Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience and holding. We now have your presenters in conference. Please be aware that each of your lines is in a listen-only mode. At the conclusion of this morning's short remarks, we will open the floor for questions. At that time, instructions will be given as to the procedure to follow if you would like to ask a question. It is now my pleasure to introduce today's first presenter, Karen Miller.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Kimberly Clark's first quarter earnings conference call. With me today are Mike Hsu, our chairman and CEO, Maria Henry, our CFO, and Nelson Ordeneta, our incoming CFO. Earlier this morning, we issued our earnings news release and published prepared management remarks from Mike and Maria that summarized our first quarter results in 2022 outlook. Those documents are available in the investor section of our website. In just a moment, Mike will share opening comments, and then we'll take your questions. During this call, we may make forward-looking statements. Please see the risk factors section of our latest annual report on Form 10-K and the first quarter 10-Q for further discussion of forward-looking statements. We may also refer to adjusted results in Outlook. Both exclude certain items described in this morning's news release. The release has further information about these adjustments and reconciliations to comparable gap financial measures. Now I'll turn it over to Mike.

Okay, thank you, Taryn. Good morning, everyone. Before we get to your questions, I'd like to comment on our CFO transition, and then I'll provide a perspective on our Q1 results. First, I'd like to thank Maria Henry for seven years of outstanding leadership as CFO of Kimberly-Clark. As you saw from our news release, Maria has decided to retire effective September 1st. Maria will leave quite a legacy at KC. She played a key role in the design execution of our strategy, and her strong financial stewardship has positioned us well for the future. I'm grateful for all her contributions and very glad she'll be with us through the summer to ensure a smooth transition. I'd also like to welcome Nelson, our incoming CFO. Nelson brings strong operational and international experience to KC, and I'm looking forward to his leadership. I'm sure you'll enjoy getting to know him as he begins his new role. Now turning to our first quarter, I'm pleased that we started the year with double-digit organic sales growth and strong performance in all segments. Our teams are executing very well during a period of continued volatility and high inflation. Our strong fundamentals provide a solid basis for us to raise our sales outlook for the full year. We're driving growth by building strong commercial capabilities and deploying them with local agility. We're continuing to invest in our business, grow our categories, and deliver meaningful value to our consumers. We're continuing to face a dynamic environment. We're being thoughtful with actions to offset macro headwinds, balancing price, volume, and market share while we work to improve our margins over time. 2022 marks KC's 150th anniversary. Kimberly Clark was founded on the core principles of quality, service, and fair dealings. These principles still reflect who we are and what we stand for today. We're led by our purpose of better care for a better world, and we're driven to perform so we can continue to make a difference in people's lives with the categories we create, the products we make, and the consumers we serve. Our purpose-led, performance-driven culture fuels our team every day to drive our growth and deliver long-term shareholder value. Now, with that, we'd like to address your questions.