管理層發言
Good morning. Thank you for attending today's Haleon Half Year 2026 results. My name is Sarah, and I'll be your moderator today. I'd like to pass the conference over to our host, Joe Russell, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Haleon's conference call for our half year results. I'm Joe Russell, Head of Investor Relations, and I'm joined this morning by Brian McNamara, our Chief Executive Officer; and Dawn Allen, our Chief Financial Officer. Just to remind listeners on the call that in the discussions today, the company may make certain forward-looking statements, including those that refer to our estimates, plans and expectations. Please refer to this morning's announcement and the company's U.K. and SEC filings for more details, including factors that could lead to actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. We have posted today's presentation on the website this morning, along with a video running through the results in detail. So hopefully, you've all had the chance to see that ahead of this call. And with that, I'll hand back to the operator, and we can open for Q&A.
分析師問答
Our first question is from Cedric Besnard with Citi.
Just a couple of questions, please. One on top line and one on margin. The one on top line will be about North America. Could you just shed some light on the progress you've made there, especially maybe quantify the shelf reset benefits and also how we should think about the organic growth sequence for the rest of the year with the various building blocks? And then on margin, I mean, another profit beat. But how would you assess whether the business actually remains invested enough? And what are the KPIs you would have internally to make sure no category and no market starts over earning?
Great. Thanks, Cedric. I'll take the first question, and I'll probably kick off the second and then pass to Dawn. First of all, I feel good about the progress in North America. Maybe I'll start with a bigger step back. As you all saw, 3.1% organic sales growth in the quarter, which is a sequential improvement from Q1, which was 2.2%. We definitely saw a better balance of price and volume mix with volume mix at 1.4%. A few other highlights: emerging markets showed another sequential improvement at 6.3%, and we do look to see that strengthen in the back half. One of the drags to emerging markets was the Middle East, where we have a disproportionately large market share versus the balance of our business there. We've just seen significant market declines in places like Dubai and Pakistan. We believe that will get better in the back half based on our plans, not counting on the market to do anything different or the war to end.
So those are two key building blocks. Europe has been more challenging. We ended the quarter where we expected in line, but probably a bit stronger in North America and a bit weaker in Europe. We've seen the Europe market declining; we were relatively flat, up around 0.4% or so. Now getting to North America specifically: 3.1% growth with 2% volume. I would put it in three buckets. One is stronger execution — the shelf resets, self placements across key categories and key customers. Second, innovation is delivering. We've launched the third pillar of our clinical range, Clinical Repair, in the U.S., and that's doing extremely well. Beyond that, we've launched things like Centrum Age Defy and Rapid Relief, and innovation overall is performing well. The third area is e-commerce: we're seeing good momentum there, strong double-digit growth and about twice the market rate. So I feel good about the progress in the U.S. Still, there's more work to do, but we're encouraged and expect a stronger second half than first half, which is embedded in our guidance of 3% to 5%.
On the margin and investment question, I'll start with my perspective. We are investing in the business. A&P in the first half grew 3.2%, broadly in line with sales, slightly ahead, but broadly in line. A&P is roughly just below 21% of sales, so it's a strong level of investment in growth. There are specific areas where we've increased investment, and we're constantly doing resource allocation to ensure we're investing behind the key growth areas and key innovations. Our priority is growth; we don't want to invest just for the sake of investing. We want to invest where we see growth opportunities. In the second half, we expect a step-up in investment in growth, and that will show up in A&P and other areas, like investing in China on Douyin because we have a good business there. Our portfolio is a bit less exposed to that channel, but we're growing 100%, and we see more opportunities, so we'll invest more.
We'll also invest more in activations in the U.S. where we see opportunity. What gross margin and productivity have enabled us to do is have P&L flexibility to invest where needed while also driving strong EPS growth when it makes sense. To be clear, we're not holding back on investing. We feel we're investing where we need to be, and if we see opportunities we'll invest more. I'll hand over to Dawn to talk a bit more about the margin and the building blocks.
