Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB) Q1 2019 Earnings Call Transcript
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Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE: KMB)
Q1 2019 Earnings Call
April 22, 2019, 10:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
Prepared Remarks
Questions and Answers
Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience in holding. We now have your presenters in conference. Please be aware that each of your lines is in a listen-only mode. At the conclusion of today's presentation, we will open the floor for questions. At that time, instructions will be given as to the procedure to follow if you would like to ask a question.
It is now my pleasure to introduce today's first presenter, Mr. Paul Alexander.
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Thank you. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to Kimberly Clark's First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. With us today are Mike Hsu, our Chief Executive Officer; and Maria Henry, our CFO. Here is the agenda for our call. Maria will start with a review of first quarter results. After that, Mike will provide his perspectives on our results and the outlook for the full year. We'll finish as usual with Q&A. We have a presentation of today's materials in the Investors section of our website. As a reminder, we will be making forward-looking statements today. Please see the Risk Factors section of our latest Annual Report on Form 10-K for further discussion of forward-looking statements. Finally, we'll be referring to adjusted results and outlook, both exclude certain items described in this morning's news release. That release has further information about these adjustments and reconciliations to comparable GAAP financial measures.
And now, I'll turn the call over to Maria.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Thanks, Paul, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining the call. Let me start with the headlines for the quarter. Organic sales increased 3% driven by higher net selling prices. Adjusted operating profit and earnings per share were down low-single digits year-on-year. That said, we made solid progress with our margins compared to full-year 2018 performance. Additionally, we're on track with our overall capital plan and we continue to return cash to shareholders. Now let's cover the details of our results starting with sales. Our first quarter net sales were $4.6 billion, that's down 2% year-on-year with a 5 point drag from currency rates. Organic sales were up 3%, which is a good start relative to our full-year target for 2% growth. Net selling prices increased 4% and product mix improved 1% while volumes fell 2%. Mike will provide more color on our topline in just a few minutes.
Moving on to profitability. First quarter adjusted gross margin was 33.5%, down 30 basis points year-on-year. First quarter adjusted operating margin was 17.4%, even with a year ago. I'm encouraged that gross and operating margins were up 30 basis points and 40 basis points respectively compared to full-year 2018 level. Commodities were a year-on-year drag of $135 million in the quarter. While that is still a meaningful amount, I was pleased to see market prices in North America for pulp, recycled fiber, and polymer fall a bit sequentially. Foreign currencies were also a headwind reducing operating profit by a low double-digit rate. Our focus on achieving higher net selling prices offset much of the commodity and currency headwinds we faced in the quarter. We also generated solid cost savings of $115 million. That includes $55 million of FORCE savings, which was consistent with our plan, and $60 million of restructuring savings.
On that, we continue to make good progress with our restructuring program. So far this year, we've announced the planned closure of two personal care facilities outside North America. We've now announced six of the approximate 10 facilities that we intend to close or sell. Advertising spending was up in the quarter as we continued to support our brands. Even with that investment, total between-the-line spending was down 50 basis points to 16% of sales. The reduction was driven by our restructuring savings. Compared to the first quarter, I expect between-the-line spending as a percent of sales to move up a bit for the full year. So all in all, adjusted operating profit was down 2%. On the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share were $1.66, down 3% year-on-year. That included an approximate 2% drag from a higher tax rate essentially offset by a lower share count.
Let's turn to cash flow and capital efficiency. Cash provided by operations in the quarter was $317 million compared to $542 million in the year-ago quarter. The decrease was generally in line with our expectations and driven by higher working capital and restructuring payments. Capital spending was $316 million in the quarter. As expected, that's up from $189 million in the year-ago period and is driven by supply chain restructuring projects. We continue to allocate capital in shareholder friendly ways. First quarter dividends and share repurchases totaled $510 million and we continue to expect the full-year amount will be between $2 billion and $2.3 billion. Turning to our segments. In Personal Care, organic sales were up 5%. Net selling prices increased 2% and volumes and product mix were each up more than 1 point. Personal Care operating margins were 21.3%, up 90 basis points year-on-year. The improvement was driven by organic sales growth and cost savings.
In Consumer Tissue, organic sales were even with the year-ago period. Net selling prices increased 6%, which was offset by lower volume. Consumer Tissue operating margins of 15.8% were even year-on-year. In K-C Professional, organic sales grew 3%. Selling prices rose 3% while a 1 point improvement in mix was offset by lower volumes. K-C Professional operating margins of 18.4% were down 60 basis points. Results were impacted by commodity inflation and currency headwinds, partially offset by higher pricing and cost savings. So all in all, we're off to a solid start relative to our full-year plan and I'm encouraged by our progress.
I'll now turn the call over to Mike for his perspective on our results and outlook.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Great. Thanks, Maria. Good morning, everyone. I'm going to focus my comments on organic sales and our full-year outlook. Let me start by saying I'm encouraged by our first quarter results. We're making strong progress realizing higher selling prices; we're launching innovations, investing in our brands, and pursuing our growth priorities; and we're leveraging our strong financial discipline. As Maria just mentioned, we grew organic sales 3% in the first quarter, which is a good start to the year. Overall, our pricing initiatives are on track and to date the impact on our volumes has been reasonable. Let me share some of the topline highlights for the quarter starting in developed markets. Organic sales increased 1% in North America consumer products. ln North American Personal Care, organic sales grew 3%. Volumes increased high single digits in adult care with benefits from innovations, increased brand investment, and category growth.
