Church & Dwight Co. Inc.: 10-K Risk Factor Changes

The labor market in the United States is very competitive. Our future performance depends in significant part upon the continued service of our executive officers and other key personnel, including at our plants. Competition for qualified plant personnel remain intense. In 2024, we announced changes to our executive leadership team, including that our Chief Financial Officer will assume the role of our new Chief Executive Officer and that we will be appointing a new Chief Financial Officer and President of the U.S. business. The inability to identify and hire qualified candidates for those roles or the unexpected loss of the services of one or more executive officers, the failure to effectively manage executive succession planning, or the loss of other key employees could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. This effect could be exacerbated if any officers or other key employees left as a group or at the same time. Our success also depends, in part, on our continuing ability to attract, retain and develop a diverse and highly qualified workforce. Competition for such talent remains, and there can be no assurance that we can retain our key employees or attract, assimilate and retain other highly qualified personnel in the future, and the U.S. labor market has experienced wage inflation, sustained labor shortages, and a shift towards remote work. Factors that may affect our ability to attract and retain sufficient numbers of key employees include employee morale, our reputation, competition from other employers and the availability of qualified personnel in a tightening labor market. We experienced an increase in labor turnover in 2022 (21.5%) but saw this ease in 2023 (17.6%) and in 2024 (15%). We may continue to experience increased personnel turnover in the future compared to 2024, either as a result of our business operations or other broad-based economic or cultural factors. In addition, labor costs in the U.S. have risen in recent periods. Labor cost is one of the primary components in the cost of operating our business. If we face labor shortages and increased labor costs as a result of increased competition for employees, higher employee turnover rates, increases in employee benefits costs, or labor union organizing efforts, our operating expenses could increase and our growth and results of operations could be adversely impacted. Labor shortages, higher employee turnover rates and labor union organizing efforts could also lead to disruptions in our business. We may be unable to increase prices of our products in order to pass future increased labor costs onto our customers, in which case our margins would be negatively affected. Additionally, if we increase product prices to cover increased labor costs, the higher prices could adversely affect sales volumes.

The labor market in the United States is very competitive. Our future performance depends in significant part upon the continued service of our executive officers and other key personnel, including at our plants. Competition for qualified plant personnel remain intense. The loss of the services of one or more executive officers or other key employees could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. This effect could be exacerbated if any officers or other keyleft as a group or at the same time. Our success also depends, in part, on our continuing ability to attract, retain and develop highly qualified personnel and diverse workforce. Competition for such talent remains, and there can be no assurance that we can retain our key employees or attract, assimilate and retain other highly qualified personnel in the future, and the U.S. labor market has experienced wage inflation, sustained labor shortages, and a shift towards remote work. Factors that may affect our ability to attract and retain sufficient numbers of key employees include employee morale, our reputation, competition from other employers and the availability of qualified personnel in a tightening labor market. We experienced an increase in labor turnover in 2021 (20.6%) and 2022 (21.5%) but saw this ease in 2023 (17.6%). We may continue to experience increased personnel turnover in the future compared to 2023, either as a result of our business operations or other broad-based economic or cultural factors. In addition, labor costs in the U.S. are rising. Labor cost is one of the primary components in the cost of operating our business. If we face labor shortages and increased labor costs as a result of increased competition for employees, higher employee turnover rates, increases in employee benefits costs, or labor union organizing efforts, our operating expenses could increase and our growth and results of operations could be adversely impacted. Labor shortages, higher employee turnover rates and labor union organizing efforts could also lead to disruptions in our business. We may be unable to increase prices of our products in order to pass future increased labor costs onto our customers, in which case our margins would be negatively affected. Additionally, if we increase product prices to cover increased labor costs, the higher prices could adversely affect sales volumes.

