Surrey's Unilever's full year results show turnover up to €60.1bn

Published by

Simon Toft

Surrey-based consumer goods giant Unilever has announced its full year results, with turnover up 14.5 per cent at €60.1 billion.

The manufacturer of hundreds of brands, from Lifebuoy soap to Ben & Jerry's ice cream, also saw underlying sales growth accelerate to 9 per cent. There was price growth of 11.3 per cent and volumes declined 2.1 per cent.

Underlying operating profit improved slightly to €9.7 billion and underlying earnings per share decreased 2.1 per cent.

The company, which has a UK base in Leatherhead, reported free cash flow of €5.2 billion, plus there was a €1.5 billion share buyback and €4.3 billion dividends during 2022.

Beauty & Wellbeing, with products including Dove, Sunsilk and Vaseline. had a combined turnover of €12.3 billion, while Personal Care, with products including Lux and Lifebuoy, had a combined turnover of €13.6 billion.

Home Care, with products including Omo, Cif, Domestos and Comfort, had a combined turnover of €12.4 billion and Nutrition, with products including Hellmans, Horlicks and Knorr, had a combined turnover of €13.9 billion.

Ice Cream, with products including Ben & Jerry's, Wall's and Magnum, had a combined turnover of €7.9 billion.

Unilever CEO Alan Jope said: "Unilever delivered a year of strong topline growth in challenging macroeconomic conditions. Underlying sales growth was 9%, driven by disciplined pricing action in response to high input cost inflation.

"Growth was broad-based across each of our five Business Groups, led by strong performances from billion+ Euro brands."

New Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher is due to take over from the retiring Jope later this year.

Simon Toft