2024 Full Year Results
| Improved performance led by volume growth and gross margin expansion |
| Underlying performance | GAAP measures | ||||||
| (unaudited) | 2024 | vs 2023 | 2024 | vs 2023 | |||
| Full Year | |||||||
| Underlying sales growth (USG) | 4.2% | Turnover | €60.8bn | 1.9% | |||
| Beauty & Wellbeing | 6.5% | Beauty & Wellbeing | €13.2bn | 5.5% | |||
| Personal Care | 5.2% | Personal Care | €13.6bn | (1.5)% | |||
| Home Care | 2.9% | Home Care | €12.3bn | 1.4% | |||
| Foods(a) | 2.6% | Foods(a) | €13.4bn | 1.1% | |||
| Ice Cream | 3.7% | Ice Cream | €8.3bn | 4.5% | |||
| Underlying operating profit | €11.2bn | 12.6% | Operating profit | €9.4bn | (3.7)% | ||
| Underlying operating margin | 18.4% | 170bps | Operating margin | 15.5% | (90)bps | ||
| Underlying earnings per share | €2.98 | 14.7% | Diluted earnings per share | €2.29 | (10.6)% | ||
| Free cash flow | €6.9bn | €(0.2)bn | Net profit | €6.4bn | (10.8)% | ||
| Fourth Quarter | |||||||
| USG | 4.0% | Turnover | €14.2bn | (0.1)% | |||
| Quarterly dividend payable in March 2025 | €0.4528 | per share(b) | |||||
(a) Previously reported as Nutrition; (b) See note 9 for more information on dividends
Financial and operational highlights
• Underlying sales growth of 4.2%, led by 2.9% volume growth
• Turnover increased 1.9% to €60.8 billion with (0.7)% impact from currency and (1.5)% from net disposals
• Power Brands (>75% of turnover) leading growth with 5.3% USG and volumes up 3.8%
• Brand and marketing investment up 120bps to 15.5%, its highest level in over a decade
• Underlying operating margin up 170bps to 18.4%, with gross margin up 280bps
• Underlying EPS increased 14.7%; diluted EPS decreased 10.6% due to loss on disposals and accelerated productivity programme spend
• Cash conversion of 106% with free cash flow of €6.9 billion; underlying ROIC up 190bps to 18.1%
• Quarterly dividend raised by 6.1% vs Q4 2023; new €1.5 billion share buyback announced
• Ice Cream separation on track
Chief Executive Officer statement
“Today’s results reflect a year of significant activity as we focused on transforming Unilever into a consistently higher performing business.
Under the Growth Action Plan, we committed to doing fewer things, better and with greater impact. We executed the plan at pace and made progress in 2024. Underlying sales grew 4.2% with volumes up 2.9%, led by our Power Brands, with particularly strong performances from Dove, Comfort, Vaseline and Liquid I.V. Fewer, bigger innovations helped to deliver volume growth consistently above 2% in each quarter. All Business Groups delivered positive volume growth for the year. Growth was underpinned by gross margin expansion of 280bps, fuelling increases in brand investment and profitability.
We continue to sharpen our portfolio, allocating capital to premium segments by acquiring scalable brands in attractive markets, such as K18 and Minimalist, and announcing the divestment of local food brands such as Unox and Conimex, as we focus our Foods portfolio on cooking aids and condiments categories. The comprehensive productivity programme we announced in March is being implemented at pace and we are ahead of plan in helping to create a leaner and more accountable organisation. We are taking decisive actions in Indonesia, where long-standing challenges required a reset of the business, and China, where we are transforming our go-to-market approach during a market slowdown. We expect to see the benefits of these actions from the second half of 2025.
The separation of Ice Cream remains on track and we are making good progress on the key workstreams. We announce today the appointment of the Chair Designate for the demerged Ice Cream business and details of the listing structure.
Market growth, which slowed throughout 2024, is expected to remain soft in the first half of 2025. The steps we have taken in 2024, including the launch of our refreshed GAP2030 strategy, further reinvestment in our brands and strong innovation pipelines leave us better positioned to deliver on our ambitions in the years ahead.”
Hein Schumacher
| Outlook |
We expect underlying sales growth (USG) for full year 2025 to be within our multi-year range of 3% to 5%. Market growth slowed throughout 2024. We anticipate a slower start to 2025 with subdued market growth in the near term. We expect the market and our growth to improve during the year as price increases, reflecting higher commodity costs in 2025. We expect a more balanced split between volume and price.
