The Recession Lingers for Unilever

Unilever reported a 24% fall in fourth quarter net profit Thursday and predicted tough competition and consumer spending constraints in the current year.

“We expect continued pressure on consumer spending power and heightened levels of competitive activity in 2010,” said CEO Paul Polman.

The company said net earnings in the final three months of 2009 came to $1.27 billion as lower prices offset increased volumes.

Sales were down 4.8% from a year earlier to $13.5 billion, falling short of analyst forecasts for $13.8 billion.

Operating profit tumbled 33% to $1.3 billion although the same year-earlier period included exceptional gains of $855 million.

For all of 2009, net profit was down 31% to $5.1 billion on sales of $55.7 billion, down 1.7%.

Chief executive Paul Polman said the company “made good progress in challenging market conditions. Our market share improvements were broad-based and improved throughout the year.

“We have further strengthened our leading positions in developing and emerging markets and made encouraging progress in re-establishing volume growth in Western Europe,” Polman said.