Volumes were up low single digits across our baby and child care portfolio. In the first quarter, we increased selling prices on Pull-Ups training pants and premium Huggies diapers. Looking ahead, we have innovation on Poise pads coming this quarter and premium innovation on Huggies diapers that are going to hit the market this summer. In North American Consumer Tissue, organic sales were down 2% compared to a 5% increase last year that was driven by strong promotion activity. Net selling prices rose 7%. Our pricing plans are overall on track. We'll continue to monitor the impact on our volumes and competitive activity, but we remain focused and confident on realizing the benefits of the price increases. In North American K-C Professional, organic sales increased 1% driven by solid price realization.
Turning to developed markets outside North America, organic sales were up 1%. In South Korea, while our diaper business continues to be impacted by a lower birth rate, our other businesses are growing and offsetting that diaper category softness. We also had solid performance in Western and Central Europe in K-C Professional. In developing and emerging markets, organic sales rose 7% overall and that included nearly 3 points of growth from Argentina, which is consistent with our 2019 plan. In terms of our key personal care businesses, in Brazil organic sales rose about 15% compared to a mid single-digit increase in the base period. Growth was driven by higher selling prices while category volume remained sluggish. In China, organic sales were down high single-digits. Huggies diapers continues to be impacted by competitive price reductions that started last year. Nonetheless, volumes on our premium-tier Huggies were up driven by strong product innovation.
In Feminine care, we continued to grow at double-digit rates driven by our innovation, trade-up strategies, and supported by strong digital marketing. In ASEAN, organic sales rose about 10% with the strength on Huggies diapers in Vietnam. We're rolling out improved Huggies in most ASEAN markets this year. In Eastern Europe, organic sales increased about 20% with volumes and selling prices both up nicely. Our momentum in this region reflects the combination of excellent sales execution, winning product innovation backed by great marketing. We're launching further innovations on Huggies and Kotex this year. While diapers remain our biggest business in D&E, I'm pleased that in the first quarter we grew organic sales double-digits in fem care, adult care, and baby wipes. These businesses have strong growth opportunity and we're making progress. Now in terms of digital marketing, we're using digital on many of our brands to help us build one-to-one consumer relationships.
Digital is improving our marketing ROI and helping us grow in markets like fem care in China and South Korea, diapers in Vietnam, and adult care in North America. To summarize our topline, I'm optimistic about our start to the year. We have more work to do and we continue to operate in a competitive environment. However, that said, I'm encouraged with our progress thus far. Now moving beyond sales, I'll just build briefly on Maria's comments about margins. While we need to make more progress, I'm encouraged that first quarter performance was above our full-year 2018 levels.
Turning to the outlook. As we mentioned in this morning's news release, we're confirming our previous outlook for 2019, which calls for 2% organic sales growth and adjusted earnings per share of $6.50 to $6.70. We're also maintaining the key planning assumptions we outlined in January.
Our first quarter results has improved our earnings profile somewhat compared to our initial view of the year. That said, we still believe it's more likely that earnings are going to be somewhat higher in the second half of the year compared to the first half. Our teams have a lot to execute over the next nine months and we're going to continue to closely watch the overall environment. While we work to achieve our 2019 targets, we'll continue to pursue the longer-term balanced and sustainable growth opportunities that are all part of our K-C Strategy 2022. So in summary, we're off to a solid start for the year. We're confirming our full-year outlook and we're confident in our ability to create shareholder value.
That concludes our prepared remarks and now we'd be happy to take your questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Jason English with Goldman Sachs.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Jason.
Cody Ross -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Hi. This is actually Cody on for Jason today. How are you guys?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Cody. Good morning.
Cody Ross -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Can you provide us an update on your commodity outlook? Previously you stated $300 million to $400 million of inflation, does that still hold? And can you also provide details by each commodity like you did last quarter?
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Sure. Cody, it's Maria. On commodities, we had $135 million of headwinds in the quarter driven by pulp and other material. That was slightly better than our expectations for the quarter with some relief on resin-based materials and recycled fibers. Distribution also remained inflationary in the quarter. We are holding our outlook at this point to $300 million to $400 million of inflation for the year. It's early in the year, we're just through the first quarter and while we're encouraged by the North America market prices that have started to come down sequentially in areas like polymer, resin, eucalyptus, and recycled; it remains volatile and we'll have to see how this plays out. And as we think about the P&L impact of the commodity changes, we have to think about commodity inflation in relationship to price when we look at the P&L holistically.
If I cover them kind of piece by piece. If we look at fiber with eucalyptus, it was down 1% year-on-year and down 4% sequentially and we're maintaining our outlook on eucalyptus for the year of $11.25 to $11.75 per metric ton for the full-year average. On NBSK, we were up low teens year-on-year and we were down low single digits sequentially. And when I'm quoting these, I'm quoting the market prices in North America for these commodities. And then on fluff, we were up -- or the market was up high single digits year-on-year and down low single digit sequentially. On recycled fiber, those prices remained elevated. North America market was up more than 20%. However, it has fallen sequentially down about 10% on recycled. In terms of the oil-based commodities that we have; on polymer, the first quarter average price was down mid-teens versus a year ago.
We're expecting a modest increase in price in the back half of the year for polymer so we'll have to see what happens there. On superabsorbent, we were -- or the market was up high single digits versus year ago and relatively flat on a sequential basis. And finally, I'll point out that outside of North America, inflation continues to run at moderate levels, particularly coming out of Latin America. So, we're seeing some easing for the North America market prices. We still got inflation when you look at it outside of the US. It's a very...
