Thomas J. Falk
Analyst · how much of the growth is distribution growth or driven by distributive gain versus sort of same-store sales. Because that will tell us a little bit about the sustainability of that growth rate. And I guess a subpart of that question is just around the margin impact of that growth in the emerging markets. I know it used to be that your margins there were pretty darn close to the developed world, so love to get a sense of that as well, please
Thanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. I'll share my perspectives on our first quarter, and I'll focus in on K-C International and then I'll briefly recap our outlook for the year. So let's start with the first quarter. Our results were very good. We're off to somewhat of a better start to the year than we planned 3 months ago, and that's mostly due to better top line growth in K-C International. Mark's already reviewed the key financials for the quarter. So let me just add that I'm encouraged by our top line growth, by our gross margin improvement and by the investments we were able to make behind our brands. And then finally, we had a terrific bottom line performance. So we got more work to do and the comparisons will get tougher as the year progresses, but I'm very optimistic about the state of our business coming out of the first quarter. Since K-C International is a key part of our overall growth strategy, I thought it'd be helpful on this call to share some of the details about the actions that we're taking and the results that we're delivering in this business. So first quarter organic sales growth in K-C International was 13%. And that was highlighted by an 18% organic growth in Personal Care. Now some of you may know, this business is now larger than our Personal Care business in North America. So we got scale and we got terrific growth prospects in this business. We continue to deliver strong results in our key geographic priorities. In China, for example, organic sales grew more than 45% in the first quarter. And Huggies diapers have now expanded into nearly 80 cities, and we're in the process of launching a new diaper-pant in this market. In Russia, our organic Personal Care sales are up about 25%, and that included benefits from the Huggies diaper upgrade we began supporting in the first quarter. In Latin America, our organic sales increased by nearly 25%, and that included 20% growth in Brazil where we're launching Intimates Explosion, which is a premium feminine care line extension that's very similar to the U by Kotex launch that we've had going in the U.S. From a product standpoint, we continue to drive strong growth in our biggest Personal Care businesses in K-C International. In fact, in the first quarter, organic sales were up 20% at infant care and more than 10% in feminine care. But I think it's also important to note that we're making good progress with some of our smaller investment businesses in K-C International. For example, we had organic sales in adult care, grew 25% in the quarter. And baby wipes were up about 20% in the quarter. In the past, these 2 businesses were largely North American. And now, we're starting to make them truly global, and we're leveraging our strong brands, the favorable demographic trends and the investments that we've made behind these areas over time. If you look elsewhere in KCI, we saw good growth in our K-C Professional business in the emerging markets. In first quarter, organic sales for KCP increased 10% within KCI, and that included 20% growth in Latin America. And so we expect KCP's momentum in emerging markets to continue as we make strategic investments where you see industrialization and economic development occur. And lastly, our Consumer Tissue business in K-C International continues to drive revenue realization, improved mix and cost savings. Our teams delivered a solid step-up in margins in the first quarter, and that further built on the progress that they made in 2011. So that's just a little bit of a deep dive into our K-C International business. Overall, our strategies are working, our categories are healthy and we continue to be very optimistic about our prospects for this business. Now before turning to the outlook, let me just touch briefly on our market positions in the U.S. While the U.S. market is very competitive, we're in solid shape, overall, from a share standpoint. Our market shares are up or even with the year-ago period in 5 of our 8 consumer categories. And that's true in 7 of 8 if you look at it sequentially compared to last quarter. So our businesses in the U.S. remain fundamentally strong, and we've got more innovation coming to further improve the health of our brands. So now let's look -- move to the outlook. Regarding the global economy, our views are similar to or perhaps slightly better than what we talked to you about in January. We continue to expect that conditions will remain healthy in emerging markets overall, and we're not seeing any slowdown in our categories at this point. In Venezuela, where we had a solid first quarter, results are likely to soften a little bit going forward, given the price controls that recently have gone into effect. In the U.S., the economic environment seems to be improving rather modestly. As a result, we aren't planning for a big pickup in market demand in the near term, and we expect the baby and child care categories to remain soft. And finally, in Europe, we expect the marketplace to remain challenging, although through the first quarter, our European team is off to a solid start on executing its 2012 plan. So in this environment, we'll continue to pursue our targeted growth initiatives. We'll leverage our strong brands and we'll continue to bring innovation to the marketplace. In K-C International, we'll continue to expand diaper-pants, premium fem care and adult care offerings into more markets. In North America, we have several launches currently underway or that will happen in the near term, and that includes our Super Premium Depend Briefs, the latest fashion execution on Huggies diapers, new U by Kotex products, some health care pain management offerings and several new K-C Professional innovations. To support our brands and growth initiatives, we'll continue to increase strategic marketing and research and development spending at a faster rate than sales will grow this year. Now we mentioned in this morning's news release, we reconfirmed our key planning assumptions from January. In terms of cost inflation, our total expectation for the year is unchanged. Although most oil-based costs are tracking a little higher than we expected, that will be likely offset by somewhat more favorable pulp costs. Nonetheless, most commodity costs are expected to rise sequentially from first quarter levels, so we'll continue to focus on cost savings and revenue realization strategies. In short, we're executing the plan we laid out 3 months ago. And we're continuing to target full year adjusted earnings in the range of $5 to $5.15 per share. So to summarize, our first quarter performance was encouraging. We're well-positioned to deliver on our full year 2012 plan, and we remain convinced that our Global Business Plan will continue to drive improved shareholder value. So that wraps up our prepared remarks, and now we'll be happy to begin to take your questions.