Alan R. Hoskins - Energizer Holdings, Inc.
Management
Yeah, Bill. Great question. So, I'd say, there might be a slight tweak to the forecast. So, setting that away, our outlook remains consistent for the category, but I would say probably flat to down low-single digits. And let me give some background on why. Given the stability of category volume and value over the last year, year and a half, and what we're seeing in the device universe, so think about device ownership and usage and the replacement rate of batteries in those devices is also relatively stable. We're seeing the emergence of the Internet of Things even more at retail than we had when we first communicated that to the analyst community, and you're seeing the continued miniaturization of devices. So, given those things, and the things that sort of pulls up and down in the category, so think about those as storms, as what just happened with Matthew or winter storms, and then new innovation and technology that's part of the category, those two types of situations have the propensity to increase or create comps within the category. So, because of those more stable trends, we're probably looking at stable to down low-single digits going forward. And just to kind of give a little bit of a snapshot with what drives that, if you think regionally, in North America, we're projecting that volumes will decline low-single digits, value will trend slightly positive. Most of that is a result of the mix shift that continues to occur from priced brands to premium performance, and in particular, specialty. In Latin America, we continue to see high inflation. We do anticipate volume will normalize there though as we cycle through the pricing actions that occurred in the past year. In Europe, Middle East and Africa, Europe in particular, as you know, there's very high private label penetration. So, we're expecting modest volume growth there, and value, flat to slightly down. And then in Asia, the regional retailers continue to react to the entry of discount retailers through pricing and promotion. That's creating deflation in the category in the Aussie market, one of the larger markets in Asia. And as a result, it combined with the balance of Asia, we're expecting some volume growth, but valuable likely lag. And I hope that provides a little more clarity on our call.