Cody Ross -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Thank you.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Hopefully that covers all the details you were looking for on what we think about what the markets are doing.
Cody Ross -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Yes, that's very helpful. If I can sneak in one more question related to your commodity costs. Your initial FY '19 outlook assumed $400 million to $450 million in cost savings with about $300 million to $325 million in FORCE. Does that still hold today? I assume it does based on your reiterated outlook. But if inflation proves to be less onerous than you initially thought, how should we think about your potential savings for FY '19 as the year progresses? Do you still expect to deliver at least $400 million in savings? Thank you and I'll pass it on.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Yes, we do expect to continue to hold our -- to continue to deliver savings and we are holding our estimate in terms of the savings outlook for the year. I think that as you watch commodities and commodity inflation, the three to watch together are what's happening with currencies, commodities, and price when you think about the P&L. But the cost savings estimate remains unchanged.
Cody Ross -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
And I just want to make sure that's unchanged even if commodities do roll over in greater force than we thought.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Yes.
Cody Ross -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Got it. Thank you very much.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Sure.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Lauren Lieberman with Barclays.
Lauren Lieberman -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Great, thanks. Good morning. I want to talk just assuming actually a little bit bigger picture was around innovation and news flow in the Personal Care categories particularly in the US. I know, Mike, you mentioned that you've got innovation coming on Poise this quarter and something on Huggies over the summer. But I was just curious -- I feel like the pace of activity in these categories has dramatically stepped up both from largest competitor from Procter, but even from retailers and also all the upstart brands that seem to be gaining some traction. So can you just talk a little bit about how you're thinking about the right level of news flow and activity, your interest in kind of smaller brands and sort of natural organic, and any detail that you can offer on the Huggies innovation in the summer would really be helpful? Thanks.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Okay. Thanks, Lauren. Yes, maybe I'll start with the last point. I probably not ready to share details on the launch this year. I will tell you it's a premium Huggies diaper and that's kind of the general space and it's consistent with our overall strategy in Personal Care overall, but especially in diapers which is we think there are opportunities for us to deliver improved benefits especially on the dimensions of comfort fit, protection, and all the things that you would expect. I think in terms of -- the overall strategy really does highlight the need for more impactful innovation and we are ramping up our efforts. And I know we just kicked off our strategy -- K-C Strategy 2022 approach with our team earlier this -- last quarter, rolled that out with our top executives, and then we are now deploying regional teams across functional teams around the world to kind of get after it.
I would tell you though that while we're just launching it now, we've been kind of working it for probably the past year or so. And so some of the things that you're seeing in market like some of the product launches or the launch we're talking about in North America this summer are product of some of the teams working over the past year to accelerate some of this opportunity. So overall, big opportunity on innovation. I think with your question on natural organic, it is -- I'd say North America right now, it's still probably a niche opportunity or smaller one to two, three share type opportunity and something that we're going to continue to look at. I think the question around small brands in big markets like North America is a really relevant question because we still keep tabs -- or Maria and I still keep tabs on the food side and we know what some of the smaller brands have done there.
And so I think for us, there is a question about whether there's an opportunity for us there and there may be, but we're not ready to share details on that yet. We are doing a pretty good job on pursuing natural organic in our Korean business, which -- that's a market where I think is one of the most sensitive about chemicals and contaminants of any market in the world and we've got a number of brands and they're doing very, very well and more than just a couple share points.
Lauren Lieberman -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Mike, is there a reason why you wouldn't have already done a sort of lift and shift then with some of the things you're pointing out with Korea -- South Korea having long been a lead market for you guys in terms of innovation, in terms of market share; to move quicker with taking kind of what's working there with a very, very discerning group of consumers and moving quicker to bring it to other markets, to bring it to the US for example?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. Great question definitely. And I think that's the focus going forward was there's maybe -- I like your term faster lift and shift or we say apply -- adopt and apply, but that's part of it. And I think you will see some of that natural product flow into the US perhaps in fem care later this -- at some point. And then also I think there's diaper that we -- that I talked about that's coming out this summer in North America. It really is a joint AsiaPac, North America development and feature kind of a new way we were -- we're trying to work, which is more collaboratively around the world.
Lauren Lieberman -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Have you started to sell that into retail yet? Because also it's funny, you see right, there's news flow from Target, there's Walmart with Hello Bello, right? There's just the retailers, even Target today with not so much in diapers but I think it went into paper products, this new product launch that they've announced today. They seem to be charting their own course in what may well be a niche opportunity, maybe it's big. But just curious that those conversations, how much they want to sort of go their own way versus opening up shelf space for you guys to be bringing some of this news flow in maybe a little bit again behind where they've been themselves?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. So on your first point, we haven't started selling this product in yet with customers and which is why I'm not sharing that many details on it right now. I will tell you though we do have the collaborative discussions with most of our major retailers or all of our major retailers and they're still very receptive to big brands and big innovation. They are pursuing some other opportunities. But I think we're working with them as partners kind of leading these categories.
Lauren Lieberman -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Okay, great. I'll pass it on and come back if there's time. Thank you.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Lauren.
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Thanks, Lauren.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Nik Modi with RBC.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Nick.
Operator
One, second. It looks like his line dropped. Give me just a moment.
