Good morning. Welcome to Colgate-Palmolive's 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Today's webcast may include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from these statements. Please refer to Colgate-Palmolive's most recent filings with the SEC, including our 2025 annual report on Form 10-K and 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. I would like to turn the webcast over to our Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Noel Wallace.
Good morning. I am Noel Wallace, Chairman, President, and CEO of Colgate-Palmolive. On behalf of your board of directors, who are joining us virtually today, I would like to welcome you to our 2026 Annual Stockholders Meeting. After we have conducted the official business of the meeting, I will review our strong 2025 performance, then discuss how our new 2030 strategy positions us well to deliver peer-leading growth in 2026 and beyond. We will then proceed to the live question-and-answer session. I am joined today on this webcast by three senior members of our leadership team, Jennifer Daniels, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, Claire Ross, Executive Vice President, Investor Relations, and Stan Sutula, Chief Financial Officer. I also want to take this opportunity to welcome Christopher Boerner, who joined our Board of Directors earlier this year.
Chris brings to Colgate-Palmolive's board his extensive global business leadership experience and expertise in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. I will now turn the meeting over to Jennifer, who will conduct the formal portion of this meeting.
Thank you, Noel, and good morning, everyone. I hope you're all well. First, a quick note about the question-and-answer session Noel mentioned. In order to provide our stockholders with the broadest opportunity to ask questions, we have had the stockholder question portal open since March 25th on proxyvote.com. Questions can also be submitted now through the end of the meeting using the Ask a Question text box on the virtual meeting web portal. We will do our best to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are pertinent to the meeting will be addressed, as detailed in our rules of conduct. Both the rules of conduct and the agenda for today's meeting are available in the Meeting Materials section of the web portal. I am pleased to present the formal portion of today's meeting, which I now call to order.
Each stockholder of record on March 9, 2026, the record date for the meeting, has been given proper notice of the meeting, and a quorum is present. Affidavits of mailing of this notice, the proxy materials, and the annual report will be filed with the records of the meeting. Next, we will present the matters to be voted upon. There are five items of business on the agenda that require voting by our stockholders, and the polls are open for voting. The votes will be tallied by Mr. Peter Descovich, the Independent Inspector of Election, who joins us from Broadridge Financial Solutions. The first order of business is the election of directors as nominated by the board.
The nominees are as follows: Mr. John Bilbrey, Executive Chair of the Board of Olaplex Holdings, Inc.; Dr. Christopher Boerner, Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Mr. John Cahill, Chair of The Kraft Heinz Company; Ms. Lisa Edwards, former Executive Chair of Diligent Institute; Dr. Martin Harris, former Vice President of the Health Enterprise and Chief Business Officer of the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin; Ms. Martina Hund-Mejean, former Chief Financial Officer of Mastercard Inc.; Ms. Kimberly Nelson, former Senior Vice President, External Relations of General Mills, Inc.; Mr. Brian Newman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CVS Health Corporation; Ms. Lorrie Norrington, Operating Partner of Lead Edge Capital LLC; and Mr. Noel Wallace, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Colgate-Palmolive Company.
There have been no other nominations pursuant to our bylaw procedures, and the board recommends a vote for each of the nominees. The second item of business is the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2026. The board recommends a vote for this proposal. Representatives from PricewaterhouseCoopers are also with us today, and they will be available during the question-and-answer session later in the meeting to respond to appropriate questions. The third item of business is the non-binding advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers as described in the proxy statement. The board recommends a vote for this proposal. The fourth item of business is a stockholder proposal by the National Legal and Policy Center regarding removing diversity from our Board Candidate Considerations.
We will now play an audio recording from Mr. Paul Chesser of the National Legal and Policy Center with a statement in support of the proposal.
I'm Paul Chesser of the National Legal and Policy Center, sponsor of Proposal 4, titled Remove DEI from Board Candidate Considerations. Our proposal asks the Board to stop using race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity as criteria when selecting candidates for this Board. We believe directors should be chosen on the basis of competence, experience, and integrity. This is not a radical position. In fact, it is now the overwhelming consensus among major American corporations. This proxy season alone, we presented nearly identical proposals at American Express, Deere & Company, Goldman Sachs, and Johnson & Johnson. Every one of those companies agreed to remove identity-based language from their Board candidate criteria.
