Unilever PLC- 2021 First Half Year Results

 2021 FIRST HALF YEAR RESULTS

Performance highlights (unaudited)

First half highlights

· Underlying sales growth of 5.4%, with 4.0% volume and 1.3% price. Price growth stepped up in Q2

· Turnover increased 0.3% including a positive impact of 1.4% from acquisitions net of disposals and negative impact of 6.1% from currency related items

· Underlying operating margin of 18.8%, a decrease of 100bps driven by investment behind our brands and input cost inflation

· Underlying earnings per share down 2.0%, including a negative impact of 6.3% from currency

· Free cash flow of €2.4 billion, compared to €2.9 billion in the first half of 2020

· Quarterly shareholder dividend of €0.4268 per share and share buyback programme of up to €3 billion underway

“Unilever has delivered a strong first half, with underlying sales growth of 5.4% driven by our continued focus on operational excellence.

We are making good progress against the strategic choices outlined earlier this year, including the development of our portfolio into high growth spaces. Prestige Beauty and Functional Nutrition grew strongly and we recently announced the acquisition of digitally-native skin care brand Paula's Choice. The operational separation of our Tea business is substantially complete. Our ecommerce business grew 50% and the channel now represents 11% of sales.
 

Competitive growth is our priority, and we are confident that we will deliver underlying sales growth in 2021 well within our multi-year framework of 3-5%, despite more challenging comparators in the second half.  We have seen further cost inflation emerge through the second quarter.  Cost volatility and the timing of landing price actions create a higher than normal range of likely year end margin outcomes.  We are managing this dynamically and expect to maintain underlying operating margin for 2021 around flat.”