Clorox reported their Q2 2025 earnings today, which is the quarter that ended in December. While seasonally that’s not usually a big quarter for Kingsford charcoal, it was a major talking point.

Kingsford added a large retailer in December, and they shipped inventory ahead of consumption, which pulled ahead some spending in the quarter. It was to support a Super Bowl promotion that the new retailer was having with Kingsford.

We pulled forward some new distribution we secured at a major retailer on our Kingsford business, the retailer placed the order in December, we fulfilled in December, but we essentially shipped ahead of consumption.

That will be consumed in Q3 as they do some early season merch support around the Super Bowl. So that had not shifted and we had shipped close to consumption in Q3. I’d expect this to be somewhere around 2% to 4%. But since we pulled that forward, I think we’ll be around low single-digits for Q3.

Kevin Jacobsen, CFO of Clorox

There was no word on who the new retailer is that was buying so much product. Kingsford already had a dominant position in the market. The retailer is large enough that their buy-in impacted same store sales of Clorox by around 1%, as they continued to explain the dynamic.

So as you know, we thought our sales on an organic basis would be down in the low teens and we were down about 9.5%. I’d say if I separate the Kingsford item, a lot of that was based on — as we came into this year, we expected the consumer to be under pressure and category growth would slow to somewhere between flat and 1%. Through at least the front half of the year, we’ve been operating at the higher end of that range and that was true for Q2 as well.

And then we continue to make very good progress on our share growth. We had another 1 point to share. So we’re seeing good strong results from our demand creation plans. That was a primary driver. And then shifting Kingsford shipping in front of consumption in Q2, that was worth a little less than 1 point in the quarter. So it certainly contributed to the over-delivery in Q2, but it was not the primary driver. That was really the strength of the business was the primary driver.

Kevin Jacobsen, CFO of Clorox

Consumer Behavior

Behavior of the consumer was discussed, and it was more of the same as Clorox saw in previous quarters. Consumers continued to be pressured, but they’re buying value and innovation. While Clorox is a CPG company, that’s the same behavior we’ve witnessed in the broader grill industry.

Consumers are continuing to exhibit value-seeking behavior and that shows up in a number of ways.

And I think first and foremost, I want to reemphasize that it shows up that they are looking for better and enhanced value in the products, which means they are trading up to innovation, which is working really well for us, even though it might be a trade-up on a price per use basis, but we’re seeing that across our categories. They want us to make their lives easier and they’re willing to pay for an innovation. We’re also seeing it as they trade up to both larger sizes to get the very best cost per use and smaller sizes for those consumers who may not be able to have that single outlay of cash depending on where they are in their pay cycles. We continue to see all of those behaviors.

Linda Rendle, Chair and CEO of Clorox

Kingsford Market Share

Despite consumers seeking value, they aren’t trading down to private label. Clorox noted that they gained share with Kingsford in the quarter.

What we’re not seeing is any material change in private label. So private label shares were down this quarter. They’re off their peak of when we were out of stock due to the cyber issue and we’re not seeing any material change. And in fact, if you look at the three categories where we compete most heavily with private label, they’re down in share across all three of those that being in trash and bleach in our Kingsford business.

Linda Rendle, Chair and CEO of Clorox