Unilever’s profits rocket by a FIFTH after hitting shoppers with 15.5% price hike
BRITISH producer Unilever has seen profits rocket by a fifth — after hiking prices by 15.5 per cent.
The Dove soap maker saw a £4.5billion jump in the first half of the year but denied shoppers had been stiffed.
It came as sales, boosted by the price rises, grew by 9.1 per cent worldwide.
Unilever is behind some of the UK’s biggest consumer brands including Marmite, Hellmann’s, Magnum ice creams, Lynx and Domestos.
Managers said it expected the price of its goods to “moderate” for the rest of the year as inflation had peaked, but warned food costs are still volatile.
Its rise in profits, however, will be closely monitored by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority watchdog.
READ MORE BUSINESS NEWS
It said last week it would investigate big brand owners such as Unilever, Heinz, and Nestle to test whether shoppers were being stung.
The regulator previously gave British supermarkets the all-clear.
Graeme Pitkethly, Unilever’s finance chief, argued that the company had “taken some of the pain” by not passing on all its higher costs to consumers.
It is thought about three-quarters have been pushed through to shoppers, resulting in many hard-pressed Brits switching from costly big brands to supermarket own versions.
Mr Pitkethly said Unilever’s punchy profit margins, which at 17 per cent are almost six times those of supermarkets, were justified.
He said consumer firms such as Unilever pay for innovation and research and development, while retailers focus on distribution.
He added: “Manufacturers and retailers have fundamentally different business models.”
Chief concerns
UNILEVER’S new boss Hein Schumacher has hinted that he could water down its woke agenda by focusing on matters that “really made a difference”.
The firm was accused last year by one of its investors of being obsessed and “trying to give purpose to mayonnaise”.
Mr Schumacher said: “We will focus on the big priorities such as reducing emissions and plastic."
Cold about ices
UNILEVER is still selling Magnum ice creams in Russia — where 3,000 workers may be called up to fight in Ukraine.
Bosses described remaining in Russia as the “least bad option” — compared with selling the business or pulling out.
Its steadfast position comes despite Nestle and Danone having their Russian businesses seized by local forces. Unilever paid £32million in tax to the Kremlin last year
Block on Twitter's x-it plan
BILLIONAIRE Elon Musk’s attempt to rebrand Twitter hit a hurdle yesterday after cops stopped the removal of the company’s old logo.
Police arrived to prevent the lettering being taken down from the online platform’s HQ in San Francisco.
Musk wants to rebrand the social media site he bought for £34billion last year to “X” and broaden usage beyond posting messages to allow for mobile payments.
The swift rebrand gathered pace after Mr Musk chose an “X” logo crowdsourced from Twitter users’ suggestions.
But efforts to remove the sign from X’s offices were thwarted by police, who blocked workers on a cherry-picker over their lack of the correct city permits.
Cops later determined no crime had been committed — but work did not restart.
Hol lot brighter
FAMILIES are more upbeat this summer than in the past two years — despite the cost-of-living crisis.
M&S’s Family Matters Index, which tracks more than 5,000 households, found 45 per cent of families are more optimistic about their prospects over the next three months.
Almost half of families polled are heading on holiday, despite 81 per cent still worrying about bills.
The summer getaway has led to record M&S beachwear sales — up by 46 per cent on last year.
Shares
BARCLAYS - down 0.84 to 163.52p
BP - down 2.70 to 481.00p
CENTRICA - down 1.30 to 124.65p
HSBC - up 1.60 to 644.30p
LLOYDS - up 0.05 to 46.10p
M&S - down 3.70 to 202.10p
NATWEST - down 1.30 to 251.20p
ROYAL MAIL - up 0.20 to 268.90p
SAINSBURY’S - down 1.80 to 280.70p
SHELL - down 33.00 to 2,410.00p
TESCO - down 1.40 to 260.00p
Booster to games so super
GEEKY Superman star Henry Cavill has given a boost to Games Workshop after the miniature model maker cheered record profits.
The actor and avid model collector is collaborating with the firm on a TV series and film based on its Warhammer 40,000 fantasy universe.
Games Workshop’s delivered a pre-tax profit of £170.6million as sales rose by 15.1 per cent to £445.4 million.
They were helped by more model enthusiasts visiting its 518 stores around the world.
Games Workshop is now valued at £3.7billion — just shy of Marks & Spencer’s market capitalisation.
Kevin Rountree is the publicity-shy chief executive who joined the business in 1998 as an accountant.
He said: “We finished the year having delivered eight consecutive years of group sales and profit growth.
“In the period we reported the highest level of sales and the most profit we have generated since our flotation 29 years ago.”
The company, which does not engage with the media, said that its strategy was “to take a straightforward approach based on doing the right thing, so that we can succeed forever”.
It has handed a £11.6million bonus to staff — equivalent to £4,000 each — on the back of the record results.
IMF hails economy
THE UK economy will outperform Germany this year, the International Monetary Fund’s upgraded forecasts say.
It predicted the UK’s growth will be 0.4 per cent this year and 1 per cent next year due to stronger-than-expected consumer spending and lower post-Brexit uncertainty.
By comparison it expects Germany’s economy to shrink by 0.3 per cent before growing by 1.3 per cent in 2024.
The IMF expects the global economy to grow 3 per cent next year.
Telecom job cull persists
VIRGIN Media O2 is cutting 2,000 jobs by the end of the year in the latest telecoms cull.
The company said that the redundancies were part of its “simplification” after the merger between Virgin Media and O2 in 2021.
The firm said the proposals, which will axe a tenth of its workforce, would “simplify our operating model to better deliver for customers”.
It follows BT cutting 55,000 jobs and Vodafone declaring 11,000 redundancies.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Virgin Media O2 separately announced it had lost 15,300 customers in the past two months, while 24,700 more had switched off their cable contracts.
The company pushed an inflation-busting 17.3 per cent bill increase on customers earlier this year.