Good morning, everyone. On the margin, we have delivered improvement through efficiency. We are driving long-term sustainable improvements in our supply chain. The margin improvement has not come from cutting investment or taking excessive price. Our pricing is in line with inflation. The 120 basis points improvement in operating margin at constant currency is coming from gross margin, up 140 basis points, and we also had a 40 basis points benefit from FX, which is a tailwind for a change. That is pulling through and driving strong EPS in the business, and it gives us flexibility and agility. For the second half, we will start to see costs come through from the Middle East impact as we roll off fixed price contracts and our hedging positions. Given the strength in the supply chain productivity program, we won't have to take exceptional pricing to cover it; we will be able to absorb that cost.
From a margin perspective, we expect in H2 to deliver high single-digit operating margin growth, similar to the operating profit growth we had in H1. On A&P and KPIs: people buy our brands because they are superior, meaningful, differentiated and salient, which means awareness matters. Continued strong investment in A&P at 20.9% is important. We think about it in three ways. First, are we buying efficiently? In H1, we mitigated the majority of our inflation in how we're buying media. Second, are we spending effectively? We use a sophisticated market mix modeling tool to look at incremental retail sales growth and ROI around that spend, and both metrics improved in H1. Third, are we driving growth through reach and relevance? We're matching our spend with where consumers consume media. Sixty percent of our spend is allocated to digital, and we continue to increase spend behind social and expert channels, both up in H1.
A&P is dynamic: in areas where we're performing well, like Oral Health, China, India, we increased investment. In areas where it needs less investment — for example, when cough, cold and flu season was weak in Q1 — we shifted investment to other areas. We're ensuring we make our money work harder and continue to look for opportunities to invest.
Our next question is from Guillaume Delmas with UBS.
A couple of questions for me. The first one on Respiratory Health. We had another weak quarter in Q2; I think it shaved off 150 basis points of your organic sales growth. Of the three buckets — cough and cold, allergy, smokers' health — which ones would you expect to improve relatively quickly? Is your confidence in organic sales growth accelerating in the back half largely underpinned by an expected sequential pickup in Respiratory, or do you think the acceleration should be more broad-based in the back half? Second question on China: high single-digit growth in Q2 despite low incidence of cough and cold and some negative pricing. Can you touch on what is driving what seems to be double-digit volume growth in China? How should we think about pricing pressures — is it a one-off, is it the cost of competing in hospital channels — and does this have negative implications for margins in the region?
Thanks, Guillaume. I'll take the first question on respiratory and then pass the China question to Dawn. On Respiratory Health, the three buckets are cough and cold, allergy and the smallest piece, smokers' health. Cold and flu is about half the size in Q2 compared to Q1 since it's off-season and tends to be less volatile. Contac, a very big cold and flu brand in China, saw very little pickup in the quarter; we believe that's an extension of a very difficult cold and flu season. Allergy did well in Q1 and was down a little in Q2 due to seasonal phasing, which is normal. Smoker's Health still declined in the quarter but at a lower rate than in Q1; we're starting to see stabilization. On cold and flu in the back half, we've had two years of decline and we've done the work to understand whether that's cyclical or structural. We believe it's cyclical. We assume in the back half we'll see growth off of the two years of decline, although not necessarily back to the levels of two years ago. Cold and flu is more Q4 weighted because that's when the season is. I'll pass the China question to Dawn.
I'll take that in three parts: Asia Pacific, China specifically, and then the hospital channel and price question. Asia Pacific's growth profile over the last few years has been driven more than 80% by volume, which is a good growth profile. You see that in the year-to-date and it's even stronger in Q2. China drove a high single-digit result in Q2. Main drivers include increased investment in Douyin, which grew more than 100% in the quarter, with key brands like Centrum and Caltrate performing strongly on that channel. We doubled content creation there. Another driver was Voltaren, where we increased presence; Voltaren grew about 2%. Innovation continues to do well, and we've put Voltaren through the hospital channel as well. We've always had a presence in hospitals in China; what's new is Voltaren in that channel, which is positive. On pricing: yes, pricing was negative in Asia Pac in Q2, but I'm not worried. That was driven by going into the hospital channel where we have a volume-based procurement pricing model and by investment in Douyin. When you look at gross profit growth in Asia Pac, it's strong, and margin improvement in the region at constant currency is also strong. This shows that the investment behind driving growth in China and Asia Pac is coming through, and overall we continue to see margin improvement in that region.
