Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let's thank Trina Madri again. Thank you very much, Trina. I'm David Taylor, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Procter and Gamble Company. I'd like to welcome everyone P&G's 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareowners.
I'd also like to welcome all of our shareholders who are joining this meeting online. The meeting is now called to order. Notice in the meeting was sent to each shareholder of record and a quorum is present in person or by proxy. Now I'd like to get started with introductions. Here with me on stage are John Moeller, our Vice Chairman, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer and Debbie Majoris, our Chief Legal Officer and Secretary.
Seated in the front row are members and nominee of the Board of Directors, who I will introduce individually and then ask each to stand as a group at the end. First, Frank Blake, former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of The Home Depot Company Angela Brawley, former Chair of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of WellPoint Inc, now known as Anthem. Angela is the Chair of the Governance and Public Responsibility Committee. Amy Chang, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Collaboration Technology Group at Cisco Systems Incorporated and Founder and Former Chief Executive Officer of a company Scott Cook, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Intuit Incorporated Joe Jimenez, Co Founder and Managing Partner of Adium Bio and former Chief Executive Officer of Novartis AG, Joe is the Chair of our Innovation and Technology Committee Terry Lundgren, operating partner of Long Term Private Capital and the former Executive Chairman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Macy's Incorporated. Terry is the Chair of our Compensation and Leadership Development Committee.
Christine McCarthy. Christine is our newest Director nominee. She is the Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Walt Disney Company. We believe that Christine's more than 30 years experience in finance, including service as the CFO of The Walt Disney Company, will enable her to contribute her extensive understanding of complex financial analysis and reporting to the Board. We're very happy that Christine has agreed to join the Board pending shareholder approval.
Jim McNearney, Senior Advisor at Clayton Debuter and Rice LLC and former Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Boeing Company. Jim is our Lead Director. Nelson Peltz, Chief Executive Officer and Founding Partner of Triumph Fund Management LP Meg Whitman, Chief Executive Officer of Quibi and Former President and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Pat Wirtz, Former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Archer Daniels Midland Company. Pat is the Chair of our Audit Committee. With the Director's nominee, please stand.
We also have a number of other senior officers here with us today. They're seated in the front rows. In the interest of time, I will not introduce them individually, but could you all please stand. I'd like to introduce Joe Yukasaglou and Jeff Potts of Deloitte and Touche. Could you please stand?
Mr. Yukosoglu is the Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte and the senior advisory partner on the P and G account. Mr. Potts is the lead client services partner responsible for all services provided to P and G, and he directly supervised the audit of the company's fiscal 2019 financial statements. Mr.
Yukozoglu and Mr. Potts are present in the event there are questions that are more appropriately answered by the auditors. Now as the chair, I've appointed Peter Daskovich at Broadridge Financial Solutions as Inspector of Elections for this meeting. He will supervise the voting. The next item on the agenda is the report on the business.
In fiscal 2019, P and G met or exceeded each of our core financial goals, organic sales growth, core earnings per share growth and adjusted free cash flow productivity, all while improving market share and generating leadership levels of shareholder value creation. Organic sales grew 5%. This was above our going in estimates and represents significant improvement with sales by quarter improving sequentially from 4% to 4% to 5% to 7% in AMJ. Core earnings per share were up 7% and towards the higher end of our target range. On a constant currency basis, core earnings per share were up 15%.
Adjusted free cash flow productivity was 105%, well above our going in target. And growth was broad based, 9 of our 10 global categories grew organic sales with skin and personal care up mid teens, fabric care, home care, fem care and personal health care, all up high single digits and oral care and family care, up mid single digits. All six regions grew organic sales with all top 15 markets growing or holding sales. We continue to make progress in our largest markets. In the U.
S, sales grew 4%, including 7% in the 4th quarter. In China, we improved from a 5% sales decline in fiscal 'sixteen to 1% growth in fiscal 'seventeen to 7% organic sales growth in fiscal 'eighteen to 10% growth this past fiscal year. In addition, P and G's global e commerce organic sales grew 25% for the year, accounting for about 8% of our total sales. Our market share trends continued to improve. 8 of our 10 global categories held or grew value share and 33 of our top 50 category country combinations held or grew share last year, up from 26 in fiscal 'eighteen, 23 in fiscal 'seventeen and just 17 in fiscal 'sixteen.
