Announcing its second quarter results, the Dove skin care maker says, turnover increased 12% to €27.0 billion including a positive currency impact of 10%, with underlying sales growth at 2.9% with emerging markets up 6.0%
Underlying volume growth was at 1.1% and company CEO Paul Polman says he expects this trend to continue.
“The first half demonstrates again the progress we have made in the transformation of Unilever to deliver consistent, competitive, profitable and responsible growth, now in the seventh year,” he says.
“During the past six months we have also made major progress in the establishment of our Prestige Personal Care business with the announced acquisitions of Dermalogica, Murad, Kate Somerville and REN. We plan for another year of volume growth ahead of our markets, steady improvement in core operating margin and strong cash flow.”
Boosting business
The boost in premium brands will aim to boost the business in the second part of the year, and although the company remains positive with its results, it does also recognise that there are still big challenges to face.
Unilever says that consumer demand remains weak and volumes are flat in the markets in which it operates, with emerging markets continuing to be subdued, while in Europe and North America growth is negligible.
The company has increasingly been moving away from reliance on its Food brands with big investment and special focus put on the Beauty and Personal Care portfolio in the last few years.
Personal Care growth in the second quarter was driven by volume and price, and the manufacturer says it expects an acceleration in growth in the second half of the year from both growing the core of its brands and extending into new segments.
Good growth in deodorants has been supported by the successful dry spray launch in North America and the compressed formats, which it is now rolling out from Europe into Latin America.
The Dove Advanced Hair Series, is establishing itself well across the world, most recently in Asia; whilst TRESemmé is extending its reach to more premium ranges with the Perfectly (Un)done and Runway collections.