In addition to those companies, multitudes of others had already removed that criteria without us even asking them to do so. Of the companies where we brought this proposal this year, Colgate-Palmolive is the only company that chose to bring the matter to a shareholder vote rather than make that change. Shareholders deserve to understand what that decision says about this board's priorities. A U.S. Court of Appeals already struck down Nasdaq's board diversity rules, finding no established link between a board's demographic composition and the quality of its governance. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has warned that identity-based selection practices may constitute illegal discrimination against all persons, regardless of their immutable racial or gender characteristics. The U.S. Department of Justice has opened formal investigations into DEI programs at major American companies, with litigation expected to follow.
Against that backdrop, Colgate's board asks you to ratify criteria that its peer companies have abandoned, that federal courts have questioned, and that federal law enforcement is actively scrutinizing. We also ask you to consider the company's recent financial performance. Colgate posted a 25% decline in earnings per share for 2025. Over the past 12 months, shares of Colgate have declined roughly 13%, while the S&P 500 gained approximately 14% over the same period. That is a gap of nearly 27 percentage points. While the company's recently reported quarterly results showed some signs of improvement, one quarter does not erase one year of significant underperformance. Shareholders deserve a board whose selection process is focused entirely on finding the most qualified people to steward this company, not on checking boxes based on things like race, gender, or sexual orientation.
We respectfully urge you to vote for Proposal 4. Thank you.
We acknowledge the National Legal and Policy Center's proposal. As detailed in the proxy statement, however, the board believes that it is important that our directors bring a broad range of skills, experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds to the board, particularly given the global nature of our business, and believes that the nominating, governance and corporate responsibility committee is best positioned to determine the qualities necessary for creating an effective and well-rounded board. In addition, we are committed to complying with the law, including all applicable anti-discrimination laws, and our approach reflects careful determinations regarding our legal compliance and governance and business practices. Given that our current criteria are both legally appropriate and important to fulfilling the company's strategy, the board does not believe that implementing this proposal is necessary or in the best interest of our stockholders.
For these reasons, and as discussed more fully in the proxy statement, the board has recommended a vote against this proposal. The fifth and final item of business is a stockholder proposal submitted by John Chevedden regarding an independent board chairman. We will now connect with Ms. Kam Franklin, who is representing Mr. Chevedden, to hear the statement in support of the proposal. Ms. Franklin, out of respect for the other stockholders in attendance and to allow ample time for Q&A, we ask that you please limit your comments to a period of three minutes. Operator, can you please open Ms. Franklin's line?
Good morning. Can you hear me okay? Okay. Proposal 5, independent board chairman, sponsored by John Chevedden. Shareholders request that the board of directors adopts an enduring policy and amends the governing documents as necessary in order that two separate people hold the office of the chairman and the office of the CEO as soon as possible. The chairman of the board shall be an independent director. A lead director shall not be a substitute for an independent board chairman. The board shall have the discretion to select an interim chairman of the board who is not an independent director to serve while the board is seeking an independent chairman of the board on an accelerated basis. An independent board chairman at all times improves corporate governance by bringing impartiality, objective oversight, and external expertise to board decisions, mitigating conflicts of interest, enhancing transparency, and boosting investor confidence.
This detached perspective allows the chairman to focus on shareholder interests, strengthen management accountability, and provide critical checks and balances, ultimately contributing to the company's long-term sustainability and credibility. This may be a particularly good time to consider the merits of this proposal, as Colgate-Palmolive's stock was at $86 in 2020 and at only $87 now in spite of a robust stock market. Please vote yes, Independent Board Chairman, Proposal Number 5. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Franklin. The board believes it would not be in the best interest of stockholders for our governing documents to require an independent chairman and the separation of the chairman and CEO roles. The board is committed to the highest standards of corporate governance, especially board independence, accountability, and responsiveness, and has a highly effective independent lead director with significant authority and clearly defined responsibilities to ensure proper checks and balances. Additionally, all committees of the board are comprised entirely of independent directors, including the committee chairs. Stockholders are best served if the board retains flexibility to decide what leadership structure works best for Colgate based on the facts and circumstances existing from time to time.
The board believes that the current leadership structure works well for Colgate at this time. For these reasons, as discussed more fully in the proxy statement, the board has recommended a vote against this proposal. That concludes the matters to be voted on as outlined in the notice of annual meeting. We will now take a brief pause to see if we have received any comments from stockholders regarding any of the proposals. At this time, any stockholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not wanna revoke or change their vote do not need to take any further action.
