to pricing. I would just leave you with the fact that the cost environment, as we've said consistently, will peak in the fourth quarter. And so I think as everyone is looking at the '27 plan, obviously, getting pricing in the categories will be very, very important, whether that's through new innovation, which is probably more than likelihood where you see pricing come through in the development of the world, where we have a little bit more opportunity in the emerging markets to take list prices. But that, as I mentioned just a moment ago, it really is market dependent and category dependent. And we'll see that as we see the fluctuations of pricing come through and where the competition is. And where the consumer is.

So it's all a very thoughtful approach. But you know historically, we've done a really good job on managing pricing in [tough] environments, and I wouldn't expect that to change much moving forward.

Operator

Our last question comes from Edward Lewis of Rothschild & Co.

Edward Lewis

Yes. No, just looking at the performance of Colgate China up high single digits, and obviously, what's a tough consumer economy over there. And I guess I was struggling your comments on the U.S around world of connections and the premium innovation that gets full value with consumers. I mean how much does -- what you've done with the success you've had in China in sort of similar consumer environment, it seems. How much can you deploy that in the U.S. as you go forward?

Noel Wallace

Yes. Thanks for the question, and clearly, I love talking about because I think I've mentioned in previous meetings, we had taken almost all of our executive operating teams from each division over to China. And while some of it applies some of it doesn't, but the key is getting them to think on ultimately where the world is going. That being said, there are applications that translate very directly to any market around the world. And you're seeing obviously a stronger growth around social commerce, whether that's the ticket platforms here in the U.S., you'll see to a certain extent where agentic starts to come in -- but the key is really translating those learnings, as you said, Ed, very quickly. And the Enterprise Oral Care, if I speak to Oral Care team, along with our marketing organization are very focused on building those capabilities across all of our divisions as aggressively as possible. and using AI as a way to facilitate that and particularly around content creation and data personalization.

So your observation is spot on, and we clearly want to see and we are translating those capabilities across the world as quickly as we can.

Okay. I think that's it. So let me just close up. First of all, we measure duration at Colgate on the years we've worked I Hope Spiller measures those on the quarters she's delivered for the company. And today, as many of you know, Hope, its her last day, last earnings call with us, she will leave the company and retire happily moving forward after 103 quarters of earnings. So we're impressed with that. That will be a record that's tough to beat, that will hold, but we will certainly set, everyone off for that success, but Hope thank you for everything that you've done. And I'm sure all of you can reach out and congratulate her on such a stellar and exciting career at Colgate.

And then let me just think in keeping with the incredible work our 34,000 people that have done around the world, it's a tough market out there. And we are relentlessly focused on the details and getting the execution right and case by case, tube by tube, brush by brush finding ways to drive value across the world. and doing that in a tough environment. So I applaud the teams and thank them for executing the strategy and delivering another solid quarter of consistent top line and bottom line growth. So with that, I thank everyone and look forward to seeing everyone soon and wish everyone a very Happy Halloween.

Operator

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