Mondelez (MDLZ) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, at 5 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chairman & Chief Executive Officer — Dirk Van de Putt
• Chief Financial Officer — Luca Zaramella

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RISKS

• Chief Financial Officer Luca Zaramella cited "material destocking that happened in The U.S. due to retailers lowering their working capital," which reduced U.S. volume performance.
• Luca Zaramella stated "incremental softening of The U.S. Biscuit market at the end of Q3" and described market decline as "a little bit more than the previous quarters."
• Chief Executive Officer Dirk Van de Putt noted that price elasticity in Europe is now at 0.7-0.8, higher than expected and above the historical range of 0.4-0.5, as discussed on the Q3 2025 earnings call.
• Dirk Van de Putt attributed the 4% volume decline in the U.S. during Q3 2025 to consumers being generally very concerned about the economy, with continued focus on essentials over snacks.

TAKEAWAYS

• Europe Chocolate Pricing -- Implemented about a 30% price increase due to the cocoa situation in Europe; private competitors largely did not match this level due to different ownership structures.
• Volume Elasticities -- European chocolate price elasticity was reported at 0.7-0.8 (normal range ~0.4-0.5) in Q3 2025, with higher elasticity impacting volumes more than planned.
• U.S. Biscuits Market -- U.S. volume declined 4% in Q3 2025, compared to a year-to-date average decline of 2.8%, with the Biscuits category especially impacted.
• Emerging Markets Volume -- Volume decreased 4.7% in Q3 2025, primarily due to Argentina's macroeconomic environment and planned downsizing in India. Excluding Argentina and India, volume decline was about 3% in Q3 2025.
• Implied EPS Drivers -- Last year’s $8 impact in the tax line was non-recurring. This boosts implied EPS growth compared to last year.
• 2026 EPS Target -- The company is "really targeting a high single-digit EPS growth for 2026," according to Luca Zaramella, despite material reinvestment planned.
• SG&A Structure -- Working media spend is set to increase "big step up" according to Luca Zaramella in 2026; Non-working media spend is being managed flat to down in 2025; 2026 overhead to align with 2025 except for normalized incentive accrual.
• North America Supply Chain -- New multiyear productivity program focused on U.S. bakeries' automation, logistics system automation, and eventual reduction in distribution centers, with most impact expected by 2027.
• Promotional Adjustments -- Management is shifting U.S. promotion strategies towards "more activation," moving away from simple price decreases to events and targeted offers due to diminished ROI from recent promotions.
• Better-for-You Segment -- the "You" vegan chocolate brand also grew, supporting focus on health-oriented innovations.
• Emerging Markets Performance -- Brazil achieved double-digit growth in Q3 2025. India generated mid-single-digit growth in Q3 2025. Mexico showed mid-single-digit growth in Q3 2025. and China experienced a low-single-digit decline in Q3 2025.
• European Seasonal Business -- Anticipate strong activation around Christmas, supporting volume rebound in seasonals, which exhibit lower price elasticity than non-seasonal items.

SUMMARY

Mondelez International (MDLZ 0.13%) management explicitly identified a challenging U.S. retail environment, with volume declines driven by cautious consumers and destocking by retailers. Executives cited an exceptional 30% price increase in European chocolate, which resulted in higher-than-anticipated price elasticity and a subsequent impact on volume. SG&A spending patterns will shift in 2026, emphasizing increased working media to support brands as cocoa cost pressure eases and reinvestment accelerates. Implied EPS is set to improve compared to last year due to the absence of a prior tax headwind. A step-up in European volumes tied to stronger Q4 2025 seasonal activation is planned.

