08.02.21
The Netherlands
www.unilever.com
Sales: $36.0 billion
Corporate sales: $57.9 billion
Key personnel
Alan Jope, chief executive officer; Graeme Pitkethly, chief financial officer; Conny Braams, chief digital and marketing officer; Marc Engel, chief supply chain officer; Fabian Garcia, president, North America; Sunny Jain, president, beauty and personal care; Sanjiv Mehta, president, Unilever, South Asia and chair and managing director, Hindustan Unilever; Leena Nair, chief human resources officer; Nitin Paranjpe, chief operating officer; Richard Slater, chief research & development officer; Ritva Sotamaa, chief legal officer and group secretary; Peter ter Kulve, president, home care
Major products
Home care: Domestos, Omo, Surf, Ala, Biotex, Blueair, Brilhante, Cajoline, Cif, Coral, Drive, Jif, New Magic, Persil, Puro, Rin, Rinso, Robijn, Savo, Skip, Sun, Surf Excel, Unox, Viss, Vivere, Wheel, Xtra, Andy, Cuñataí, Deja, Dero, Fab, Fofo, Lavomatic, Mimosin, Nevex, Radiante, Sunil, Sunlight, Super Pell, Szavo, Via, Viso, Vixal, Wipol and Wonderlight. Personal care: Axe, Dove, Lifebuoy, Lux, Rexona, Signal, Sunsilk, Aviance, Badedas, International Breeze, Brut, Caress, Citra, Clear, Closeup, Duschdas, Eskinol, Fair & Lovely, Fissan Baby, Hazeline, Pears, Pond’s Simple, Suave, Sunlight, Tigi, TreSemme, VO5, Vaseline, Williams, Zwitsal, Aim, Amodent, Andrélon, Baba, Block & White, Clinic Plus, Coco Varela, Cream Silk, Dawn, Elefante, Elle 18, Folicure, Gabi, Geisha, Glysolid, Good Morning, Hamam, Kalina, Le Sancy, Ayush Therapy, Liril, Matey, Monsavon, Organics, PS, Prodent, Proderm, Ultrex, Zendium, Zhonghua
New products
Home care: Life Buoy Soft Surface Disinfectant; Personal care: Dove body wash reformulation, Dove Hair Therapy, Dove Refillable Deo, Lux Botanicals, Hourglass Red 0 vegan beauty, Axe Texturizing Cream, TreSemme Color Gloss Conditioners.
The TreSemmé Gloss Collection achieves longer-lasting, vibrant hair color! From dark brunette to light blonde shades, this range of in-shower color conditioner glosses instantly revives faded tones, extending time in between color sessions.
Axe added a new texturizing cream.
Dove recently expanded its hand soap offerings.
Comments: Beauty and personal care represented 42% of turnover. Home care accounted for 21% of sales (food and refreshment, 37%). Unilever’s top 5 markets are: US, India, Brazil, China and Indonesia, with 60% of turnover in emerging markets. Unilever proudly notes it owns 14 of the top 50 global consumer brands. In our space, those brands include Lifebuoy, Lux, Closeup, Sunsilk, Vim, Comfort, Dove, Sunlight, Pond’s, Rexona and Pepsodent.
In a recent Deutsche Bank presentation, CEO Alan Jope and Sanjiv Mehta, president, Unilever, South Asia and chair and managing director, Hindustan Unilever, told analysts that Unilever has five strategic choices:
Going forward, Unilever is focused on prestige beauty, a $156 billion market that’s growing about 7% a year, according to company estimates. Company brands that fill the prestige space include Dermalogica, Kate Somerville, Murad, Ren, Living Proof, Hourglass, Garancia and Tatcha. In fiscal 2020, Unilever’s prestige beauty sales totaled €700 million. Skin care accounts for 80% of prestige beauty sales at Unilever, followed by hair care (12%) and other (8%). At the same time, North America represents 63% of sales, followed by Europe (22%), Asia (14%) and other (1%). Unilever said it intends to win in the space with purpose-led, impactful innovations via a digital-first strategy.
