Unilever continues to assume slow economic growth
1 min read
The fast moving consumables giant Unilever today (5 August) said that market growth in developed economies in which it traded remained depressed although there was evidence of strong growth in emerging markets but negative pressure on prices in all regions.
Reporting its half year highlights, Unilever announced that turnover was up 9.7% at €21.9 billion (£18.1bn) while operating profit at €3bn was 20% up on the same period last year.
CEO Paul Polman (pictured) said Unilever had delivered robust volume growth with improved volume market share. This was, he went on, an encouraging result given the challenging economic and competitive environment.
"We continue to operate under the assumption of slow economic growth, particularly in developed markets where consumer confidence remains fragile. We do not expect competitive pressures to ease and our ability to increase prices will remain constrained despite rising commodity costs in the second half. We still expect underlying price growth to turn positive towards the end of the year.
"Notwithstanding this difficult environment and comparators which get tougher as the year progresses, the results confirm again that our strategy to focus on the consumer and to accelerate growth is working. Our priority remains to drive profitable volume growth and strong cash flow along with steady and sustainable improvement in operating margin for the year as a whole."
