Haleon's North American Machine Rebuilds — Now the Cold & Flu Season Must Do Its Part

A Growth Sequence Rebuilds

The engine of Q2 was North America. Brian McNamara credited three buckets: sharper execution (shelf resets and shelf placements), innovation (Clinical range — now with Clinical Repair in the U.S. — plus Centrum Age Defy and Eroxon Rapid Relief), and e-commerce growing at "strong double-digit growth and twice the market rate." “I feel good about the progress in North America... Still more work to do, very encouraged by the progress. And certainly, we're going to have a stronger second half than first half.” — Brian McNamara, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-07-30 The Oral Care engine remained the anchor at 6.2% growth — the slowest quarterly print in nearly four years, yet still against a competitor that reported a mid-single-digit organic decline. The counterweight was Europe, up just 0.4% with the category declining low-single. Emerging markets improved sequentially to 6.3%, despite a sharp Middle East drag in Dubai and Pakistan where Haleon carries outsized share.

Margin Earned, Not Bought

The financial headline was the quality of the beat. Operating margin rose 120bps at constant currency, all flowing from gross margin (+140bps) delivered through supply-chain productivity — not from squeezing investment or raising price above inflation.

The margin has not come from cutting investment. It's not come from taking too much price. When you look at our pricing, our pricing is in line with inflation. And this is a really important point that it is coming from efficiency.

New Threads: LatAm, Douyin, and the Price-Gap Fix

Two genuinely new threads this quarter. In China, Douyin grew more than 100% and Voltaren's 12-hour launch is being pushed through the Hospital channel under a volume-based procurement pricing model — hence negative regional pricing, but “when you look at the gross profit growth in Asia Pac, that's strong.” — Dawn Allen, Chief Financial Officer · 2026-07-30 And in Latin America, new leader Andres is doing the bread-and-butter work of fixing a price gap on Sensodyne in Brazil that had drifted. “He very quickly identified... an opportunity in Brazil and a few other markets on our price gaps on Sensodyne, very quickly did a pilot test. And so that would drive double-digit volume growth.” — Brian McNamara, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-07-30 The low income consumer engine in India — the INR 20 Sensodyne pack — now drives over 40% of volumes there and half of the growth.

The Cyclical Bet and the Medium-Term Algorithm

The swing factor for H2 remains cold & flu. After two straight down seasons, management is betting on growth off a low base — not to 2024 levels — weighted into Q4. “What we're assuming in the back half is we see growth off of this 2 years of decline. We still don't expect it to be at the level it was from 2 years ago.” — Brian McNamara, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-07-30 That's the bridge from the current 3% run-rate back to the 4–6% medium-term ambition: North America at 3–4%, emerging markets at high-single, Europe at low-single. Contrast this with the Feb 2026 tone — “And listen, the U.S. will return to growth in 2026” — Brian McNamara, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-02-25 — a promise now half-delivered. At the same point last year, the confidence was more declarative: “we remain confident in our 4% to 6% guidance.” — Dawn Allen, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) · 2025-05-02 Whether the other half of that — cold/flu recovery and continued U.S. share gains — lands determines just how much of the gap is closed, and whether the pain relief battle on Advil, still being fought, finally turns durable. For now, the market gets a business earning margin rather than buying it, at a ~21% A&P rate, with 12% H1 EPS growth as the proof point.