Please read this P&G article.

Question: P&G has been involved in a turnaround since approximately 2012. How similar is this turnaround to the LEGO bankruptcy case?

Operations. P&G operates its business globally through five segments: Fabric & Home Care (nearly 35); Baby, Feminine & Family Care (some 25%); Beauty (nearly 20%); Health Care (more than 10%); and Grooming (about 10%). Taken together, the segments include everything from laundry additives and air fresheners to diapers and digestive aids as well as deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, and razors. The company's market-leading brands include Tide, Ariel, Gain,and Downy in Fabric & Home Care; Pampers, Always, and Bounty in Baby, Feminine & Family Care; Olay, Pantene, and Head & Shoulders in Beauty; Vicks, Metamucil, and Pepto Bismol in Health Care; and Gillette, Fusion, and Venus in Grooming.

Geographic Reach P&G has operations in some 70 countries worldwide and markets its products in more than 180 countries. It generates about 45% of its revenue from business in the US and Canada. P&G's remaining revenue comes International businesses. To support its operations, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company owns some two dozen manufacturing sites across more than 15 US states. Additionally, it owns about 85 production facilities in 35-plus other countries. P&G's primary regional general offices are located in Switzerland, Panama, Singapore, Dubai, and China while its primary regional shared service centers are in Costa Rica, the UK, and the Philippines.

Mergers and Acquisitions In one of its biggest acquisitions in years, P&G in 2019 bought the consumer health unit of Merck KGaA for $3.7 billion. The purchase adds vitamins and supplements including the Seven Seas brand and expands the company's operations in Latin America and Asia. As part of the deal, P&G purchased a majority stake in Merck's Indian consumer health operations.

Sales and Marketing P&G sells its products worldwide through mass merchandisers, e-commerce, grocery stores, membership club stores, drug stores, department stores, distributors, wholesalers, baby stores, specialty beauty stores (including airport duty-free stores), high-frequency stores, pharmacies, electronics stores and professional channels. These customers sell their products to individual consumers. The company also sell directly to consumers. Sales to Walmart and its affiliates account for about 15% of total revenue. Its top ten customers accounted for nearly 40% of its total sales. The company reported advertising expenses of $7.3 billion in 2020, $6.8 billion in fiscal 2019, and $7.1 billion in 2018.

Procter & Gamble Co. posted another quarter of rising sales and profit as the marketing giant persuaded consumers to upgrade to premium versions of Tide and Crest products, but the growth slowed from the previous quarter.

The Cincinnati company said organic sales, a measure that excludes currency moves and deals, increased 5% from a year earlier in the quarter ended Dec. 31. On that basis, sales rose 7% in the previous quarter.

Finance chief Jon Moeller said the company is pleased with the growth, and the results are evidence that its turnaround plan is working. "We're looking, as we innovate, to be able to modestly [increase] price and still build value," he said.

P&G has recorded a growth streak that has outpaced rivals such as Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Unilever PLC.

Kimberly-Clark, which makes Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissues, on Thursday reported a 3% gain in organic sales for the same quarter. The smaller company, which has also been raising prices, forecast growth for the current year that was below P&G's projections.

"It's still early days," Kimberly-Clark Chief Executive Michael Hsu said during a call with analysts. "We're making good progress, and I expect more going forward."

Kimberly-Clark said new offerings such as super premium Huggies diapers are soon headed to stores.

P&G's turnaround has been driven by higher prices, new products and a leaner portfolio of brands. The company has shed mass-market beauty brands and led the industry in a move to raise prices to offset commodity costs and fatten profit margins.

The most pressing question now facing P&G is whether the company can maintain growth as rivals step up competition and consumers and retailers potentially begin to push back on price increases.

In the December quarter, the company raised prices in its struggling Gillette razor business. Until recently, brand sales were falling despite aggressive price cuts in prior years. Gillette "is strengthening quite nicely," Mr. Moeller said in a call with reporters. "There is still work to do but we are making significant progress."

P&G's beauty business, covering brands such as Olay and Pantene, delivered the strongest growth in the quarter, with organic sales rising 8%. The health unit, which includes products such as Vicks cough drops and Crest toothpaste, recorded a 7% gain.