Nik Modi -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
All right. Nik, your line is open.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Nik.
Nik Modi -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Okay, thank you. Hey, how are you? Sorry about that. I guess, there was a nice over delivery at least relative to consensus this quarter. And Mike I guess this is a philosophical question. As you think about your first year as CEO and you think about the priorities. I mean clearly, given the level of disruption in the marketplace just generally across the CPG landscape there's all those stuff to spend money on, right? Capabilities, innovation, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm just curious like on your thoughts on how you think about the goals for the year in terms of, hey, we can hit the high end of guidance, make commodity costs coming down or hey look, there's a lot to spend. This is the first year, let's go get it. I just was hoping you can give some guidance around how you think about that?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Well I guess -- maybe my near-term focus is on delivering the mid-term objectives we outlined in January, right? And so -- and I do think maybe -- and this is maybe the Company culture which is we want to deliver consistent predictable and positive earnings growth and sales growth. And so I think this quarter was a solid quarter for us and we're encouraged by it, especially encouraged by the price realization and the margin improvement but it's a step along the way.
I will point out Nik though, I think a couple of bright spot for us in the quarter were, we saw a broad improvement across a broad range of markets, all improving the U.S., Brazil, Central Eastern Europe, ASEAN, U.K., Western Europe, India. So I think we've got a lot of markets heading in the right direction and so that's a good thing. And then obviously, with the pricing being on track, that's obviously helping to shape of our P&L.
Nik Modi -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Great, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ali Dibadj with Bernstein.
Ali Dibadj -- Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. -- Analyst
Hey, guys. So I have two questions on top-line and then one on free cash flow. First from a Personal Care top-line perspective, do we think about PCNA and then the kind of Personal Care outside North America, so the developed markets together it looks like the price mix flattish for NA and then down 3 for outside North America developed markets, so it's negative on average, volume for goods, and I'm not denying that, that's excellent. But I'm just scratching my head a little bit in terms of the price mix elements there given what's happened to commodities obviously going up, given that you're spending on advertising, given that we hear everything about the competitive situation being more benign yet unable to take price in the Personal Care area in developed markets. But just thoughts of your perspective on that. Is that diagnostic fair maybe comment about market share along the way. It just struck me as why not take more pricing in that area in particular?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Probably, Ali, the biggest thing is, maybe a bit of a lag on Personal Care in North America, that's probably the biggest mover and driver that we have which is -- we're doing most of our pricing on diapers through a our PAc count change and that started rolling through at the end of the first quarter and it's still rolling through now. And so we had a big roll over. It took a little time for us to get that lined up and so that's probably why you're not seeing as much price now. But that -- with that we expect, we'll continue to improve as the year goes on.
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
And Ali, this is Paul. In developed markets outside North America, broadly speaking, I'd say there hasn't been a lot of pricing in the marketplace in Personal Care, so this Western and Central Europe, Australia and South Korea. The price decline in Q1 came primarily in South Korea, where given the decline in the birth rate, there has been a bit of a pickup in every one competing to pursue growth in the pie that's getting a little bit smaller over time. In terms of shares, you asked about, in North America across diapers and pants combined or the mega category if you will, our share is on an all outlook basis are even year-on-year and that might be a little bit better than you're seeing in the track data because we continue to do strong in non-measured channels, including club and e-commerce.
Ali Dibadj -- Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. -- Analyst
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. And then on Consumer Tissue both North America developed markets almost the opposite question, right, where you're seeing very significant pricing. I get it, because the commodity costs. But the elasticity looks a little bit tougher, particularly in North America, so the downtown and (inaudible) as we call it, ONA or Outside North America, down about 3. Can you talk a little bit about how that's going to continue throughout the year? Is that kind of the right balance or do you think they'll be a better balance going forward?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think -- I think maybe the first point is with regard to Q1, we are cycling a pretty big set of events that we had in the plans last year. For reference, I think our volume was up almost 10% in tissue in North America first quarter last year and overall, again it was up over -- I think over 5%, so we're cycling that. We took those promotions out of the plan this year, so it's not that there -- it's timing difference, it's just out of the plan. And so I think the Q1 this year therefore in that effect. I would say, right now, the elasticity effect is probably as we predicted. We had a separate promo change that is as predicted and so overall we're on.
I think the one thing for us to watch out it is, overall, I think the pricing is on track and the volumes in line with our expectations to date. The one thing we are keeping our eye on is -- I think some of the other private labels or some of the smaller brands have not -- we haven't seen the price move up yet and so it's a sticky on the up swing, so we're keeping our eye around that, we'll be ready to adjust our plans as necessary to make sure that we protect our share long-term.
Ali Dibadj -- Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. -- Analyst
Okay, and just my last question on the free cash flow point. You said it was an expectation that working capital. But want to get a better sense of your free cash flow conversion here and looked a little bit tougher, what we should expect going forward for the year and kind of what's going to make that change? Thank you.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Sure. On cash flow, well it was down year-on-year for the first quarter, it was in line with what we expected. We had higher working capital and we had an increase in restructuring cash payments, in working capital that's really the big driver. When you look at the numbers in the first quarter, and there were a number of factors that went into that. On the payables side, we had a stronger-than-expected finish to 2018 and those higher payables got paid out in the first quarter.
