Key Highlights
Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch retailer, released its results for the first half of 2023 on Tuesday, revealing impressive performance. Here are the highlights:
Underlying Sales Growth: Unilever achieved a remarkable underlying sales growth of 9.1% in the first half of the year and 7.9% in the second quarter. These figures surpassed the company’s own consensus forecast of 8.3% and 6.4%, respectively.
Turnover: The company reported a turnover of €30.43 billion ($33.68 billion) for the first half and €15.74 billion for the second quarter. Analysts had predicted figures slightly below these results, with estimates of €30.34 billion and €15.59 billion respectively.
Key Factors Behind the Results
Unilever’s sales growth in the first half was primarily driven by a 9.4% increase in prices, despite a slight decrease of 0.2% in volumes. Analysts had anticipated price growth of 9.0% and a volume decline of 0.7%, according to a consensus forecast obtained from the company’s website.
Guidance Upgrade
Unilever has revised its guidance for full-year underlying sales growth in 2023 to exceed 5%. Previously, the company had aimed for the upper end of its multiyear range of 3%-5%. This revised outlook reflects the expectation of sustained moderate underlying price growth throughout the year. Unilever also anticipates a modest improvement in underlying operating margin for the full year due to an increase in gross margin and higher brand investment.
Inflation Outlook
Unilever foresees net material inflation for 2023 to be approximately €2.0 billion, with around €400 million expected in the second half of the year.