MDLZ Mondelez International, Inc.

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$62.53

Mondelez International, Inc. Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Please stand by. Your meeting is about to begin. Good afternoon and welcome to the Mondelez International Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Question and Answer Session. Your lines have been placed in a listen-only until it's your turn to ask a question. In order to ask a question, please press the star key followed by the one key on your touchtone phone at any time. To remove yourself from the queue, press star 2. On today's call are Dirk Van de Put, Chairman and CEO, Luca Zaramella, COO, Amit Banati, CFO, and Shep Dunlap, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Earlier this afternoon, the company posted a press release and prepared remarks, both of which are available on its website. During the call, the company will make forward-looking statements about performance. These statements are based on how the company sees things today. Actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in the company's 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K filings for more details on forward-looking statements. As the company discusses results today, unless noted as reported, it will be referencing non-GAAP financial measures. which adjust for certain items included in the company's GAAP results. In addition to the company's year-over-year growth on a constant currency basis, unless otherwise noted, you can find comparable GAAP measures and GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations within the company's earnings release at the back of the slide presentation. We will now move to our first question. And our first question comes from the line of Andrew Lazar with Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Andrew Lazar
Analyst, Barclays
Thanks so much, and good afternoon, everybody. Hi, Andrew. Hi there. Dirk, I was hoping we could start, as we often do, with some of your current thinking really around the state of the consumer in some of your key regions, and then I've just got a follow-up from Amit. Thanks so much.
Dirk Van de Put
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Andrew. Yeah, I think that makes sense. So if I start with emerging markets, I would say that the consumer overall, the confidence is resilient. There is a difference like India is very positive. I would say Latin America with Mexico and Brazil is solid. And then China is softer, but overall we remain constructive on China. If you look at it, we have good volume growth. We have strong top line growth. Snacking continues to perform well across all the major emerging markets. I'm particularly pleased that the categories in value are holding up very well, particularly in biscuits and chocolate. As you know, we continue to increase our distribution. Year to date, I think we've added about 130,000 outlets in India. Brazil will now over a million stores and in China we still have a very long runway so we keep on doing that and of course there is inflation driven by the conflict in the Middle East and that is a concern with consumers for instance in India but overall we feel good about the consumer in emerging markets at this stage. Switching to Europe I would say the consumer there the confidence is Thank you very much. and I think the good news is that we have positive volume mix growth of 1.6 pp in Europe. It was very broad-based and on top our share dynamics are improving. You have to take into account that on top we had unseasonably hot weather which had a 1% negative effect on our growth in Europe and we are very focused on execution We are doing very strong ANC reinvestment. We are also focused on strong activations. And we have some innovations like Biscoff or the Milka Croissant that are landing very well. And we think that the positive volume growth is going to continue for the rest of the year. And then lastly, North America, I would say consumer confidence remains soft. also driven by energy and fuel prices. And to be honest, I don't think it's going to improve anytime soon. The K-shaped economy continues where the growth is really coming from the higher income households. We feel good about our results in Q3 and year to date, and we expect them to continue with solid growth in North America. And that is driven by promo discipline, and some of the innovation and activations doing particularly well. So overall, I would say a pretty solid picture in the quarter.
Andrew Lazar
Analyst, Barclays
Great. That's really helpful. Thanks for that. And then Amit, Mondelez today reiterated its forecast, right, for strong EPS growth in 27. I'd really like it if you could maybe just work through some of the key puts and takes for next year, particularly around visibility and to maintaining positive volume momentum. and how we should think about price, particularly in the key European region. Thanks so much.
Amit Banati
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, so I'll start. You know, from a 26 standpoint, Andrew, I think, you know, we're maintaining our top-line outlook. As Dirk mentioned, you know, emerging markets, we're performing well. They remain a strong engine of volume and top-line growth for us. We feel good about where we are on developed markets as well, performing well in North America despite a soft consumer. and you saw this quarter we grew share as well as top line. So we're executing well in North America and Europe. We continue to progress well. This quarter you saw us grow volume as we lapped prices and carried forward some selective price investments that we had made earlier in the year. From an EPA standpoint for this year, we're maintaining our outlook. I think we've been consistent that we're going to reinvest Any upside back into the business, into areas that are working, you know, innovation like Biscoff, emerging markets. You know, in the quarter, we continued to invest back into ANC as well. So, you know, from, and of course, we continue to absorb the costs related to the Middle East war. So, you know, we are absorbing that within our outlook. From a 27 standpoint, I think, you know, despite increased volatility in the macros as well as headwinds from an inflation standpoint, I think we remain confident that we are going to drive strong EPS growth in 27. I think, you know, that's going to be on the back of volume-led growth into the year. I think, you know, we continue to expect strength in the emerging markets. and many more. We feel confident despite the inflation we are seeing in freight and some other commodities, we feel good and confident about our delivery about our ability to drive strong EPS growth in 27.
Andrew Lazar
Analyst, Barclays
Great. Thanks so much for all the color.
Conference Operator
Operator
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Peter Galpo with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Peter Galbo
Analyst, Bank of America
Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Dirk, I just wanted to follow up maybe starting in North America. You're one of the few packaged food companies that's posting kind of positive organic sales growth in North America. You're doing that through a combination of volume and price, at least year to date. And if I go back to the start of the year, you were pretty emphatic in your views that the kind of cutting price in North America wasn't the right strategy, whereas some of your competitors maybe were moving in that direction. I think that's proved true. And now we're just seeing the pendulum kind of swing the other way, where we're hearing more of your peers talk about taking pricing up. So maybe you can just comment on kind of how you see the environment evolving there, particularly from a price standpoint, as we get into 27.
Dirk Van de Put
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thank you, Peter. But I'll hand it over to Luca to talk about the North American business.
Luca Zaramella
Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, so hi, Peter. First of all, I think it was a solid Q3 performance. What underpinned the performance once again is the outcomes of our shares that have been improving and consistently gaining traction throughout the year. Very happy with Biscuit overall, particularly Savor is really on a roll, but also Candy and clearly in some cases, even in bars, we are gaining share through Zbar, which is really an outstanding brand. As you said, the promotions, tactics have changed for us and they are yielding good results. I think we are well executing around the depth of those promotions, the frequency, and those are clearly delivering a good level of incrementality to our business. So that's one thing that we have fixed and that is paying off. We didn't reduce prices, but we have become, I think, more precise as to what we do when. Importantly, we have increased ANC GP dollar in the U.S. was up, in North America was up, but it was partially offset by ANC spending and definitely happy with the incrementality related to some innovation launches we have made. So I think we are still cautious in terms of Thank you very much.
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