TRESemmé and K18 owner Unilever delivers growth across the board

Unilever, the beauty and wellbeing conglomerate responsible for Dermalogica, TRESemmé and Paula's Choice, has revealed an increase in sales for the first quarter of 2024, with all five business groups reporting growth.

Underlying sales grew by 4.5%, fuelled by the group’s "power brands", which include Dove and Sunsilk, among others. The Power Brands performed strongly with 5.4% underlying sales growth, driven by volume growth of 4.3%.

Beauty & Wellbeing grew sales by 6.7%, with volume growth of 5.7%. There was particularly strong growth in Health & Wellbeing compared to Prestige, reflecting the continued slowdown in the US and China beauty markets. Meanwhile, Personal Care grew by 4.4%, driven by Dove.

Turnover reached €15.2 billion, which was in line with the prior year. This was due to underlying sales growth being offset by a currency impact of 2.8% and 1.5% from disposals net of acquisitions.

Looking ahead, the group’s outlook remains unchanged. It expects underlying sales growth for 2024 to be within its multi-year range of 3% to 5%, with the majority of the growth being driven by volume. The underlying operating margin for the full year is expected to be at least 18%.

Hein Schumacher, Chief Executive Officer at Unilever, said: "We have delivered a fourth consecutive quarter of positive, improved volume growth, with each of our Business Groups driving higher volumes year-on-year.

"We are still in the early stages of transforming our performance as we execute the Growth Action Plan at pace – focused on doing fewer things, better and with greater impact. We are starting to see the positive impact from scaling fewer, bigger innovations across our markets supported by increased brand investment.

"We are taking decisive actions, where we see operational or market challenges to ensure we are well-positioned for consistent and improved performance. As part of the Group’s overall transformation, we are implementing a comprehensive productivity programme and the separation of Ice Cream, both of which are progressing as planned.

"We are on track to deliver our 2024 outlook and are confident that the steps we are taking will help to transform Unilever over time into a consistently higher performing business."

Earlier this month, Unilever announced the appointment of Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson as its new Chief Executive of its Prestige beauty division, following the exit of Vasiliki Petrou earlier this year.

It marks a return for Gasco-Buisson to Unilever, having previously served as the Worldwide Brand Leader for Axe/Lynx from January 2020 to October 2022, returning the personal care business to double-digit, profitable growth.