Strong year for Unilever as transformation progresses
Announcing its fourth quarter and full year financial results today (3 February) household goods and detergents giant Unilever said it was pleased with good annual results and had made further progress towards being more agile, confident and competitive.
CEO Paul Polman (pictured) said: "We are pleased with another year of good results in which we delivered against all our key priorities and further progressed the transformation of Unilever. We delivered strong volume growth, particularly in emerging markets which continued to be the engine of growth. We gained volume share in all regions driven by stronger innovations, significant increases in marketing investment and the extension of our brands into new territories."
The Unilever of today was, he went on, "more agile and confident, now fully fit to compete." Despite intense competition and commodity cost volatility, Unilever's objectives remained profitable volume growth ahead of its markets, steady and sustainable underlying operating margin improvement and strong cash flow.
Annual turnover for 2010 was up 11.1% at €44.3 billion (£37.7bn), with pre-tax profit up 25% to €6.1 billion (£5.2bn).