• Dirk Van de Putt stated, "we are clearly seeing a couple of pockets of pressure that we need to address. These are caused sometimes by competitive situations where our competitors did not increase their pricing as much as we did."
• Luca Zaramella said, "We have confidence in all the plans that we're putting in place around seasonal," indicating near-term reliance on holiday-driven sales in Europe.
• Management expects cocoa to be "deflationary in 2026" according to Luca Zaramella and highlighted structured commodity coverage that could provide further cost relief if prices continue to decline.
• The company introduced a new multiyear U.S. supply chain program to drive cost and efficiency gains, with measurable financial benefits targeted from 2027 onward.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• PPA (Pack Price Architecture): Structured approach to designing product sizes and pricing to optimize consumer value perception and margin management across income segments and channels.
• RGM (Revenue Growth Management): Strategic framework encompassing pricing, promotions, and product mix adjustments to drive revenue optimization.
• Working Media: Direct brand or product advertising spend (e.g., TV, digital) that reaches consumers, as opposed to non-working media (agencies, production, etc.).
• DSD (Direct Store Delivery): Logistics model where the company supplies products directly to stores, bypassing traditional warehouse distribution.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Good afternoon, and welcome to the Mondelez International 2025 Third Quarter Earnings question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] On today’s call are Dirk Van de Put, Chairman and CEO; Luca Zaramella, CFO; and Shep Dunlap, SVP of Investor Relations. Earlier this afternoon, the company posted a press release and prepared remarks, both of which are available on its website. During this 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, the company provides year-over-year growth on a constant currency basis unless otherwise noted. You can find the comparable GAAP measures and GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations within the company’s earnings release and at the back of the slide presentation.

We will now move to our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Lazar with Barclays.

Andrew Lazar: Great. Thanks so much. Good afternoon, everybody. Dirk, maybe to start off, I was hoping you could talk a bit more in-depth about Europe, how you're seeing things as you sort of close the year and into next. Particularly when it comes to pricing that's been landed? And movements sort of that you deem that you need to make, as you mentioned, price gap management in certain European markets?

Dirk Van de Putt: Yes, yes. Hello, Andrew. So I would say, if I start with the consumer in Europe, I would say the consumer confidence remains in general stable, unchanged versus the last quarter. I look at our biscuits, cakes and pastries, and meals business, they're all performing well. Where we have share growth and volume mix growth. And if I look at it from an overall Europe perspective, I would say the category is performing generally in line. The chocolate categories in general are in line with expectations. We have seen the cocoa situation, as you know, we had to do quite substantial price increases in the order of about 30%. So broadly speaking, I would say the chocolate business is fine.

But we are clearly seeing a couple of pockets of pressure that we need to address. These are caused sometimes by competitive situations where our competitors did not increase their pricing as much as we did, largely because they are private companies. And the other thing I would say is that in certain markets, the retailers also suddenly took more margin than they have historically done. So we are fixing these problems. I wouldn't say it's a structural issue. But we need to be dealt with, and that has caused a difference in what we were expecting for this quarter in Europe.

I would also mention that yes, you look at the European situation, there was a heat wave in July, which has affected our volumes. Plus, we have done some significant downsizing also, which affects our volumes. The two markets where we have these situations are the UK and Germany. We are starting to see a reaction to the repositioning of the price points in certain areas of the portfolio that we have done. And so we are seeing the volume and the share improve as a consequence of that. We've also seen that competition has started to price recently. So that also will help the situation going forward.

Overall, I would say, as I see how the pricing is landing in Europe, elasticity is around 0.7, 0.8. It's higher than we would have expected where it used our thinking was more like a 0.4, 0.5. And so we are taking on top of what I already explained a number of other actions in the sense that we are innovating with new flavors and new formats. We are investing more in A and C. We're driving the seasonals very hard. We're working on promo effectiveness because that's also not playing out sometimes the way we would have expected.

And largely our main focus is on hitting the right price points where in certain cases, like on our 300 gram range in chocolate, we passed two key price points and that was probably a little bit more than the consumer can accept at the moment. We are of course accompanying that with a lot of productivity and cost savings. But overall, I would say seeing the fact that this was the heaviest cocoa cost that we would have in the year, from here going forward, we expect significant improvement. We expect to see a significant improvement in Europe. I hope that helps, Andrew.

