TOP NEWS: Unilever profit climbs 21% in 2022, boosted by higher prices

(Alliance News) - Unilever PLC on Thursday announced profit and turnover rose in 2022 despite a ...

Alliance News 9 February, 2023 | 8:25AM
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(Alliance News) - Unilever PLC on Thursday announced profit and turnover rose in 2022 despite a fall in volume sales, helped by price increases.

The London-based consumer product company sells Marmite, Ben & Jerry's and Wall's ice creams, Vaseline skincare, Signal toothpaste, Dove, Lynx, and many other products.

In 2022, Unilever's pretax profit climbed 21% to EUR10.34 billion from EUR8.56 billion in 2021. Turnover rose by 15% to EUR60.07 billion from EUR52.44 billion. Sales volumes however fell by 2.1%.

The company noted that it was boosted by underlying growth in all categories, as pricing action helped countering input cost inflation.

Outgoing Chief Executive Officer Alan Jope, who will be replaced by Hein Schumacher on July 1, said: "Unilever delivered a year of strong topline growth in challenging macroeconomic conditions. Underlying sales growth was 9.0%, driven by disciplined pricing action in response to high input cost inflation."

Home Care products grew the most annually in underlying sales, by 12%, while Beauty & Wellbeing had the weakest growth, at 7.8%. Ice Cream sales were up 9.0%.

CEO Jope added: "Despite sharp rises in material costs, we have prioritised stepping up our brand and marketing investment."

Unilever declared a fourth quarter dividend of EU0.4268, unchanged from a year ago.

Looking ahead, the company expects cost inflation to continue in 2023, but expects an underlying sales growth in the upper half of its multi-year range of 3% to 5%, lower than 9.0% in 2022.

It said net material inflation in the first half is expected to be around EUR1.5 billion, but will be "significantly lower" in the second half.

It expects underlying price growth to remain high and volumes to fall in the first half, but said it is "too early to say" whether volumes will see positive growth in the second half.

Unilever said it "will deliver only a modest improvement in underlying operating margin in the full year, as we plan for another year of increased investment, and with cost inflation remaining high, underlying operating margin will be around 16% in the first half."

Unilever shares were 0.5% higher at 4,118.50 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

By Tom Budszus, Alliance News reporter

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Securities Mentioned in Article

Security Name Price Change (%) Morningstar
Rating
Unilever PLC 4,259.00 GBX 0.71

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