Another area of focus is functional nutrition. According to Unilever, this $140 billion segment is increasing more than 7% annually. Last year, Unilever’s sales totaled €1.1 billion, but the company’s ambition is to reach three billion euros. To get there, Unilever has acquired six functional nutrition brands since 2018: Equilibra, Olly, Horlicks, Liquid I.V., SmartyPants and Onnit. To build the business, Unilever focuses on China, India and the US via digital and direct-to-consumer channels.
Of course, India is much more than nutrition. With sales in excess of $5.7 billion, Hindustan Unilever Limited is the largest FMCG company in the country. Approximately 90% of HUL’s business has category leadership and 9 of 10 household use a HUL brand. Despite those figures, there is still plenty of room to grow. The company notes that household penetration is below 20% for key categories including face wash, body lotion, washing liquids, dishwash liquid, hair conditioner and body wash. Furthermore, India’s FMCCG per capita consumption lags Indonesia (2X) and China (3X). But HUL is making gains. Its hair care market share has tripled in the past 10 years, thanks to offering a range of options from high end naturals (Indulekha) to family brands (Clinic Plus+). Home care, too, has room to grow in India where fabric wash sales have posted a 11% CAGR during the past decade. As household income rises, HUL is rolling out innovative cleaning solutions like Surf Excel and Nature Protect.
Jope told DB attendees that Unilever’s vision “is to be the global leader in sustainable business. We will demonstrate how our purpose-led, future-fit business model drive superior performance, consistently delivering financial results in the top third of our industry.”
By the Numbers
With its portfolio of consumer staples, Unilever weathered the pandemic better than most. Corporate sales fell 2.4%, driven primarily by negative forex. Growth was driven, in part, by hand and home hygiene products, and laundry care. But as people stayed at home and had fewer opportunities to socialze, they spent less time on personal grooming which hurt beauty and personal care sales. E-commerce sales surged 61 and accounted for 9% of Unilever turnover. By region, emerging markets grew 1.2% as China and India returned to growth, after strict lock-downs in the first half of the year. China returned to growth in the second quarter as restrictions were eased, delivering high single digit growth in the second half. Latin America grew mid-single digit and Indonesia grew slightly, though declined in the final quarter. Developed markets grew 2.9%, led by strength in North American in-home foods. Europe declined for the full year, but grew in the final quarter.
Things turned around in 2021. Prestige beauty sales rose sharply and functional nutrition sales are on track for 50% gains. The company said underlying sales rose 5.7%. Still, sales declined less than 1%. As reported in Happi, Unilever is separating is smaller beauty and personal care brands via an Elida Beauty spinoff. The brands, including Q-Tips, Caress, Tigi, Timotei, Impulse and Monsavon, had sales of about $700 million last year.
By segment, beauty & personal care underlying sales grew 2.3%, with 1.5% from volume and 0.8% from pricing. Skin cleansing grew mid-single digit, with growth in the first two months followed by a decline in March as the company started lapping a sharp increase in demand for hygiene products. Dove Care & Protect debuted in the Americas, Europe and India. Skin care and hair care both grew mid-single digit. In hair, wash and care growth was driven by strong performance in China and India, which was partly offset by a decline in styling, as restricted living continued to weigh on usage occasions. Deodorants declined high-single digit as the deodorants market was also impacted by lower consumer usage. Unilever’s prestige business grew strong double digit, helped by the gradual restocking and reopening of brick and mortar stores in the US. Hourglass launched a 100% vegan red lipstick formulated with a patent- pending pigment replacing the industry standard, which is produced from crushed beetles.
