Colgate Sells $13.33Bn in the First Nine Months

Net sales of Colgate-Palmolive(Colgate) in Asia Pacific declined 3.0% in the first three quarters, accounting for 26.1% of Group net sales.

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Recently, Colgate announced its third quarter 2022 financial results. Colgate achieved net sales of $13.338 billion in the first three quarters, up 2.46% year-over-year. Its third quarter revenue was $4.455 billion, up 1% year-over-year. All divisions reported positive results.

The results show that Colgate has met or exceeded its performance target range for the 15th consecutive quarter. In light of the positive performance, Colgate has decided to increase its organic sales growth guidance for the year from 5-7 percent to 6-7 percent. In addition, while raw material prices were stable in the third quarter, Colgate still expects raw material prices to increase by $1.3 billion in 2022.

Colgate said it remains the leader in the toothpaste industry with a global market share of 39.7 percent, while the manual toothbrush segment has a global market share of 31.6 percent year to date.

By geography, net sales in Asia Pacific declined 3.0 percent in the third quarter and operating profit was $185 million, down 14 percent from a year ago and accounting for 26.1 percent of net sales. The segment's performance was driven by Greater China, Australia and the Philippines. The decline in operating profit as a percentage of net sales was primarily due to significantly higher raw material and packaging material costs and increased advertising investments.

Notably, in August, Colgate announced Stephan Habif as its new Chief Technology Officer, responsible for the company's global research and development organization, effective Sept. 1 of this year. Colgate's current CTO, Patricia Verduin, who will retire at the end of the year, has been with Colgate for 15 years.

Stephan Habif was previously senior vice president of research and innovation for L'Oréal North America, responsible for new product development across all divisions and categories; in addition, he worked at Unilever, where he was responsible for R&D in categories including skin care, cleansing, hair care, deodorant and home care in Europe, North America and Latin America.

In his new role, Stephan Habif led a team of scientists and engineers to continue to develop innovative products and packaging to support Colgate's oral care, pet nutrition, skin health and other businesses.

In 2014, Crest, Darlie, Colgate, Yunnan Baiyao and Zhonghua were the top five brands in the toothpaste market in China, accounting for 68% of the market share and continuing to climb, according to a research report by Zhongtai Securities. Crest, Colgate and Zhonghua, on the other hand, are all international brands. However, in 2021, Chinese toothpaste brands such as Yunnan Baiyao, Darlie, Lesening and Saky, ranked first, second, fourth and sixth with 23.86%, 20.10%, 6.83% and 4.88% in the term of market shares, respectively.

At present, the Chinese toothpaste market is gradually forming a new layout with the mutual competition between the traditional Chinese brands Lesening, Liangmianzhen, Saky and the international brands Colgate and Crest, and the rapid rise of Yunnan Baiyao.