Reuben Mark Quotations

With weak economic conditions around the world, this was a strong finish to a strong year, ... The combination of sharply higher gross margin and excellent overhead control allowed us to provide a healthy increase in total marketing spending worldwide while also meeting our profit expectations.

Since he will soon be chief executive, he should take all of the vacations he can prior to that because there will be precious little time then.

Good growth, together with strong margin improvement in every division, drove us to another record in both dollar profit and profitability, ... Every geographic area met or exceeded our volume expectations despite economic problems in some areas of the developing world.

We are pleased that our strong top-line momentum continued this quarter across all operating divisions and on top of the outstanding growth achieved in the year ago period. We are especially encouraged that global pricing was positive for the first time in two years, despite difficult cost and competitive environments.

We project double-digit earnings, and our expectation is we will be there for the year, wherever oil settles, because if it goes out of sight, our expectation is that we will be able to raise prices. Beyond that, we are less dependent on oil than many.

This sale is part of Colgate's ongoing strategy to de-emphasize and eliminate low-margin portions of the business while focusing on our high-margin, fast-growing oral, personal and pet care businesses.

We are especially encouraged by the 110 basis point improvement in gross profit margin during the quarter, to an all-time record and the largest quarterly gross profit increase in over three years.

We are very pleased to begin 2006 with excellent top and bottom line growth, exceeding expectations and building on the strong growth momentum we saw in 2005.

Every operating division achieved strong volume growth and increased operating profits both absolutely and as a percent to sales, ... It is especially encouraging to see dollar operating profits rise strongly even in Latin America and Europe despite currency pressures.

These strong second-quarter results give us great encouragement that our momentum will continue in the second half of this year and the year 2000.

Operating profits will be up nicely. We expect another good quarter, with unit volume up in every operating division, solid upward movement in gross profit margin and a worldwide increase in advertising support.

Despite sharply rising energy costs, we expect our gross profit margin, before restructuring charges, to be up nicely for the year as a result of our ongoing cost-savings initiatives, improved pricing, restructuring and promotional savings.

This increase combined with a reduction in overhead expenses allowed us to build our overall profitability while still investing in even stronger levels of advertising behind our global brands.

All operating and financial ratios by which we measure profitability and momentum improved versus the year-ago quarter,