I think we’re approaching almost 300 bps again on the Huggies in the quarter. So, I think we feel very good about our gains in our largest markets. The exception has been North America, where we have underperformed, but that is improving. A lot of that, I think, was just what I discussed with Jason. We had some severe supply constraints where we weren’t able to run our brand plans in the way that we wanted to run last year. We saw solid improvement in Q4. We were up or even in six of eight categories and sequentially improved in five of eight. And so, we feel pretty good about our trajectory. As I said just a while ago, our commercial execution capability has never been better, and we’re going to gain share by bringing the right innovations, which our customers are excited about, executing well, and bringing sustainable cost advantage to our business.
You mentioned private label. On the note, I would recognize that, yeah, we have seen an uptick in private label in the past quarter or two. I think, if you look at the scanner data, I think it was up or even in seven of eight categories. I’d say, on private label, we are very, very committed to having a superior value proposition in every price tier that we’re in. So, versus 2019, if you look on a longer perspective, private label is down a bit and the premium segment is up significantly. And even today, the premium segment continues to grow. So, it is clear that the value tier has picked up a bit, and our shares were impacted in the second and third quarter, although I would say, more from our supply constraints than private label trading.
I mean, we compete with private label. We’re cognizant of that. Our approach, Anna, is to bring the right set of innovations, which we are accelerating and have been accelerating, and our customers are very supportive of it. There are a couple of categories where we have a little more value offering. Scott 1000 is a great value brand, but I think it competes very, very well in its tier and is really, really accepted by consumers. And so, again, we’re cognizant that private label is kind of out there, and that in uncertain or tough economic conditions, value becomes much more important to the consumer. And we’re committed to having a great value proposition at every tier.
Anna Lizzul: Great. Very helpful. Thank you.
Mike Hsu: Okay. Thanks, Anna.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question is coming from Steve Powers from Deutsche Bank. Your line is live.
Steve Powers: Hey, thanks, guys. Good morning.
Mike Hsu: Hi, Steve.
Steve Powers: Hey. So, maybe to start, you talked about a lower rate of organic growth in the first quarter and also a slightly back-half weighted earnings profile for the year in the prepared remarks, and some of the comments this morning echo that. I guess maybe could you provide just a little bit more color on the drivers there and maybe a little bit more specificity on how to think about first quarter trends relative to the balance of the year? Thanks.
Nelson Urdaneta: Sure, Steve. So, I’ll start by reiterating that we’re very encouraged by how we finished 2023, a strong foundation for us to build from and a position in which volumes have stabilized. And we had a quarter in which we’re flattened volume and mix was another 100 basis points of growth. As we think about the cadence of the year, our first half, second half, balance of sales and earnings, and our quarterly pacing is reflecting a combination of three things. One, our go-to-market plans; two, our productivity initiatives; and thirdly, the current shape of currency headwinds that I talked about a little while ago. On organic sales growth, we see a relatively balanced across the year, but Q1 somewhat muted due to softer volumes on a sequential basis.
We have more programming coming into play as the year progresses, especially as Q2 kicks in. And this includes incremental innovation that will be going into market at that stage. So, we should see progressively improvement in volumes and a mix-led organic growth and margins following Q1. The other bit that, again, as we think about Q1 in terms of volumes, we’ve built into the plan a gradual improvement across the year. And in Q1 specifically, we’re expecting another relatively flat volume quarter, also because of the possibility that retail inventory softness pushes us slightly even below that level. But that’s reflected in our outlook for the full year, and we expect again, volumes to pick up as the year progresses.
