Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 2, 2024 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Matt Farrell - President, Chairman and CEO
Rick Dierker - Executive Vice President and CFO
Conference Call Participants
Chris Carey - Wells Fargo Securities
Rupesh Parikh - Oppenheimer
Dara Mohsenian - Morgan Stanley
Andrea Teixeira - JPMorgan
Nik Modi - RBC Capital Markets
Peter Grom - UBS
Anna Lizzul - Bank of America
Bonnie Herzog - Goldman Sachs
Olivia Tong - Raymond James
Lauren Lieberman - Barclays
Javier Escalante - Evercore ISI
Filippo Falorni - Citi
Brett Cooper - Consumer Edge Research
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to Church & Dwight’s First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call.
Before we begin, I’ve been asked to remind you that on this call, the company’s management may make forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the company’s financial objectives and forecasts. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that are described in detail in the company’s SEC filings.
I would now like to introduce your host for today’s call, Mr. Matt Farrell, Chairman and President and Chief Executive Officer of Church & Dwight. Please go ahead, sir.
Matt Farrell
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I’ll begin with a review of the Q1 results, and then I’ll turn the call over to Rick Dierker, our CFO. And when Rick is done, we’ll open the call up for questions.
Q1 was another solid quarter for Church & Dwight. Reported sales growth was 5.1%, beating our outlook of 4%, thanks to stronger results across the Board from Domestic, International and Specialty Products. Organic sales grew 5.2%, which exceeded our 4% Q1 outlook, with volume accounting for a very healthy 70% of our growth.
Gross margin expanded 220 basis points. At the same time, we increased marketing spending in the quarter and gained market share in a majority of our categories. Adjusted EPS was $0.96, which was $0.11 higher than our $0.85 outlook. The results were driven by higher-than-expected sales growth, gross margin expansion and a lower tax rate.
We continue to grow in the online class of trade, with online sales as a percentage of global sales now reaching 20.5%. In March, we signed a definitive agreement to acquire Graphico, our Japanese distributor, for approximately $35 million. We expect the acquisition to close later this year.
Graphico’s annual sales are approximately $38 million. The business is based in Tokyo and has 59 employees. Since 2008, Graphico has partnered with Church & Dwight and driven OxiClean to be the number one powder pre-wash additive in Japan. The acquisition is expected to contribute to greater expansion of our business in Japan and the greater APAC region. We intend to leverage the capabilities of the Graphico team to bring additional Church & Dwight brands to Japanese consumers.