On the receivable side, we had a number of factors, including the timing of the sales and also the higher level of sales, and we ended the quarter on a Sunday, so we lose two days on collections which causes a run up in that balance. And then finally on inventories, as we expected, as we get into the supply chain portion of the restructuring program, there are inventory builds in advance of moving equipment or basically taking equipment offline. So we expected that to happen and we saw all of those factors play out in the first quarter. And for the year, as we said in January, we would expect cash from operations to be down slightly year-on-year.
Ali Dibadj -- Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. -- Analyst
Okay, thanks very much, guys.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Bonnie Herzog with Wells Fargo.
Bonnie Herzog -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
All right. Thank you. Good Morning. I had a question on your full-year organic sales growth guidance of 2% which actually implies a bit of a deceleration on the top line through the balance of the year but your comps do get easier in the next couple of quarters. So I guess I want to understand, if we should interpret your guidance as maybe conservative or is there something else that we should be aware of that could cause growth to moderate? And then, I'm just thinking about this in the context of you guys may be lapping some of the higher promos you had last year?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Bonnie, Maybe I'll start and maybe Maria can chime in. But we're making solid progress, but we still have plenty of work to do to make sure that we have a strong 2019. So while we are encouraged with the start and there's a lot we have ahead of us. While I just said to Nik, we have broad improvement across a lot of markets, we're still on the early days of price. And as I mentioned to Ali just now, we are watching elasticity and volume effects are kind of in line with our expectations, maybe even actually slightly better in D&E especially. The thing that we are watching though is price -- competitive pricing. It does seem to be a little sticky on the way up and so we are keeping our eye on that.
So I think I don't -- I wouldn't know that -- I think we are calling it down the middle, which is what we believe and 2% (ph) for us is a reasonable number. We got nine months to go, there's a lot of work ahead for all of our teams.
Bonnie Herzog -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
Okay. And then if I could, I just wanted to circle back on innovation with a couple of quick questions. First, your full innovation pipeline this year, would you characterize it as more back half weighted or do you think pretty evenly spread throughout the year as you roll out new products? And then second, curious how margin accretive some of the new innovation is and was that possibly a key driver behind the sequential improvement you saw in your margins during the quarter and then what could we expect in the future? Thanks.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. I think maybe a touch tilted to the back half, but I would say overall fairly balanced although I think the impact that we're getting now is still from some of the benefits of innovation we launched last year. So, we have an uptick for example in North American adult care where I think we're up high single digits in the quarter organically. That was on the backs of innovation that we launched last year with this discrete sizing, which has taken a little while to get traction in the marketplace, but it's getting that traction now. So I think we have a pretty robust innovation plan, it's balanced across quarters. In terms of the accretiveness, I don't have the exact number, but I think the strategy is to elevate our categories where that means premiumizing our categories by making it worth it so with premium innovation. In general, we're aiming to move to higher price points hopefully accretive.
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
And I think, Bonnie, that bears out if you look at the sales changes in the quarter, mix was up as a Company 1 point and it was up essentially between 0.5 point and 1 point in all three segments. So to Mike's strategy comment, I think we're making good early progress.
Bonnie Herzog -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
All right. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Olivia Tong with Bank of America.
Olivia Tong -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks. Good morning. Want to talk a little bit about marketing spend. You talked a lot about that last quarter when we met in February and obviously you mentioned that it was up this quarter. So can you discuss some of the things that you did this quarter, whether it's traditional or digital, where is the lion's share of the dollar spend going and then just a little bit of order of magnitude of the increase? And from this point forward are you expecting it with Q1 sort of a high watermark and then it sort of normalizes from here or is this just the start and we should actually expect to continue to increase as the year progresses? Thank you.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Sure, Olivia. I'll start and then Mike can jump in. In terms of our advertising spend on the P&L it was up in the first quarter and we have an expectation that for the full year it will also be up year-on-year. And that is encouraging because not only is it up, but as we shift more of it to digital and as we continue our work to drive down the non-working portion of the advertising expense; the actual consumer impressions that we're getting from that spend is up as well. And so, good support behind the brands and the innovations. Mike, I don't know if you want to talk more about what we're doing in advertising.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. Olivia. I think maybe a couple of things, which is one, overall, I'd say with a couple of key brands most notably in North America in adult care and in diapers I think increased levels of brand investment overall and brand support and then more specifically it is weighted to digital. And so some of the stuff that we're seeing and the reasons why we're growing faster perhaps in non-measured channels is the strong digital investments that we're making in search and that's paying strong returns from us -- for us and doing very well. We also have pretty good content now that we feel good about in terms of the messaging we're putting out there and we're rolling out some new advertising on Cottonelle, which I think is being right now very, very effective. So overall I think we feel good about kind of where we are, we know we can do better still, but looking forward to the progress.
Olivia Tong -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
And should we expect the same increases this year as you talk about the upcoming innovation both in adult care and Huggies?
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
The benefit of innovations this year, is that -- is that the question? You're kind of breaking up.
Olivia Tong -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Oh, I'm sorry. In terms of the increase in advertising, should we expect that to -- I'm sorry, within advertising, are we expecting to increase advertising as the year progresses, especially as you fund or as you support innovation that's coming?
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Yes, OK. Well, we -- as you know, we only disclose the advertising number I think once a year and I don't want to get into how the quarters are going to flow. So, suffice it to say that it was up on the P&L in the first quarter and we would expect for the full year that it will be up also.