We returned $12,500,000,000 of cash to share owners through a combination of share repurchases and dividends. We announced a 4% increase in the dividend, the 63rd consecutive increase and the 129th consecutive year in which P and G has paid a dividend. P and G is one of only 10 U. S. Companies to pay a dividend for more than 120 consecutive years, and only 3 U.
S. Companies have increased dividends more consecutive years than P&G. One of the most encouraging points about the strong results we've delivered is the breadth of progress we've made across categories, regions and countries. This gives us confidence that the strategies and focus areas that are guiding our choices and investments are the right ones. It also gives us confidence that we're building capabilities to sustain growth atorabovemarketlevels.
The mutually reinforcing strategic choices we've made are critical to our progress. We focused and strengthened our portfolio in daily use categories where performance drives brand choice. In categories where we occupy a number 1 or number 2 position, which have historically grown faster than the balance of the company and done so more profitably. The benefits of our portfolio of choices are clearly playing out. Within these 10 categories, we've taken a deliberate step to invest in and advance the superiority of our products, packages, brand communication, retail execution and value.
The strategy is holistic. It recognizes that consumers don't focus on one element of a brand only. Consumers interact with the whole brand, the product, the package, what we say and how they feel about the brand, how they experience in the store or online and whether it truly creates value versus the alternatives they have. Notably, when we deliver superiority on 4 or more of the 5 superiority vectors, we drive all business success metrics, sales, profit, value share, household penetration and importantly category growth. Category growth is an important point of emphasis.
Category growth leads to sales growth that is typically more sustainable than simply taking business from a competitor. It creates a winning proposition for our retail partners. Importantly, when we grow our categories, we disproportionately and sustainably build share. Now, the great example is P&G's U. S.
Fabric Care. Over the last 40 years, we've grown sales by 5 times. So that's 500% in a market that grew 400%. Category growth has been the main driver of P and G's growth, which we've achieved through industry leading superiority. As a result, our share of the U.
S. Laundry category has grown 5 points. Superiority starts with superior products, products so good, consumers recognize the difference. We have many examples, including Tide and Aerial Pods, SK II Skin Care, Cascade or Fairy Action Packs, Dawn Fairy dish soap, Swiffer air effect or Febreze Air Effects, Swiffer wet jet, Charmin bath tissue, Bounty Paper Towels, Always Platinum, Always Discreet, Pampers Pure Protection, Pantene, Gillette Fusion, Venus, Crest Gum Detoxify among many others. Next, superior packages.
Superior packages attract consumers at the first moment of truth, provide product integrity, protect quality and delight consumers during use, and it's responsible consumption or disposal. Superior packaging creates recognizable brand blocks at shelf, aids the consumer in selecting the best product for their needs, conveys the equity of the brand and closes the sale. Fabric enhancer scent beads are a great example of a superior product and package. The packaging that shows the product and communicates the scent benefit with the scent squeeze release. It's distinctive and appealing.
We strive to communicate product and packaging benefits with superior brand messaging, advertising that makes you think, talk, laugh, cry, smile, act and of course, buy. This year at the Effie Awards, which recognized the most effective marketing communication, P and G won the top honor of most effective marketeer and Tide won the Grand Effie Award. Let's watch the series of ads that won the Effie.
Whatever.
But it's a tie dad. What? It's a tie dad.
What makes it a tie dad?
There are no stains. Look at those clean clothes. What else would this be an ad for? Diamonds?
A gift that lasts for a
new time.
It's not for a cold No. Tie that.
Fall into the sleep of No.
Tie. No. Tie that.
It's stream.
No. Tide. Tide. Meet the all new No.
It's a Tide ad. Tide.
So does this make every Super Bowl ad a Tide ad? I think it does. Watch and see. Hello again, ladies. Is your man the kind of man who would climb the high I'm in a tight hat.
Nice pants. Get off my horse.
Tie
hat. Sarah?
Sarah. It's a tie
down. Sometimes the signs are hard to ignore. Whenever you see clothes that's clean, that's a Tide add.
Clean clothes may be an indication of a Tide add. Tide users experience 10 times more cleaning power. Tide is America's number one detergent in America.
Thank you. If I could have asked you if you can hold those up and back, you're blocking the view for some people just to be respectful to others. So if you guys would move to the back, just move to the back please, and we'll continue with the meeting. Good folks, just move them to the back and we'll just continue the meeting. I'll keep going.