As climate change and other ESG issues became more prominent in recent years, so has scrutiny by federal, state and local governments, non-governmental organizations and our customers, consumers and investors. This has resulted in new regulatory requirements such as various state-level Extended Producer Responsibility programs, California’s recently enacted climate reporting legislation, the European Union’s (“EU”) Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”) and customer and consumer standards. In addition, our stakeholders may continue to demand transparency regarding our diversity and inclusion efforts and they may receive scrutiny from U.S. regulators, investors and policy groups in connection with the new presidential administration’s priorities. Our efforts to mitigate our impacts on climate change, and to eliminate chemicals of concern and otherwise reduce or mitigate adverse effects on the environment, may also continue to be scrutinized. For example, some of our major customers have requested we respond to various questionnaires, including the Carbon Disclosure Project ("CDP") Climate Change, Water and Forests Questionnaires, and use our responses and CDP scores to evaluate us. Compliance with these requirements, standards and disclosure requests may be challenging and could cause disruptions in the manufacture of our products and/or result in increases in operating costs, and additional legal, compliance and regulatory risks and costs. We may also be required to contribute funds to support recycling and other waste management infrastructure, and/or incur costs associated with making necessary changes to our operations and controlling, assessing and reporting on certain ESG metrics. These disruptions and additional costs could make our products more costly and less competitive than other products, which would adversely affect our business.

As climate change and other ESG issues become more prominent, so has scrutiny by federal, state and local governments, non-governmental organizations and our customers, consumers and investors. This will likely result in new or increased regulatory requirements such as the SEC’s disclosure proposal on climate change and various state-level Extended Producer Responsibility programs, California’s recently enacted climate reporting legislation, and customer and consumer standards. In addition, our stakeholders are increasingly demanding transparency regarding our DEI efforts as well as our efforts to mitigate our impacts on climate change, and to eliminate chemicals of concern and otherwise reduce or mitigate adverse effects on the environment. For example, some of our major customers have requested we respond to various questionnaires, including the CDP Climate Change, Water and Forests Questionnaires, and use our responses and CDP scores to evaluate us. Compliance with these requirements, standards and disclosure requests may be challenging and could cause disruptions in the manufacture of our products and/or result in increases in operating costs, and additional legal, compliance and regulatory risks and costs. We may also be required to contribute funds to support recycling and other waste management infrastructure, and/or incur costs associated with making necessary changes to our operations and controlling, assessing and reporting on certain ESG metrics. These disruptions and additional costs could make our products more costly and less competitive than other products, which would adversely affect our business.

We may continue to pursue and consummate additional acquisitions, divestitures or substantial investments in complementary businesses or products in the future. However, we may not be able to identify and successfully negotiate suitable strategic acquisitions at attractive valuations, obtain financing for future acquisitions on satisfactory terms or otherwise complete future acquisitions. Potential acquisitions may be significantly larger than the ones completed in the past and may require us to increase our levels of debt, potentially resulting in us being assigned a lower credit rating. Increases in interest rates in recent years may make it more difficult to borrow at attractive rates to fund future acquisitions. In recent periods, competition from other consumer products companies that are seeking similar opportunities has been particularly strong, and valuations for potential acquisition assets have been high, which has placed pressure on our ability to identify, structure and execute transactions. In addition, acquisitions and investments entail various risks, including the difficulty of entering new markets, product categories, or business models, the challenges of integrating the operations and personnel of the acquired businesses or products, the potential disruption of our ongoing business and the ongoing business of the acquired company, the need to review and, if necessary, upgrade processes and systems of the acquired company to conform to our own processes and systems and applicable legal and regulatory requirements, managing an increasingly broad and complex range of businesses and products, and, generally, our potential inability to obtain the desired financial and strategic benefits from the acquisition or investment. Any of these risks may divert management and other resources, require us to incur unanticipated costs or delay the anticipated positive impact on our business and results of the acquisition. The risks associated with assimilation are increased to the extent we acquire businesses that have stand-alone operations or businesses that are in new categories that cannot easily be integrated or operations or sources of supply outside of the U.S. and Canada, for which products are manufactured locally by third parties. Acquired companies or operations or newly-created ventures may not be profitable or may not achieve sales levels and profitability that justify the investments made. In addition, future acquisitions or investments could result in substantial cash expenditures, the potentially dilutive issuances of new equity by us or the incurrence of additional debt or business acquisition liabilities, or the assumption of contingent liabilities, such as those relating to advertising claims, environmental issues and litigation. The Company has divested and may, in the future, divest certain assets, businesses or brands. A divestiture could affect the profitability of the Company as a result of the gains or losses on such sale of a business or brand, the loss of the operating income or sales resulting from such sale or the costs or liabilities that are not assumed by the acquirer that may negatively impact profitability and cash flow subsequent to any divestiture. If the Company is unable to complete a divestiture or successfully transition a divested business, including the effective management of the related separation and overhead costs, transition services, and the maintenance of relationships with customers, suppliers, and other business partners, its business and financial results could be negatively impacted. The Company may also be required to recognize impairment charges or other losses as a result of a divestiture. Adverse economic conditions continue to impact a portion of our businesses. We believe that inflation and recessionary concerns are continuing to drive a decline in consumer spending for our most discretionary brands, Waterpik and Flawless, as consumers reduce spending in these categories and shift to lower cost alternatives. Most notably, a growing number of water flosser consumers are continuing to switch to competitors' value-branded products. Moreover, in our vitamin business, we are experiencing significant product competition coming from new category entrants, including private label that resulted in increased shelf space and/ or display for certain of our competitors. Overall, we have continued to experience increased online sales. Potential recessionary economic conditions may impact consumer demand for certain of our products and put downward pressure on product prices.