Olivia Tong -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Got it. And then just lastly on pricing, can you talk about how much of the pricing benefit you would attribute to just straight list price increases related to commodities versus some of the things that you're working on with respect to trade efficiency and innovation?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. I think it's an overall mix. I think in Q1 maybe I don't have an exact number, but I would say the vast majority of it is some form of pricing -- straight pricing, whether it's list or pack count changes, but I think those are probably the big buckets for us right now. We're making progress especially in North America on trade efficiency and we have some programs there. I don't know how much would show up in the P&L right now, but it's -- I know it's a big priority for the organization and they're doing a good job with it.
Olivia Tong -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Great. Thank you.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Olivia.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrea Teixeira with JPMorgan.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Andrea.
Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- Analyst
Hi, thanks. Hi, good morning. So can you comment a little bit on the 15% organic growth in Brazil? I appreciate the detail and it was driven by pricing and I believe you're lapping this price increase in the third quarter. I just want to check that. So wondering if competitors are now finally following or they're retrenching given the commodity structures are not finally easy now? And also follow-up question on -- for Maria on the cash flow. So I appreciate the detail on the cash conversion cycle and the working capital, I was wondering if she can explain a little bit more of the CapEx and the timing aspects of it. Thank you.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Okay, Andrea, maybe I'll start with Brazil. And first of all, team is doing a great job down there and we are experiencing strong growth in what I would characterize as a very challenging consumer environment. Our Personal Care organic volume was up, as we said, about 15%, net selling prices were up double-digits, and volume was up low-single digits, Andrea. So I think we're not in the final laws of gravity there or elasticity there. I think the market pricing overall is generally moving in the right direction. But I would say there's a handful of local competitors that are lagging a little bit. The better than expected volume performance, however, is really a result of maybe great commercial execution; which is strong sales execution, a great brand value proposition, and good advertising I would say overall working together and that's what the team's doing and it's why building out commercial capability in our K-C Strategy 2022 is so important. There's a number of markets that look like they define the laws of elasticity, but really it comes down to strong commercial execution and Brazil is one of them.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
(multiple speakers) Yes. Go ahead, Andrea.
Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- Analyst
I appreciate -- thank you, Maria. So I appreciate, Mike, when you said that -- when you -- in the initial comments, I think you said it's sluggish so I wasn't sure if it was negative. So you're saying the volumes are still up in the low single digits in Brazil so which is encouraging and now I'll just want to...
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Andrea, just to clarify. The volume was down low-single digit. So we are...
Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- Analyst
Down, OK.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Pricing was up double-digits, pretty strong double-digits and volume was down low single digit. But I would say way better than what the elasticity model would have said.
Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- Analyst
Okay, perfect. Thank you.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
And then on CapEx at $316 million in the quarter, that's in line with our expectations and it reflects the supply chain portion of the restructuring program really kicking into gear this year. So, we continue to expect $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion on CapEx for the year and you started seeing some of that come through in the first quarter.
Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- Analyst
Thank you, Maria.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Thank you.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Andrea.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Steve Powers with Deutsche Bank.
Steve Powers -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Thanks. Hey, so I guess I wanted to start on US Personal Care where the strength was really notable relative to at least what we've seen in scan data. So, just maybe some comments on that and whether that's strength in on-track channels or whether that's an element of shipments running ahead of consumption? Just how you saw the growth this quarter and how we should kind of think about that momentum going forward?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes, Steve. Thanks for that question. Definitely I think strength in non-measured channels. The -- overall the mega category was up about 2 points in the quarter. Our share overall, as Paul mentioned, was about flat. Huggies was up low single digits and I think that's really been driven by strong product performance and, as we were just talking about, increased brand investment and brand support. Growth was especially strong in non-measured channels and that for us is club and -- primarily e-com and club. And as I was mentioning, we got a very strong digital program in e-commerce across all our customers and I think that's really working to good effect right now. So we're encouraged by the progress in Personal Care, Pull-Ups is up high single digits as well, our adult care business is up high single digits. And so, it's moving in the right direction.
Steve Powers -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Okay, great. And then I guess my broader question is just to get you maybe, Mike, to expand a little bit more on how you're thinking about the medium term, the duration of K-C Strategy 2022. Because just building out this quarter, as you say, it sounds like you're -- it looks like you're ahead of schedule, the tone today is deservedly very confident as a result. But on the other hand you called out that you still have a lot of improvement initiatives under way, macro competitive conditions remain hard to call and stepping back, year-over-year operating profits in dollar terms have yet to inflect positive. They should, I agree, as you move forward; but it just seems like pricing which was great this quarter is tied to FX and cost inflation and if those come in lighter. Just how do you assess your ability to hold on to today's pricing and bank some of the productivity that you have under way in order to flow through better dollar based bottom line results versus having to reinvest to sustain volume share versus competition. And I'm not really so focused on next quarter or even this year, but thinking really about what the evergreen model is over the course of that medium-term strategy.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. Well, I think, Steve, as I mentioned when we were together, I'm really excited about the growth opportunities the Company has ahead of it and that really for me the three big strategies of what I call elevate the core, which is premiumizing our categories with value-added innovation or capturing the growth or leading the development of developing and emerging markets and then building this consumer digital relationship I think are really kind of robust growth opportunities that are really, really good for us. I think to accelerate our progress, we've outlined a handful of capability areas that happened -- that have to do with innovation or doing a better job on innovation, sales execution, our digital execution, and also revenue growth management or pricing management. And so, those are four big planks.
