“So cocoa will be deflationary in '26, and we wanted you to hear that our goal is clear in terms of EPS growth for next year. And so we are really targeting a high single-digit EPS growth for 2026, even after the material investments that we're going to put into the business to really protect the long-term growth of our categories.”

In context

“have a better sense of what the real cocoa impact is going to be for next year. It's certainly going to be positive even if cocoa is trading at a level that is quite higher compared to historical norms. We feel quite good about the plans we have been reviewing with all the business units in terms of chocolate. We are clearly optimizing GP dollars into next year, in line with our guidelines and how we want to manage the business. The commercial approach to chocolate is quite good. We are doubling down on things that are working really well for us. And obviously, we want to build share, drive consumer value and protecting penetration. And I don't have to tell you again that we have big opportunities in all emerging markets. I mean, adjacencies like cakes and pastries, snack bar and premium. So cocoa will be deflationary in '26, and we wanted you to hear that our goal is clear in terms of EPS growth for next year. And so we are really targeting a high single-digit EPS growth for 2026, even after the material investments that we're going to put into the business to really protect the long-term growth of our categories. Operator: We'll move next to Peter Galbo with Bank of America. Peter Galbo: Dirk, I was hoping maybe you could give us a similar walk around the U.S. in terms of the path forward maybe to getting back to growth. I know you gave kind of a very detailed answer around Europe, but would appreciate kind of a similar level of detail on the U.S., please. Dirk Van de Put: Yes, yes. Well, so as Luca already said, we saw the category slowing down more in the last quarter versus what we saw in the first half, which is obviously not good. If you look at it, the volume was down 4% versus 2.8% average year-to-date. That is driven obviously by a consumer that is very concerned in general about the economy, frustrated with the pricing they're seeing. And we're seeing the same behavior that we've been see”