Steven Cahillane
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at Kellanova
Thanks, Amit. I'll start with a review of each of our regions, beginning with Kellogg North America on slide number 20. This region had another good quarter, delivering notably strong net sales growth with organic growth in both volume and price/mix. Our sales growth was led by what is by far our largest business in North America, and that's snacks. This business had another quarter of strong organic volume growth and price realization. And its net sales growth acceleration was accompanied by a similar acceleration in consumption. We'll talk more about these brands in a moment. Cereal in North America also recorded another quarter of accelerated net sales growth, reaching double digits year-on-year, roughly in line with its consumption growth.
We'll talk more about this business' rapid recovery also in a minute. In our Frozen businesses, where we've experienced pronounced supply constraints this year, we returned to organic net sales growth in the quarter. This was aided by newly installed waffle capacity. Kellogg North America in the third quarter delivered sequentially better operating profit growth as well despite no letup in input cost inflation or bottlenecks and shortages and despite increased reinvestment. So overall, North America continues to perform well and is poised for a strong finish to a strong year.
Kellogg Europe's results are shown on slide number 21. Ever since the war broke out in Ukraine, we've known that Kellogg Europe would have two very different halves of the year. Because as we suspended Pringles shipments into Russia right away during the first quarter, it took some time to work through inventories. Now in the second half, we feel the brunt of this lost revenue and profit. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has contributed to a surge in energy costs and bottlenecks and shortages as well as devaluations in currencies against the U.S. dollar and a pinched consumer that is contributing to increasing elasticities at least on cereal.
And yet, Kellogg Europe in the third quarter still managed to sustain top line growth and mitigate the profit pressure even as it lapped the year earlier quarter's enormous sales and profit growth. In snacks, which represent almost half of Kellogg Europe's sales, the lost sales in Russia were more than offset by double-digit organic growth elsewhere. Pringles maintained its double-digit consumption growth momentum, and portable wholesome snacks are generating strong consumption growth on the strength of Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Squares and Barretta nut bars. Cereal net sales also grew organically, reflecting revenue growth management and broad-based consumption growth even as price elasticity continued to move toward historical levels.
The fourth quarter faces similar Russia and cost headwinds as quarter three as well as increased reinvestment, but the underlying momentum in the business will be sustained. Let's turn to Kellogg Latin America, as shown on slide number22. Strong organic net sales growth was broad-based across the region, with double-digit growth in both snacks and cereal and driven by revenue growth management actions. In snacks, which represent more than 1/3 of our annual net sales in Latin America, we continue to drive very strong consumption growth in key markets, including double-digit growth and share gains for Pringles in the key markets of Mexico and Brazil. In cereal, the net sales and consumption growth was led by Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
Productivity and revenue growth management actions helped to mitigate the impact of high cost inflation, adverse transactional foreign exchange and supply disruptions, leading to solid growth in Latin America's operating profit. In the remaining quarter this year, Latin America should sustain sales and profit growth even as we expect price elasticities to rise gradually as we work to offset continued cost inflation and supply challenges. We'll finish our regional review with Kellogg AMEA and slide number 23. In the third quarter, our AMEA region sustained its exceptional momentum, accelerating its organic net sales growth for a third consecutive quarter. From a category perspective, noodles and other is our biggest segment in AMEA, representing almost half of the region's sales and led by our West African distributor business, Multipro. In the third quarter, it sustained organic net sales growth of more than 20% just as it has all year.
Snacks accelerated its organic net sales growth in the quarter led by Pringles, which sustained its broad-based momentum in consumption growth, with notable outperformance in emerging markets. Cereal also sustained good broad-based net sales growth with particular strength in the Middle East and India. Despite facing the high cost pressures in the region, a function of input costs, ocean freight costs and adverse transactional foreign exchange, AMEA still managed to grow its currency-neutral adjusted basis operating profit in the double digits in the third quarter. We expect similar dynamics and momentum to play out in the fourth quarter, making this a very strong year for our AMEA region.
Now let's dig into each of our category groups and brands in a little more detail, shaping our discussion in terms of the businesses that comprise the planned post-separation companies. A breakout of these businesses is shown on slide number 24. As you can see, the businesses that represent 80% of our portfolio's net sales today and that will comprise global snacking company after the separations have continued to show outstanding growth this year. In fact, this portfolio's net sales have grown organically at a double-digit rate so far this year. For North America cereal company, you can see that our net sales are up organically in the low single digits this year. The only business where there has been softness is Plant Co., which has continued to experience supply disruption, as we'll discuss in a moment.
Let's look at each of these businesses and their key brands. Slide number 25 shows how our world-class snacks brands sustained their in-market momentum in the third quarter around the world. Pringles, with $2.5 billion in annual net sales globally, once again generated double-digit consumption growth in virtually every one of our major markets around the world. Cheez-It, with over $1 billion of annual net sales, sustained its double-digit growth in quarter three both in Canada and the U.S., where our new Puff'd platform has been incremental to the franchise. Pop-Tarts, closing in on $1 billion of annual net sales, continued to post good growth in the third quarter in its primary market, the U.S., while continuing to show why we believe it has so much promise internationally.
