Jon R. Moeller
Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer at Procter & Gamble
Thanks Andre, and good morning, everyone. I'll start by underscoring a few points Andre made in his discussion of the topline trends. Overall, continued strong top line progressed 22nd consecutive quarter of 4% or better organic sales growth, volume acceleration in key markets, increases in aggregate market shares. This despite several notable headwinds, which should be temporary. Tensions in the Middle East will hopefully ease. Enterprise market volume impacts following price increases are usually temporary.
While we can't talk specifics of future pricing in any market, more stable foreign exchange and commodity costs will ideally reduce the need for additional large price increases.
I spent six days in China with the team two weeks ago. I met with consumers in their homes, with retail CEOs with our team, and with several government officials. In my view, the long-term China opportunity remains intact. The near term is likely to present some challenges.
We'll see what happens with the global cough cold season as a soft start to the season either reverses or eventually annualizes. No guarantee of immediate bounce back in any of these, but reason to believe they will improve over time.
In addition to continued aggregate topline progress, a very strong bottom line, mid teens core earnings per share growth two quarters in a row, while increasing investments in innovation, brand building and market growth. Our team continues to execute our strategy with excellence, enabling strong results over each of the past five years, pre COVID, during COVID and through a historic inflationary and pricing cycle. I want to thank them both for what they delivered and for what they're working to continue to accomplish.
Our integrated strategy is unchanged. A focused portfolio of products and daily use categories where performance drives brand choice. The portfolio is performing, delivering broad based growth across nearly all categories and most geographies for several years. The announcements we made in December to change our go to market approach in Argentina and Nigeria will further sharpen our focus and strengthen our value creation potential. A good example of the dynamic nature of our strategy and our desire to aggressively allocate resources to where they create the most shareholder value.
Next strategy element, ongoing commitment to an investment in irresistible superiority through innovation across the five vectors of product package, brand communication, retail execution and value holistically defined. Leveraging that superiority to grow markets and our share in them to jointly create value with retail partners. The plans across the businesses are broader and stronger than at any time in the recent past as each team works to increase their margin of superiority and consumer delight.
Superior innovations that are driven by deep consumer insights communicated to consumers with more effective and efficient marketing programs, executed in stores and online in conjunction with retailer strategies to grow categories and our brands, priced to deliver superior value across each price tier where we compete. Smooth tear Charmin Ultra Soft Smooth with scalloped edge perforations, a great example of consumer insights driving innovation to improve the in-use experience. Consumer response to the new product has been overwhelmingly positive and is driving word of mouth recommendations in social media.
Gillette's superior propositions like the GilletteLabs razor with an exfoliating bar that removes dirt and debris before the blades, continue to drive growth in the global grooming category. GilletteLabs has reached shares greater than 20% in markets like Spain and France, and is building momentum in the U.S. and China. The global grooming category is on track for $1 billion of retail sales growth this fiscal year, with Gillette driving two-thirds of the increase, well ahead of our global share.
Superior innovations like Dawn Power Wash and Dawn EZ-Squeeze in the U.S. and Fairy power spray and Fairy Max in Europe are disproportionately driving market growth in hand dishwashing with value share in the U.S. approaching 67%, merely 50% across Europe focused markets.
Third strategy element productivity, improvement in all of our operations to fund investments in innovation, brand building and market growth, to mitigate cost and currency challenges, and to expand margins and generate cash. We're reaccelerating productivity back to pre-COVID levels with an objective for gross savings and cost of goods of up to $1.5 billion before tax.
Visibility to more savings opportunity is increasing enabled by platform programs with global application across categories like supply chain 3.0. We're working in a new way with retailers on the totality of the supply chain, end to end, versus simply trying to optimize each piece. One example using data and machine learning algorithms to optimize truck scheduling to minimize idle time for drivers. We're also using AI tools to optimize fill rates and for dynamic routing and sourcing optimization, $200 million to $300 million of savings opportunity across these areas. We have line of sight to savings from improved marketing productivity, more efficiency and greater effectiveness, avoiding excess frequency and reducing waste while increasing reach.
We're taking targeted steps to reduce overhead as we digitize more of our operations. The team has delivered strong cost savings in the first half of the year, and plans to build on this momentum.
Next, constructive disruption of ourselves and our industry. A willingness to change, adapt and create new trends, technologies and capabilities that will shape the future of our industry and extend our competitive advantage. We continue to be a constructive disruptor of brand building, in-housing more of the media planning and placement activity, using our proprietary tools and consumer data to increase effectiveness and efficiency of our communication. We're disrupting traditional lab-based innovation models to dramatically increase the speed and breadth of discovery.
Last but clearly not least, we've designed and continue to refine an empowered, agile and accountable organization model. Also, an increasingly diverse organization, enabling us to better serve an increasingly diverse set of consumers. So strong progress across all strategic pillars with significant opportunity ahead of us. No reason to stand still, as illustrated by the four focus areas we've outlined previously. Supply chain 3.0 is delivering productivity as we just talked. We're also driving improved capacity planning, greater supply agility, flexibility, data transparency, scale and resilience, all the way up and down the supply chain, inclusive of our retail partners. All of this was driving higher quality, increased supply assurance and higher on-shelf availability of our products, and of course better cash and cost structures. These programs improve superiority with consumers and further strengthen what is already the top ranked supply chain by our retail partners and third-party industry surveys.
Environmental sustainability -- superior propositions for consumers, customers and share owners that are sustainable, driving sales and profitability while reducing the footprint of our operations, enabling consumers to reduce their footprint and innovating to deliver cross industry solutions for some of our most pressing challenges. A good example is the four chamber Ariel platinum PODS innovation that we launched in a new cardboard package.
Extending our superiority advantage in product performance while improving sustainability by enabling great wash results even in cold water, already contributing to a two-degree Celsius reduction in wash temperatures in Europe against a five-degree target. Also extending packaging superiority with a more attractive and more sustainable cardboard box.
Digital acumen -- Leveraging data and digitization to delight consumers, streamline the supply chain, increase quality, drive productivity, all driving shareholder value.
Fourth -- the superior value equation for all employees, inclusive of all genders, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, ages and abilities for all roles to ensure we continue to attract, retain and develop the best talent, and are best positioned to serve all consumers. These four focus areas are not new and separate strategies. They simply strengthen our ability to execute the strategy.
Our strategic choices on portfolio superiority, productivity, constructive disruption and organization reinforce and build on each other. We continue to believe that there is merit in doubling down on this integrated strategy, starting with a commitment to deliver irresistibly superior propositions to consumers and retail partners fueled by productivity.
We remain as confident as ever in our strategy and our ability to drive market growth, and to deliver balanced growth and value creation to delight consumers, customers, employees, society and share owners.
Now back to Andre for guidance.
