TOP NEWS: Unilever progresses ambitions with half-year sales growth

(Alliance News) - Unilever PLC on Thursday said turnover and profit both increased in its latest ...

Alliance News 25 July, 2024 | 9:15AM
Email Form Facebook Twitter LinkedIn RSS

(Alliance News) - Unilever PLC on Thursday said turnover and profit both increased in its latest half year, and declared a higher quarterly dividend.

The London-based consumer goods giant said that for the first six months of 2024, net profit rose 3.5% to EUR4.02 billion from EUR3.88 billion the year before.

Basic earnings per share rose to EUR1.48 from EUR1.41, while diluted EPS rose to EUR1.47 from EUR1.40.

Unilever's turnover meanwhile rose 2.3% to EUR31.12 billion from EUR30.43 billion. Americas turnover rose 4.6% to EUR11.46 billion, while Europe turnover increased 3.8% to EUR6.28 billion.

Unilever, whose brands include Dove, Domestos and Marmite, said turnover for its Personal Care segment increased 0.6% to EUR6.95 billion, while Nutrition rose 1.3% to EUR6.69 billion.

Beauty & Wellbeing turnover jumped 5.1% to EUR6.54 billion; Home Care increased 2.0% to EUR6.33 billion; and turnover for Ice Cream, which Unilever announced plans to spin off in mid-March, increased 2.8% to EUR4.61 billion.

Unilever currently owns five of the 10 top-selling global ice cream brands including Wall's, Magnum and Ben & Jerry's. It said in March that the separation will assist in the implementation of its Growth Action Plan, a comprehensive productivity programme it expects to deliver around EUR800 million in cost savings over the next three years.

Unilever said that due to its strong interim performance, it has increased the second-quarter interim dividend by 3.0% to 43.96 euro cents per share from 43 cents the prior year.

This, Unilever said, marks its first dividend increase since the fourth quarter of 2020.

"We are focused on driving high-quality sales growth and gross margin expansion, led by our Power Brands," said Chief Executive Officer Hein Schumacher. "Over the first half, we made progress on those ambitions...Strong gross margin progression fuelled increased investment behind our innovations, and resulted in a step-up of our profitability.

"We continue to embed the Growth Action Plan, doing fewer things, better and with greater impact. The implementation of a comprehensive productivity programme and the separation of Ice Cream are key to delivering on that commitment and we are progressing at pace."

Looking ahead, Unilever continues to expect between 3% and 5% underlying sales growth for the full year, with most growth drive by volume. It also anticipates an underlying operating margin of "at least 18%, with increasing investment behind our brands".

"There is much to do, but we remain focused on transforming Unilever into a consistently higher performing business," CEO Schumacher commented.

Shares in Unilever were trading 5.4% higher at 4,634.00 pence in London on Thursday morning.

By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Email Form Facebook Twitter LinkedIn RSS

Securities Mentioned in Article

Security Name Price Change (%) Morningstar
Rating
Unilever PLC 4,741.00 GBX 1.50

About Author

Alliance News

Alliance News provides Morningstar with continuously updating coverage of news affecting listed companies.

© Copyright 2024 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.

Terms of Use        Privacy Policy        Modern Slavery Statement        Cookie Settings        Disclosures