Andrew Lazar: Yes, really thorough. Really appreciate that. And I guess lastly, with respect to guidance, maybe you could talk briefly about the implied Q4 guidance change, just as I would assume Cocoa has largely been locked in at this point. And then what's the key reason behind, I guess, the cut? And then as it relates really to '26, you make reference to being on algorithm and EPS. I was hoping you could add a bit more color on your confidence around this.

And I guess more importantly, sort of the key puts and takes that we should think about when thinking about organic sales growth next year in light of the planned investments that you're making some of the elasticity concerns?

Luca Zaramella: Thank you, Andrew. I would start by saying that on the 25 guidance, we had a series of impacts that clearly we weren't anticipating at the time of us giving guidance for 2025. The three main ones are the tariffs and related uncertainty and affecting the overall consumer confidence. The second one is the material destocking that happened in The U.S. due to retailers lowering their working capital. And the third one clearly was the unprecedented heat wave in Europe. Those elements lowered already we talk to you for Q2 our flexibility for the year. With incremental softening of The U.S.

Biscuit market at the end of Q3 and we saw the market declining in volume terms a little bit more than the previous quarters. And the higher top of elasticities in Europe clearly that caused a volume mix impact that at this point in time we don't want to offset by cutting costs and potential growth into next year. I think importantly, in the prepared remarks, we give you a sense of all the actions we are taking. To improve the volume trend that we see specifically in The U.S. and in Europe. And importantly, we have taken additional pricing in The U.S. We have confidence in all the plans that we're putting in place around seasonal.

I think we call out clear elements of growth in The U.S. like PACE, the Ventures and Give and Go. I think when you really look at what the new guidance means in terms of implied Q4, you see a step up in the top line. Four is year to date organic net revenue growth. We are guiding you at more than 4%. And importantly, last year below the line, we had an $8 impact in the tax line that is non-recurring this year. And so the implied EPS growth will translate in an over-delivery compared to last year. Of the EBIT that will be quite good in terms of growth.

Obviously, far as 2026 goes, it is a little bit premature to put all the pieces together for you at this point in time. We are literally going through the plans. And you might imagine that the big question we are asking ourselves is what cocoa level are we going to have into next year. As I mentioned a few times, we are well protected and covered, but reality is we have put in place series of coverage strategies that would allow us to participate to coco further potential declines. And so we need to understand little bit better and we will have a better sense of what the real cocoa impact going to be for next year.

It's certainly going to be positive. Even if cocoa is trading at the level that is quite higher compared to historical norms. We feel quite good about the plans we have been reviewing with all the business units in terms of chocolate. We are clearly optimizing GP dollars into next year in line with our guidelines and how we want to manage the business. The commercial approach to chocolate is quite good. We are doubling down on things that are working really well for us. And obviously, we want to build share, drive consumer value and protecting penetration. And I don't have to tell you again that we have big opportunities in all emerging markets.

And in adjacencies like cakes and pastries, snacks bar and premium. So cocoa will be deflationary in 2026. And we wanted you to hear that our goal is clear in terms of EPS growth for next year. And so we are really targeting a high single digit EPS growth for 2026. Even after the material investments that we're going to put into the business to really protect the long term growth of our categories.

Andrew Lazar: Thanks so much.

Luca Zaramella: Thank you, Andrew.

Operator: We'll move next to Peter Galbo with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Peter Galbo: Hey, good afternoon, Dirk and Luca. Dirk, I was hoping maybe you could give us a similar walk around The U.S. in terms of the path forward maybe to getting back to growth? I know you gave kind of a very detailed answer around but would appreciate kind of a similar level of detail on The U.S, please.

Dirk Van de Putt: Yes, yes. Well, so as Luca already said, we saw the category slowing down more in the last quarter versus what we saw in the first half, which is obviously not good. You look at it, the volume was down 4% versus a 2.8 average year to date. That is driven obviously by consumer that is very concerned in general about the economy frustrated with the pricing they're seeing and we're seeing the same behavior that we've been seeing before in the sense that they are really seeking for value. That means different things for the lower income consumers that means going to smaller packs at the right price points.