Our next question is from Nicolas Ceron with Bank of America.
Two questions. First on your VMS business: do you think there's any consumer need your current portfolio is not able to address? Do you think you need M&A to address that? Second, on pain relief: big acceleration in Q2 versus Q1. Can you explain the key drivers behind that acceleration and whether mid-single-digit growth is the right run rate for that business going forward?
Thanks, Nicolas. On VMS, we like our portfolio. In the U.S., Centrum showed improvement in H1 with mid-single-digit growth, and in latest consumption data into July we're starting to see double-digit consumption behind our activations and shelving resets. There are higher growth spaces in VMS where we don't currently participate, and we're exploring organic options to introduce new products under Centrum. An example is our GLP-1 variant on Centrum launched in the U.S. as part of our broader effort to support consumers on that journey and activate in retail. Every portfolio can potentially benefit from bolt-on M&A or selective divestment, but I feel good about our portfolio and confident we have plans to drive the growth we want. On Pain Relief, Q2 was stronger for a few reasons. Voltaren performed well, including a Voltaren 12-hour variant launched in China that's doing very well. In the U.S., Voltaren is also seeing strength driven by shelving improvements. Panadol showed healthy growth, ahead of our global number, supported by activations and rollout of Panadol Dual Action — the acetaminophen and ibuprofen combination — which we market as Advil Dual Action in the U.S. And we're seeing stabilization and slight share growth in Advil. Overall, some fundamental improvements in pain relief helped drive the numbers.
Our next question is from Warren Ackerman with Barclays.
Warren here at Barclays. Apologies if this has been asked before because I just joined late. On Latin America, it looks like it accelerated from low singles to high singles. Can you talk about the new team in LatAm and what you're doing differently in terms of price-pack architecture and understanding local consumers? Do you think the step-up is sustainable or is it one-off? And on Europe, it seemed a bit softer in Q2 versus Q1. Can you outline where the weakness is — pharma channel, Germany — and what consumer dynamics you're seeing in that region?
Thanks, Warren. On Latin America: Q1 was flatter and Q2 showed high single-digit growth. I would expect that improvement to be sustainable into the back half, though there may be some phasing in Q3 and Q4 due to base effects. When we announced the new operating model in January, we also announced a new leader in Latin America, Andrés, who has deep experience at Quala in Colombia and time at Unilever. He quickly assessed the markets and took actions. For example, we identified a price gap on Sensodyne in Brazil and ran a pilot that drove double-digit volume growth, adjusting pricing where the gap with competitors had become out of whack. We've executed that change. Execution across the region, better understanding of local consumers, and capitalizing on low-income consumers — an approach we have a strong case study for in India — are driving improvement. We're encouraged by the progress, but not complacent. On Europe: as I said earlier, we ended the quarter broadly in line with expectations. It was a bit better in the U.S. and tougher in Europe. We're seeing a tougher backdrop in Europe with low single-digit category declines, but we've delivered roughly flat results overall. We are growing market share in Europe; Sensodyne continues to perform well. We're focused on execution and innovation, but the Europe dynamic has been more challenging than earlier in the year.
Our next question is from Misha Omanadze with BNP Paribas.
One question on cold and flu. Can you remind us of the timeline for sell-in for the season? Also, one of your competitors speaks about a major innovation in cold and flu coming — do you see that as a challenge? Second, on price/volume split for H2: you said you're not intending to take material pricing, but should we think about H2 being balanced between price and volume? And finally, on one-offs: were there any notable one-offs benefiting your Q2 delivery?
