European consumer goods giant Unilever (Unilever) announced financial data for the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 on Thursday. Underlying sales (USG) increased by 7.3% year-on-year, higher than analysts' previous forecast of 4.4%. benefited from the first The price of goods increased by 8.3% in the quarter, and sales fell slightly by 1% year-on-year. Total revenue increased 11.8% year-on-year to 13.8 billion euros, including a 3.5% currency impact.
Unilever CEO Alan Jope said: "We achieved good performance against a very challenging cost backdrop. The growth in underlying sales was mainly due to a strong price increase strategy, which had an impact on first quarter sales. It had a certain impact.”
During the financial reporting period, the basic sales of the beauty and personal care department increased by 7.1% year-on-year to 5.7 billion euros, mainly due to product price increases and strong demand for high-end beauty cosmetics, vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements. push.
Among them, skin care was driven by North and South Asia to achieve low-single-digit growth, while North American sales were flat. High-end beauty achieved double-digit growth, benefiting from the reopening of health and beauty channels.
Hourglass and Living Proof Driven by the return of high-end hair care and cosmetics categories, " begins a year of strong growth ". The deodorant category achieved high single-digit growth, mainly due to the technological innovations of Dove and Rexona, and Axe had a strong start. The hair and hair care category recorded mid-single-digit growth, with the styling and wash and care subcategories evenly split. Sunsilk and TRESemmé continued to enjoy strong growth thanks to their price increase strategies, while Suave declined. The skin cleansing category achieved high single-digit growth, with Dove, Lux and Lifebuoy performing well, but sales declined.
Unilever's stock price rose 1% in early trading on April 28 after the financial report was released, closing at US$46.16, up 2.94% from the previous trading day, with a market value of US$3,121.3 billion..
Unilever warned that is expected to further increase prices in the future due to the situation in Russia and Ukraine and rising prices of related raw materials. The company predicts that 's full-year basic sales growth in 2022 will be close to the upper line of the 4.5%-6.5% range, and the basic operating profit margin will be close to the lower line of the 16%-17% range.
Unilever said it currently expects the increase in production costs from July to December to reach 2.7 billion euros, much higher than the previous estimate of 1.5 billion euros.
Consumer goods manufacturers around the world are raising prices to cover soaring energy, commodity, labor and transportation costs, while the Russia-Ukraine dispute adds to inflationary pressures already building during the recovery from the epidemic.
Unilever's first-quarter sales fell 1%, which some analysts feared was an early sign of cash-strapped consumers turning to cheaper retailers' own brands.
Unilever CEO Alan Jope said on the earnings call: " While we are acutely aware of the pressures on consumers in terms of pricing and volume, we believe that in response to this extreme cost of goods, Pressure to raise prices is the right thing to do ."
For this reason, analysts believe that the price of products will only continue to rise.
Barclays analyst Warren Ackerman said that Unilever's full-year production costs "will be four times what they were a year ago. That's why pricing needs to be so high" and " peak has not yet Come to ".
Unilever's cost pressure largely comes from the soaring prices of raw materials such as soybean oil and cereals faced by its food division. In particular, Unilever is now more dependent on emerging markets where cost increases are most significant. According to
data, Unilever's products in Latin America and other emerging markets had the highest growth rate in the first quarter, reaching 16.4%.
Unilever's business data for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 are as follows:
By segment
- Beauty and personal care: revenue of 5.7 billion euros, underlying sales increased 7.1% year-on-year
- Home care: revenue of 3 billion euros, underlying sales year-on-year Growth of 9.2%
- Food and snacks: Revenue of 5.1 billion euros, underlying sales growth of 6.5%
By market
- Asia and Africa: Revenue of 6.6 billion euros, underlying sales growth of 9.1%
- Americas: Revenue of 4.5 billion euros, Underlying sales increased by 9.0%
- Europe: revenue of 2.7 billion euros, underlying sales increased by 0.7%