For the higher income consumer that usually goes for bigger packs, and buying when they're on promotion. We see that the best basket size of the consumer is really not increasing over the last three years. And as you can imagine, as prices have gone up, they're being more squeezed on what they can buy within that basket. And they are tending to focus on what are the essentials and as a consequence snacking categories are not that essential for them and we've seen that in our volumes. And on top of that promos are not necessarily delivering the expected ROIs. What else are they doing? They're shifting channels and formats.

So we see a big shift from food and mass to volume, club and online. We see more multipacks being sold. There's also some good news in the sense that some of the premium segments are doing well like Tate's for us is doing well. And some of the better for you offerings particularly protein related that is for us a builder's bar under the cliff range. Or a perfect bar They're doing well. We have You, which is our vegan chocolate is doing well. So we can see that there are areas that are connecting with the consumer. And for instance also Give and Go is doing quite well. The main concern is The U.S. Biscuits category.

And of course, the government shutdown going forward will not help with the confidence of the consumer. If I look at the OI the reason why the OI is negative in North America is largely driven also by cocoa. It might not immediately be clear, but an Oreo or a Chips Ahoy or a Tate's also have quite a bit of chocolate in them. And so they're affected by them the moment, it's not easy to price in The U.S. So what are we doing about all this? Is the big question of course.

I would say in the first place, the one thing that's important to realize is that our presence in those channels that are benefiting club value and e-commerce. Is good, but we don't have the same market share as we have in food and mass. So we've been working very hard to increase our presence there over the past more than one year and every quarter our market share in those channels is increasing. And we will continue to do so. That means we have to adapt our PPA We have to increase the number of displays we have in this channels and we need to do some route to market investments.

The other channel that we are pushing very hard is on the go. And on the go, you can reach consumer on the go with multipacks. If you think about a big multipack and mom has to put a snack in the lunch basket, if you buy a multipack that can cover several days or more than a week. And so we see a big opportunity in multipacks Of course, are working very hard on C stores because that's the other big area where On the Go is happening. Overall, price points are critical So we're doing a lot of RGM work on hitting the right price points.

And that means really PPA at both ends of the spectrum On one hand, the lower price, and so we've been talking about previous calls that we need to get really to that $3 price point with some of our packs and then also the big packs as I was talking about before. The other thing, as I said, better for you, particularly protein is doing well. So we driving our protein range quite hard. We're seeing 20% plus growth there in Perfect Bar and in Builders. So that is something that we will continue to double down on.

And then as it relates to premium, brands like Tate's Belvita, and You are the other ones that we are going to double down on. As it relates to Health and Wellness, we also see a little bit of movement in overall Health and wellness. We are working on expanding the zero audio range also the gluten free Oreo and dates range. So maybe the last thing I would mention there on how we are trying to get back to growth is that we are studying very carefully how our promotions are working And we've seen that we have to shift the way we do certain promotions.

We need a lot more activation, not just the price decrease but activation featuring special events things like that. So those all those activities combined at this stage make us believe that we can we can get to positive growth next year in U.S.

Peter Galbo: Great. Great. Thanks. Very much for that. And Luca, maybe just on the prior question, maybe a bit more directly. You seem to have the visibility on non-algorithm EPS growth for next year. I mean, should we be expecting that on top line? You'd have some visibility algorithm top line even if it's at the low end, just I know it's a bit more of a direct question, but would be helpful just from a modeling standpoint.

Luca Zaramella: As I said, Peter, we need to put together our thinking at this point in time on what type of COCO levels we're going to have into 2026. As I mentioned, we are well protected, but should Cocoa go even lower, we will take advantage of that. I think the way you have to think about the top line is in tricky components. One, is Europe where clearly chocolate pricing might be deflationary, but as a consequence the elasticity that we saw on the way up should happen on the way down as well. And importantly, I think we will be seeing volume growth in the chocolate business for 2026 in Europe.

