Unilever bolstered by ice cream

INTERNATIONAL – The world’s biggest consumer group, Unilever, has said that its strong results for 2001 were driven by good performance in its global ice cream business and growth in its European markets.

The company, which owns dairy products including Ben and Jerry ice cream and I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter spread, saw net profit for the year rise 66% on 2000, at 1.858 billion euro. Earnings per share for 2001 were up 12.2% on 2000 at 3.61 euro per share.

Around 12% of the company’s turnover (2.2 billion euro) is based in the ice cream and beverages division as well as the oil and dairy based foods and bakery department. These saw turnover for 2001 28% up on 2000.

In a statement, Unilever chairman Niall Fitzgerald said: “In foods we have seen… notable improvements coming from Europe and throughout our global ice cream business… with an excellent contribution from Ben and Jerry’s.

He continued: “The clutter has been removed from our business… and we are focusing on our leading brands.”

In 2001, Unilever acquired foodservice industry supplier Bestfoods. Looking forward to the rest of 2002, Fitzgerald said: “In 2002, we are planning to sustain the growth of our leading brands, reinforced by those of Bestfoods, and to deliver double-digit growth in the earnings per share.”

The company grew steadily around the world. Underlying growth was 4% in Europe, 2% in North America, 7% in Africa, the Middle East and Turkey, and 6% in and Asia and Pacific.

Latin America saw underlying growth of 5%.
Unilever has cut its brand portfolio from 1,600 in February 2000 to 800. It is aiming to reduce this number to just 400 brands by 2004.

With its results, Unilever announced a dividend of 1.56 euro per share of 0.51 euro, and increase of 9% on last year’s dividend.