London - The ice-cream to soap powder giant Unilever has said it will bring a raft of new products to shoppers more quickly in 2016, as it attempts to overcome depressed consumer demand across the globe.
Its chief executive Paul Polman painted a bleak picture of emerging markets and developed economies yesterday. Although the consumer products company achieved underlying sales growth of 4.1 percent last year, net profits fell by 5 percent to €5.3bn (£4.1bn) and Polman predicts an even tougher 2016.
“The level of uncertainty has never been higher,” he said.” Last year I said we saw more tailwinds than headwinds. The tailwinds proved short-lived.”
Reporting deflation in all its European businesses, all year, Unilever said developing new products and bringing them to market faster will help it to retain volume market share in the future. One of its successes in 2015 was the introduction of a dry spray deodorant in the US, where sales now exceed €100m.
“Innovations are the engines of growth,” said Mr Polman. “Our innovations will be 20 percent to 30 percent bigger than in the last three years.”
A new squeezy bottle for Hellmann's mayonnaise and the use of cage-free eggs helped the brand boost sales by 7 percent last year. Other innovations include Knorr products such as Mealmakers and Zendium, a toothpaste.
THE INDEPENDENT