Colgate-Palmolive

Recent years demonstrated pricing power to offset commodity inflation and fund higher advertising while expanding gross margin. In 2024 management’s pricing and mix helped lift margins, and early 2025 still showed healthy gross margin levels near 60%.

However, 2025 organic growth slowed as price-led gains met elasticity and category softness, and guidance was trimmed to the low end of the 2% to 4% range. Hill’s retains stronger latent pricing power given medical nutrition positioning, but the core oral and home care categories face discounter and private-label alternatives that cap peak pricing.

Net: pricing power is good, not unconstrained, and most effective when tied to premium innovation and dental or vet endorsement.