On cold and flu sell-in: sell-in happens now, typically in July and August. The big seasonality effect happens later in the year in Q4. On competitive activity, we're aware of launches from competitors. We're not unaware of competitive innovation, and we feel we have good plans in the U.S. combined with execution improvements. We're confident in our cold and flu plans for the back half, though we remain vigilant and never complacent.
On the price/volume mix: we've worked hard to improve the balance. In the quarter we saw a step-up in volume performance with volume mix at 1.4%. That step-up came from significant volume growth in Asia Pac and a step-up in North America to 2% volume mix driven by execution and innovation. Those gains were offset by EMEA, where volume mix was down because of a tough macro picture in Europe and softness in the Middle East. For H2, we expect a step-up in volume mix versus H1, particularly given cough, cold and flu in Q4. From a pricing perspective, I would expect pricing to be broadly similar in H2 versus H1. On one-offs: there have been events such as Amazon Prime Day and World Cup activities where we've had commercial activity, and they've been successful for us, but there's nothing significant to call out in terms of phasing Q2, Q3, sell-in or sell-out that materially distorts results.
Our next question is from David Hayes with Jefferies.
Two from us. First, coming back to the growth profile in Q2: doing 3% but you have a 4-plus medium-term ambition. There are many moving parts — Asia cold and flu effect, Middle East, U.S. momentum, Brazil execution. Can you quantify the big drivers that leave that gap? Would you expect to do 4% plus in H2 as those gaps are resolved? Second, on margin: impressive delivery. Is supply chain delivery lumpy? You got a lot of savings in H1; might it be less in H2? And on cost of goods sold inflation, some contract manufacturing rolls off; can you give a sense of COGS inflation in H1 versus what to expect in H2?
On the growth profile and the path to our 4% to 6% medium-term ambition: we're below that at the moment and focused on getting back. Key areas to get there include stronger emerging market growth — we saw sequential improvement at 6.4% in the quarter and expect that can get to high single digits driven by mid-teens growth in India and strength in Latin America and China. One drag has been the Middle East where our market share is disproportionately large, so declines in Dubai and Pakistan have had an outsized impact. We expect that to improve in the back half based on our plans. The U.S. needs to be in the 3% to 4% range for us to get to that ambition; I'm encouraged by the progress there. Europe would ideally be in a low single-digit growth range, though it's been weaker recently. For the back half, I'm not going to guide beyond the 3% to 5% range we've given, but the building blocks are progress in North America, less drag from the Middle East, and recovery in cold and flu in Q4 versus a year ago, which we expect to be improved but not necessarily back to 2024 levels. I'll pass the margin and supply chain question to Dawn.
The margin progression is coming from our productivity program in supply chain, which has three parts: complexity reduction (harmonizing packaging and formulations, optimizing SKUs), operational efficiency (debottlenecking plants, process improvement, equipment optimization), and optimizing our broader manufacturing network (what we do in-house versus co-manufacture). The program continues to deliver well and I don't see it as lumpy — we track the pipeline of potential future savings into the future. On H2 versus H1: we have seen a small increase in costs from the Middle East in H1, particularly in freight, and I would expect that to increase in H2 as we come off some contracts. We delivered 140 basis points improvement in gross margin in H1; I expect further improvement in H2 but it may not be to the same extent because we will absorb some Middle East costs. We will continue to invest in the business; A&P was increased ahead of revenue in H1 and we'll continue to invest in H2. Also, the benefit from operating model changes: at the full year we expect total benefits in the range of GBP 175 million to GBP 200 million, of which roughly a third we expect in this year. Similar to supply chain savings, we'll decide how much to reinvest and how much to drop through. Overall, I expect H2 operating profit to be high single-digit growth, and strong EPS growth in H2 as well.
Our next question is from Callum Elliott from Bernstein.
