19th Jan 2016 07:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Unilever PLC on Tuesday reported a fall in profit in 2015 but growth in revenue as it warned of volatile times ahead.
The food, home and personal care product supplier said pretax profit in 2015 fell 6% to EUR7.22 billion from EUR7.64 billion in 2014, although revenue grew 10% to EUR53.27 billion from EUR48.43 billion.
Underlying sales grew 4.1%, ahead of its 2% to 4% guided growth range.
Unilever said that consumer demand remained fragile, while currency devaluation also harmed results, but that it achieved volume growth.
Unilever will pay a quarterly dividend of EUR0.302 for its fourth quarter.
"We are preparing ourselves for tougher market conditions and high volatility in 2016, as world events in recent weeks have highlighted. Therefore it is vital that we drive agility and cost discipline across our business. We are further strengthening our innovation funnel while shortening innovation cycle times, stepping up our digital capabilities and rolling out a global zero based budgeting programme. 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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