Earnings Call Transcript - UL Q2 2025

Fernando Fernandez, CEO

Good morning, and welcome to Unilever's second quarter trading statement for 2025. Thank you for joining us. I am joined today by Srinivas Phatak, our acting Chief Financial Officer. In a moment, Srini will take you through the details of the second quarter and first half results. I will then come back to talk more broadly about the continuing transformation of the business and how we see the remainder of this year and beyond. First of all, let me set out what I see to be the key elements of our solid performance in the first half and, importantly, why these give us real confidence when it comes to delivery in the full year. There are 5 elements in particular that I would like to highlight. First, the balance of our growth. We delivered underlying sales growth for the half of 3.4% and we did it with a good balance of volume and price. Volumes improved sequentially over the course of the half despite subdued markets with first half market volume growth at around 1.3%. Importantly, volume growth was broad-based and positive across all business groups. Second, the continued structural strengthening of our gross margin that allowed further increase in the support of our brands with brand marketing investment highly competitive in the first half at 15.5% of turnover. Third, we continue to outperform markets in the developed economies. In North America, we delivered underlying sales growth for the half of 5.4% with volumes up 3.7%, while Europe remains strong, up 3.4% for the half. Fourth, at the same time as outperforming in developed markets, we are also seeing a steadily improving picture when it comes to performance in emerging markets. This has been driven by our largest region, Asia Pacific Africa, which was up 3.5% in the first half and accelerated to over 5% growth in the second quarter. India, our second largest market, improved sequentially during the half. And as a direct consequence of the operational interventions made, we see improvements in both China and Indonesia and confidently expect both markets to accelerate further in the second half of the year. Volume performance in Latin America was poor in the second quarter with the slowing markets and the need to increase prices to cover currency appreciation, but we are confident in the strength of our portfolio and operations in the region, and we expect recovery later in the year. And fifth, it was a good half for Ice Cream both in terms of a strong competitive performance, but also in terms of getting the business ready for demerger later in the year. Srini will cover the final stages towards demerger a little later. Our first half results with a sustained strong developed market performance and emerging markets starting to improve give us real grounds for confidence for the second half of the year and beyond. With that, let me hand over to Srini to take you through the detail of the results.