The other component is developing markets where I think you're going to see continuous growth both volume and price driven at this point in time. And the third component is really The U.S. Where we are now projecting an improvement of the market situation, but where we will have material benefits coming out of channel expansion us investing more in our brands and importantly going after things that are really working well for us and doubling down on those. I think in the prepared remarks, for instance, we mentioned OREO with Riesis. So it's really impossible for us at this point in time to give you exactly the range of top line growth for 2026.

But rest assured that are driving for volume growth in chocolate in Europe. We are going to restore top line and bottom line in The U.S. And third, emerging markets will continue growing for us.

Peter Galbo: Great. Thanks very much.

Operator: We'll move next to David Palmer with Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

David Palmer: Thanks and thanks for all these comments. Just want to circle back to Europe. You mentioned the price elasticity up to 0.7 or so. And you also talked about there's some price gap issues and some competitors that have lagged on pricing. I'm curious how you're thinking about the outlook for price less going forward, maybe some of the gives and takes. Since we don't deal with that market quite as much, you know, one scenario would be that you're making adjustments right now in those that price elasticity could come back down.

Dirk Van de Putt: And then you mentioned the historically high prices and per we've seen categories where there's a little bit of fatigue after a series of prices, and that price elasticity can continue to be stubborn and rising. So wanted to get your sense on that, and I have a quick follow-up. Yes. Well, the type of price increases we had to implement are kind of unprecedented if you think about it. We are players that are largely in the tablet market. We are also in the other segments of chocolate, which is gifting or count lines, but largely tablet players, which has the biggest content of cocoa.

So as a consequence, we had to do, as I said before, about a 30% price increase. And historically, the elasticity has been around 0.4%, 0.5. It is higher as I said 0.7, 0.8. But that's not yet dramatic in the scheme of things. I would say that's pretty good. As long as you're below one. I don't think there's many categories that would have such a limited price elasticity. But the main thing is if you think about a 30% price increase on a 300 gram chocolate bar for instance, you start to really get into quite high euros per bar.

And I think as an example, that one that's the one where we believe that we need to do something going forward. That doesn't necessarily mean elasticity needs to improve. What we need to do is get that bar to a price point which is much more acceptable for the consumer. Short term, we can do that by reducing the price. Long term, we have to see if we reduce it to for instance, two fifty gram bar or something like that.

So it is really adapting to very specific circumstances where we knew that we were taking a risk by passing certain price points, and in some cases that worked quite well, in other cases it didn't turn out so well. So that's one movement we are doing right now. That movement is helped a little bit by some of the more benign cocoa environment. I wouldn't say cocoa is getting extremely cheap, but it's still much higher than it used to be. But at least it's come down from the high that we saw during this year. The other one is probably that we need to adapt certain formats and look at where our competition is placed.

And make sure that we are in a much more competitive level. That would be the second big movement that we need to make. So these two movements we believe will solve some of the issues that we're seeing. And again, want to emphasize that yes, things are different than we expected. But it's not that they're off in a major way of what we would have expected to happen in Europe. But we do need to make a number of adjustments, of which I just gave you too.

David Palmer: Thanks. And when you look at your emerging markets, do you don't wanna make a big deal of type of price elasticity that it looked like in the third quarter, they were still not bad. Your volume was down. The price elasticity would be sub you know, point five even if you take that quarter in isolation. But are you seeing certain markets where you're seeing a little bit of fatigue or maybe price gap issues? Or is that is that playing out just as you would you would think there? And I'll pass it on.

Dirk Van de Putt: Yes. I would say in the emerging markets, I would say playing out largely the way that we would expect. The first thing I would say is there's more downsizing that happened as an effect on our volume. So if you think about it, our emerging markets volume was down 4.7%. There's first of all Argentina where everything has been going on. I probably assume that you're aware of that. So there we saw hyperinflation, very negative macros and so our volumes were significantly affected in the quarter in Argentina. I guess with the recent elections that will start to improve going forward.

