On this page of StockholderLetter.com we present the latest annual shareholder letter from COLGATE PALMOLIVE CO — ticker symbol CL. Reading current and past CL letters to shareholders can bring important insights into the investment thesis.

 •  3/26/2025 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 •  3/29/2023 CL Stockholder Letter
 •  3/27/2024 CL Stockholder Letter
 •  More "Consumer Goods" Category Stockholder Letters
 •  CL Benford's Law Stock Score = 95

CL Shareholder/Stockholder Letter Transcript:

Reimagining A Healthier Future For All
Colgate-Palmolive Company
2024 Annual Report

2024 Highlights
1

20.1B
Net Sales By Geographic Region

Market Share
in Toothpaste
Worldwide
Worldwide
Net Sales
Colgate
Hill   s
1

1

Most
Penetrated Brand
Worldwide*
Brand
Recommended
By Veterinarians
in the U.S.
21% North America
24% Latin America
14% Europe
14% Asia Paci   c
5% Africa/Eurasia
22% Hill   s Pet Nutrition
Net Sales By Market Maturity
+230bps
Gross
Profit Margin
+15%
Advertising
Investment
+26%
4.1

B
Cash Returned
Record
to Shareholders
Operating2 1 % North AmericaThrough
Cash Flow24% Latin America
Dividends and
Share
14% Europe
14% Asia Paci   cRepurchases
5% Africa/Eurasia
22% Hill   s Pet Nutrition
*per Kantar Brand Footprint 2024 report
55% Developed Markets
45% Emerging Markets

Dear Colgate-Palmolive Shareholders
Colgate-Palmolive people delivered another year of strong top and bottom-line results
in 2024, surpassing $20 billion in net sales for the first time. We continued to execute
on our strategy of delivering sustainable, profitable growth while investing for the
future and scaling our improved capabilities across the organization.
Noel
Wallace
Net sales grew 3.3% and organic sales* grew 7.4%, with organic sales growth in every
division and in all four of our categories. We are particularly pleased with the quality
of our results with gross profit, gross profit margin, operating profit and operating
profit margin all increasing versus 2023 driving double-digit growth in net income and
earnings per share. We leveraged our strong margin performance to invest behind
building our brands, with a 15% increase in advertising spending in 2024 on top of the
19% increase in 2023. The strong investment is reflected in our improved market share
performance with our leading global toothpaste market share increasing for the third
consecutive year.
Our sharp focus on cash flow is also paying off with operating cash flow increasing
10% to a record level in 2024. We maintained our strong balance sheet and the Board
of Directors authorized an increase in the quarterly cash dividend. This was our 62nd
consecutive year of dividend increases and our 130th consecutive year paying a
dividend.
We are Colgate-Palmolive, a caring, innovative growth company that is reimagining
a healthier future for all people, their pets and our planet. We remain focused on our
priorities of continuing our organic sales growth momentum, further strengthening
and scaling our improved capabilities, increasing productivity and efficiencies to fund
investment and drive margin expansion and making progress on our sustainability and
social impact goals.
We are executing the right strategy and driving growth across
our portfolio.
We introduced our current strategy in 2019 and have since delivered six straight
years of organic sales growth at or above our long-term target range of 3% to 5%.
Importantly, that growth has been widespread across our categories and divisions, and,
in 2024, we delivered a healthy balance between pricing growth and volume growth.
In the current environment where pricing growth is slowing, we know that increasing
household penetration, or, to put it more simply, getting more people to use our
products more often, will be vital to sustaining our growth going forward. We believe
that driving household penetration in a profitable way stems first and foremost from
improving brand health. Brand health is an indication of the value consumers see in our
brands, which supports our ability to premiumize our portfolio over time. The strength
of our results this year reflects our efforts in this area and we are confident we are
executing the right strategy to continue to drive profitable growth going forward.
Our growth strategy centers around three key initiatives: accelerating science-led,
core and premium innovation with a focus on more disruptive and transformational
products across price tiers, pursuing higher-growth adjacent categories and segments
and expanding in faster-growing channels and markets.
q 2024 brought exciting new news to our Colgate Total franchise. New Colgate
Total Active Prevention toothpaste has a breakthrough, clinically proven and
*For a reconciliation of organic sales growth to net sales growth, see page 48 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024.
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q
q
q
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proprietary formula that optimizes the performance of the active ingredients,
helping consumers prevent many common oral care problems before they become
an issue. Colgate Total   s new regimen, including a new toothbrush with dual bristle
technology, offers a comprehensive solution backed by world-class science that
provides consumers with everyday preventive oral health care. Now rolling out
globally, this launch also includes new packaging and increased brand support to
help further accelerate our premiumization strategy.
Hill   s was the fastest growing global brand in pet specialty and neighborhood
pet stores in the U.S. in 2024. We continue to see the benefits of our increased
capacity with expanded offerings and wet pet food innovation for both
Prescription Diet and Science Diet driving share gains in a challenging category.
The science-led innovation included Hill   s Prescription Diet z/d Low Fat, Hill   s first
low-fat diet in the derm category, and Science Diet Sensitive Stomach and Skin
specially formulated for the unique needs of puppies and kittens.
Sanex marked its 40th anniversary in 2024 with market share gains in body
wash in key markets across Europe driven by the relaunch of Sanex Zero %
hypoallergenic body wash and the continued success of Sanex Expert Skin Health
body wash.
In U.S. home care, innovation like new watermelon scent Fabuloso 2X
concentrated formula, along with great trade execution and increased advertising
drove significant market share gains in liquid cleaners with Fabuloso   s market
share up 430 basis points for the year.
The launch of elmex Sensitivity + Gum toothpaste drove share gains in the
sensitivity segment in Europe and Latin America and is increasing professional
recommendations for the brand. elmex is now the No. 1 toothpaste brand
recommended by dentists for sensitivity in Germany.
We are scaling our improved capabilities across the Company
to drive growth.
Building and then scaling our improved capabilities in areas like innovation, digital,
eCommerce, media, advertising, revenue growth management (RGM) and advanced
analytics is a key part of our strategy as we work to deliver consistent, compounded
earnings per share growth.
Digital continues to be a big part of our transformation and we are making
advancements in a number of areas. While we are spending more on advertising to
support innovation and drive brand health and household penetration, we are also
improving the impact of this spending both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.
q The way that we buy, monitor and manage our media spending has advanced
significantly providing us the data we need to continue to drive optimization
across markets and categories.
q We are building new marketing and agency capabilities to make sure we have
the best talent and internal capabilities to drive brand health in a profitable way.
q We are maximizing the impact of our digital creative by using artificial intelligence
(AI)-powered automation tools to test and score the quality of creative units
before and after deployment.
In data and analytics, we are focusing on driving real, measurable value to our
business, such as driving revenue impact through RGM analytics, optimizing our
media spend and our promotion planning and saving time and reducing costs
through automation and in-house capabilities.
q Now scaled globally, our proprietary RGM analytics tools are driving more
informed decisions faster and helping our teams on the ground to more
accurately assess the impact of their actions. This is an important area given the
inflationary pressures we have faced over the last few years and as we look to
find pricing opportunities in the future.
2