We anticipate a modest improvement in underlying operating margin for the full year versus 18.4% in 2024. We expect this improvement to be realised in the second half given the very strong first half comparator of 19.6%, which benefitted strongly from the combination of carry-over pricing and input cost deflation.
| Full Year Review: Unilever Group |
| (unaudited) | Turnover | USG | UVG | UPG | A&D | Currency | Turnover change |
| Full Year | €60.8bn | 4.2% | 2.9% | 1.3% | (1.5)% | (0.7)% | 1.9% |
| Fourth Quarter | €14.2bn | 4.0% | 2.7% | 1.3% | (2.9)% | (1.1)% | (0.1)% |
Performance
Underlying sales growth for the full year was 4.2%, led by volume of 2.9% and price of 1.3%. We delivered four consecutive quarters of underlying volume growth above 2%, with all Business Groups driving positive volume growth for the year. As expected, underlying price growth moderated to 1.3%. Turnover was €60.8 billion, up 1.9% versus the prior year, with underlying sales growth of 4.2% more than offsetting the (0.7)% impact from currency and (1.5)% from disposals net of acquisitions.
The Power Brands contributed >75% of turnover and performed strongly with 5.3% underlying sales growth, driven by volume growth of 3.8%. The rest of the business also delivered improved volumes with volume growth of 0.7% in the second half, up from (1.6)% in the first half of 2024.
As guided with our first half 2024 results, our turnover-weighted market share movement(a), which measures our competitive performance on a rolling 12 month-basis, sequentially improved in the second half reflecting the increasing benefits from the Growth Action Plan.
Beauty & Wellbeing grew underlying sales by 6.5%, with volume growth of 5.1% driven by strong growth across its Power Brands. Personal Care grew 5.2% with 3.1% volume growth, led by strong, innovation-led sales growth of Deodorants. Home Care underlying sales increased 2.9%, with 4.0% volume growth more than offsetting the price decline linked to commodity cost deflation. Foods grew underlying sales 2.6%, with muted volume growth of 0.2% amidst a market slowdown and moderating prices. Ice Cream grew 3.7%, with a return to positive volume growth of 1.6%. This reflected an improved performance in the second half supported by bigger innovations and operational improvements.
Developed markets (42% of Group turnover) grew underlying sales 4.4%. Underlying volume growth of 3.3% reflected a strong performance in North America, led by Beauty & Wellbeing, and a big improvement in Europe, driven by Home Care and Personal Care. As expected, price growth moderated to 1.1%.
Emerging markets (58% of Group turnover) grew underlying sales 4.1%, with 2.5% from volume and 1.5% from price. India grew 1.8% with 2.4% underlying volume growth. Tonnage volume grew mid-single digit, which was partially offset by adverse mix due to the strong growth in Home Care. The business continued to increase market share during a period of modest market growth. Underlying price returned to positive in the fourth quarter on the back of rising input cost inflation. Latin America grew 6.0% with positive volume growth across Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Growth slowed in the second half, reflecting a deterioration of economic conditions in the region. Africa and Turkey delivered double-digit growth with positive volumes and price in each quarter.
China declined mid-single digit with market weakness across all categories apart from Foods. In the context of softer markets, we are accelerating our portfolio premiumisation and transforming our go-to-market approach to effectively serve fast-growing e-commerce channels and smaller format stores in lower tier cities.
In South East Asia, volume-led growth in the Philippines and Thailand was offset by an 8.7% decline in Indonesia. In the second half, we took decisive actions by correcting misaligned pricing across channels and resetting stock levels in retail, while also addressing our long-standing issues of portfolio, brand, and competitiveness. This will take several quarters. As we have said previously, we expect to see the benefits of the changes in Indonesia and China from the second half of 2025.
(a) Turnover-weighted market share movement: global aggregate of Unilever value market share changes, weighted by the turnover of the category-country combinations
Profitability
| (unaudited) | UOP | UOP growth | UOM% | Change in UOM | OP | OP growth | OM% | Change in OM |
| Full Year | €11.2bn | 12.6% | 18.4% | 170bps | €9.4bn | (3.7)% | 15.5% | (90)bps |
Underlying operating profit was €11.2 billion, up 12.6% versus the prior year. Underlying operating margin increased 170bps to 18.4%. This step-up in profitability contributed to a 190bps increase in underlying ROIC to 18.1%.
