Chair and CEO Linda Rendle on Q4 and FY25 performance
By Linda Rendle, Chair and CEO
Today we reported our fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2025 results, where we delivered mixed results as we navigated through a complex year with the remaining impacts from our August 2023 cyberattack, coupled with macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, and our foundational preparation for our enterprise resource planning transition.
Against this complexity, we grew overall market shares and organic sales while delivering over 200 basis points of gross margin expansion and solid adjusted EPS growth. However, as macroeconomic uncertainties increased in the back half, our categories slowed, and we did not deliver the market share progress we planned.
Our categories have largely stabilized, but the overall growth rate has yet to normalize. While we expected some impact from lapping abnormally high demand creation activities in the last fourth quarter as we continued to rebuild category and market shares following supply restoration from our cyberattack, this quarter’s market share results fell short of our expectations. Also, against a tough consumer demand backdrop, we continued to see elevated competitive activities in a few of our businesses, which is putting pressure on our market shares. And, in pockets, we didn’t execute across all elements of superior consumer value to our expectations, and we must do better.
Our consumer environment continues to evolve, with value-seeking behaviors becoming more prominent. Wallet-constrained consumers are opting for smaller sizes and lower price-point offerings within our portfolio. For instance, in Brita, we observed a shift towards smaller pitchers, and in Food, smaller bottles of dressing. Simultaneously, consumers are seeking convenience and better experiences, as evidenced by the nearly 40% retail sales growth of our Scentiva platform. We’re also seeing overall strong performance in Club and e-commerce channels, where convenience and value intersect.
We’re focused on targeted innovation and demand creation, supported by our new ERP in the U.S., which serves as our digital foundation that enables us to personalize faster, manage revenue more effectively, and respond to consumer needs with greater agility.
As we look ahead, we remain committed to driving profitable category growth, maintaining margin discipline, and delivering long-term value. We will continue to invest in our brands to improve value superiority, and our advertising strategy will lean into social-first and AI-driven scalability to ensure our dollars work harder than ever.
To our teammates, thank you for all that you do to serve our consumers and customers every day. A special thank you to our customers and partners. Your trust and partnership have been instrumental in our transformation, as we are well on our way to modernizing the backbone of our operations and serving you better than ever. With a portfolio of trusted brands and our continued advancement of our IGNITE strategy, I’m confident in our ability to win in the year ahead.