Unilever reports strong FY24 amid slow market growth
GLOBAL – Unilever, a British multinational consumer goods company, has posted strong financial results for the full year 2024, achieving 4.2% sales growth, led by 2.9% and price of 1.3%.
Unilever achieved volume growth above 2%, with every Business Group contributing to positive annual volume growth for four consecutive quarters.
Turnover reached €60.8 billion(USD 63.84 billion), a 1.9% increase from the previous year(2023), driven by 4.2% underlying sales growth and 1.3% price growth.
Hein Schumacher, CEO of Unilever, said, “Under the Growth Action Plan, we committed to doing fewer things, better, and with greater impact. We executed the plan at a pace and made progress in 2024.”
Power Brands contributed more than 75% of turnover and performed strongly, with 5.3% underlying sales growth, driven by volume growth of 3.8%.
Beauty & Wellbeing delivered a strong full-year performance, with underlying sales up 6.5%, driven by volume at 5.1% and price at 1.3%.
Personal Care grew 5.2% with 3.1% volume growth, led by strong, innovation-led sales growth of Deodorants.
Home Care’s underlying sales increased by 2.9%, with 4.0% volume growth and 1.1% from price, linked to commodity cost deflation.
Developed markets (42% of Group turnover) grew underlying sales by 4.4%.
As expected, price growth moderated to 1.1%.
Operating profit was €11.2 billion(USD 11.76 billion), up 12.6% versus the prior year.
The underlying operating margin increased 170 bps to 18.4%.
Operating profit of €9.4 billion(USD 9.87 billion) decreased 3.7% compared to the prior year.
This reduction was driven by higher non-underlying charges, most notably a loss on disposals and higher restructuring costs due to accelerating the productivity programme.
Investment was up 120 bps to 15.5% of turnover, an increase of €0.9 billion(USD 0.95 billion).
The company expanded gross margin by 280 bps to 45.0%, the highest in a decade.
Unilever anticipates underlying sales growth (USG) for the full year 2025 to be within our multi-year range of 3% to 5%.
