Unilever ups prices and marketing spend in Q2 

Faced with what its CFO referred to as a “truly unprecedented cost landscape”, FMCG giant Unilever increased its product prices by 11% in the second quarter. 

Why it matters

Product prices are rising but they still aren’t covering higher input costs, so margins and volumes are being hit – trends that are likely to continue for the rest of the year. Announcing Q2 results, Unilever insisted that it will “continue to invest in the health of our brands”, a necessary counter to more consumers opting for lower-priced supermarket own-brand products.

Takeaways

• Brand investment supported 9.4% underlying sales growth in Unilever’s portfolio of €1bn+ brands.
• E-commerce sales now represent 14% of turnover, up from 6% in 2019.
• The company has now exited the tea market and is looking to its new category-focused structure to help drive growth.

Key quote

“We’ve stepped up the investment in our brands. We’re definitely advertising more: we stepped up brand marketing investment by €200m in the first half” – Graeme Pitkethly, chief financial officer at Unilever. 

Sourced from Unilever, Financial Times 

^{[Image: Unilever]}