Next is the superior in store and online execution. This is the SK II counter in Hangzhou Tower, arguably the most prestigious department store in China, where we secure the number one location with our new counter design. We have significantly improved space, location and execution in more than 70% of our top distribution points in the past 3 years, enabling strong double digit sales growth over the time period in a market also growing double digits. Our superior retail execution is being recognized in the recently published 2,000 and which is an independent retailer assessment of manufacturers across 7 key performance areas, which includes strategic alignment, people, category development, consumer marketing, trade and shopper marketing, supply chain and customer service, P and G ranked number 1 globally. We were also recently recognized by Walmart U.
S. As supplier of the year in consumables, the first time we've earned this distinction in more than a decade, driven by innovation in gross markets and increases margin and record service levels enabled by our supply chain transformation. We were also named Supplier of the Year by Walmart in Mexico, Japan and China. We've earned similar recognitions in the U. S.
At Target, CVS and Family Dollar. And we appreciate this recognition, but what really matters is retailers' improved view of P and G as a partner in joint value creation, which earned stronger distribution, share of shelf, display and feature. The last element of superior execution, but certainly not the least, is a winning consumer and customer value equation. For customers, this is a product that meets an important need in a noticeable and superior way with a package that's convenient to use, with compelling communication, presented in a clear and shoppable way at a compelling price. For customers, this means margin, penny profit, trip generation, basket size and very importantly, category growth.
We will continue to work to extend our margin of superiority advantage and increase the quality of our execution, which will require ongoing investment. The need for this investment, the need to offset macro cost headwinds that we will face and the need to drive balanced top and bottom line growth, including margin expansion, underscores the importance of productivity. We are driving cost savings and efficiency improvement across all facets of our business, now past the midpoint of our 2nd 5 year $10,000,000,000 productivity program. Through our productivity efforts, P and G has maintained and built its status as a highly profitable company. Before tax operating margins are among the highest in the industry, behind only Reckitt and Colgate, whose margins reflect their concentrations in healthcare.
We have significant below the line advantages, operating with 1 of the lowest interest expense percentages, 1 of the lowest tax rates, putting us near the top of the industry and after tax margin. P and G is already highly profitable and we're aggressively driving more savings. Superiority and productivity are critical, but not sufficient to keep us ahead in a world with rapidly changing retail landscape, quickly evolving consumer needs, a transforming media ecosystem and revolutionary changes in technology. To win in this environment, we must lead the constructive disruption of our industry across all areas of the value chain. We're disrupting the way we innovate by accelerating the speed and quality of our learning through lean innovation, which is delivering significant benefits in time and cost, helping to reduce our learning cycles from months to days.
For example, P&G Ventures is an internal startup studio that works with entrepreneurs to create new brands, technologies and business models. Brands that have been incubated within P&G Ventures include Zevo, a safe and effective way to control insects in
the home
Opte, a precision skincare technology that digitally scans skin and analyzes complexion to cover imperfections Metaderm, a proprietary botanical extract skincare product that helps people better manage their chronic skin conditions. And Pepper and Wits, treatment products that help women with symptoms of menopause. We're reinventing brand building from wasteful mass marketing to mass 1 to 1 brand building, fueled by data and technology. In the U. S, we've built a data and analytics learning lab based on anonymous media audience data and retail purchase information.
We're moving from generic demographic targets like women 18 to 49 years old to more than 350 precise smart audiences, like first time parents, millennial young professionals or first time washing machine owners to reach the right people at the right place at the right time. The Secret brand is disrupting how we communicate. The brand no longer has an agency of record. The brand team has become its own agency, bringing nearly all advertising creation and media planning in house. Let's take a look at some recent spots shot locally in Cincinnati by P&G Employees with P&G Talent and their families.
Secret. All Strength, No Sweat.
Got a talented group of people. Secret's approach is disrupting the cost, speed and agility of consumer communication. The new ads are being created in as little as a tenth the cost of traditional advertising. The time from idea to execution has significantly reduced, producing content in under a month versus an average production time of 3 to 5 months. These benefits combined with in house media planning give the brand complete control and flexibility to react in real time to current events and consumer response to our ads.
There's tremendous opportunity in this area ahead of us across brands. The Secret brand is not just disrupting how we communicate, but it's using its voice as a force for good and a force for growth, addressing gender equality. Springboarding from the success of the All Strength No Sweat campaign and initial partnership with the U. S. Women's National Soccer Team, Secret recently donated over $500,000 to U.
S. Women's Players Association to help raise awareness of the gender gap women face and do our part to help close the gap. The donation and the secret marketing campaign have accelerated U. S. Secret brand growth from low single digit growth to mid single digit growth.
