P&G beauty organic sales climb 5% as group revenue tops $23.3bn

Procter & Gamble reported group sales of $23.3bn for the first quarter of its 2027 fiscal year, up 4% on the prior period. Organic sales, which strip out foreign exchange and acquisitions, also rose 4%. The beauty business did the heavy lifting.

Organic sales in beauty increased 5% to $4.4bn. Hair care, personal care and skin care, the three businesses under that umbrella, each recorded a mid-single-digit increase. Earnings before interest and taxes for the division rose 1% to $1.1bn.

Hair care led the way on innovation-based pricing in North America and Latin America, plus a favourable product mix and higher unit volume. Personal care drew on volume growth in Greater China and Europe. Skin care rounded out the three-way advance.

In grooming, the unit holding Braun, Gillette and Venus, organic sales rose 5% to $1.9bn, with EBIT up 6% to $619m. The segment leaned on innovation-based pricing concentrated in North America, much as hair care did.

Chief financial officer Andre Schulten told analysts the company is reworking its execution framework to spot superiority gaps faster and act on product, packaging, communication, retail execution or value. He pointed to Pantene's Abundant & Strong range as proof it is working.

Schulten said more than half of women will experience noticeable hair loss over a lifetime, and that female pattern hair loss affects roughly 30 million people in the United States alone. The Pantene line grew out of research tying scalp oxidative stress to hair quality and poor scalp condition.

The result is a collection built on a proprietary provitamin complex, a formulation Schulten said consumers respond to for stronger hair, less shedding and a tingling sensation in the shower. The line is delivering mid-single-digit sales growth in the US and gaining share.

Schulten put P&G at roughly 60% of the way through fixing its category-country combinations, with 29 of its 50 top pairings growing or holding share. "We need to conquer the rest," he said, and the beauty team is not satisfied with 5% growth.

China stays the unfinished task

On China, Schulten described the business as "in the middle of reinvention" and conceded it is not growing. Market growth remains below 100 in P&G's channels and categories, he said, and consumer sentiment is not improving. Still, he voiced high confidence in the structural progress.

The company wants China back to growth in the way North America is, and Schulten said P&G is not firing on all cylinders there yet. He congratulated the China team for winning in what he called a tough environment.

Chairman and chief executive Shailesh Jejurikar framed the quarter as sharpened execution of an integrated strategy, with solid sales, earnings and cash results. He acknowledged geopolitical and economic challenges ahead but said the start keeps P&G on track within its guidance ranges.

Those ranges cover organic sales growth, core earnings per share and free cash flow productivity for the full fiscal year. "We are confident in the near term and excited about the future," Jejurikar said.

Guidance pulled slightly upward

P&G has updated its fiscal 2027 all-in sales growth guidance to a range of 2% to 4% versus the prior year, reflecting its acquisition of the supplement brand Thorne, which closed on 1 October 2026. It maintained its organic sales outlook at 1% to 3%.

The Thorne deal follows P&G's January 2026 purchase of Wonderbelly, a clean digestive health brand, for an undisclosed sum. That earlier acquisition was framed as reinforcing a commitment to diverse health solutions while answering changing consumer preferences.

On the beauty side, Olay and Herbal Essences anchor the division that now generates $4.4bn a quarter. The grooming portfolio of Braun, Gillette and Venus is alongside it, and both units moved in the same direction this quarter, up 5% in organic terms.

What Schulten's comments suggest is a leadership that sees 5% beauty growth as a floor rather than a ceiling. With 21 of 50 category-country combinations still not holding share, the remainder of the fiscal year is about converting that ambition into volume.

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Images: Procter & Gamble