And then the other big market for us is India, where we decided not to increase our prices that much, but to downsize quite a bit. So if you take out those two, the 4.7% becomes a 3% volume decline. So there's a number of effects in there. That are driven by downsizing or the economy in two markets. But then go a little bit around, would say, the one market that we are experiencing more pressure is China, where we had low single digit growth negative low single digit growth in Q3, which is a new thing for us. Year to date, are positive in our growth.

We do see some short term pressure, but overall, we believe that things will be okay going forward. And as you know, still have a big distribution runway. It's clear that the consumer there is still not in the same confidence and probably still at a low for the last twenty years. And we're starting to see some signs of that. But do believe gradually the consumer confidence will come back. India, I mentioned, India in fact is doing quite well seeing the movement that we had to make, so performing better than we expected. Mid single digit growth in Q3, low single digit year to date. And then if I go to Brazil, double digit growth in Q3.

Excellent execution in biscuits, chocolate and gum and candy. And then Mexico, also improving. I wouldn't say that the consumer in Mexico is in a good place. Clearly, very concerned about the economy and overall job opportunities. But our business is recuperating from some of the issues that we had before, seeing good mid single digit growth in Q3. So I would say overall, we feel pretty good. Maybe looking at the volume, you might say that there is or it might look like there's a big elasticity effect. But that's really not the case from our perspective. And on our four big markets, we feel quite good at the moment.

David Palmer: Thank you. That's great.

Operator: We'll take our next question from Megan Klap with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Megan Klapp: Hi, good afternoon. Thank you. Luca, maybe just a quick follow-up. I think in one of your answers, said the guide does imply a step up in the fourth quarter from an organic sales perspective. It sounds like that's mostly driven by Europe. I guess, is that fair? And then just the second part of the question, I think you had anticipated some rebound in North just as the pricing flowed through. So you just help us understand a little bit more about what you're expecting for North America in the fourth quarter, just given standard data has been a little bit softer recently? Thanks.

Luca Zaramella: Thank you, Megan. Yes, we expect a bit of a rebound in Europe. Definitely there is going to be a big activation around Christmas and so the team is full steam ahead in terms of delivering the season. And so you will see a little bit of a volume step up in Europe and that's one of the drivers. I think you see emerging markets despite the numbers that on the face of it are in terms of volume mix maybe a little bit lower than you would have expected. As Dick mentioned, there is a big impact of Argentina but the chocolate elasticity in emerging markets is just 0.3 times as of Q3.

And we expect that not to improve, but not to worsen either in Q4. And importantly, in places like Mexico, China, India, Brazil, etcetera, I think the top line will continue to be good. So yes, there will be a better top line going into Q4. In The U.S, we are projecting a market that is in line with the minus 4% volume wise that we have been talking. But as we said, we are fine tuning our pricing strategies and our promos. And so you will see a little bit of more pricing kicking in and that will have a positive impact on both the top and the bottom line.

And so that's where we are at this point in time.

Megan Klapp: Okay, great. Thanks, Luca. And then maybe just as a follow-up, you talked about in the prepared remarks the new multiyear North America supply chain program. Maybe you can just spend a little bit of time on helping us understand what's different about this from prior productivity programs and any early targets, you can share today? Thanks.

Luca Zaramella: Yeah. It is a plan, that we have been reviewing with the team for the last I would say, to nine months. It is leveraging the competitive advantages that we have in terms of supply chain already. I think if you look at our profitability in The U.S. In biscuits and compare it to other players, it is obvious that we have quite a few good things to that help us delivering good profitability of the business. The new program will be intended to address mostly cost in some of The U.S. Bakeries.