Home care underlying sales grew 5.9%, with 6.5% from volume and negative price of 0.6%. Fabric cleaning and fabric enhancing grew mid-single digit, led by recovery in India as consumers returned to offices and schools. Unilever continued rolling out the Omo “tougher on stains, kinder to the planet” plant-based innovation. Home and hygiene grew by mid-single digit as demand for surface cleaners remained elevated, albeit declining in March as Unilever started lapping high growth at the start of the pandemic in 2020. The rollout of Domestos multi-surface germ kill formula expanded in India, Turkey and the UK.
www.unilever.com
Sales: $36.0 billion
Corporate sales: $57.9 billion
Key personnel
Alan Jope, chief executive officer; Graeme Pitkethly, chief financial officer; Conny Braams, chief digital and marketing officer; Marc Engel, chief supply chain officer; Fabian Garcia, president, North America; Sunny Jain, president, beauty and personal care; Sanjiv Mehta, president, Unilever, South Asia and chair and managing director, Hindustan Unilever; Leena Nair, chief human resources officer; Nitin Paranjpe, chief operating officer; Richard Slater, chief research & development officer; Ritva Sotamaa, chief legal officer and group secretary; Peter ter Kulve, president, home care
Major products
Home care: Domestos, Omo, Surf, Ala, Biotex, Blueair, Brilhante, Cajoline, Cif, Coral, Drive, Jif, New Magic, Persil, Puro, Rin, Rinso, Robijn, Savo, Skip, Sun, Surf Excel, Unox, Viss, Vivere, Wheel, Xtra, Andy, Cuñataí, Deja, Dero, Fab, Fofo, Lavomatic, Mimosin, Nevex, Radiante, Sunil, Sunlight, Super Pell, Szavo, Via, Viso, Vixal, Wipol and Wonderlight. Personal care: Axe, Dove, Lifebuoy, Lux, Rexona, Signal, Sunsilk, Aviance, Badedas, International Breeze, Brut, Caress, Citra, Clear, Closeup, Duschdas, Eskinol, Fair & Lovely, Fissan Baby, Hazeline, Pears, Pond’s Simple, Suave, Sunlight, Tigi, TreSemme, VO5, Vaseline, Williams, Zwitsal, Aim, Amodent, Andrélon, Baba, Block & White, Clinic Plus, Coco Varela, Cream Silk, Dawn, Elefante, Elle 18, Folicure, Gabi, Geisha, Glysolid, Good Morning, Hamam, Kalina, Le Sancy, Ayush Therapy, Liril, Matey, Monsavon, Organics, PS, Prodent, Proderm, Ultrex, Zendium, Zhonghua
New products
Home care: Life Buoy Soft Surface Disinfectant; Personal care: Dove body wash reformulation, Dove Hair Therapy, Dove Refillable Deo, Lux Botanicals, Hourglass Red 0 vegan beauty, Axe Texturizing Cream, TreSemme Color Gloss Conditioners.
The TreSemmé Gloss Collection achieves longer-lasting, vibrant hair color! From dark brunette to light blonde shades, this range of in-shower color conditioner glosses instantly revives faded tones, extending time in between color sessions.
Axe added a new texturizing cream.
Dove recently expanded its hand soap offerings.
In a recent Deutsche Bank presentation, CEO Alan Jope and Sanjiv Mehta, president, Unilever, South Asia and chair and managing director, Hindustan Unilever, told analysts that Unilever has five strategic choices:
- Develop its portfolio into high growth spaces;
- Win with brands as a force for good, powered by purpose and innovation;
- Accelerate in the US, India, China and leverage strength in emerging markets;
- Lead in the channels of the future; and
- Build a purpose-led, future-fit organization and growth culture.
Going forward, Unilever is focused on prestige beauty, a $156 billion market that’s growing about 7% a year, according to company estimates. Company brands that fill the prestige space include Dermalogica, Kate Somerville, Murad, Ren, Living Proof, Hourglass, Garancia and Tatcha. In fiscal 2020, Unilever’s prestige beauty sales totaled €700 million. Skin care accounts for 80% of prestige beauty sales at Unilever, followed by hair care (12%) and other (8%). At the same time, North America represents 63% of sales, followed by Europe (22%), Asia (14%) and other (1%). Unilever said it intends to win in the space with purpose-led, impactful innovations via a digital-first strategy.