On Oral Care: 6.2% is a strong growth number, but it was the slowest quarterly growth for nearly four years and one of your biggest competitors reported a mid-single-digit decline. You're likely benefiting from their struggles, but they are a strong company. What is the sustainable growth rate for Oral Care? Second, on Latin America and the Sensodyne price gap: fixing price gaps feels like bread-and-butter for a company of your size. Do you think this Brazil Sensodyne pricing example is isolated, or do you need to improve competitive intelligence and infrastructure systematically across the company?
On Oral Care: 6.2% still feels very good and I expect improvement in the back half. Sensodyne continues to be very strong; Parodontax is very strong; Denture Care is mid-single-digit as expected. This business has grown at similar levels in the past. Our competitors are excellent companies and we respect them, but we drive growth by growing the category and moving consumers into more premium segments through innovation. Clinical White, Clinical Enamel and Clinical Repair this year were among the largest toothpaste innovations in the U.S. market in their respective years, and there's more innovation in the pipeline. Half the people in the world have sensitive teeth and only about a third use sensitivity toothpaste regularly, so there's structural growth to capture. We also have strong examples outside the U.S. — India is our second-largest market, with over 20% growth. Two years ago we introduced a low-income SKU at INR 20; adoption has grown and it's now a significant portion of volume, driving growth.
Parodontax grows consistently in the mid-teens. We are less promotion-driven and invest in advertising, dental detailing and long-term activation rather than chasing promotions. On Latin America and competitive intelligence: when we redesigned the operating model, part of the goal was to put the right leaders in place in high-opportunity markets. Andrés brought deep regional experience and acted quickly to address issues like the Sensodyne price gap in Brazil with targeted pilots. While fixing a pricing gap is basic in principle, in practice markets are complex and occasionally things slip; leadership changes and focused execution can accelerate correction. We're implementing structural changes through the operating model to drive agility and growth, and those changes are already paying dividends.
Our last question is from Edward Lewis with Rothschild & Co Redburn.
Two bigger-picture questions. First, at Investor Day last May you talked about wanting to reach one billion more consumers. You've made investments in India and China this year, but the world is more volatile — any update on that longer-term view? Second, Dawn, on AI: at Investor Day AI was mentioned, and it has become much more impactful. How much more benefit are you seeing from deploying these capabilities on margins and productivity than you thought previously?
Thanks, Ed. Our strategy set two ambitions: reach a billion more consumers and deliver industry-leading shareholder returns. The strategic shift to address low-income consumers is central to reaching more consumers. In India, our INR 20 pack is an example — it takes time to scale, but it's driving results (20% growth, with half that growth coming from the low-income SKU). Reaching low-income consumers requires more than cheap packs: it requires route-to-market, communication, education and dental detailing. We have proof points where this approach works, and we're evaluating how to scale it more broadly. Volatility in emerging markets won't change the underlying consumer need; the long-term opportunity remains.
On AI: we're investing in AI and seeing benefits across supply chain, demand and broader productivity. In supply chain, we've built connected AI interventions from consumption-based forecasting to production scheduling, preventative maintenance and inventory deployment. Consumption-based forecasting has improved forecast accuracy by about 5% to 6% and reduced stock cycle times. AI scheduling and digital twins at our Neon site delivered a 5 percentage point improvement in operational effectiveness; similar improvements have reduced unplanned shutdowns at our Dungarvan site. On the demand side, AI is embedded across insights, innovation, marketing and commercial execution. We have faster access to actionable insights; AI helps with faster claims generation in innovation and reduces content production costs in marketing. Commercial execution tools like next-best-action are driving sales growth. Broadly, tools like Copilot and automated language translation are improving productivity in functions like finance; optical recognition for invoices is driving process improvements and savings. We're on a journey with AI, and the benefits in supply chain productivity, combined with operating model changes, are enabling us to test, learn and build capabilities for the future.
Thanks, Dawn. That was the last question. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. I look forward to catching up with you at upcoming roadshows and meetings. As always, feel free to reach out to the Investor Relations team with any further questions. Thanks for your interest and continued support. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Thank you. That concludes Haleon Half Year 2026 results. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.