We are now going to take a short pause to allow for any stockholders who have not yet voted to do so. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls for the meeting closed. I have received the preliminary tabulation from Broadridge. On the basis of those preliminary tabulations, I am pleased to report that all the director nominees have been elected, that the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2026 has been ratified, and that the compensation of our executive officers named in the summary compensation table of the proxy statement has been approved by advisory vote. The preliminary tabulation also shows that neither the stockholder proposal on diversity and Board Candidate Considerations nor the stockholder proposal on independent board chairman has received the necessary majority and therefore neither has been approved.
We share the proponents' commitment to good corporate governance. Be assured that we continue to review the most effective means of governing the company in the best interest of our stockholders. The final vote count for each item on the ballot will be reported on a Form 8-K filed within four business days of this meeting. That concludes the formal business of today's meeting, and I now declare the meeting formally closed and adjourned. I will now ask that we start the video presentation of Noel reviewing the progress of our company. After Noel's business update, we will answer your questions. If you wish to ask a question, please submit it now using the Ask a Question text box on the web portal.
As I noted earlier, we will try to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are pertinent to the meeting will be addressed, as detailed in our rules of conduct found on the web portal. If there are any pertinent questions that cannot be answered during the meeting due to time constraints, we plan to respond directly to that stockholder after the meeting using the contact information provided. Now, here is Noel's business review.
Imagine what might happen if I wasn't wearing a seat belt. Prevention is critical. The same goes for protecting your oral health. It's best to prevent problems before they start. That's why I recommend Colgate Total to my patients.
Its unique active prevention system provides 24-hour antibacterial protection that's 15 times more effective at fighting the root cause of oral health problems.
Try the Colgate Total active prevention system.
Prevent problems before they start.
Proof of three beautiful kids born safely. Proof of providing for a family.
Protecting them against 99.9% of germs. Protex's unique absorbing technology deposits onto your skin and absorbs into it, and provides 24 hours longer lasting germ protection.
Protex, strength from within.
I know. Sorry, Buster. Breakfast. Promise we'll go later.
You only have so much time, so feed Science Diet with our clinically proven antioxidant blend, helping pets live healthier as long as possible.
Nope.
Because you're only human, there's Hill's. Science does more.
That is a selection of our ads from our products from all around the world. They highlight the global reach of our brands and show the great work Colgate-Palmolive people are doing to make consumers fall in love with our products. 2025 was a pivotal year for our company as we completed our five-year 2025 strategic plan and introduced our 2030 strategy to the organization and our external stakeholders. Our performance in 2025 highlights the resilience of our business model and the strength of our brands. In an operating environment characterized by consumer uncertainty and a global slowdown in category growth, Colgate-Palmolive people operate with determination and focus. We delivered net sales growth of 1.4%, and organic sales also grew 1.4% on top of a strong 7.4% organic sales growth in 2024.
Advertising spending was roughly flat on top of a 15% increase in 2024. We delivered another year of Funding the Growth savings. While GAAP earnings per share were down due to impairment charges related to our skin health business, we delivered dollar-based base business earnings per share growth in a year with significant volatility, thanks to the flexibility and resilience we have built into our operating model. We delivered record operating cash flow of $4.2 billion, and we increased our quarterly dividend rate for the 63rd consecutive year. We are especially proud that successful execution of our 2025 strategic plan has allowed us to deliver top-tier total shareholder return.
Since 2020, we have significantly outperformed our proxy peer group in terms of TSR, which is a fundamental objective that all of us share in the company. We delivered these strong results while we are still investing back in the business to drive brand health and household penetration, the key drivers of long-term growth. Over the course of our 2025 strategy, we grew net sales by more than $5 billion and built capabilities across our company in areas such as digital, data, analytics, AI, and innovation. Our 2030 strategy does not call for wholesale changes. It builds on the success and provides the framework to accelerate change. I'll walk you through some of the key pillars of this strategy. It starts with leveraging the global reach of our business. We're in a very enviable position to have the most penetrated brand in the world.