Srinivas Phatak, CFO

Thank you, Fernando. Underlying sales growth in the second quarter was 3.8%, a sequential improvement versus the first quarter. USG was balanced across volume and price with volume growth contributing 1.8%, a 50 basis point step-up versus quarter 1 and price growth of 2%. As a result, underlying sales growth for the first half was 3.4% with volumes of 1.5% and price 1.9%. Price growth continued to step up as we responded to ongoing input cost inflation and currency movements. All our business groups delivered positive volume growth on a 2-year CAGR basis. We delivered our multiyear objective of volumes of at least 2%. Our Power Brands, which contribute over 75% of the group turnover, grew 3.8% in the first half, including 1.6% from volume. Growth improved in the second quarter, up to 4.4% with volumes above 2%. Strong performances included double-digit growth from Vaseline, Liquid IV, Nutrafol, and Magnum and high single-digit growth from Dove and Comfort. Before turning to the business groups, let me first provide some color on our performance across different geographies. Developed markets, which represented 44% of group turnover, continued to perform strongly with first half USG of 4.3%, driven by 3.4% volume and 0.9% price. We have now delivered 4 consecutive quarters of growth of about 4% in developed markets. North America underlying sales grew 5.4% with 3.7% from volume. This reflects the ongoing impact of our multiyear portfolio transformation with standout performances from our Wellbeing brands and Personal Care, which is back to competitive growth. Share gains across key categories were supported by premium innovations, such as the ongoing success of sugar-free Liquid IV, whole body deodorants, and Hellmann's flavored mayonnaise and underpinned by a continued step-up to brand investment. Europe grew underlying sales by 3.4% with 2.8% from volume. Growth was broad-based across markets, and we are winning share across the geography, including share gains in all of our top 5 markets. Performance was driven by Home Care, where the rollout of Wonder Wash and Cif Infinite Clean showcased the strength of our multiyear premium innovation strategy. And Ice Cream, which saw standout results from the new Magnum Utopia range. Personal Care delivered solid results with the successful launch of whole body deodorants. Asia Pacific Africa, which represents 43% of group turnover, delivered underlying first half sales growth of 3.5% with 1.9% from volume and 1.6% from price. Growth strengthened in the second quarter, reflecting a step-up in performance across key markets. India performed well with 5% USG in the second quarter largely driven by volume and continued share gains in a gradually improving market. Growth was led by our premium portfolio in Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care, while Home Care continued to deliver strong volume growth. In Indonesia, which declined by around 5%, and China, we saw a low single-digit decline. We are seeing improvements to run rates as a result of our significant interventions in our key brand innovation plans, in channel distribution and in pricing execution. We expect further acceleration in Asia Pacific and Africa in the second half. Latin America, which represents 13% of the group turnover, grew 0.5% with a 4.6% decline in volume. There are 3 important points to note here. First, pricing actions to offset currency movements weighed on volumes. While Argentina delivered growth, this was offset by a single-digit decline in Brazil and Mexico. Market growth across the region remains subdued, significantly below the prior year levels, reflecting a challenging macroeconomic environment. We are also lapping a high base as Latin America delivered high single-digit growth in the same period last year. However, it is important to highlight that our growth in Latin America remains competitive with continued share gains across the region. Let me now turn to our business groups. Beauty & Wellbeing underlying sales growth was 3.7% in the first half, driven by 1.7% volume and 2% price. Volume growth remains resilient with a 2-year CAGR of 3.2%. Sustained strong momentum in our Wellbeing business led the growth. Core Skin Care delivered low single-digit growth and Hair Care and Prestige Beauty were flat. Beauty & Wellbeing volumes were also impacted by our ongoing corrective actions in Indonesia and China. We remain confident in delivering sequential volume improvements in the second half. Wellbeing has now delivered strong double-digit growth for 21 consecutive quarters. Power Brands, Liquid IV, and Nutrafol, continue to deliver exceptional performances fueled by a strong pipeline of innovations, high levels of brand investment, and expansion of their global presence. Hair Care was flat. Dove grew mid-single digits, supported by a significant relaunch featuring cutting-edge fiber repair technology and a complete packaging redesign. This was partially offset by a decline in Clear, which was impacted by market conditions in China and by a volume decline in TRESemmé, where pricing actions are being implemented to restore desired price relativity. Core Skin Care delivered low single-digit growth. Dove and Vaseline grew double digits led by premium innovations and strong modern reach and persuasion programs, such as Vaseline's social-first Verified campaign where our scientists test and verify viral Vaseline hacks. Prestige Beauty was flat in the first half. Our most premium brands, Hourglass in color cosmetics; Tatcha, a luxury Japanese skincare brand; and K18, our biotech haircare brand continued to grow double digits. While the continued softness in the U.S. market weighed on the performance of brands like Dermalogica and Paula's Choice. Underlying operating margin was 19.4%, down 60 basis points versus the prior year as we increased marketing investment behind key innovations and market development. Personal Care delivered a good first half with 4.8% underlying sales growth driven by 1.4% volume and 3.3% price. Our 2-year volume CAGR was 2.3% despite a softening of volumes in the second quarter, which reflected subdued macro conditions in Latin America and recent pricing actions to offset currency movements.

Fernando Fernandez, CEO

Thank you, Srini. As I said at the outset, this results put us on track to deliver our full year outlook for 2025 on both the top and bottom line. On growth, we expect underlying sales growth to be within the range of 3% to 5%. Our growth in the second half will outpace the first despite subdued market conditions, supported by continued outperformance in developed markets and already a stronger momentum in emerging markets, particularly Asia. On the bottom line, we anticipate an improvement in underlying operating margin for the full year with second half margins of at least 18.5%, a significant improvement versus the second half of 2024, which can be explained by volume growth leverage, higher productivity, and interventions in the value chain of key materials.

