Someday, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is going to stumble, and that will be my time to strike. Maybe a bad batch of shampoo will turn customers' hair blue, or maybe it'll mess with a beloved product, a la the New Coke debacle of the '80s. In any case, that day isn't this day, as P&G continues to do a very good job indeed of running one of the largest consumer-goods franchises in the world.
Reported sales rose 27% for the second quarter, with the acquisition of Gillette obviously making a big impact on the reported numbers. On an organic basis (that is, stripping out Gillette), P&G sales grew 8% on top of a 6% rise in organic sales volumes. Though higher commodity costs were a challenge, P&G nevertheless delivered on profitability, too, and reported net earnings rose 29% from the year-ago quarter to beat estimates.
There are far too many moving parts to P&G to really do justice to it in this format, so I'd strongly encourage interested Fools to read the release for themselves to get all of the details. What I'll say here, though, is that all of the business units had positive organic volume growth, and for all but the Snacks and Coffee business (which was hurt by Hurricane Katrina), that growth was in the mid-single digits or higher.
For all the differences between P&G and other consumer goods companies like Altria (NYSE: MO), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Pepsi (NYSE: PEP), and Unilever (NYSE: UL), they do at least have one thing in common -- markets in developing countries matter. P&G saw double-digit organic volume growth in developing markets this quarter, and I'd expect that to continue for some time. There are still quite a few people for whom detergents, shampoos, and the like are not affordable on a day-to-day basis, and as their lot improves, so, too, should P&G sales.
I don't dislike this stock at all, but I'm not an owner and not likely to be one soon. For all of my love of value investing, I still generally prefer the small and the unknown -- buying stocks like P&G when there's a scandal or scare and people mark down the stock sharply. Whenever it happens with P&G, I'll be waiting.
For more good Takes on consumer goods:
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
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