We expanded gross margin by 280bps to 45.0%, the highest it has been in a decade. Continuing to improve gross margin remains a key focus for the business. Our gross margin improvement in 2024 reflects positive contributions from volume leverage, mix and net productivity gains in material, production and logistics costs. It was also helped by input cost deflation in the first half, which turned into slight inflation in the second half.
Improved gross margin fuelled further increases in brand and marketing investment behind a strong and focused innovation programme. Investment was up 120bps to 15.5% of turnover, an increase of €0.9 billion. Overheads reduced by 10bps, as a result of tighter cost control and savings in the second half from the productivity programme.
Operating profit of €9.4 billion decreased 3.7% versus the prior year. This reduction was driven by higher non-underlying charges, most notably a loss on disposals and higher restructuring costs as a result of accelerating the productivity programme.
Productivity programme
In March 2024, we announced the launch of a major productivity programme to simplify the business and further evolve our category-focused model. The programme is targeted to deliver €800 million of savings, with a reduction of 7,500 mainly office-based roles, creating a leaner and more accountable organisation. Including this programme, we expect average restructuring costs to be around 1.2% of Group turnover over the three-year period from 2024 to 2026.
Following thorough consultation processes, the programme is ahead of plan with a reduction of 4,300 FTEs by the end of 2024 and in-year savings close to €200 million. Restructuring costs, including the accelerated productivity programme, increased to €850 million, equivalent to 1.4% of Group turnover in 2024. We anticipate a similar restructuring cost of approximately 1.4% of Group turnover in 2025 with a lower spend in 2026.
The new organisation structure went live on 1 January 2025. This enables the Business Groups to focus on the top 24 markets, which represent approximately 85% of Group turnover, and the 30 Power Brands. The remaining smaller markets are now run on a ‘One Unilever’ basis to benefit from scale and simplicity, further enhancing our portfolio prioritisation and focus.
Ice Cream separation
The separation of Ice Cream is on track to complete by the end of 2025. We are making progress on the key workstreams, including the legal entities set up, implementing the standalone operating model and preparing the carve-out financials.
Jean-Francois van Boxmeer has been appointed as Chair Designate for the separated Ice Cream business. Jean-Francois brings a wealth of experience both as a non-executive and as an executive operating within the consumer goods industry. Jean-Francois is currently Chair of Vodafone Group Plc and non-executive director of Heineken Holding N.V. having been Chief Executive of Heineken for 15 years.
Ice Cream will be separated by way of demerger, through listing of the business in Amsterdam, London and New York, the same three exchanges on which Unilever PLC shares are currently traded. The Ice Cream business will be incorporated in the Netherlands and will continue to be headquartered in Amsterdam. This decision follows a full review by the Board of separation options, focused on maximising returns for shareholders, setting the Ice Cream business up for success and execution certainty by the end of 2025.
Capital allocation
We continued to reshape our portfolio, allocating capital to premium segments through bolt-on acquisitions and divesting lower-growth businesses. In February 2024, we acquired K18, a premium biotech hair care brand. We completed several disposals during the year. These included Elida Beauty, our stake in Qinyuan Group (known as “Truliva”), a water purification business in China, and Pureit, a water purification business in Asia and Mexico. In October, we completed the sale of our Russian subsidiary to Arnest Group. The sale included all of Unilever’s business in Russia and its four factories, as well as our business in Belarus. In addition, we announced several disposals that we expect to complete during 2025, including the sale of the Foods brands Unox, Conimex and Zwan, as well as the disposal of our laundry business in Central America.
In January 2025, Hindustan Unilever Limited announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the premium actives-led beauty brand Minimalist, as we continue to evolve our Beauty & Wellbeing portfolio towards higher growth and demand spaces in India.
In 2024, we returned €5.8 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. The quarterly interim dividend for the fourth quarter is raised to €0.4528, up 6.1% vs Q4 2023.
Following the completion of a €1.5 billion share buyback programme in November, we announce a new share buyback of up to €1.5 billion starting today and to be completed in the first half, well ahead of the separation of Ice Cream.