Srinivas Phatak, CFO

We are convinced of our strategy of bolt-on M&A. We continue piling assets in the Beauty and Personal Care space and the Wellbeing space particularly in the U.S. with the intention of really building a portfolio of American brands with great potential to travel internationally. We have very clear criteria of what type of brands we look for. We look at digitally native brands, alternative brands with superior functionality, with strong clinicals, and with a strong presence in digital commerce. And Dr. Squatch fits all these kinds of criteria. It's a brand that is growing fast. It will fill a gap that we had in our portfolio in the premium segment in deodorants in the U.S. and in skin cleansing in the U.S., despite the fact that we have made significant progress and we are back to share gain both in skin cleansing and deodorants in the U.S. and also in the premium segment. But we believe that this brand really provides us with a significant weapon in the male grooming space. And we are very happy in the announcement of the acquisition that, as you know, is subject to regulatory approval.

Fernando Fernandez, CEO

We are very clear on the desire at scale principles that underpin this journey, and we are equally clear on what we must deliver: sustained volume growth and consistent gross margin expansion. The next phase is about execution in the front line, sharpening our focus on becoming a true marketing and sales machine. And with that, we look forward to taking your questions.

Operator, Operator

We are very happy about the announcement of the acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval. We understand the principles of desire at scale that guide this journey and we know what we need to achieve: sustained volume growth and consistent gross margin expansion. The next phase focuses on execution at the front line, with an emphasis on becoming a true marketing and sales powerhouse. We look forward to your questions.

Fernando Fernandez, CEO

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being with us today. I'm here with Srini. We have delivered a solid set of results in the first half and would like to reinforce our confidence in delivering our 3% to 5% top line growth outlook for 2025. We take good balance between volume and price and operating margin for the second half of at least 18.5%, more than 100 basis points up versus the operating margin of second half last year. Just as a reminder, our full year outlook includes Ice Cream; however, I would like to highlight that the top line outlook holds also for the remaining company excluding Ice Cream, and that both our gross margin and operating margin will be higher and will increase more in the remaining company when excluding Ice Cream. With that, Jemma, we can take questions.

Celine A.H. Pannuti, Analyst

Fernando, since you mentioned the performance excluding Ice Cream, the growth for the first half was 3% with a 1% increase in volume. Do you anticipate the acceleration in volume you mentioned will carry into the portfolio excluding Ice Cream in the second half of the year? Could we expect growth in the 4% to 6% range? Also, could you elaborate on the volume acceleration for the second half that you highlighted in the presentation for both the Personal Care and Health and Wellbeing divisions? That would be my first question.

Fernando Fernandez, CEO

Yes, we operate with the goal of achieving around 2% volume growth for our remaining company, and we are quite confident in our ability to reach that in the second half. Several factors support our belief in accelerating growth during this period. Market volume growth has slightly improved from the first quarter to the second, increasing from 1.2% to 1.4%. We do not anticipate a reversal of this trend. All regions, except for China and Latin America, reported higher market volume growth in the second quarter compared to the first. Additionally, our unmissable brand superiority scores are on the rise, with nearly 60% of our portfolio gaining brand strength. We are performing well in developed markets and witnessing acceleration in India, where we are also capturing market share and experiencing rapid growth in fast-growing channels such as quick commerce. We have increased investments in our brands and will maintain competitive marketing investment levels of around 15% to 16% of our revenue, even as some competitors reduce their spending. As evident in the second quarter SG&A reports of many competitors, we have made significant progress in gross margin, allowing us to boost our marketing investment. Furthermore, we have a robust innovation plan, one of our best in recent years, set to roll out in various markets between April and September, featuring products like whole body deodorants, the geographical expansion of Wonder Wash in laundry, Cif Infinite Clean, and a Dove hair relaunch, among others. Our current sales run rates suggest we can achieve this accelerated growth in the second half. We expect substantial contributions to growth from Indonesia and China, which have previously been notable drags. Therefore, we are confident in achieving higher volume growth in the second half, particularly in the remaining company. We remain vigilant and ready to adjust our plans if necessary, but we truly believe we have the right tools in place to succeed.