We may continue to pursue and consummate additional acquisitions, divestitures or substantial investments in complementary businesses or products in the future. However, we may not be able to identify and successfully negotiate suitable strategic acquisition at attractive valuations, obtain financing for future acquisitions on satisfactory terms or otherwise complete future acquisitions. Potential acquisitions may be significantly larger than the ones completed in the past and may require us to increase our levels of debt, potentially resulting in us being assigned a lower credit rating. Recent increases in interest rates may make it more difficult to borrow at attractive rates. In recent periods, competition from other consumer products companies that are seeking similar opportunities has been particularly strong, and valuations for potential acquisition assets have been high, which has placed pressure on our ability to identify, structure and execute transactions. In addition, acquisitions and investments entail various risks, including the difficulty of entering new markets, product categories, or business models, the challenges of integrating the operations and personnel of the acquired businesses or products, the potential disruption of our ongoing business and the ongoing business of the acquired company, the need to review and, if necessary, upgrade processes and systems of the acquired company to conform to our own processes and systems and applicable legal and regulatory requirements, managing an increasingly broad and complex range of businesses and products, and, generally, our potential inability to obtain the desired financial and strategic benefits from the acquisition or investment. Any of these risks may divert management and other resources, require us to incur unanticipated costs or delay the anticipated positive impact on our business and results of the acquisition. The risks associated with assimilation are increased to the extent we acquire businesses that have stand-alone operations or businesses that are in new categories that cannot easily be integrated or operations or sources of supply outside of the U.S. and Canada, for which products are manufactured locally by third parties. Acquired companies or operations or newly-created ventures may not be profitable or may not achieve sales levels and profitability that justify the investments made. In addition, future acquisitions or investments could result in substantial cash expenditures, the potentially 17 17 dilutive issuances of new equity by us or the incurrence of additional debt or business acquisition liabilities, or the assumption of contingent liabilities, such as those relating to advertising claims, environmental issues and litigation.

We have a material amount of goodwill, trademarks and other intangible assets, as well as other long-lived tangible assets, which are periodically evaluated for impairment in accordance with current accounting standards. Declines in our profitability and/or estimated cash flows related to specific intangible assets, as well as potential changes in market valuations for similar assets and market discount rates, has resulted in impairment charges from time to time, and may result in future impairment charges. In the third quarter of 2024, due to continued decline in market share and a deterioration in the financial performance for Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements business, which includes the VITAFUSION and L’IL CRITTERS trade name, we reassessed our long-term strategy and financial outlook of the business. The revised financial outlook reflects lower estimates of future sales growth and cash flows resulting in a triggering event which required the Company to review the carrying value of long-lived assets supporting the business and resulted in impairment charges as discussed in more detail in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 22 22 22