I would say one of the reasons why we're encouraged with our progress in Q1 is we're starting to build and improving in these four areas that we -- that I just outlined on the commercial capability and that's starting to play through. I mentioned Brazil where our 15% organic is driven by pricing, but it's also driven by strong execution. We're seeing the same across ASEAN where we've got good double-digit growth, price increasing but volume also going up. CE, Central and Eastern Europe is doing the same thing. So I think, overall just putting all these pieces together for us, which is the core of the strategy, we're going to stay focused on delivering consistent growth.
Steve Powers -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Kevin Grundy with Jefferies.
Herb Eppich -- Jefferies & Company -- Analyst
Hey, good morning, guys. This is Herb Eppich on for Kevin. One quick one just on restructuring. So specifically $60 million in savings for the quarter and your outlook for $100 million to $125 million for the year. So savings have been building sequentially for last couple of quarters, but your outlook assumes that this should slow. So, is there anything we should be aware of maybe when you say you're shifting into the first quarter? Any commentary there would be helpful. Thank you.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Yes. We had $60 million in the quarter, which is a good savings number for us. But you'll recall that we had no savings in the first quarter of last year as the restructuring program was announced in January of last year and then took some time to ramp up. And so if you look at the $60 million in relationship to the expectation for the year of $100 million to $125 million, when we start to get into the second quarter, we will be lapping quarters where we were building savings through 2018 and so that's really the driver.
Herb Eppich -- Jefferies & Company -- Analyst
Okay. That's all. Thank you.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Okay. Thanks, Herb.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Steven Strycula with UBS.
Steven Strycula -- Investment Bank -- Analyst
Hi, good morning and congratulations on a good quarter.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Hi Steve.
Steven Strycula -- Investment Bank -- Analyst
So I had a -- I had a question that last quarter you mentioned that there might be some lumpiness on the quarter-to-quarter trends and first quarter clearly came in well ahead of what a lot of the investment community was expecting. So, is there any lumpiness you would be mindful of for like Q2 or like the balance of the year in terms of sell-in versus sell-out particularly as you start lapping some of the price increases that you phased in toward the end of last year?
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Yes. I'll make a comment and then Mike jump in. If you -- we don't give quarterly guidance, but a few things that I'd say keep in mind. We have some benefits in the first quarter with the Lunar New Year happening and we typically have a strong first quarter around that. As we move into the second quarter, Kleenex will be kind of out of season in terms of cold and flu. And then the final thing, as Mike mentioned earlier, the pricing just went in on
diapers here in the first quarter. So, I think we haven't seen how all of this is going to play-out in our numbers and we commented that we expect the second half to be up somewhat in relationship to the first half. So, that kind of gives you a lot of different things to think about as you think about how you're going to lay out your expectations on the quarters.
Steven Strycula -- Investment Bank -- Analyst
Okay, great. Mike, and then a follow-up for you. How should we think about -- it seems like volume trends were generally better than what you're expecting. Did you guys have success in winning some planograms that were some key callouts you'd want to shed light on? And then what key emerging markets, if any, would you say were sequentially the end market demand just improved quarter-on-quarter? Thank you.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Steve, yes. I think maybe the second part first. I would say broadly across most markets demand improved versus where it was maybe last quarter. And so if you go through the markets, CE was up about strong double digits for us; ASEAN was up double-digits; obviously Brazil we already mentioned; Argentina, obviously a big number. India were up double-digits as well; China fem care up another strong robust double-digit quarter. China diapers obviously still down, but I think improving sequentially behind our new product improvement. So, I think across the broad array of markets improving. And I think in North America, again improved commercial execution. There probably are some distribution changes here and there and I think we've made some progress in some areas. But the other part of it is better product performance. I mean we have made improvements broadly across diapers, across adult care both on Depend and Poise; Poise is just shipping this quarter. Our Cottonelle bath tissues, Scott Comfort Plus is all gaining increased consumer traction. So, we're feeling good about kind of the innovation piece of the puzzle.
Steven Strycula -- Investment Bank -- Analyst
All right. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jonathan Feeney with Consumer Edge Research.
Jonathan Feeney -- Consumer Edge Research -- Analyst
Good morning. Thanks very much. You had a little drop in developing and emerging market volume in both Personal Care and tissue, just the volume piece, and I know there's a ton of pricing in there driven by commodities. But can you update us on the market level volume growth roughly in your developing and emerging market portfolio overall and maybe cite was that a gain -- a loss of volume share and who is -- who would pickup that volume share? Looking at demographics. It would seem to me that they'd be ongoing volume growth in those markets. Thanks.
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Yes. Jonathan, maybe I'll start just to put the volume decline in a little bit of context and then Mike can give obviously more color. If you looked at across our total D&E lineup and set aside China and Argentina, our volumes would have been up a little bit in the quarter, which given the inflationary pricing environment we are all facing and consumers are facing, that was a pretty solid outcome.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. So, overall I think we feel good about where the markets are heading. We feel good about our commercial execution broadly across D&E. And I think most of the volume declines were related to price changes.
Jonathan Feeney -- Consumer Edge Research -- Analyst
So did others not take -- am I right that there's a little bit of share loss there? Did others not take that pricing? I'm just curious at what the competitive dynamics are in the wake of it?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes, I think it's market-by-market. But I would say as a general rule of thumb, I would say major branded competitors moved in line with us or some ahead of us and then you have some stickiness in local competitors or some of the smaller players and so we're keeping a sharp eye on that.
