20th Jan 2015 07:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever PLC Tuesday reported higher revenue and sales growth in the final quarter of 2014, capping profit growth for the full year, but the group highlighted a cautious outlook for 2015.
Unilever, the maker of consumer products including Dove soaps and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, said it faced "significant economic headwinds and weak markets" in the year just ended, yet managed to deliver sales growth and margin expansion. However in 2015, the group said it expects similar market conditions and competitive pressure.
"We do not plan on a significant improvement in market conditions in 2015. Against this background, we expect our full year performance to be similar to 2014 with the first quarter being softer but growth improving during the year. We remain focused on competitive, profitable, consistent and responsible growth," said Chief Executive Paul Polman in a statement.
Unilever reported pretax profit of EUR7.98 billion for 2014, up 7% at current exchange rates from EUR7.11 billion the year before. The group's net profit was EUR5.52 billion, up 5% year-on-year.
Although revenue declined by 2.7% for the year to EUR48.4 billion from EUR49.8 billion, underlying sales growth was up 2.9%, buoyed by volume and price increases, up 1% and 1.9% respectively. If exchange rates had stayed the same, Unilever said revenue for the year would have risen by 2%.
"Growth was weak in emerging markets as economic pressures impacted consumer demand. Developed markets were flat, with a modest pick-up in North America partly offsetting market contraction in Europe. Globally, our markets grew by around 2.5% with flat volumes," the group said.
For the fourth quarter, revenue rose 2.4%,, with underlying sales growth of 2.1%. Volume was down 0.4%, but pricing was up 2.5% in the quarter.
"In 2014 we grew ahead of our markets, both in volume and value. With weaker consumer demand, underlying sales growth in emerging markets slowed to 5.7% whilst developed markets declined by 0.8%. Home Care, Personal Care and Refreshment all grew but Foods was adversely impacted by spreads," the group said.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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