Unilever posts 2.5 percent growth in Q3
Unilever, the Fast moving consumer Goods (FMCG) multinational, in spite of the volatile operating environment in all its markets, has posted a 2.5 percent sales growth in the third quarter of year 2021. This was contained in a release by the company on Thursday, October 21.
The release stated in part: “We announced our results for the third quarter of 2021 with underlying sales growth of 2.5%. The combination of our strategic choices and focus on operational excellence continue to drive competitive growth. Underlying sales growth is now at 4.4% for the year to date and we are confident that we will be well within our multi-year framework of 3–5% for the full year.”
Speaking on the development, Alan Jope, CEO, Unilever said: “We have delivered a good quarter against strong comparators, with underlying sales growth of 2.5%. The combination of our strategic choices and focus on operational excellence continue to drive competitive growth. Underlying sales growth is now at 4.4% for the year to date and we are confident that we will be well within our multi-year framework of 3–5% for the full year.
“Our strategic choices are having a positive impact on our growth and business momentum:
Priority markets: we have delivered good growth across our three priority markets of the US, China and India. South East Asia continues to be impacted by Covid-19, and was the main source of volume decline in the quarter
Channel: e-commerce grew 38% and is now 12% of our sales
Portfolio: our high-growth new businesses, Prestige Beauty and Functional Nutrition, each grew double digit and we completed the acquisition of digitally-native skin care brand Paula’s Choice.
Brands and innovation: our focus on impactful innovation has led to a step up on measured product superiority and average innovation project size.
Organisation and culture: our organisational agility has allowed us to take rapid pricing actions in response to unprecedented cost inflation.
“Cost inflation remains at strongly elevated levels, and this will continue into next year. We have and will continue to respond across our categories and markets, taking appropriate pricing action and implementing a range of productivity measures to offset increased costs. We continue to expect that we will deliver in line with our margin guidance of around flat for the full year.”
Meanwhile, the sales growth may have been driven by performance in the company’s three priority markets of the US, India and China. According to the release, strong growth was witnessed in these markets. “In the US our food solutions, functional nutrition and Prestige Beauty businesses all contributed to growth, whilst in-home food and ice cream declined. We are continuing to see a trend of increased eating away from home and greater offline shopping. China grew high single digit led by volume with broad based growth across divisions. India grew double digit as the country continued to recover from Covid-19 related impacts.”
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