Another area of focus is functional nutrition. According to Unilever, this $140 billion segment is increasing more than 7% annually. Last year, Unilever’s sales totaled €1.1 billion, but the company’s ambition is to reach three billion euros. To get there, Unilever has acquired six functional nutrition brands since 2018: Equilibra, Olly, Horlicks, Liquid I.V., SmartyPants and Onnit. To build the business, Unilever focuses on China, India and the US via digital and direct-to-consumer channels.
Of course, India is much more than nutrition. With sales in excess of $5.7 billion, Hindustan Unilever Limited is the largest FMCG company in the country. Approximately 90% of HUL’s business has category leadership and 9 of 10 household use a HUL brand. Despite those figures, there is still plenty of room to grow. The company notes that household penetration is below 20% for key categories including face wash, body lotion, washing liquids, dishwash liquid, hair conditioner and body wash. Furthermore, India’s FMCCG per capita consumption lags Indonesia (2X) and China (3X). But HUL is making gains. Its hair care market share has tripled in the past 10 years, thanks to offering a range of options from high end naturals (Indulekha) to family brands (Clinic Plus+). Home care, too, has room to grow in India where fabric wash sales have posted a 11% CAGR during the past decade. As household income rises, HUL is rolling out innovative cleaning solutions like Surf Excel and Nature Protect.
Jope told DB attendees that Unilever’s vision “is to be the global leader in sustainable business. We will demonstrate how our purpose-led, future-fit business model drive superior performance, consistently delivering financial results in the top third of our industry.”
By the Numbers
With its portfolio of consumer staples, Unilever weathered the pandemic better than most. Corporate sales fell 2.4%, driven primarily by negative forex. Growth was driven, in part, by hand and home hygiene products, and laundry care. But as people stayed at home and had fewer opportunities to socialze, they spent less time on personal grooming which hurt beauty and personal care sales. E-commerce sales surged 61 and accounted for 9% of Unilever turnover. By region, emerging markets grew 1.2% as China and India returned to growth, after strict lock-downs in the first half of the year. China returned to growth in the second quarter as restrictions were eased, delivering high single digit growth in the second half. Latin America grew mid-single digit and Indonesia grew slightly, though declined in the final quarter. Developed markets grew 2.9%, led by strength in North American in-home foods. Europe declined for the full year, but grew in the final quarter.
Things turned around in 2021. Prestige beauty sales rose sharply and functional nutrition sales are on track for 50% gains. The company said underlying sales rose 5.7%. Still, sales declined less than 1%. As reported in Happi, Unilever is separating is smaller beauty and personal care brands via an Elida Beauty spinoff. The brands, including Q-Tips, Caress, Tigi, Timotei, Impulse and Monsavon, had sales of about $700 million last year.
By segment, beauty & personal care underlying sales grew 2.3%, with 1.5% from volume and 0.8% from pricing. Skin cleansing grew mid-single digit, with growth in the first two months followed by a decline in March as the company started lapping a sharp increase in demand for hygiene products. Dove Care & Protect debuted in the Americas, Europe and India. Skin care and hair care both grew mid-single digit. In hair, wash and care growth was driven by strong performance in China and India, which was partly offset by a decline in styling, as restricted living continued to weigh on usage occasions. Deodorants declined high-single digit as the deodorants market was also impacted by lower consumer usage. Unilever’s prestige business grew strong double digit, helped by the gradual restocking and reopening of brick and mortar stores in the US. Hourglass launched a 100% vegan red lipstick formulated with a patent- pending pigment replacing the industry standard, which is produced from crushed beetles.
Home care underlying sales grew 5.9%, with 6.5% from volume and negative price of 0.6%. Fabric cleaning and fabric enhancing grew mid-single digit, led by recovery in India as consumers returned to offices and schools. Unilever continued rolling out the Omo “tougher on stains, kinder to the planet” plant-based innovation. Home and hygiene grew by mid-single digit as demand for surface cleaners remained elevated, albeit declining in March as Unilever started lapping high growth at the start of the pandemic in 2020. The rollout of Domestos multi-surface germ kill formula expanded in India, Turkey and the UK.
