REG - Unilever PLC - Unilever Investor Event

UnileverAnnouncement

22/11/2024 13:00

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RNS Number : 3630N  Unilever PLC  22 November 2024

Press Office

Unilever PLC, 100 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0DY

Email: press-office.london@unilever.com    Web: www.unilever.com
(http://www.unilever.com)

Unilever Investor Event

Delivering the Growth Action Plan for consistent, higher performance

 

London, 22 November 2024.  Unilever is hosting an Investor Event today.  The
event will focus on the progress made over the last year, and set out the
company's strategic agenda under its "Growth Action Plan 2030" to deliver
consistent, higher performance with market-making, unmissably superior brands.

 

The Investor Event will also confirm that Unilever remains on track to deliver
our comprehensive €800m productivity programme and the separation of Ice
Cream by the end of 2025.

 

Post the separation of Ice Cream, the Group will be focused on four Business
Groups:

-       Beauty & Wellbeing

-       Personal Care

-       Home Care

-       Foods (formerly Nutrition)

 

These four Business Groups will be driven by 30 Power Brands and operate
across 24 Business Group-led markets. These 24 markets represent nearly 85% of
Unilever's turnover. The remaining 100+ smaller markets will be run on a 'One
Unilever' basis to benefit from scale and simplicity, further enhancing our
portfolio prioritisation and focus.

 

Growth Action Plan 2030

The Growth Action Plan 2030 builds on the foundations of the existing Growth
Action Plan and will drive consistent and improved performance under three
strategic pillars: Focus, Excel and Accelerate.

 

Under Focus, Unilever will focus on its Power Brands, and the key markets
where we can drive the biggest returns. This means:

-       Doubling-down in India

-       Accelerating and internationalising Prestige and Wellbeing

-       Premiumising and accelerating the US

-       Growing select emerging market powerhouses

-       Premiumising Europe whilst protecting profitability

 

Under Excel, Unilever will focus on five key opportunities to drive brand
growth. These are:

-       Unmissable brand superiority

-       Social-first demand creation

-       Multi-year scalable innovations

-       Premiumisation

-       Growth channels

 

Under Accelerate, four critical capabilities will be prioritised to enable the
step-up in our performance.  These are:

-       Science & technology

-       Lean agile supply chain

-       Net productivity

-       Scaled Artificial Intelligence

 

Unilever's medium-term guidance remains unchanged. Post the separation of Ice
Cream, we aim to deliver mid-single digit underlying sales growth, supported
by underlying volume growth of at least 2%. We expect modest underlying
operating margin improvement, driven by gross margin expansion through
operating leverage and productivity improvements.

 

Our ambition is to deliver top third total shareholder return across our peer
group and achieve an underlying return on invested capital in the high teens,
ahead of our previous ambition of mid-teens. Our business is a strong cash
generator, and we aim to sustain an average cash conversion ratio of around
100% over time. Value creation will be underpinned by disciplined capital
allocation. This will include making investments to drive growth and
productivity, continuing to reshape our portfolio through pruning and bolt-on
acquisitions, and delivering attractive capital returns to shareholders.

 

Hein Schumacher, CEO of Unilever said: "Our goal is to deliver best-in-class
performance with market-making, unmissably superior brands. We believe that
our Growth Action Plan 2030 will help us to deliver on this ambition.

 

"Delighting our consumers is at the very heart of our plan. Through our
company's new purpose, 'To brighten everyday life for all', we are focused on
making the lives of people around the world more joyful, more convenient, more
efficient and more sustainable.

 

"We are excited about the opportunities to drive Unilever's future growth, as
we continue to progress Unilever's transformation and unlock the company's
full potential. We look forward to sharing our plans with investors later
today."

 

ENDS

 

Enquiries

 

Media:

Unilever Press Office press-office.london@unilever.com
(mailto:press-office.london@unilever.com)

 

Investors:

Investor Relations Team investor.relations@unilever.com
(mailto:investor.relations@unilever.com)

 

A live webcast of the Unilever Investor Event 2024 will be available via
www.unilever.com (http://www.unilever.com)

 

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Beauty & Wellbeing,
Personal Care, Home Care, Foods and Ice Cream products, with sales in over 190
countries and products used by 3.4 billion people every day. We have 128,000
employees and generated sales of €59.6 billion in 2023.

 

For more information about Unilever and our brands, please visit
www.unilever.com (http://www.unilever.com) .

 

 

Safe Harbour

This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, including
'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, concerning the financial condition,
results of operations and businesses of the Unilever Group (the 'Group'). All
statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to
be, forward-looking statements. Words and terminology such as 'will', 'aim',
'expects', 'anticipates', 'intends', 'looks', 'believes', 'vision',
'ambition', 'target', 'goal', 'plan', 'potential', 'work towards', 'may',
'milestone', 'objectives', 'outlook', 'probably', 'project', 'risk', 'seek',
'continue', 'projected', 'estimate', 'achieve' or the negative of these terms
and other similar expressions of future performance, results, actions or
events, and their negatives, are intended to identify such forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements also include, but are not limited to,
statements and information regarding Unilever's Growth Action Plan 2030,
Unilever's productivity programme and the separation of Ice Cream.
Forward-looking statements can be made in writing but also may be made
verbally by directors, officers and employees of the Group (including during
management presentations) in connection with this announcement or the Investor
Event. These forward-looking statements are based upon current beliefs,
expectations and assumptions regarding anticipated developments and other
factors affecting the Group. They are not historical facts, nor are they
guarantees of future performance or outcomes. All forward-looking statements
contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by
the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers
should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

 

Because these forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and
uncertainties, a number of which may be beyond the Group's control, there are
important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Among other
risks and uncertainties, the material or principal factors which could cause
actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements
expressed in this announcement are: Unilever's ability to successfully
separate Ice Cream and realise the anticipated benefits of the separation, and
Unilever's ability to successfully execute and consummate its productivity
programme in line with expected costs to achieve expected savings. The
forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions and
expectations of our future performance, taking into account all information
currently available to us. Forward-looking statements are not predictions of
future events. These beliefs, assumptions and expectations can change as a
result of many possible events or factors, not all of which are known to us.

 

The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement.
Except as required by any applicable law or regulation, the Group expressly
disclaims any intention, obligation or undertaking to release publicly any
updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to
reflect any change in the Group's expectations with regard thereto or any
change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is
based. New risks and uncertainties arise over time, and it is not possible for
us to predict those events or how they may affect us. In addition, we cannot
assess the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which any
factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ
materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

 

Further details of potential risks and uncertainties affecting the Group are
described in the Group's filings with the London Stock Exchange, Euronext
Amsterdam and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the
Annual Report on Form 20-F 2023 and the Unilever Annual Report and Accounts
2023 available on our corporate website www.unilever.com.

 

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