Cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh Q3 2026 của Colgate-Palmolive (CL): Nâng triển vọng biên lợi nhuận

Tóm tắt điểm chính

• Colgate-Palmolive đạt tăng trưởng doanh số hữu cơ ở cả 4 ngành hàng và 4 trong số 5 bộ phận hoạt động. Các thị trường mới nổi tăng trưởng ở mức một chữ số tầm trung, dẫn đầu là Ấn Độ, Brazil và Trung Quốc.
• Dòng tiền tự do từ đầu năm đến nay tăng 7%, đồng thời công ty đã hoàn trả 2,2 tỷ USD cho cổ đông tính đến hết quý 3.
• Ban lãnh đạo đã nâng triển vọng biên lợi nhuận gộp năm 2026 lên mức mở rộng so với cùng kỳ năm trước, từ mức dự báo đi ngang trước đó. Năng suất từ chương trình Funding the Growth đã bù đắp hơn 290 điểm cơ bản chi phí lạm phát nguyên vật liệu từ đầu năm đến nay.
• Hill’s ghi nhận mức tăng trưởng doanh số 6,5% không bao gồm nhãn hàng riêng. Dòng sản phẩm Prescription Diet cho chó tăng trưởng ở mức một chữ số từ trung bình đến cao, trong khi Prescription Diet cho mèo tăng ở mức hai chữ số.
• Áp lực chi phí vẫn ở mức cao. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến lạm phát giá hàng hóa và chi phí logistics sẽ đạt đỉnh vào quý 4, với tổng chi phí lạm phát năm 2026 vẫn duy trì ở mức khoảng 300 triệu USD (có thể dao động tăng giảm).
• Việc xoay chuyển tình hình kinh doanh tại Mỹ vẫn là ưu tiên hàng đầu. Colgate có kế hoạch tăng cường đổi mới ở phân khúc cao cấp, cải thiện việc thực thi bán hàng đa kênh và áp dụng rộng rãi hơn các công cụ khuyến mãi và cá nhân hóa do AI hỗ trợ.

Dữ liệu tài chính quan trọng

Kết quả Kinh doanh và Hoạt động

Hill’s Pet Nutrition

Hill’s đã đạt được một quý tốt hơn kỳ vọng nội bộ của ban lãnh đạo dù điều kiện chung của ngành hàng còn trầm lắng. Tăng trưởng tập trung vào các sản phẩm điều trị (Therapeutic) và các phân khúc chưa được khai thác nhiều như thức ăn cho mèo và thức ăn ướt.

Dòng sản phẩm Science Diet cho mèo tăng trưởng ở mức một chữ số ở mức cao, trong khi Prescription Diet cho mèo tăng ở mức hai chữ số. Prescription Diet cho chó tăng ở mức một chữ số từ trung bình đến cao. Ban lãnh đạo cũng nhấn mạnh sự vững vàng tiếp diễn của doanh số bán hàng trực tuyến và công suất sản xuất thức ăn ướt bổ sung.

Tăng trưởng sản lượng của Hill’s không bao gồm nhãn hàng riêng đã cải thiện từ 1,2% ở cả Quý 1 và Quý 2 lên 1,8% trong Quý 3. Biên lợi nhuận hoạt động của bộ phận này giảm nhẹ do Colgate tăng cường quảng cáo và đầu tư vào việc ra mắt Hill’s Fresh tại Mỹ. Ban lãnh đạo mô tả Fresh là một cơ hội dài hạn và đang triển khai theo lộ trình có kiểm soát.

Kết quả theo Khu vực

Mỹ Latinh tăng trưởng 6%, kết hợp giữa 3,9% tăng trưởng sản lượng và 2% từ việc tăng giá. Brazil ghi nhận mức tăng trưởng hai chữ số và gia tăng thị phần, trong khi Mexico đối mặt với môi trường tiêu dùng yếu hơn cùng sự gián đoạn riêng từ phía các nhà bán lẻ. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến Mexico sẽ tiếp tục gặp thách thức trong Quý 4 nhưng cho biết một số vấn đề nhà bán lẻ sẽ hạ nhiệt khi bước sang năm 2027.