Jonathan Feeney -- Consumer Edge Research -- Analyst
Very helpful. Thank you very much.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Okay.
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Thanks, Jonathan.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ali Dibadj with Bernstein.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Hey Ali.
Ali Dibadj -- Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. -- Analyst
Hey, thanks for the follow-up. Just wanted to touch base on China in a little bit more detail. I know you put it in the prepared remarks and the PowerPoint. But can you give us just some more color about what's going on there from a pricing perspective? We clearly see the volumes as well, but that's been a hotspot recently. Just want to get an update please. Thank you.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. Thanks, Ali. I would say in diapers, pricing is kind of about where it was last quarter. So overall for us, our premium Huggies is gaining traction behind the innovation that we talked about last quarter and our fem care continues the really strong momentum. We're really not satisfied with our performance yet, but we're making progress. Our Personal Care organic sales were down high single digit, which is improvement versus the prior quarter. The competitive activity on price remains elevated, it remains kind of where pricing has been. But I think specifically our team's view and my view is the consumers in that market are still looking for better solutions and our improved Tier 5 and 6 diapers are gaining traction, they're up significantly in volume and up in value as well, and we'll be rolling out that technology that we put into that across other tiers and other channels this year. So, we're building for the long-term and I'm really feeling good about what the team is doing there.
Ali Dibadj -- Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. -- Analyst
Thank you. What do you think the competitive situation looking like, whether it be from the regional players there, Japanese in particular, or from P&G?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Well, we're still seeing pricing suppressed and then we are getting wind of some additional product introductions. We don't have visibility on everything yet. But obviously I think products and technology still matters a lot in China and that's what the consumer is looking for and that's why you're seeing the responsiveness in the premium tiers.
Ali Dibadj -- Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks very much.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Ali.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Caroline Levy with Macquarie.
Caroline Levy -- Macquarie -- Analyst
Thank you so much. Couple of things. How important is the real price of oil, which is up so much, to the outlook for polymers?
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Yes. The price on oil has gone up and so when we think about our outlook on commodities overall, as I went through in the beginning of the call kind of our puts and takes on the fiber -- fiber-based commodities and other material commodities, the oil prices definitely have us watching the market. The relationship between oil prices and the exact commodities that we buy has not been as correlated as of late as it had been historically. But it certainly does have us remaining cautious on the full-year outlook for the oil based derivative materials that we're using. So it's kind of mixed with sequential improvements that we're seeing in some areas, but with the oil run-up, we're just keeping an eye on it.
Caroline Levy -- Macquarie -- Analyst
Right. And thank you, Maria. And could you elaborate a little bit on the outlook for transport?
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Sure. On distribution costs, we're up. They continue to be inflationary for us or higher year ago. And it's -- distribution costs are a meaningful portion of our overall cost of sales and the outlook for the year assumes that we will have distribution inflation for the full year. But it hasn't changed from what our position was when we talked to you in January. And I should note the increases on distribution costs are global.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. And the other note I'll make, Caroline, is that last quarter or at the end of the fourth quarter of '18, we did have some additional expenses because of some distribution challenges. I think our team is making progress there and we are improving.
Caroline Levy -- Macquarie -- Analyst
That's, great. Thank you. If I might just a couple more. Could you comment on Mexico? It doesn't look like things have improved there in the way they have in Brazil, but maybe I'm missing something. And then the last one would be just to discuss your overall how you think about development of private label? Just whether you see it as a significant longer-term or medium-term threat and whether you would consider participating in it in any way?
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. Well, maybe the last one first, Caroline. We do do a bit of private label right now. It's not a strategic part of our business, but it is -- in certain instances, we will produce some private label. We generally don't have the capacity to take it on as a big strategic bet especially given the amounts of capital we got to put in. It generally I think is not necessarily a great return on our capital to invest in -- on that type of capacity. However, I will say we're monitoring it closely because in -- especially in North America right now in bath tissue, I'll note that private label is up a bit and pricing has not moved upwards yet on a lot of private label and so we're keeping a sharp eye on that. We'll be able to adjust our plans if necessary.
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
And then on Mexico, we're not going to comment since they haven't released yet. But what I would say is if you look at equity company contributions, it's relatively flat year-on-year.
Caroline Levy -- Macquarie -- Analyst
I saw that. Yes, I saw that. Then if I might just squeak in one more on China. What percentage of your business there is premium? Because I thought you largely only played premium, but your total sales is still down.
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Yes. The most two -- the most two premium tiers for us, Caroline, are a little bit more than half our total Huggies diaper business.
Caroline Levy -- Macquarie -- Analyst
Thanks so much.
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Caroline.
Operator
Thank you. At this time, we have no further questioners in the queue.
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
All right. Well, we appreciate everyone's questions today and we will speak with you next quarter. Thank you very much and have a great day. Bye.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this morning's presentation. You may disconnect your phone lines. And thank you for joining us this morning.
Duration: 59 minutes
Call participants:
Paul Alexander -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Maria Henry -- Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Michael D. Hsu -- Chief Executive Officer
Cody Ross -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Lauren Lieberman -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst
Nik Modi -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Ali Dibadj -- Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. -- Analyst
Bonnie Herzog -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
Olivia Tong -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- Analyst
Steve Powers -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Herb Eppich -- Jefferies & Company -- Analyst
Steven Strycula -- Investment Bank -- Analyst
Jonathan Feeney -- Consumer Edge Research -- Analyst
Caroline Levy -- Macquarie -- Analyst
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