To achieve our business and financial objectives, we are focused on delivering consistent compounded earnings per share growth through driving organic sales growth, operational efficiencies and leveraging the strength of our balance sheet.

We continue to prioritize our investments in high growth segments within our Oral Care, Personal Care and Pet Nutrition businesses.

We are building and scaling our capabilities in areas such as innovation, digital, data, analytics and artificial intelligence, enabling us to be more responsive in today's rapidly changing world.

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased 8% to $7,729 million in 2024 from $7,151 million in 2023, reflecting increased advertising investment of $349 million and higher overhead expenses of $225 million.

The investments needed to drive growth are supported through continuous, Company-wide initiatives to lower costs and increase effective asset utilization. Through these initiatives, which are referred to as our funding-the-growth initiatives, we seek to become even more effective and efficient throughout our businesses.

We believe that we are well prepared to meet the challenges ahead due to our strong financial condition, experience operating in challenging environments, resilient global supply chain, dedicated and diverse global team and focused business strategy.

We operate on a global basis serving consumers in more than 200 countries and territories with approximately two-thirds of our Net sales originating in markets outside the U.S. While geographic diversity helps to reduce our exposure to risks in any one country or part of the world, it also means that we face risks associated with significant international operations.

We face vigorous competition worldwide, including from strong local competitors (including private label competition) and from other large, multinational companies, some of which have greater resources than we do.

We rely extensively on information and operational technology systems (“IT/OT Systems”), some of which are managed, hosted, provided and/or used by third parties, including cloud-based service providers, and their vendors, in order to conduct our business.

We face vigorous competition worldwide, including from strong local competitors (including private label competition) and from other large, multinational companies, some of which have greater resources than we do.

With the growing trend toward retail trade consolidation, the substantial growth of eCommerce and the integration of traditional and digital operations at key retailers, we are increasingly dependent on certain retailers, and some of these retailers have and may continue to have greater bargaining strength than we do.

The Company's share of the global toothpaste market was 41.4% for full year 2024, up 0.3 share points from full year 2023, and its share of the global manual toothbrush market was 32.2% for full year 2024, up 0.7 share points versus full year 2023.

Through these initiatives, which are referred to as our funding-the-growth initiatives, we seek to become even more effective and efficient throughout our businesses. These initiatives are designed to reduce costs associated with direct materials, indirect expenses, distribution and logistics and advertising and promotional materials, among other things.

Events and circumstances, such as financial or strategic difficulties, delays and unexpected costs may occur that could result in our not realizing any or all of the anticipated benefits or our not realizing the anticipated benefits on our expected timetable.

We are engaged in the manufacture and sourcing of products and materials on a global scale. Our operations and those of our suppliers, contract manufacturers or logistics providers have been and may continue to be disrupted by a number of factors.

Our growth depends on the continued success of existing products, the successful identification, development and launch of innovative new and differentiated products and the expansion into adjacent categories, channels of distribution or geographies.

Our ability to quickly innovate to adapt and market our products and to adapt our packaging or the sustainability profile of our products to meet evolving consumer preferences and/or regulatory requirements is an essential part of our business strategy.

Our ability to adapt and use this emerging technology in an effective and ethical manner may impact our reputation and our ability to compete, as outputs from generative artificial intelligence models could be, among other things, false, biased or inconsistent with our values or strategies.

Capital expenditures for 2025 are expected to be approximately 3.0% of Net sales. The Company continues to focus its capital spending on projects that are expected to yield high aftertax returns.

Aggregate share repurchases in 2024 consisted of approximately 18.3 million common shares under the 2022 Program and 0.4 million common shares to fulfill the requirements of compensation and benefit plans, for a total purchase price of $1,739.

Dividend payments in 2024 were $1,789, an increase from $1,749 in 2023. Dividend payments increased to $1.98 per share in 2024 from $1.91 per share in 2023.

Sustainability is critically important to our overall business and growth strategy. Our 2025 Sustainability & Social Impact Strategy is focused on three key ambitions - preserving our environment by accelerating action on climate change and reducing our environmental footprint; helping millions of homes by designing more sustainable products and empowering people to develop healthier habits; and driving social impact with a commitment to helping to ensure the wellbeing of all people and their pets.

We continue to implement our first-of-its-kind recyclable toothpaste tube across our toothpaste portfolio. We introduced this tube in 2019 and, as of December 31, 2024, we have transitioned approximately 75% of our toothpaste SKUs globally and approximately 95% of our toothpaste SKUs in North America to recyclable tubes.

We are taking steps to accelerate action on climate change through science-based near-term, long-term and Net Zero 2040 emissions targets across our operations and value chain, which have been approved by The Science Based Targets initiative.

While the global marketplace in which we operate has always been highly competitive, we continue to experience heightened competitive activity in certain markets from strong local competitors (including private label competitors), from other large multinational companies, some of which have greater resources than we do, and from new entrants into the market in many of our categories.

We continue to closely monitor the impact of geopolitical events and tensions, such as the war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East, tensions between China and Taiwan and the developments in trade relations, and the challenging market conditions discussed above, on our business and the related uncertainties and risks.

We have been negatively affected by changes in the policies and practices of our trade customers in key markets, such as inventory destocking, fulfillment requirements, technology-aided category pricing pressures, limitations on access to shelf space, delisting of our products and sustainability, supply chain and packaging standards or initiatives.