e are using prescriptive analytics, a form of AI, to determine the optimal promotion
calendar.
q ur teams can run billions of scenarios in minutes to optimi e volume, revenue and
pro t. e have had great success in our rst pilot in the U.S. and have begun scaling
this tool globally.
e are delivering productivity and ef ciencies to fund investment
and drive margin e pansion.
ur tireless focus on productivity is generating leverage within our income statement to
drive margins higher, fund increased investment and drive earnings per share growth.
q ur ongoing best in class funding the growth cost saving initiatives delivered strong
savings again in 2024 and we continue to accelerate these initiatives across
all areas of our business.
q As part of our global automation and ef ciency strategy, we invested in automated
packing and palleti ing robots in our Greenwood, South Carolina plant. The pro ect
increased line capacity by 24 and we are now scaling this automation across all of
our manufacturing facilities worldwide.
q e are also driving energy savings in line with our sustainability goals, delivering an
estimated 2 million in savings from energy reduction pro ects in 2024 alone. Likewise,
we continue to invest in renewable energy generation worldwide. In addition to our
virtual power purchase agreement PPA for a solar energy farm in the U.S., which is
e pected to produce the e uivalent of 100 of our U.S. based operational electricity
needs, we now have on site renewable energy generation at more than 0 of our
manufacturing facilities worldwide.
q ur 2022 Global Productivity Initiative concluded in 2024, having generated
appro imately 12 million in annuali ed preta savings.
We are reimagining a healthier, more sustainable future for all.
ith the Colgate brand in more homes than any other, we are presented with great
opportunities and new challenges as we work to integrate sustainability into all aspects
of our business and create positive social impact.
q Since introducing our rst of its kind recyclable toothpaste tube in 201 , as of
ecember 1, 2024, we have transitioned appro imately
of our toothpaste
S Us globally and appro imately
of our toothpaste S Us in North America to
recyclable tubes. e continue to share the technology with third parties to encourage
recyclability of all tubes in practice and at scale and advise that consumers should
check with their local recycling facilities to con rm tube acceptance.
q e continue to accelerate action on climate change as we work towards our ambitious
targets of Net ero carbon emissions by 2040 and 100 renewable electricity across
our global operations by 20 0. In 2024, we signed our second long term PPA for a
wind farm in Europe commissioned in early 202 and which is e pected to produce the
e uivalent of appro imately 0 of our Europe based operational electricity needs.
utlook
As we move ahead together, I would like to thank all Colgate Palmolive people for their
e traordinary commitment to achieving our goals, and e press appreciation for the
support of our consumers, customers, suppliers, shareholders and oard of irectors.
ur strong results and growth momentum gives us con dence that we are e ecuting the
right strategies to deliver consistent compounded earnings per share growth and drive
value for all of our stakeholders in 202 and beyond.
Noel allace
Chairman, President and Chief E ecutive
f cer



 3/26/2025 Letter Continued (Full PDF)