Carlos Abrams-Rivera
Executive Vice President and President, North America Zone at Kraft Heinz
Bryan, what I would add is that, first of all, on the comment on private label, private label shares trends actually have been flat since you look at it, in fact, since second half of 2022, even with the increase in price gaps that we had after our price impact in February. So we have taken that pricing to protect our margins and some branded competitors have not followed. But at the same time, we continue to stay diligent on the way we think about the business. Now in the point that Andrew just mentioned in terms of, as we think about going forward, why is it that we see the moderation of our improvement, I'll give you three reasons in the way kind of I look at it as we go into the second half of the year into 2024 in the U.S. retail. Number one, we invested more in marketing, we're launching more innovation and we are lapping the pricing actions as we go into second half of the year. And just to unpack it one more level, if you think about the innovation that we are seeing right now, we are actually building momentum as we go into the year, as we are following this kind of two-pronged strategy innovation.
First, you're going to see us continue to launch more disruptive innovation platforms, and that includes things like our NotCo line of plant-based offerings, the new Crisp from the Microwave, which delivers great taste and all the convenience and the restaurant to retail platform, and you see that already with things like the IHOP coffee line. The second part of the innovation is also how do we take our existing brands into new spaces. Already, we introduced a new frozen Mac & Cheese. We are expanding our Delimex and Taobao into more spaces within Mexican meals, and as we speak, we're also launching new Oscar Mayer Scramblers, as we continue to expand on the breakfast platform. So you see us comprehensive in terms of how we are approaching innovation in order to continue to shape the categories as we increase its shelves space and quality displays as we go forward. And that's really paying us. And in fact, just to give you a factoid, if you look at our Lunchables we are creating a new golden wall in Lunchables as we go into the second half. And we are seeing that in some of our top customers, that increases about 40% our spaces in the shelf. So again, it's not only thinking through the kind of promotional event, but also what we're doing in terms of our driving -- volume driving activities that are important as we go forward.
