Unilever said today that a turnaround in its food business, which under-performed inthe 1990s, is the key to driving up sales and profit margins at the Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant.
Unilever chairman Mr Antony Burgmans said its home and personal products had consistently seen sales growth of over 5 per cent in the 1990s and that sales of its food business grew only 2 to 3 per cent.
"Our food business was lagging behind. Now, we are putting that right, and growth in our food business is picking up," Mr Burgmans said in an interview during a retail conference in Glasgow.
Innovative products - such as the Enjoy range of ready-to-cook frozen meals and Flora pro-activ, a cholesterol- lowering margarine - are boosting sales of frozen foods and spreads, two of its problem food areas, he said.In the first quarter, the frozen foods category showed sales growth of 2.5 per cent and the spreads category 5 per cent.
Mr Burgmans said the faster growth from foods has helped put Unilever on track to meet its targets for sales and profit margins under its five-year "Path to Growth" programme.
In February 2000, Unilever said it planned to cut its 1,600 brands to 400 to boost annual sales growth to 5 to 6 per cent and operating margins to over 16 per cent by 2004. It also aimed to cut 25,000 jobs and close 100 factories worldwide to get annual savings of three billion euros.