Khu vực Châu Á - Thái Bình Dương đạt tăng trưởng hữu cơ khoảng 5%. Ấn Độ tăng trưởng hai chữ số, nhờ các sản phẩm cao cấp, kênh bán lẻ hiện đại và thương mại điện tử. Hoạt động kinh doanh của Colgate tại Trung Quốc tăng trưởng ở mức một chữ số ở mức cao, trong khi Holly & Hazel ghi nhận mức tăng trưởng một chữ số ở mức thấp bất chấp sự suy yếu tiếp diễn ở các kênh bán hàng truyền thống.

Châu Âu được hưởng lợi từ các sản phẩm chăm sóc răng miệng cao cấp, bao gồm Colgate Total, Optic White và elmex. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết đổi mới sản phẩm cao cấp và khả năng kích cầu đa kênh đã tạo ra thị phần kỷ lục. Việc tăng cường hỗ trợ cho Sanex cũng thúc đẩy tăng trưởng ở mảng sữa tắm.

Châu Phi và Đông Nam Á tiếp tục đóng góp vào tăng trưởng. Nigeria đạt mức tăng trưởng hai chữ số mạnh mẽ, trong khi Philippines, Việt Nam và Thái Lan cũng ghi nhận mức tăng trưởng trong quý.

Xoay chuyển Tình hình tại Mỹ và Đầu tư AI

Ban lãnh đạo đã báo cáo sự cải thiện bước đầu về thị phần kem đánh răng tại Mỹ nhưng nhấn mạnh rằng quá trình xoay chuyển vẫn đang được tiến hành. Colgate có ý định đẩy nhanh việc đổi mới ở phân khúc cao cấp, củng cố các thương hiệu cốt lõi và tập trung nguồn lực vào các kênh kỹ thuật số, mạng xã hội và thương mại điện tử dựa trên đại lý AI mới nổi.

Công ty đang mở rộng PromoAI trên các thị trường chủ chốt để tối ưu hóa chi tiêu khuyến mãi. Công ty cũng đang sử dụng các công cụ AI độc quyền để rút ngắn chu kỳ hình thành ý tưởng sản phẩm, đồng thời cải thiện việc sáng tạo nội dung và cá nhân hóa.

Chương trình Năng suất và Tăng trưởng Chiến lược (SGPP) đã giúp mang lại 90 điểm cơ bản hiệu quả chi phí quản lý trong quý. Chương trình kéo dài đến hết năm 2028, với khoản chi phí tiết kiệm được phân bổ giữa việc tái đầu tư vào quảng cáo, AI, dữ liệu và năng lực vận hành, cũng như cải thiện lợi nhuận ròng.

Dự báo của Ban lãnh đạo

Ban lãnh đạo hiện kỳ vọng biên lợi nhuận gộp cả năm 2026 sẽ tăng so với cùng kỳ năm trước, so với triển vọng đi ngang trước đó. Việc điều chỉnh này phản ánh lợi ích từ năng suất, việc tăng giá và cơ cấu sản phẩm, ngay cả khi chi phí hàng hóa và logistics vẫn ở mức cao.

Chi phí hàng hóa trong quý 4 phần lớn đã được chốt giá và được tính vào dự báo. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến Quý 4 sẽ có chi phí logistics cao nhất trong năm tính theo cả giá trị tuyệt đối và tỷ lệ phần trăm trên doanh thu. Chi phí thuế quan cũng được dự báo sẽ đạt đỉnh vào quý 4.

Công ty dự kiến áp lực chi phí ở mức cao sẽ kéo dài sang đầu năm 2027. Công ty sẽ đưa ra dự báo chính thức cho năm 2027 vào quý 1 năm sau. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết việc điều chỉnh giá trong tương lai sẽ phụ thuộc vào từng thị trường, ngành hàng, biến động tỷ giá hối ngoái và điều kiện cạnh tranh.

Ban lãnh đạo ước tính mức tăng trưởng của ngành hàng toàn cầu ở khoảng 1,5% đến 3%, trong đó các thị trường mới nổi tăng khoảng 3% đến 5% và các thị trường phát triển tăng với tốc độ chậm hơn. Công ty dự kiến các xu hướng chung này sẽ tiếp tục, trong khi việc tăng giá bổ sung và đổi mới sản phẩm cao cấp có thể ảnh hưởng đến sự tăng trưởng của ngành hàng.