Colgate as a brand is in almost 60% of the world's households, and we have a strong number one and number two market positions across the majority of our portfolio and our four highly focused categories. Next, we are building the incremental benefit of superior science-based innovation. Over the last five years, we increased our percentage of sales from innovation by nearly 600 basis points, and we believe we need to step that up further with a particular focus on premiumization. We are focused on delivering perceivable superiority with innovations that meet consumer needs and create brand loyalty. Many of the products we launched in 2025 are differentiated by their focus on science and were developed with the use of our scaled capabilities in areas like data, analytics, and AI. A great example of this is the launch of Colgate Optic White Purple Whitening Toothpaste and Serum.
Our people-centric insights tell us that while about 20% of people want whiter teeth, an estimated two-thirds of those desires remain unmet. We first launched Colgate Optic White Purple in China, where our omni-channel go-to-market model helped drive it to a position as a top brand in social commerce. The learnings from this key market allowed us to rapidly roll out Purple across all of our divisions throughout 2025, and it's now driving incremental market share growth globally. Here is a digital ad for Colgate Optic White Purple from India, where the footage of the product and the actors are both real, but the graphics are enhanced with AI elements.
[Non-English content]
For a smile. It's purple.
Colgate Visible White Purple.
Purple color corrects yellow to the whiter smile.
Colgate Visible White Purple.
Our focus on people centricity has also identified menopause as a growing need state across many categories. An estimated 1 billion women are in some stage of menopause transition. Our Sanex brand in Europe is helping to address specific consumer interests with a shower gel and a deodorant that are designed to help with hot flashes, night sweats, and dry, itchy skin. Some other exciting examples of innovation across our portfolio include hello Whipped Toothpaste , which delivers an innovative velvety sensory experience and dispenses with a distinctive swirl shape, bringing real differentiation to this great brand. PCA SKIN MGF Age Renewal Cream, which utilizes micro growth factor technology that penetrates 10 times deeper than traditional growth factors to support collagen production for visibly firmer skin. Palmolive EZ-Pump, which provides our trusted efficacy in a more convenient, easy-to-dispense format right at the sink.
Hill's Science Diet Core Wet relaunch, bringing improved taste perception and updated packaging to our wellness pet nutrition line in the fast-growing wet pet food segment. Hill's Prescription Diet k/d plus Sensitivities, which supports pets with food sensitivities in addition to a kidney issue, allowing us to nutritionally manage these concerns with one product. Suavitel Refresher Fabric Rinse, which utilizes powerful odor-fighting technology designed specifically to help remove tough odors from synthetic fabrics common in performance and athleisure wear. Here's a digital ad running in the U.S. that highlights the product's unique benefits.
Here are three reasons your laundry needs Suavitel Refresher Fabric Rinse. It tackles the toughest odors your detergent misses. Sweat, dirt, even that gym funk. It rinses away stubborn residue so clothes don't just look cleaner, they smell fresher. It's safe on all fabrics, from active wear to bedding. Suavitel Refresher, one rinse 4X Odor Action. Check out Suavitel Refresher today.
The third pillar of our 2030 strategy is harnessing the power of best-in-class omni-channel demand generation, or ODG. The days of relying solely on 30-second television commercials to drive consumer interest in our products are far in the past. Today, we must understand the moments that matter in the path to purchase journey, where consumers are discovering and shopping for products both offline and online, often simultaneously. We are adapting how we work to deliver the right products, content, and messages to the right people at the moments that matter to drive purchase behavior. Another way we're working to accelerate growth is by continuing to double down on the scaled capabilities like data, analytics, and AI. We are deploying proprietary AI tools to analyze deep consumer insights and generate new concepts, images, and advertising copy at scale.
We are even utilizing digital consumer twins to test and validate ideas rapidly, giving us a higher probability of success before a product even hits the shelf. The last pillar I want to discuss today is evolving our high-impact culture. Anyone who has worked with me knows how much I believe in culture as a competitive advantage. All of these great things that are happening at the company are really fed by this incredible culture that we have at Colgate-Palmolive. Our culture has to continue to evolve in order to ensure that we're attracting and retaining the best talent around the world. As we advance our financial and strategic goals, we remain united by our purpose. Colgate-Palmolive is a caring, innovative growth company that is reimagining a healthier future for all people, their pets, and our planet.
We are a 220-year-old company this year, a truly amazing benchmark. Over the past year, we have celebrated the 100th anniversary of two of our strongest businesses in Mexico and the Philippines. Our Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program, which began in 1991, has now reached approximately 2 billion children and their families with oral health education programs all around the world. Through our Hill's Food, Shelter & Love program, we have helped facilitate 16 million shelter pet adoptions since the program began in 2002. We're taking a practical, focused, and value-added approach to advance our sustainability strategy. We are proud of our efforts to eliminate plastic waste, expand the use of recyclable toothpaste tubes, and maintain more true certifications for zero waste than any other company in the world.
