Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (RKT) Q1 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to Racket's Q1 Trading Update. I'm here with our CEO, Chris Licht, and our CFO, Shannon Eisenhardt, who will take you through some prepared remarks before we then take your questions. Before we start, I would like to draw your attention to the usual disclaimer in respect to forward-looking statements contained on page five of our R&S published this morning. I'll now hand over to Chris. Thank you, Nick. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We have delivered a solid start to 2025. with our overall Q1 performance in line with the guidance provided in March. Core record delivered 3.1% like-for-like net revenue growth and volume growth of plus 0.3%, closer to 1% when excluding the SAP pull-forward impact in Q1 last year. Emerging markets was especially strong, reflecting improved in-market execution, double-digit growth in intimate wellness, debt hole, and VMS, and continued momentum in China and India. We've continued to execute our strategy to transform Racket into a more efficient, world-class consumer health and hygiene company. Our sharpened focus on our power brands is delivering both better results and market share gains. Innovation is continuing to drive category growth across many of our markets, with Lysol Air and laundry sanitizers, as well as Mucinex's recent launches, all delivering strong performances and share gains in North America. We have not been immune to market-wide trends within certain categories. In particular, with the timing of the peak of the cold and flu season this year, retailers held higher inventory levels in seasonal OTC as we entered the quarter, with destocking evident through Q1. As you would expect, we've been closely monitoring the evolving situation around tariffs. From what we know, and give...