We have a material amount of goodwill, trademarks and other intangible assets, as well as other long-lived tangible assets, which are periodically evaluated for impairment in accordance with current accounting standards. Declines in our profitability and/or estimated cash flows related to specific intangible assets, as well as potential changes in market valuations for similar assets and market discount rates, has resulted in impairment charges from time to time, and may result in future impairment charges. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we determined that a review of our ability to recover the carrying value of the global FINISHING TOUCH FLAWLESS intangible assets was necessary based on the discontinuance of certain products at a major retailer. This loss of distribution along with an expected continued decline in discretionary consumption and higher interest rates resulted in an impairment charge as discussed in more detail in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 21 21

A significant percentage of our revenues come from mature markets that are subject to high levels of competition where product differentiation is more challenging and price competitors can erode profit margins. During 2024, approximately 82% of our sales were generated in U.S. markets. U.S. markets for consumer products are considered mature and commonly characterized by high household penetration, particularly with respect to our most significant product categories, such as laundry detergents, deodorizers, household cleaning products, toothpastes, dietary supplements, antiperspirants and deodorants. Our ability to quickly innovate to differentiate our products (including product packaging and sustainability profiles) to meet changing consumer demands is essential, especially in light of e-commerce significantly reducing the barriers for even small competitors to quickly introduce new brands and products directly to consumers. Even if we are successful in increasing sales within our product categories, a continuing or accelerating decline in the overall markets for our products could have a negative impact on our financial results. We have implemented price increases and may implement additional price increases in the future, including to account for increasing costs, which may slow sales growth or create volume declines in the short term as customers and consumers adjust to these price increases. In addition, our Specialty Products business has been and may continue to be negatively impacted by the entrance of new foreign competition in the United States dairy market. We expect that low-priced imports will continue to enter the market. During the first quarter of 2024, due to declining sales, we exited the MEGALAC supplement portion of our Animal Nutrition business within our Specialty Products Division segment and during the second quarter of 2024, we sold our food safety business, Passport Food Safety Solutions, Inc. During the fourth quarter of 2024, our 50% interest in The ArmaKleen Company was sold to our joint venture partner.

A significant percentage of our revenues come from mature markets that are subject to high levels of competition. During 2023, approximately 83% of our sales were generated in U.S. markets. U.S. markets for consumer products are considered mature and commonly characterized by high household penetration, particularly with respect to our most significant product categories, such as laundry detergents, deodorizers, household cleaning products, toothpastes, dietary supplements, antiperspirants and deodorants. Our ability to quickly innovate to adapt our products (including product packaging and sustainability profiles) to meet changing consumer demands is essential, especially in light of e-commerce significantly reducing the barriers for even small competitors to quickly introduce new brands and products directly to consumers. Even if we are successful in increasing sales within our product categories, a continuing or accelerating decline in the overall markets for our products could have a negative impact on our financial results. We have implemented price increases and may implement additional price increases in the future, which may slow sales growth or create volume declines in the short term as customers and consumers adjust to these price increases. In addition, our Specialty Products business has been negatively impacted by the entrance of new foreign competition in the United States dairy market. We expect that low-priced imports will continue to enter the market. Our Specialty Products Division declined in 2023, largely due to declining sales of our MEGALAC dairy supplement within our Animal Nutrition business. We will be exiting this part of the Animal Nutrition business during the first quarter of 2024. Adverse economic conditions continue to impact a portion of our businesses. We believe that inflation and recessionary concerns are continuing to drive a decline in consumer spending for our most discretionary brands, Waterpik and Flawless, as consumers reduce spending in these categories and shift to lower cost alternatives. Most notably, a growing number of water flosser consumers are continuing to switch to competitors' value-branded products. Moreover, in our vitamin business, we are experiencing residual impacts from previous vitamin-specific supply chain challenges that resulted in increased shelf space and/ or display for certain of our competitors. Overall, we have continued to experience increased online sales. Potential recessionary economic conditions may impact consumer demand for certain of our products and put downward pressure on product prices.