The constructive disruption we're leading in all areas of the value chain is critical to our future success in this dynamic world. As this shows, we must be and are willing to change anything and everything needed to win, including our organization design and culture. The only things we will not change are our purpose, our values and our principles and our commitment to winning and delivering results. We're taking steps to simplify our organization, focus effort, clarify responsibility and increase accountability. We are supplementing internal talent development with experienced external hiring and we're improving category dedication and mastery.
We're strengthening compensation and incentive programs. On July 1, we moved to a new organization structure designed to de matrix the company and provide even greater clarity on responsibilities and reporting lines to focus and strengthen leadership accountability. We are significantly reducing the level of corporate resources. We moved about 60% of our corporate roles to the business units and markets. The benefit is the creation of a more empowered, agile and accountable organization to accelerate growth and value creation, operating at lower cost, focused at winning through superiority, fueled by productivity, operating at the speed of the market.
We've built citizenship into our business and it's not only doing good, it's building trust and equity with consumers and driving growth and value creation for shareholders, a force for good and a force for growth. We continue to lead in each of our areas of citizenship, community impact, diversity and inclusion, gender equality and environmental sustainability, all executed with a strong focus on ethics and corporate responsibility. In Community Impact, our children's safe drinking water program achieved its 2020 goal of providing more than 15,000,000,000 liters of clean water and set a new goal to deliver 25,000,000,000 liters by 2025. Through our diversity, inclusion and gender equality efforts, we're using our reach in voice and advertising and media to promote equality, diversity and inclusion. Studies from the Association of National Advertisers, SeeHer initiative confirmed that gender equal ads perform up to 20% higher in sales growth.
So it's no surprise that some of P and G's best performing brands have the most gender equal, diverse and inclusive campaigns, including SK2, Olay, Tide, Dawn and Aerial and Swiffer. In environmental sustainability, we strive to have a positive impact on the environment by promoting responsible supply and consumption to our brands, supply chain, society and employees. We recently made a new commitment to reduce use of virgin petroleum plastic in our packaging by 50% by 2,030. We estimate this will avoid the use of more than 300,000 tons of virgin plastic. Collaboration is key to driving transformative sustainable solutions.
For example, we've helped start and have a leadership role in the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which advances innovative solutions to end plastic waste in the environment, especially the oceans. We're also further strengthening our efforts to protect, grow and restore forests globally with new industry leading commitments as part of our Ambition 2,030 program. Today, all P and G Family Care products are made with 100% third party certified pulp. And for every tree we use, at least one is planted and regrown. These certification systems ensure we're sourcing from responsibly managed forest, which include respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and protecting endangered species.
We've gone beyond this by creating collective solutions that have even a greater impact. We're nearly doubling our use of Forest Stewardship Council certified fiber, which is the highest available industry standard and one that has been broadly supporting by leading NGOs. And we're investing $20,000,000 to accelerate research and into fast growing fibers and non wood fiber alternatives. And we've planted 2,000,000 trees to restore forest devastated by wildfires. We're also ensuring our sourcing protects wildlife and the rights of indigenous communities through support of FSC, Canadian Forest Management Standard, the highest available industry standard and one that's again broadly supported by leading NGOs.
This comprehensive approach has been developed in partnership with a broad array of NGOs, including the American Forest Foundation, the Arbor Day Foundation, Forest Stewardship Council, the Nature Conservancy, Rainforest Alliance and the World Wildlife Fund. We want to ensure the preservation of forests now and into the future and ensure none of us has to choose between using the products we enjoy today and what we all need to preserve our tomorrow. Everything at P&G is built on the strong foundation of ethics and corporate responsibility, doing what's right and being a good corporate citizen. In closing, we're focused on winning with consumers who are at the center of everything we do and the strategic choices we've made to focus and strengthen our portfolio, to establish and extend the superiority of our brands, to make productivity as integral to our culture's innovation, to lead constructive disruption across the value chain and to improve organization focus, agility and accountability. They're helping us to win with consumers and making a positive difference in our results.
Importantly, these are not independent strategies. They reinforce and build on each other and include a strong commitment to social and environmental citizenship efforts built into the business. They position us well to deal with near term challenges from macroeconomic headwinds, trade transformation and anticipated competitive response. Together, they are the foundation for a stronger, balanced and top line growth top and bottom line growth and value creation of the short, mid and long term. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Next, we will proceed with the election of directors. All directors elected to this meeting will hold office for a 1 year term until the 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and until their successors are elected. In order to be elected, a director must receive more 4 votes than Leggist.