I think we still have opportunities in terms of putting down lines that are more automated and address, a, some capacity constraints that we have, but importantly, our overall cost structure. And I think it will be a meaningful impact again, that you will start seeing most likely as of 2027. And the second big element that we are addressing at this point in time is our DSD system. We stand by it. It is a competitive advantage. And so we are not talking about the front phase delivery of our great brands to retailers, but we are rather talking about the logistics system that is in the back of all of that.

And having potentially fewer distribution centers and branches and automating those will result, a, in much better costs. From a logistics standpoint, but second in a much better service level and inventory for retailers. And so let's stay tuned. We'll talk a little bit more about it in the next few months. And all of these will be done within the envelope of the cash flow. Goals that we have.

Megan Klapp: Great. Thanks, Luca.

Luca Zaramella: Thank you, Megan.

Operator: We'll move next to Tom Palmer with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Thomas Palmer: Hi, thanks for the questions. You noted the planned reinvestment for 2026, when kind of talking about earnings. SG and A has been running down quite a bit this year. I guess any framing of how much of the reduction we've seen this year is more persistent cost reductions versus items that kind of come back next year? Thanks.

Luca Zaramella: So in terms of SG and A, I would say there are three key components of it. The number one is clearly the working media. And working media is a little bit in decline compared to last year, but we didn't touch structurally the amount of spending and investments we have been making in that P and L line in 2025. Going forward, will see a big step up of that line into 2026. And we firmly believe that the virtual cycle that has delivered great results for us will have to be put back in place in 2026, particularly as there is cocoa coming down and there is a cost favorability due to that.

The second element is non-working media. That has been managed in a declining mode for 2025 and that will continue into 2026. Obviously, we'll have to make some specific investments, but we expect the non-working media line to be kept in control. And the third element is the overhead. This year specifically, there is a positive impact due to our incentive plan that is not as high as we had it last year. But importantly, as we go forward, I think the team is working on initiatives that will deliver further SG and A savings. And so we expect that line to be in level to 2025 in 2026.

With the exception obviously of the incentive that will be planned at 100% for 2026.

Thomas Palmer: Okay. Thank you for all that. And I apologize for asking again on Europe. But I do just want to clarify on elasticity because I think there's kind of two pieces you discussed. This 0.7 to 0.8, that's effectively like non-seasonal products where you're seeing that elasticity. And the belief is that will not change for the quarter. But as you shift more to seasonal, you'll effectively see better volume trends because those items will have less elasticity.

Dirk Van de Putt: Yes. That's basically the correct assumption. In the sense that the 0.7, 0.8 unless we start to do major movements and what I said is we are adapting in certain areas. That means it's not an across the board sort of adjustment of our pricing. It's only in those specific cases where we think we need to bring it back to the right price point. And so the 0.7, 0.8 roughly will be maintained on the normal range. And just historically we know this that the seasonal range the consumer is not that clear on what the right price point is. And also is inclined to pay a little bit more. So the seasonal range will have less elasticity.

Thomas Palmer: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: We'll take our next question from Chris Carey with Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is open.

Christopher Carey: Hi. Hi, everybody. So I wanted to ask about North America strategy. Some of your competitors, in North America or peers maybe better said have taken the approach of investing into value, into pricing, know, so as to establish a foundation from which to grow volume longer term and, you know, have effectively accepted the consequences. Over a twelve month time horizon. I think, you know, you certainly dabbled with this strategy in the front half of the year. And it impacted your profitability. And there's there's been some shift toward I suppose, protecting the profit pool.

Can you just talk about your, I suppose, level of confidence is the right way to put this that a strategy that's a bit more focused on value and protecting the profit pool. Is, you know, the right strategy as we you know, exit this cycle over the next six to twelve months? And maybe just if you could highlight a bit more whether, you know, you don't see these as, mutually exclusive items. You can both protect the profitable pricing, but also offer value with some of the innovations and pack changes. So little bit of detail on the strategy. Evolution in North America regarding pricing and volume?