To support our 2030 strategy and drive top and bottom-line growth, we've announced our Strategic Growth and Productivity Program in 2025. This program will unlock the organizational changes and funding necessary to help us optimize our global supply chain and better align our organizational structure to support the initiatives I talked about, like innovation, ODG, AI, and analytics. While we expect a difficult operating environment and slower category growth to continue in the short term, the fundamentals of our business, healthy brands, strong global market shares, and a broad global footprint position us well to deliver peer-leading performance in the long term. I am confident in our ability to navigate through this uncertain environment. We have a clear strategy, a clear purpose, and a high-impact, inclusive culture aligned behind our 2030 priorities.
I want to specifically thank all the Colgate-Palmolive people around the world for their tireless efforts, energy, and unwavering commitment to achieving our goals. With that, I'll turn it over to Claire Ross for the question and answer session.
We're switching to the backup phone.
Good morning. This is Claire Ross, Executive Vice President, Investor Relations. Let's get started with the first question, which is about shareholder meeting. Will you ever have an in-person shareholder meeting in the future? I would love to attend it in person.
Yeah, good morning, thank you for your question and your continued interest in our company. We believe that virtual shareholder meetings allow for a greater level of participation by all of our stakeholders around the world. They're also more efficient and more productive for the organization. That being said, we will continue to evaluate what works best on a year-to-year basis.
Thank you, Noel. Our next question is about DE&I. When will you be ending any DE&I ESG policy you may have?
Thanks for the question. You've already heard our perspective on DE&I during our response to the shareholder proposal earlier this morning. Our efforts around ESG are focused on driving long-term value for our stakeholders. For example, our Bright Smiles, Bright Futures program drives household penetration and per capita consumption of our oral care products while improving overall oral health in the communities where we live and work. Our efforts in the area of plastics reduction are reducing our exposure to costly fees across many geographies around the world, while also lowering the amount of virgin plastic that ends up in landfills. Our efforts around renewable energy are working to lower our costs, along with lessening our carbon footprint. Lastly, we believe we have best-in-class governance in how we have built our board of directors and the way we run our company.
We think these policies help to drive superior long-term value for our stakeholders and ultimately strong total shareholder return.
Thank you, Noel. Our next question is about democracy. Is democracy good for business?
What I would say is we believe that companies are better able to thrive in predictable environments that encourage fair and open competition and a focus on long-term strategy and performance, whatever that is in terms of investing in innovation, people, brands, our manufacturing facilities, or our capital deployment.
Thank you, Noel. Our next question is about our support of cultural institutions. Colgate-Palmolive seems to have retreated from supporting several New York City cultural institutions. It either reduced or completely withdrew its financial support. Is this a sign of the company's financial difficulties or a retreat from engaging in local communities?
Listen, the company's corporate social responsibility budget supports a range of cultural institutions across both New York and New Jersey, importantly reflects our commitment to the communities where we live and work. While our specific funding decisions adapt to stay relevant, our commitment to the communities where we live and work remains steadfast. With that, with regards to our financial support, we have not reduced our overall budget. In fact, if you look at the culture and arts events, we've increased that from 2024 to 2025 and into 2026.
Thank you, Noel. Our next question is about product placement. We have received a couple of questions about the distribution and shelf placement of our products.
Thank you. Something that I look at very closely as well. We operate, as you know, in 200 countries around the world. We have the most penetrated brand in the world. We've obviously built great success in ensuring good planogram positions or shelf positions for our brands. There are occasions where certain retailers make choices on their own in terms of how they would like to merchandise our products. We endeavor to work with those retailers to build category growth stories to ensure we improve the performance and the placement of our brands, and that continues to be a big part of our commercial strategy worldwide.
Thank you, Noel. Our next question is on the conflict in Iran. How will the Iran war impact Colgate-Palmolive, and what can be done to mitigate the impact?
Yeah, thank you for the question. We are following the news reports of the conflict in the Middle East, including the terrible toll on innocent civilians in the region on both sides. The safety of our teams is our number one priority, and we have programs in place to support our employees and the business partners that we deal with in the region, while we also try to manage, importantly, business continuity. The conflict has not had a direct impact or material impact on our business in this region. However, there are uncertainties and risks that remain around its impact on the geopolitical relations and stability in the Middle East and nearby regions.