I now declare the polls are open. With those voting at this meeting, raise your hand and an usher will give you a ballot. If you've already voted your proxy, there's no need to vote now unless you want to change your vote. So the ushers are coming down the middle and they will distribute any ballots. So please just raise your hand high, so they can see, we'll make sure everybody gets one.
Very good.
I'm going to now ask Debbie Majoris to place the nomination, the 12 nominees.
Thanks, David. The Board of Directors acting upon the recommendation of the Governance and Public Responsibility Committee, nominates the following 12 individuals for election as directors to hold office until the annual meeting in 2020 and until their successors are elected. Frank Blake, Angela Brawley, Amy Chang, Scott Cook, Joe Jimenez, Terry Lundgren, Christine McCarthy, Jim McNearney, Nelson Peltz, David Taylor, Meg Whitman, Pat Wirtz. That's it, David.
Very good. All the nominees, except Ms. McCarthy, are current members of the Board of Directors. I will now take any questions or comments on the nominations. Yes, please.
This is just for nomination of directors.
Yes. Mr. Chairman, this is Carl Beckman, a shareholder.
Sure. Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning.
As introduced, my name is Carl Beckman. I have a request for you. Would you allow Mr. Pelts to address the shareholders if he so desires? The shareholders need to know if we should vote for him.
He is certainly one of the most notable directors that P and G has ever had. However, I feel that there is a stigma attached to his name. His reputation was damaged during the contentious proxy fight. As you remember, the company proxy material stated that the corporation would be in chaos, and I'm paraphrasing, if Mr. Peltz was elected to the Board.
In fact, the exact opposite has happened. The corporation is doing very well, the stock price is up, the dividend checks are still going out, the dividend is still being increased. Also the company proxy materials state that the directors would be made available to the shareholders.
Yes. First, Nelson and the full Board to me are performing at a very high level and frankly all the shareholders are enjoying the benefit of that. This portion of the meeting is to nominate directors. If you have a new nomination, happy to receive those. What I can tell you is all the individuals sitting for nomination are devoted to serving this company, I think they are doing an outstanding job.
And so we all learned a lot out of the proxy contest, we moved on and did what everybody in this room would want us to do, which is come together as a team and focus on serving the interest of our stakeholders. And I think that's been the outcome. So if there's not any other nomination, we'll go ahead and move and close nominations. We'll now proceed with the Board proposals. The first proposal is to ratify the appointment of Deloitte and Touche as the independent registered public accounting firm.
This proposal appears on Page 72 of the proxy statement. Although the Board of Directors is not required to submit this matter to the shareowners, we believe it is important that you have a say in the appointment of the independent public accounting firm. The Board of Directors recommends a vote for this resolution. So any discussion on this motion? Hearing none, next we have the Board proposal for an advisory vote on executive compensation, otherwise known as the say on pay.
This proposal appears on page 73 of the proxy statement. The Board of Directors recommend to vote for this resolution. Is there any discussion on this motion? Next, we have the Board proposal to adopt the Procter and Gamble 2019 stock and incentive compensation plan. The proposal appears on Page 74 of the proxy statement.
The Board of Directors recommends to vote for this resolution. Is there any discussion on this motion? This concludes the review and discussion of the Board proposals. And when you've completed your ballot, please hold it up so the ushers can collect it. Give a second, please raise your hand high and the ushers will come down the center aisles and collect them.
Very good. We'll keep collecting those, but thank you. The polls are now closed as we get the last few open ballots. Anybody else, just raise your hand high, we'll make sure we get them over here. We have some over here, please.
One more down here. Down front, please. I think we've got them all now. Okay. As I said, the polls are now closed, we've got all the ballots.
Results of the voting will be announced later in the meeting. Before we turn to questions or comments on other matters related to the company's business, I'd like to announce that the Board of Directors has declared P and G's quarterly dividend. The dividend of $0.74.59 per share will be payable on November 15, 2019 to common stock share owners of record at the close of business on October 18, 2019 and the preferred stock shareowners of record at the start of business on October 18, 2019. As I mentioned earlier, P&G has been paying a dividend for 129 consecutive years, ever since the company was incorporated in 18/90, and we've increased the dividend for 63 consecutive years. We are absolutely committed to returning cash to you, P and G Shareowners.
