Unilever annual sales rise with 'strong' growth across beauty and wellbeing

Unilever, the owner of Dove, Simple and Hourglass Cosmetics, has reported underlying annual sales growth of 4.2% in 2024, with sales increasing across mass market and prestige beauty.

The company saw turnover increase 1.9% to €60.8 billion (£50.7 billion), with its power brands representing 75% of turnover.

Developed markets saw sales rise 4.4%, helped by beauty and wellbeing in North America and personal care in Europe. Meanwhile, emerging markets grew annual sales by 4.1%.

Underlying operating profit lifted 12.6% to €11.2 billion (£9.3 billion), with underlying operating margin up 170bps to 18.4%.

Beauty and wellbeing

Unilever delivered a "strong" performance across beauty and wellbeing, with annual sales up 6.5%, driven by power brands including Sunsilk, Dove, Vaseline, Liquid I.V. and Nutrafol.

The growth reflects the ongoing premiumisation of the company's core haircare and skincare portfolio and the continued strength of its prestige beauty and wellbeing portfolio, which together accounted for approximately 30% of the division's turnover.

The haircare category grew mid-single digit with balanced volume and price growth. Both Sunsilk and Dove grew high-single digits, while TRESemmé increased mid-single digit.

Skincare also lifted mid-single digit, with sales at Vaseline were driven by the expansion of its premium range to new markets and new formats. Dove skincare delivered double-digit growth.

Prestige beauty

The company's prestige beauty division, which welcomed Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson as CEO last year, grew mid-single digit.

As part of this, Hourglass and Tatcha grew double-digits while other brands including Paula’s Choice delivered low growth.

During the year, the company also completed the acquisition of haircare brand K18, which increased double-digits and will be included in underlying sales growth from February 2025.

Personal care

Personal care represented 22% of group turnover, with underlying sales up 5.2% for the full year. This growth was led by continued strength in deodorants, skin cleansing and oral care.

Dove, which represents 40% of the division's turnover, was bolstered by the launch of a new range of whole-body deodorants and a serum shower collection, using active face care ingredients.

Hein Schumacher, Chief Executive Officer at Unilever, said: "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.

"Market growth is expected to remain soft in the first half of 2025. The steps we took in 2024, including further reinvestment in our brands and strong innovation pipelines leave us better positioned to deliver on our ambitions in the years ahead."

Unilever's growth strategy aims to simplify the business and further evolve its category-focused model. It is expected to deliver €800 million of savings, with a reduction of 7,500 mainly office-based roles to create a "leaner and more accountable organisation".

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.

The trading update comes as Unilever is reportedly closing in on a £230 million deal to acquire plastic-free personal care brand Wild.

Industry sources said a deal could be announced within weeks. If confirmed, it would reflect one of Unilever's most significant acquisitions in the personal care category in recent years.

The company is said to have been drawn to Wild because of both its premium brand positioning and commitment to sustainability.