Our financial success is directly dependent on the reputation and success of our brands, particularly our power brands. Seven of our brands are designated as "power brands" because they compete in large categories, and we believe they have the potential for significant global expansion. Those seven brands are ARM & HAMMER®; OXICLEAN®; VITAFUSION® and L’IL CRITTERS®; BATISTE®; WATERPIK®; THERABREATH®; and HERO® and represent approximately 70% of our net sales and profits. The effectiveness of these brands could suffer if our marketing plans or product initiatives do not have the desired impact on a brand’s image or its ability to attract consumers. Our brands could suffer damage to their reputations due to real or perceived, sustainability, quality or safety issues, including as a result of, among other things, significant product recalls, product-related litigation, defects or impurities in our products, product misuse, changing consumer perceptions of certain ingredients or environmental impacts (including packaging, energy and water use and waste management), or allegations of product tampering. In addition, as our sales on various e-commerce platforms grow, we may be unable to prevent sales of counterfeit, pirated, or stolen goods, unlawful or unethical sales, unauthorized resellers online, or sales in violation of our policies. During the third quarter of 2024, the Company continued to experience a decline in market share and a deterioration in the financial performance for its Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements (“VMS”) business, which includes the VITAFUSION and L’IL CRITTERS trade names, primarily due to significant product competition coming from new category entrants, including private label, and supply chain challenges that resulted in increased shelf space and/ or display for certain of our competitors. The continued decline in profitability caused management to reassess its long-term strategy and financial outlook of the business. The revised financial outlook reflects lower estimates of future sales growth and cash flows which resulted in a triggering event in the third quarter. The triggering event required the Company to review the carrying value of long-lived assets supporting the business in connection with the preparation of the Company’s financial statements, resulting in impairment charges of $357.1 in the quarter ended September 30, 2024. Additionally, claims made in our marketing campaigns may become subject to litigation alleging false advertising and could cause us to alter our marketing plans and may affect sales or result in the imposition of significant damages against us. Widespread use of social media and networking sites by consumers has greatly increased the accessibility and speed of dissemination of negative information and misinformation. Negative online consumer reviews or inaccurate posting or comments about us or our brands in the media or on any social networking website, whether accurate or inaccurate, or the disclosure of non-public sensitive information through social media, could generate adverse publicity that could damage the reputation of our brands. In addition, given the association of our individual products with us, an issue with one of our products could negatively affect the reputation of our other products, or us as a whole. In addition, the legal, regulatory and ethical landscape around the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning is rapidly evolving. The Company’s ability to timely adopt to and adapt this emerging technology in an effective and ethical manner may impact its reputation and ability to compete, and this technology could be, among other things, false, biased, or inconsistent with the Company’s values and strategies. Further, the use of generative artificial intelligence tools may compromise confidential or sensitive information, put the Company’s intellectual property at risk, or subject the Company to claims of intellectual property infringement, all of which could damage the Company's reputation.

Our financial success is directly dependent on the reputation and success of our brands, particularly our power brands. Seven of those brands are designated as "power brands" because they compete in large categories, and we believe they have the potential for significant global expansion. Those seven brands are ARM & HAMMER®; OXICLEAN®; VITAFUSION® and L’IL CRITTERS®; BATISTE®; WATERPIK®; THERABREATH®; and HERO® and represent approximately 70% of our net sales and profits. The effectiveness of these brands could suffer if our marketing plans or product initiatives do not have the desired impact on a brand’s image or its ability to attract consumers. Our brands could suffer damage to their reputations due to real or perceived, sustainability, quality or safety issues, including as a result of, among other things, significant product recalls, product-related litigation, defects or impurities in our products, product misuse, changing consumer perceptions of certain ingredients or environmental impacts (including packaging, energy and water use and waste 19 19 management), or allegations of product tampering. In addition, as our sales on various e-commerce platforms grow, we may be unable to prevent sales of counterfeit, pirated, or stolen goods, unlawful or unethical sales, unauthorized resellers online, or sales in violation of our policies. Additionally, claims made in our marketing campaigns may become subject to litigation alleging false advertising and could cause us to alter our marketing plans and may affect sales or result in the imposition of significant damages against us. Widespread use of social media and networking sites by consumers has greatly increased the accessibility and speed of dissemination of negative information. Negative online consumer reviews or inaccurate posting or comments about us or our brands in the media or on any social networking website, whether accurate or inaccurate, or the disclosure of non-public sensitive information through social media, could generate adverse publicity that could damage the reputation of our brands. In addition, given the association of our individual products with us, an issue with one of our products could negatively affect the reputation of our other products, or us as a whole.