It is now time for questions or comments on other matters related to the company's business that have not already been discussed. Out of respect for everyone who would like to ask a question, according to the rules established for the conduct of this meeting, each shareowner is allowed one turn at the microphone for a maximum of 2 minutes. There will be a limit of 3 speakers on any one subject. So if you just come to the mics and then we'll have some acknowledged and then we'll start.
Jeremy, Justin Danhof, shareholder.
Hi, good morning. I'm Justin Danhof, General Counsel with the National Center For Public Policy Research. Gillette has run a series of ads that are seemingly designed to offend vast swaths of potential customers and consumers. It's not a choice for a consumer brands company to make. I think we would all agree that it's wrong to stereotype individuals, right?
But if we're going to agree with that premise, how do you explain Gillett's abhorrent toxic masculinity ad? This 92nd propaganda piece painted all men and all masculinity as toxic. We don't live in a 1960s Manhattan marketing department. In addition to women, many men are victims of abuse as well. What exactly did you gain by attacking all men, the largest part of Gillette's consumer base?
But wait, Gillette didn't stop there. In May, the company followed up with another commercial that was nothing but virtue signaling, this time to the transgender community. How big is that market? Not to mention how offensive this ad is to women. Seemingly every day, we read in the newspaper another biological woman losing a spot on a sports team or a championship podium because she was displaced by a biological male subjectively calling themselves a woman.
Don't you work with the U. S. National Women's Soccer Team? What did the company get by offending women with this ad? News reports have linked the company's offensive attack ads on men and women to an $8,000,000,000 write down.
Gillette's business model, I suggest, needs restructuring, not woke posturing. I have a question and a comment. How do you intend to win back the consumer base that you've spent the better part of this year offending so you can recoup the 1,000,000,000 in Gillette losses? And perhaps if your advertising department reflected a greater diversity of perspective and thought, these offensive ads never would have hit the airways in the 1st place?
Okay. Justin, thank you for your question. I certainly have a different point of view on a number of the topics. First, the campaign that you're referring to is called We Believe and it and frankly many successful campaigns today have to be relevant and engage consumers in topics that matter to them, not just advertising product benefits. People of all ages and particularly younger consumers expect the brand to take a stand.
We do use Gillette's voice and other brands' voice as the brand has come synonymous with men and masculinity. Interestingly, while there have been some that objected to it, the majority of comments we've got have been positive and actually the quarter after we aired the ad, brand actually grew. And we've had increases in equity on consumers that associate and find the brand relevant, especially with younger consumers. I fully respect that everybody can draw their own conclusion on any ad we air, but please rest assured, our intent is to echo positive values and to bring our brands forward in a way that builds the brands and builds the brand equity. Not everybody will like every ad, we respect the different points of view, but Gillette is working to build its business over time and stay relevant in a changing world.
But thank you for your question.
Mr. Chairman, again we have Carl Beckman, a shareholder.
Good morning again, Mr. Chairman and my fellow shareholders. As mentioned, I am Carl Beckman and I reside in Cincinnati. I am pleased that the stock has been trading over $100 a share for 6 months. The shareholders do appreciate the increase in the dividend and the dividend checks going out.
However, I wonder if results could be better. I have some concerns about the operations of the corporation. Number 1, earlier this year, I noticed that Procter and Gamble had an unclaimed fund on the Hamilton County auditors website of $506,000 I wondered how $500,000 fell through the cracks. 2, China and the trade war, has P and G spent too much time and money on cultivating a relationship with Communist China only to be caught in the middle of a trade war that is just beginning, Their economy will suffer. Does P and G have a plan to deal with the changes?
How much time and effort will be devoted to creating a plan? 3, the $8,000,000,000 write down on Gillette. 4, the donation of $529,000 to the U. S. Women's soccer team on or about July 2019.
5, the amount of money spent on controversial commercials advertisements that are created every year And I'm referring to the talk and challenging toxic masculinity. 6, I won't include $35,000,000 spent to keep Mr. Pelz off the Board that is old business. I don't expect you to address any of these concerns at the present time. I mentioned them to remind you that you and the Board of Directors has a duty to maximize shareholder value.
Thank you.
Okay. Carl, certainly, I think there's many comments and there may be a question there. First, we direct our communication in ways to build the business. As you've recognized, the Company is growing And the company and frankly, the Board is very devoted to increasing shareholder value and do it in a way that is sustainable, the business model is sustainable. And to do that, we have to be relevant to the consumers we talk to.
