Dear Shareowners,
FISCAL YEAR 2024 BY THE NUMBERS
Fiscal year 2024 was another strong year for P&G. Execution of our integrated strategy enabled the Company to meet or exceed our going-in guidance ranges for organic sales growth, core EPS growth, cash generation and cash return to shareowners. We accomplished all this despite the significant market-level headwinds we experienced, which were largely unknown when we gave our initial outlook for the year.
For the fiscal year, organic sales grew 4%. Core earnings per share grew 12%. On a currency-neutral basis, core earnings per share were up 16%. Adjusted free cash flow productivity was 105%.
This was our sixth consecutive year of 4% or better organic sales growth. It is worth noting that 4% organic sales growth was against a strong comparison of 7% the prior fiscal year and in more challenging market conditions.
Growth was broad-based across business units, with eight of 10 product categories growing organic sales. Home Care, Hair Care and Grooming were up high single digits. Oral Care and Feminine Care were up mid-single digits. Fabric Care, Family Care and Personal Health Care grew low single digits. Skin & Personal Care and Baby Care were down low single digits.
Focus markets grew 4% for the year, with North America up 5% and Europe Focus markets up 8%.
Enterprise markets were up 6%, led by Latin America with 15% organic sales growth.
E-commerce sales increased 9%, now representing 18% of the Company total.
Thirty of our top 50 category/country combinations held or grew share for the year. Importantly, this share growth was broad-based with six of 10 product categories growing share globally over the past year.
On the bottom line, we continued to deliver consistent earnings growth, with core earnings per share up 12% this year—recovering from a very high inflationary period the past two fiscal years.
We continued our strong track record of cash return to shareowners—returning over $14 billion of value to shareowners through just over $9 billion in dividends and $5 billion in share repurchase.
In April, we announced a 7% dividend increase, again reinforcing our commitment to return cash to shareowners—the 68th consecutive annual dividend increase, and the 134th consecutive year P&G has paid a dividend. Only seven U.S. publicly traded companies have paid a dividend more consecutive years than P&G, and only three U.S. companies have raised their dividend more consecutive years.
In summary, last year was another strong year for your company in a very volatile environment. To be clear, there is still more work to do to continue improving the areas in our control needed to offset the headwinds that are largely not in our control. However, we are confident that strong execution of our strategy will continue to deliver the level of balanced growth and value creation results you, and we, expect of P&G.
Please see Measures Not Defined by U.S. GAAP in the Downloads section, or page 74 of the print Annual Report, for definitions of non-GAAP measures and reconciliations to the most closely related GAAP measure.
VARIOUS STATEMENTS IN THIS ANNUAL REPORT, including estimates, projections, objectives and expected results, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are generally identified by the words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “project,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “likely” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on current assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements, including the risks and uncertainties discussed in Item 1A – Risk Factors of the Form 10-K included in this Annual Report. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.