Unilever reports drop of turnover, rise of profit

Turnover of Unilever in 2014 dropped by 2.7 percent to 48.4 billion euros (56.1 billion U.S dollars), including a negative currency impact of 4.6 percent, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company announced on Tuesday.

The producer of Lipton tea, Knorr food, Dove soap, Omo laundry products and Ben and Jerry's ice cream had an underlying sales growth of 2.9 percent in 2014. Unilever's net profit last year rose by 5 percent to 5.5 billion euros. The underlying volume growth in 2014 was 1 percent.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, Unilever's underlying sales growth was 2.1 percent, compared to the same period last year. This growth was mainly due to higher prices, because the underlying volume growth was -0.4 percent. Turnover in the fourth quarter amounted to 12.1 billion euros, an increase of 2.4 percent, including a positive currency impact of 1.6 percent.

With weaker consumer demand, underlying sales growth in emerging markets slowed down to 5.7 percent, while developed markets declined by 0.8 percent. The Home Care, Personal Care and Refreshment departments all grew but Foods decreased. The underlying sales growth of Foods in the fourth quarter was -0.7 percent and was -0.6 percent over the full year 2014.

According to Unilever, sales in China decreased by 20 percent in the fourth quarter because retailers reduced their stocks of Personal Care and Home Care. In Europe, annual underlying sales fell by 2.1 percent in 2014, with prices dropping amid intense competition.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman said Unilever delivered another year of competitive underlying sales growth and margin expansion, despite a very challenging year for our industry with significant economic headwinds and weak markets.

He said he did not foresee a significant improvement in market conditions in 2015.

"Against this background, we expect our full year performance to be similar to 2014 with the first quarter being softer but growth improving during the year," he said.