“We can now focus on driving demand and expect positive developments in Europe for the remainder of the year.”

In context

“arly underestimated because of chocolate Easter phasing versus last year. A more normalized number would put total category growth at around 3%. Category growth is due to accelerate as more pricing for chocolate kicks in. Turning to regional performance on Slide 13. Europe grew 8.9% in Q1. Execution and growth were excellent in the quarter, and several key countries, including the UK, France, and Germany delivered robust growth. Pricing execution related to cocoa inflation was strong, coupled with the successful start to the Easter season and share gains. Volume declines were driven by elasticity levels consistent with our expectation and RGM activities associated with our chocolate strategy. We have successfully landed chocolate pricing for the key alliances in-line with our expectation. We can now focus on driving demand and expect positive developments in Europe for the remainder of the year. OI dollars were down approximately 26% due to unprecedented levels of cocoa inflation. North America declined 3.6% due primarily to retailer destocking in the US as well as softer consumer demand, most notably within the food and mass channel. This dynamic remains consistent with the overall market and is driven primarily by less frequency from lower income households. Given we gained share, our total consumption was pretty much flat. We are continuing to sharpen our offers, such as recently introduced 5 Star, which have shown good momentum along with improving store execution and increased distribution to drive improved results as we move through the year. North America OI decreased by 18% due to lower volume and cocoa inflation from our Canadian chocolate business, but also for the US b”