31st Jan 2019 07:33
LONDON (Alliance News) - Unilever PLC said Thursday it posted a significant increase in profit in 2018 with strong margin progression and improved sales in developed markets after a "stand-out year for ice cream" in Europe.
The consumer goods company, which owns brands such as Dove soap and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, reported a pretax profit of EUR12.38 billion, up 53% from EUR8.15 billion in 2017.
Unilever said that this was the result of improved margins, with its underlying operating margin improved to 24.6% from 16.5%.
In the hot summer weather, the firm's ice cream brands performed well, with good growth in German ice cream sales helping to offer a decline in savoury and dressings sales. Ice cream was also the only category of Unilever product sales that did not decline in France.
Unilever's revenue fell to EUR50.98 billion in 2018 from EUR53.72 billion in 2017, due to currency headwinds and the disposal of its spreads business in July, it said.
Unilever declared a final dividend of EUR0.3872, up 8.0% from EUR0.3585 a year before.
"Looking forward, accelerating growth will be our number one priority. With so many of our brands enjoying leadership positions, we have significant opportunities to develop our markets, as well as to benefit from our deep global reach and purpose-led brands," said Unilever Chief Executive Officer Alan Jope.
"In 2019 we expect market conditions to remain challenging. We anticipate underlying sales growth will be in the lower half of our multi-year 3% to 5% range, with continued improvement in underlying operating margin and another year of strong free cash flow. We remain on track for our 2020 goals," Jope added.
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