Dirk Van de Putt: Yes. Well, I would start with saying it's a particular year for us in the sense you have on one hand the whole chocolate cocoa movement that we have to deal with. And on top of that, you've got North America, particularly U.S. Market that is slower than we've seen in quite a while. And so at a certain stage, we need to yes, protect our overall profit pool and we cannot try to solve for all problems at the same time. And so that would be one reflection that we had.

The other one I would say as we started off the year we had a certain promotional strategy what we noticed in North America is that promotional strategy was not giving us the volume effect that we were hoping for. And as a consequence, that started to affect our margins more than we what we have what we have thought or our profit pool, if you want. And so the shift that you've seen with now some price increases and some changes in the way we promote are really not driven necessarily by protecting the profit pool, but are really driven by seeing how can we optimize our situation.

And so going forward, as you look into next year, on one hand, as we explained, we think that the chocolate situation will significantly improve. And that will allow us also to invest more into North America. If we would use that extra investment for a value play at the moment, I'm not convinced. That this is the best solution. As I said before, consumers don't seem to necessarily just react to value. They seem to be much more in a situation where they say, well, I can buy in my vast today what I can afford. I'm not planning to increase my spending. Within that, I need to cover my essentials.

And yes, sometimes I will buy my biscuits, sometimes I won't. But even if the biscuits are a very cheap price, they doesn't necessarily mean that they will buy them. So our experience with the value strategy hasn't been that great. What we do, do is in our PPA strategy, we have launched a range of products that are at lower price points. You get less product for it, but at least it's available at the $3 or the $4 price points where about a year and a half ago 70% of our range or so was above the $4 price points.

And we've significantly moved that in a way that is a value strategy but those products come still at very good margin. So that's the way I see the movements that we are going to do. And I hope this clarifies it a little.

Christopher Carey: Yes, helpful. Thank you for entertaining that. One quick follow-up on the investment a little bit around this. SG and A buckets. Is there any pull forward of investment that you had planned for 2026 coming into Q4 as you, you know, see some opportunities to lean in to achieve some of those outcomes that you're looking for. And then just as it pertains to this 2026 earnings outlook, does that embed a full spending a replenishment of spending that you would expect to be sufficient so as not to need to do that again? Going into 2027? Thanks so much.

Luca Zaramella: Look, I think the at this point in time, the Q4 plans for AUC investments are locked in. So there is the guidance we gave you is in line with the level of spending. And clearly, we allocated money in the places where we saw opportunities. And as I said, we pulled back particularly on non-working media. But in general, pricing are locked and they are contemplated in guidance. The virtuous model of this company is continuous investments in our brands, in our franchises, and execution at point of sales and activation at point of sales.

For instance, if you take some of the plans we have for year, particularly around our chocolate with Biscoff or the fact that we are launching Biscoff in India. Think that would be meaningful spending and incremental cost due to activation at point of sales. I don't think it's plausible to assume in a growth company like the one we want to be that we have done in 2026 with the investment. If you look at the amount of working media we had put into the system in the last few years, it is quite meaningful. But I think that is one of the reasons why we see our categories doing well.

We have seen the company delivering good top line volume driven and price driven in a balanced way. And we want to continue that algorithm. I think importantly, you will see us in the years to come to go more deliberately after key incremental spaces like snack bars and cakes and pastries. We have just launched seven days in Brazil. We want to make sure there is sufficiency. Of spending behind all these incremental initiatives. And so we don't want to play necessarily on a model that is launched, see how it does and then invest ASC. We want to go all in both in terms of execution and point of sales and support to our brand.

Christopher Carey: Okay. Thanks so much.

Operator: And this does conclude our question and answer session. I would now like to hand it back to Dirk Van de Putz for any additional or closing remarks.

Dirk Van de Putt: Well, thank you for attending our Q3 earnings call. Obviously, if you have any further questions, our IR team Shep and Ron are available. To answer anything else that you would like to discuss. Thank you. Thank you everybody.

Operator: This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time, and have a wonderful evening.