MDLZ
#Thanks.
Hey, <UNK>.
The answer is yes.
There is a timing impact, as you would imagine.
And so there's only a ---+ although I would say we have gotten a lot better about executing pricing actions.
We used to price once a year.
Now we're pricing far more frequently, particularly in a number of the more volatile markets.
But for the most part, we are pricing to recover our cost increases, and you're seeing that play through in the margins, as well as in the revenue.
And you would see other quarters where it would be the other way and you got to catch up.
That's really the dynamic.
Well, again, I think you're going to continue to see us in a number of the markets, particularly Venezuela and Argentina, you're going to see us continue to try to keep pace with the inflationary impact.
In markets like Brazil, we want to just manage the impact of the pricing that we have taken year-to-date, because we still have some sizable price gaps, and we've had a decelerating impact, as I mentioned, on our category performance.
So, we're going to monitor that and to make sure we're investing adequately behind the franchises.
Well, the euro has come down a bit, I think is the offset to the coffee change.
That's the dynamic that's playing out.
And what was your second question again, <UNK>.
I'm sorry.
Yes.
I mean, given the exposures of where the coffee business is, I mean, it would have a lower tax rate.
So, when you take that out, you expect it to go up a little bit.
What we've got playing out in this outlook is really some specific countries where statutory rates have moved and some discrete items that we see in front of us.
So, that's what's keeping it low.
Over the longer term, we'll give you visibility to that as we move through the year.
Yes, we're not going to get into ---+ it's a private company.
And with our partners, we're not going to disclose a lot about that.
Well EEMEA ---+ a simple answer is, there has been some dislocation with the rapid devaluation of the currencies, and we should start to see that moderate as the year progresses.
So that's an easy one.
Let's come back to the India question.
Let me clarify that.
India is growing.
It's just growing at a slower rate than it had been.
So I want to be very clear.
It's not a problem.
It's just we'd like to see it get back up to the high single digit, double digit rates that it had been growing at since we acquired the Cadbury business.
There's no question that the actions that we took in response to the devaluation of the rupee, as well as the impact of higher cocoa costs, has impacted the market.
We not only have seen our gaps widen, but we also have crossed some critical price thresholds.
And so the intent of our investments back in the chocolate category in India are designed to help to mitigate some of that and help the Indian consumer over the hump.
We've also taken a number of steps to help our price pack architecture in the market so that we are covering various points on the price spectrum.
So net-net, India continues to be a market of great importance and interest to us.
It's got a nice, growing middle class, very low per capita consumption of chocolate, and we expect it to be a growth engine for the future.
Thanks, <UNK>.
Well, I'll give you a little bit of the dynamics and maybe <UNK> can answer strategically.
As we talked about the restructuring supply chain reinvention, I mean that's an activity that will go through 2018.
So this is one where 15% to 16% is what we're calling for 2016, but the reality is there will be continued cost opportunities and margin opportunities beyond 2016.
As I said earlier, I think we want to maintain the flexibility to balance, really, growth with the margins that we drive in the business.
And being able to re-invest is a ---+ it's nice that we're really getting that opportunity right now to begin to do that.
We expect to do that more.
And driving a better balance between top line growth and volume growth, and the quality of that top line, along with higher margins, there's clearly continued opportunity to do that beyond 2015 to 2016.
But <UNK>, a lot of the productivity, as we shared with you, a lot of the productivity that we're driving as we speak, the record net productivity that we just delivered in this quarter and for the first half is before the impact of our supply chain reinvention investments, which, as we've shared with you, have a sizable impact on variable costs.
In addition, a lot of the tools that are driving that productivity, things like integrated Lean Six Sigma, are the tools that will enable us to continue to benefit from productivity as we look ahead.
So we've got good tools in place that should become the foundation for the future performance, and gives us great confidence as we look into 2016 and beyond that our margin performance will continue to be quite strong.
Well I think it's fair to say that we think we have great visibility to continued improvement in our margins.
As we've shared with you, though, we want to continue to make sure, as we think about how much of that will drop to the bottom line, it's all predicated on our balance between our top line and our bottom line.
And we'll continue to share that with you as we move ahead.
Operator, that's our last call.
This is <UNK>.
If you have any questions going forward, happy to take them today, over the next few days, and thank you for joining our call.
