21st Jul 2016 06:48
LONDON (Alliance News) - Unilever PLC on Thursday reported growth in profit in the first half of 2016, but sales fell due to negative movements in foreign exchange rates, and the company warned on tough market conditions for the remainder of the year.
The consumer goods giant said pretax profit in the first half grew by 0.8% to EUR3.64 billion from EUR3.61 billion a year before, but sales fell by 2.6% to EUR26.28 billion from EUR27.0 billion.
Unilever said consumer demand remained weak in the period with slowing volumes, but underlying sales were driven by market share gains across each of the four categories of Personal Care, Foods, Home Care and Refreshment. On a constant currency basis, sales rose by 5.4%.
Profit was also boosted by a rise in other income from non-current investment and associates.
Unilever will pay a dividend of EUR0.3201 for the second quarter.
"We have been preparing ourselves for tougher market conditions in 2016 and do not see any sign of an improving global economy. Against this backdrop, we continue to drive agility and cost discipline, implementing the key initiatives announced at the end of last year: net revenue management, zero-based budgeting and 'Connected 4 Growth' which is the next stage in our organisational transformation. Our priorities continue to be volume-driven growth ahead of our markets, steady improvement in core operating margin and strong cash flow," Chief Executive Paul Polman said in a statement.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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