And specifically on China, it's the 2nd largest market for P and G in the world. And even in a very dynamic world, we're continuing to grow, because we're staying focused on the consumer. What we found is when we listen to the consumers and meet his or her needs better than anybody else in every category in which we perform with the product, the package, the communication, the way we show up in store to go to market and our value, we're able to grow. And that's where these communications are aimed at. We will continue to learn with each one we do and do better and better in the future.
But I think all shareholders have benefited over the last couple of years with the progress that our brands have made and frankly, our business has made. And we will if there is an area that we need to follow-up, certainly we'll take that on and we'll follow-up if there's an area of unclean money. I'm not aware about that, but we'll look into that as well. But I can assure you, we're focused on building our business. But thank you for your comment.
Mr. Chairman, Shelley Vineyard, proxy holder.
Hi, Mr. Taylor. My name is Shelly Vineyard. I'm here on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council. We're an organization with more than 700 lawyers, scientists and advocates and 3,000,000 members and activists.
I'm also here to relay a message from more than 200,000 concerned citizens and 116 organizations, including the Sierra Club, 350 dotorg, Greenpeace Canada and more to urge Procter and Gamble to stop making its tissue products at the expense of the world's last intact forests. Right now, P and G makes Charmin, Bounty and Puffs with 100% virgin forest fiber and sources much of this from the Canadian Boreal Forest, including intact areas that are critical to fighting climate change and to the survival of the threatened Boreal Cariboo. I shouldn't have to say this, but making given how severe our environmental challenges are, making toilet paper that destroys threatened species habitat and exacerbates the climate crisis just doesn't make sense. Canada's Boreal Forest stores nearly twice as much carbon as the world's recoverable oil reserves. Flushing it down the toilet is senseless, short sighted and irresponsible.
Though we've worked with P and G to reform its policies over the last year and a half, with representatives from your family care team, we've been unable to convince you to stop sourcing from critical Caribou Habitat or to reduce your reliance on virgin forest fiber for tissue. Right now, millions of children worldwide are paying close attention to what companies like Procter and Gamble do to take responsibility for the impact they're having on the planet. In a few decades, if there are no more Caribou and if our last intact forests are gone, they will remember who is on the right side of history and who is not. So my question for Procter and Gamble's leadership is, which side of history will you be on?
First, thank you for your question. While I understand we have differences on how to get there, we share concern for the environment as we shared in earlier comments, and we very much care about protecting the forest and both watching out for indigenous people and the wildlife. We have a very broad and comprehensive program that I talked about earlier and been recognized, Arbor Day Foundation recognized us with the Friends of the Forest Award and of the brands that are served at home consumers, we have the highest level of certification, one of the highest levels. So we very much believe that we need to work together. We may have some differences and certainly I've got 2 experts here that would be happy to meet with you and continue conversation.
What we want is productive dialogue to find solutions. There are many, many different organizations advocating for solutions, and we want to listen and learn and do the best we can. But I can assure you we care and we do what we think is right. Scott Hyde and Tanya Elrod are here today, if you'd like to meet with them, we can talk further. But thank you for your question.
Next, please.
Mr. Chairman, we have Robert Badgley, a shareholder.
Mr. Chairman, we recently opened a new factory in the state of West Virginia, which was supposed to be fully automated and enabled the 1st person to touch the product was when the customer opened the package. How is the status of that factory going? Is it complete? And is it meeting expectations?
Wonderful. Robert, thank you for the question. Actually, I visited Tabler Station, West Virginia last week, and I can tell you while it's not fully completed, many of the modules of the brands are up and running and running well. And I witnessed what you talked about, which is making a product, go into the end of the pack line, having automatic guided vehicles take it to the warehouse and put it in trucks and then having our people work on more advanced tasks. So we're going the plant is up and running and continuing to be expanded.
So making great progress. Thank you. Certainly.
Yes, please. Chairman, Tegan Hansen, proxy owner.
Good morning. My name is Tegan Hansen. I'm the Canadian Forest Campaigner for Sand Dot Earth. I came here from Canada to share a message and ask some questions from our supporters. So I am from Caribou Country or what used to be Caribou Country.
The Caribou Herds from my home went extinct this year. They went extinct because their habitat was fragmented and destroyed. This is a story that rings true across Canada. Caribou herds are going extinct. And they're going extinct because of irresponsible practices to supply companies like yours with wood fiber to make disposable tissue products like toilet paper.