Rice Krispies Treats, with $0.5 billion of annual net sales, was supply constrained in the U.S. during the third quarter and still grew consumption in the mid-single digits, with its new Homestyle subline proving to be incremental to the franchise, and the brand is showing good growth in international markets as well. These are important brands. The four brands collectively represent more than 40% of the total net sales of what will be a global snacking company. Slide number 26 provides a glimpse of our international cereal businesses. As you can see, good consumption growth continued in the third quarter with the growth led by world-class brands and by emerging markets. In more developed cereal markets like those in Europe, Australia, Japan and Korea, we are starting to see price elasticity move higher. Nevertheless, we grew consumption across key European markets in the third quarter with Special K back to growth aided by a new campaign and the launch of Special K Granola with 30% less sugar.
We also grew consumption in Australia, and our consumption is beginning to improve in Japan and Korea on the relaunch and expansion of granola offerings. In emerging markets, which represent about half of our international cereal sales annually, consumption growth remains robust both for us and the category. On the slide, note the solid consumption growth rates in key Latin America markets and in India. Slide number 27 shows the sustained double-digit organic net sales growth of our noodles and other category group. This is a $1 billion-plus business annually comprised of our distributor business in West Africa and our Kellogg's branded noodles business elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East. And as we've already discussed, this business again sustained exceptional growth in the third quarter, adding to a track record of consistent double-digit or high single-digit growth.
As we've said before, this reflects the competitive advantage Multipro offers as well as the value of offering a Kellogg's product line at the lower end of the price pyramid. Now let's look at frozen breakfast and slide number 28. Eggo is another world-class brand in our portfolio with about $750 million in annual net sales globally. In the U.S., the brand has sustained steady consumption growth this year despite being very constrained on capacity for both waffles and pancakes. But while we remain constrained on pancakes, we did add internal waffle capacity during the second quarter. This enabled our waffles to accelerate consumption gradually during the third quarter, even returning to volume growth. And this has lifted the brand's overall consumption growth sequentially, as shown on the slide.
And another driver of this growth has been the launch of Li'ge-style waffles, an on-the-go offering that is proving to be incremental to the franchise. Now let's look at North America cereal. Slide number 29 shows how our consumption and share are recovering in the U.S. following our unfortunate fire and labor strike in late 2021. Recall that we rebuilt inventory, both our own and that of our retailers, faster than anticipated during the first half. In quarter three, we have seen our share continue to recover across key brands, and this has continued into October. This reflects not only increased on-shelf availability, but also our gradual resumption of commercial activity behind these brands. The good news is that the category is showing robust growth right now, accelerating to the double digits in quarter three on the strength of increased prices and below-average elasticity.
The even better news is that our consumption growth has accelerated even faster than the category, as you can see in the chart on the left. And our share is already back to its pre-strike level, as you can see on the chart on the right. Clearly, we are building momentum as we return to commercial activity. And while this chart focuses on our recovery in the U.S., it has been just as impressive in Canada, where we returned to share gains in the third quarter. And in both markets, we have a strong lineup of commercial activity continuing in the fourth quarter. Just a few of these are shown on slide number 30, ranging from innovation like Strawberry Frosted Flakes, to seasonal offerings like Halloween Rice Krispies and the perennial favorite, Elf on the Shelf, to bringing back indulgent licensed foods like Cinnabon and Little Debbie.
We have our Mission Tiger program back in full swing, and we're experimenting with an innovative just-add-water product called Insta-bowls. In short, we feel good about where we are in this business. We've restored inventory levels. We're back on shelf, and we are rapidly recovering share. In addition, we've turned back on our commercial programs. And equally importantly, we are making good early progress toward restoring profit margins in this business. We'll now turn to plant-based foods and slide number 31. For context, this business represents only about 2% of our total net sales, but it gets a lot of attention because of its promising long-term prospects and because of the recent slowdown of its category.
This is a category that experienced the equivalent of a few years' worth of acceleration in a single year, 2020. It had already been in elevated growth with new entrants, new technologies and new space in stores. Then COVID hit, and product proliferation was soaked up by the surge in at-home demand, bringing penetration and buy rates up with it. The category lapped that surge in 2021. And in 2022, it has experienced a pause in growth, and points of distribution have decreased in stores as many retailers consolidated into the frozen aisle. But household penetration remains above pre-COVID levels, with ample opportunities to return to consistent growth behind underlying consumer focus on health and environmental concerns. These are demand fundamentals that remain firmly in place for a long runway of growth.
As you know, our Morningstar Farms brand has been severely impacted by supply disruptions at a key co-manufacturer this year. And this disruption has not yet been fully resolved in quarter three and has also forced us to prioritize SKUs. While we have not yet been able to fully resume commercial activity, we have been able to support products that are not capacity constrained. A good example is sausage and links, and we are generating double-digit consumption and good share growth in that segment. This supply disruption is a temporary issue, and we continue to work through it. The brand remains a leader in plant-based foods with strong plans and a new media campaign once it restores full supply. So despite near-term disruptions, this is a business that remains in good condition with excellent prospects.
So with that, allow me to briefly summarize with slide number 33. I could not be prouder of our organization for how it has navigated through an incredibly volatile environment, identifying issues, resolving them and executing. Our people and culture truly are a competitive advantage for Kellogg. Our strategy is working, and our portfolio is showing its strength. We continue to deliver solid results, and we are again raising our outlook. Yet we're anything but complacent. We are working hard on a set of plans that will navigate through the current macro headwinds and enable us to drive balanced financial delivery again in 2023 and thereafter.
And with that, we'll open up the line for questions. Operator?