Rủi ro và Các yếu tố cần theo dõi

• Hạt nhựa, hóa dầu, bột giấy và giấy vẫn là những trở lực lớn về chi phí nguyên liệu đầu vào.
• Giá nhiên liệu cao hơn đang làm tăng chi phí vận chuyển, vốn tác động vào báo cáo kết quả hoạt động kinh doanh nhanh hơn so với chi phí hàng hóa đi qua hàng tồn kho.
• Tỷ giá hối ngoái biến động bất lợi cho công ty vào cuối quý và tiếp tục chập trùng.
• Các ngành hàng tại Mỹ vẫn tương đối ảm đạm, và việc đổi mới sản phẩm cao cấp phải biến sức mạnh thương hiệu tốt hơn thành hành vi mua hàng thực tế.
• Mexico tiếp tục đối mặt với sự suy yếu của sức mua tiêu dùng và những thách thức riêng từ phía các nhà bán lẻ.
• Các kênh bán lẻ truyền thống của Trung Quốc vẫn yếu khi nhu cầu chuyển dịch sang thương mại điện tử và các nền tảng thương mại mạng xã hội.
• Hill’s đang mở rộng thị phần, nhưng ban lãnh đạo cảnh báo rằng thương hiệu này không hoàn toàn miễn nhiễm với sự suy yếu của ngành hàng dinh dưỡng thú cưng.

Điểm nổi bật trong phần Hỏi & Đáp với các chuyên gia phân tích

Yếu tố nào thúc đẩy triển vọng biên lợi nhuận gộp được cải thiện? Ban lãnh đạo đã đề cập đến việc tăng giá, cơ cấu sản phẩm cao cấp, đòn bẩy sản xuất và năng suất. Chương trình Funding the Growth đã đóng góp lợi ích hơn 290 điểm cơ bản so với mức lạm phát nguyên vật liệu khoảng 300 điểm cơ bản từ đầu năm đến nay. Khoản hoàn thuế quan là không đáng kể và không phải là động lực mang lại sự cải thiện này.

Hill’s có thể duy trì đà tăng trưởng của mình không? Ban lãnh đạo nhìn thấy thêm nhiều cơ hội ở mảng thức ăn cho mèo, thức ăn ướt, dinh dưỡng cho thú cưng nhỏ và chế độ ăn điều trị, nơi mức độ thâm nhập thương hiệu vẫn tương đối thấp. Tuy nhiên, công ty cảnh báo rằng nhu cầu ngành hàng đang trầm lắng và Fresh sẽ được mở rộng quy mô dần dần thay vì xem là động lực tăng trưởng trong ngắn hạn.

Colgate sẽ ứng phó như thế nào với tình trạng lạm phát tiếp diễn? Công ty sẽ kết hợp các giải pháp điều chỉnh giá niêm yết, cấu trúc giá - bao bì, đổi mới sản phẩm cao cấp và tối ưu hóa chương trình khuyến mãi. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết các thị trường phát triển có thể phụ thuộc nhiều hơn vào việc định giá dựa trên đổi mới sáng tạo, trong khi các thị trường mới nổi có dư địa lớn hơn cho việc tăng giá niêm yết.

Liệu việc xả hàng tồn kho tại Mỹ có ảnh hưởng đến kết quả kinh doanh? Ban lãnh đạo cho biết không có hoạt động xả hàng tồn kho đáng kể nào từ phía nhà bán lẻ trong quý. Thay vào đó, công ty đang tập trung tái cấu trúc mô hình tiếp cận thị trường và tăng cường kết nối giữa các nhà bán lẻ, nền tảng dữ liệu và kênh kỹ thuật số.

Đà tăng trưởng ở Trung Quốc và Ấn Độ bền vững đến mức nào? Colgate cho rằng mức tăng trưởng một chữ số ở mức cao của Trung Quốc là nhờ định vị cao cấp, khả năng thực thi bán hàng trực tuyến, các kênh bán lẻ theo chuỗi câu lạc bộ và nội dung hỗ trợ bởi AI. Mức tăng trưởng hai chữ số của Ấn Độ phản ánh việc thực thi tốt hơn tại khu vực nông thôn, tăng giá và mở rộng các sản phẩm cao cấp.

Toàn văn Biên bản Cuộc họp Báo cáo Kết quả Kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

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.

Phần hỏi đáp

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.