The conflict has impacted and may continue to impact, among other things, our freight and logistics costs, the availability and price of raw and packaging materials, and in commodities that we buy, such as oil, and the potential impact of consumer sentiment and consumption around the world. Our recent guidance included a $300 million increase to our estimates of raw and packaging materials and logistics for 2026 based on our assumptions for changes in oil and commodity prices as a result of the ongoing conflict.
Thank you, Noel. Our next question is about AI. We have received a couple of questions about our AI strategy, asking how we are balancing growth and productivity and looking for examples of how we are using AI.
A really important area and such an exciting technology for our company and our employees. Our Colgate AI strategy is centered on responsibly integrating artificial intelligence, or AI, to strengthen key areas of our business. Areas like innovation, accelerating our marketing effectiveness, and improving operational efficiency around the world. We are deeply focused on leveraging AI to identify new growth opportunities as well, to create winning solutions faster, deliver more impactful content to our consumers around the world, and drive productivity across all of our operations around the world. This is supported by the capabilities that we have discussed and been scaling over the last two years as a result of our 2025 strategy. Things like foundation in data and technology, fostering strategic partnerships, ensuring robust governance and responsible AI practices are clearly in place across the enterprise.
Most importantly, our investments in AI aim to empower our employees to deliver value across the enterprise and help maintain our competitive advantage.
Thanks, Noel. Our next question is about health and safety. How is the company's performance in employee health and safety? How much lost- time accidents occurred in 2025, and what were their cause?
We take employee health and safety very, very seriously. In fact, our trends over the last 15 years continue to show great improvements. We perform in the top quartile of the industry. As you will see in our sustainability report that will be issued in the next couple of months, you'll be able to dive into a lot of those metrics yourself and see the continued important improved performance in that area. Rest assured, this is an area that we continue to look at very closely, monitor amongst our operations, because we value very importantly as part of our purpose to ensure a healthier future for all that our health and safety standards are best in class.
Thank you, Noel. Our next question is on human rights. Colgate-Palmolive played a crucial role in the development of The Consumer Goods Forum's Human Rights defense guidance. When will Colgate-Palmolive follow the guidance and develop policies to respect HRD?
Yeah. Thank you. An important area. We have a long-standing commitment to human rights around the world. We have partnered with the United Nations in this regard. We are one of the key constituents in The Consumer Goods Forum, as you mentioned. We partner with some of our consumer goods peer groups to ensure that we're sharing best practices, and we all are deeply focused on the objective of improving human rights all over the world.
Thank you, Noel. This is our last question. We have received a couple of questions about how tariff-driven inflation is impacting our consumers and whether we are seeing them trade down to private label products, including in the pet food category.
Yeah, we have strong brands. As part of our 2025 strategy, we've continued to invest in advertising to ensure that our brands continue to resonate and they provide real value to our consumers. Importantly, our innovation strategy across all price tiers has allowed us to bring value to the consumer and minimize trade-down. What's interesting in the market today, we've actually seen the super premium part of the market continue to grow at an accelerated pace, and the value of the market continue to grow. Some of our categories have seen some trade-down to private label, but it's very episodic around the world. The important aspect for us is that we continue to innovate and drive real value to the consumer through our strategies and deployment around the world. With that being the last question, we'll close our meeting.
Before I do, I want to take a moment to acknowledge Jennifer Daniels, who has served as our Chief Legal Officer and Secretary for over 11 years and is retiring later this year. For the last seven years, she has shared the virtual stage with me at our annual meetings, and this is her last one. Beyond her presence here today, Jen has provided invaluable professional counsel to me and to the company throughout her entire tenure. Her wisdom and guidance have been essential to our progress, and we're a stronger organization because of her leadership. Thank you, Jen. Thank you for all your valuable contributions to Colgate-Palmolive at this meeting and beyond, and we wish you nothing but the best. To all of you, we thank you for your attendance today and for your interest in our company.
I believe our company is well-positioned to deliver on our growth strategies while also making progress on our commitments to all of our stakeholders. I hope you do as well. We look forward to talking with you again next year. With Mother's Day this Sunday, I want to wish a happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers, grandmothers, and other caregivers joining us today. Thank you and goodbye.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.