I've read this plan. This plan will not save caribou. This plan is not responsible for a forest. And this plan does not respect the free prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples who have relied on caribou since time immemorial. So here's my question: What are you going to do to make sure that your policies reflect the science on caribou and not greenwashing?
What are you going to do to adopt the 2012 recommendations from the Canadian federal government from scientists on caribou recovery? And why will you not even consider putting recycled fiber content in toilet paper? It is flushed away. Caribou are a signal to the broader health of forests. Forests like the Boreal, which is one of the most important forests on Earth.
Without a healthy Boreal Forest, we have no hope of meeting our global climate change goals.
First, thank you for the question. And as I said before, we share your passion and commitment to do what's right. We share the same values of protecting Caribou and protecting forest. Obviously, there's some differences depending on the steps that need to take place. We're working with many different NGOs to try to do what's right in this area.
I'm happy to have you meet with our experts here today to talk about and to continue productive dialogue on the needed ideas you have. But in the meantime, just know that 100% of the wood that we get is certified. Over 40% of it, around 40% has the highest standard, highest for the at home tissue market. And we will continue to work to make sure every tree that's harvested, another tree is planted and going beyond that with the commitment we've made and now executing with 2,000,000 trees to replenish the forest that were damaged in California. So again, we share your passion, we will do what's right, we may have differences of opinion, we're happy to work those.
And again, Scott Hyde and Tonya Elrod are here today if you want to continue and have productive dialogue. One question for each person to be respectful. Thank you. Next person, please.
Mr. Chairman, Gary Malinic, shareholder.
Hi, there. My first Procter and Gamble meeting, I came from California. In fact, I planned a whole vacation around this day. But I'm glad they're here, so I can say, I would like to see Procter and Gamble make a lot more Charmin and there's nothing wrong with the animals, there plenty of Caribou, there's plenty of polar bears. These people, they're uneducated.
They don't have facts. So I want Procter and Gamble to become the leader of the PI government, politically incorrect. Let's get back to reality. Thank you for playing the national anthem. I can't more Charmin.
I'm going to go out and change my toilet paper. I'm buying more Charmin. Carry on. You're doing a great job. Stock price is great.
Thank you. And I'm from California and we live in this carbon neutrality insanity. What we need is more carbon because my plants, my vegetables and my fruit trees will be very happy. You know what I'm saying? Anybody with half a brain knows that.
I'm right here, I still got 40 seconds. I compliment him.
Next question, please.
Mr. Chairman, Jay Lang, Shareholder.
So Jay? Yes. Thank you.
I have a diversity question. If I were to go to the floor of the general offices where your office is, and I were to walk down the hall, how many executives would I see who are not, repeat not, white Anglo Saxon Protestant males? Number between 110.
I'm not sure how to answer the white Anglo Saxon Protestant. What I can tell you about our workforce is that we try to reflect the consumers we serve. And today, we have a very diverse workforce and frankly, it's serving the shareholders very, very well. So if you have a specific question, we're happy to get I'm happy to have someone follow-up and get you specific.
No, no, no, no. I answered the question very white, Anglo Saxon, Protestant males?
A number of them aren't. Roughly half are probably not, about half
are. On your floor.
Yes, yes, on our floor. Again, we can trace this here, if you would get we'll get exactly the date, I'm happy to share that. I feel very good about the progress we've made and continue to make to have a diverse, both board, leadership and organization. And it makes a difference because we can relate to and relevant with consumers. Again, one question, please.
You asked your question, but thank you. We have a diverse organization because it's great business. It's the right thing to do and allows us to serve the consumers around the world. Next question, please. Any other questions?
Very good. We'll close the question and answer section. Now have the results of the voting. I'm advised by the Inspector of Elections, just got advised by the Inspector of Elections, we have the results. That each of the 12 nominees listed in the proxy statement has received more for votes than against, and has been elected to a 1 year term, expiring at the annual meeting in 2020 and until their successors are elected.
2nd, that the Board proposal to ratify the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm has been adopted with at least 96% votes cast in favor. 3rd, that the Board proposal for the advisory vote on compensation has been adopted with at least 92% votes cast in favor, and that the Board proposal to adopt the Procter and Gamble 2019 stock and incentive compensation plan has been adopted with at least 91% votes cast in favor. Certified totals and percentages will be available from the Secretary later. This completes today's business. I again want to express my appreciation for the confidence and support you've all shown for our company.
I want to thank so many of you who have been long term holders of P and G stock. Now with this, may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? I will turn the meeting. Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.
Thank you all.