Unilever is NOT profiteering, insists departing boss Alan Jope

Outgoing Unilever boss Alan Jope insisted the company was not a ‘profit’ as rising prices boosted business.

In his latest update as CEO of the consumer goods giant, Jope said he was “very aware that consumers are hurting.”

And he insisted that rising prices — 11 percent in the first quarter of the year — were not evidence of so-called “greed.”

“I know it’s an inconvenient truth, but we didn’t make a profit in any way,” Jope said.

“We are well aware that consumers are hurting and so we are not passing on the full price increases and are asking shareholders to share some of the burden.”

The comments came as the company’s latest update, whose brands include Hellmann’s, Marmite and Dove as well as Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s ice creams, showed it has successfully passed price hikes without significantly reducing sales volumes.

In the first three months of the year, sales of £13 billion were 10.5 percent higher than in the same period a year earlier, thanks to a 10.7 percent rise in prices and a 0.2 percent fall in the volume of goods sold.

This was an improvement on the fourth quarter of last year, when prices were up 13.3 percent and volumes were down 3.6 percent.

Jope, who took over in January 2019 and will be replaced by Hein Schumacher in July, said the pace of the increases is likely to “soften as the year progresses” but warned they will remain high.

“We’re past peak inflation…although we’re still not past peak prices,” he said. “Costs aren’t going down, they’re just not going up as fast as before.”

Exit: Unilever boss Alan Jope, who took over at Unilever in January 2019, will be replaced by Hein Schumacher in July

Jope said Unilever passed only 75 percent of cost increases to consumers last year and he justified future higher prices as necessary for investment.

The Scottish businessman said he expects further inflation in prices, especially food, due to high material costs and climate change.

Inflation remained high in food and ice cream, with prices rising by 13.4% and 10.5% respectively, although it moderated in Unilever’s beauty and well-being and personal care ranges, which rose by 6.5% respectively. and 9.4 percent year over year. year.

Margins are often a good indicator of whether a company is benefiting from higher prices.

Unilever expects a margin for the first half of 16%, broadly in line with the 2022 figure of 16.1% and lower than in the previous three years.

It also predicts a “modest improvement” in margins this year. His shares rose 1.4 percent, or 60 pence, to 4431.5 pence, gaining just under 8 percent under Jope.

In that time he has paid more than £16 million and the FTSE 100 index is up 16 per cent.