The one weak spot was the baby-care business, which includes Pampers diapers, where organic sales declined from a year earlier. Mr. Moeller said the division is fighting tough competition, as birthrates are falling in China and the U.S. Both P&G and Kimberly-Clark have sought to offset the impact of those declines with higher-end offerings and by focusing on other categories, such as adult diapers and feminine-care products.

P&G has benefited of late in part because consumers have proved willing to pay up for the more-expensive products it has developed, such as specialty toothpaste and Tide Pod detergent packets. Prices were up 1% across its portfolio in the quarter, P&G said.

China, where P&G was struggling a few years ago, proved to be a significant growth engine. P&G said it gained market share and sales rose 14% from a year earlier.

Profit in the fiscal second quarter rose to $3.72 billion, from $3.19 billion a year earlier. Overall, P&G reported $18.24 billion in sales, short of the $18.42 billion consensus compiled by FactSet.

P&G raises annual forecasts on pandemic cleaning boom

Group predicts the hygiene conscious will continue to spend after vaccine rollout

Elevated demand for paper towels, washing-up liquid and laundry detergent has lasted into the winter, giving Procter & Gamble another bump in sales and prompting the consumer goods bellwether to increase its annual forecasts once again.

The household products group predicted that sales of brands including Ariel, Bounty, Tampax, Pampers and Head & Shoulders would remain strong even after the rollout of coronavirus vaccines.

Wall Street analysts had forecast P&Gs rate of organic sales growth in its financial second quarter to cool from 9 per cent in the previous three months to about 6 per cent, yet the US-based groups latest batch of forecast-beating results indicate the pandemic-induced boost to the business is showing little sign of fading.

In fact, it disclosed an 8 per cent year-on-year rise in net sales to $19.7bn.

The trend for consumers to stay inside is leading them to wash and cook at home more often than usual. The phenomenon has fuelled demand for a wide range of staples, from dishwashing tablets to toilet paper.

Concern about the spread of coronavirus has also made consumers more hygiene-conscious, suggesting lasting benefits for companies in the sector including Reckitt Benckiser of the UK and Kleenex maker Kimberly-Clark, as well as Procter & Gamble.

Jon Moeller, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, noted that quarterly sales in China, the companys second-largest market, had risen 12 per cent the same rate as the US despite reduced coronavirus cases.

If thats representative, theres no indication that vaccine availability, more social mobility, is inherently a demand reducer.

Not all consumer trends in the pandemic have benefited P&G, however. Lockdown restrictions on department stores have hurt sales of premium skincare products, and distribution through venues such as hotels and restaurants has also been diminished, Mr Moeller said.

P&G has also incurred higher material costs and safety-related expenses. The cost of products sold increased 4 per cent in the quarter.

We expect some of the current tailwinds to our business will dissipate, but some very strong headwinds should abate or disappear, he said.

Shares in P&G rallied 14 per cent in 2020, although before Wednesday they had shed 3 per cent this year as Wall Street had queried how much longer the boom could continue.

Economic weakness has also prompted some analysts to raise concerns about how long shoppers will remain prepared to pay a premium for P&G brands, which tend to be more expensive than rivals.

Government stimulus had made a real difference so far, Mr Moeller said, although he added that the company would have to see how future fiscal support plays out.

Despite the uncertainty, P&G said it was on track to deliver an annual increase in sales of between 5 and 6 per cent in its fiscal year up from its previous forecast for a rise of between 3 and 4 per cent.

Net income in the financial second quarter rose 4 per cent to $3.89bn, equivalent to diluted earnings per share of $1.47.

Each of the companys five main divisions posted increases in organic sales, led by a 12 per cent rise at its fabric and home-care division and a 9 per cent gain in healthcare. Even the grooming business, which has been hurt by mens tendency to shave less, produced a 6 per cent increase.

P&G was able to edge up prices by 1 per cent, while volumes rose 5 per cent. A more favourable mix of business also contributed to the revenue improvement, and organic sales, which exclude the impact of foreign exchange, acquisitions and divestitures, rose 8 per cent overall.

Shares in P&G, which has a market capitalisation of $331bn, were little changed in pre-market trading.