Unilever Chief Executive Fernando Fernandez said the consumer-goods maker is on track to become a EUR39 billion home and personal care pure-play, driven by a restructuring that includes selling its ice-cream unit and merging its food division with McCormick.
The company reported underlying sales growth of 4.8% in the first half, with volume growth above 4%. The home and personal care segment led with 6% underlying sales growth and roughly 5% volume growth, while generating close to 200 basis points of margin expansion.
Over the past 10 quarters, group underlying sales growth has averaged 4.1%, with about 3% from volume. The home and personal care division grew 4.6% in the same period, supported by 3.3% volume growth. Fernandez highlighted that the second quarter of 2024 delivered 5.5% volume growth — the strongest quarterly result in 15 years.
In the U.S., Unilever has seen volume growth of 3% to 4% annually over the past three and a half years, reaching 3.3% in the first half of 2024. Prestige beauty grew approximately 10% during the same period. Emerging markets posted 6.5% volume growth in the first half.
Brand and marketing investment rose to 16% of revenue from 13% three years ago. The company set an annual bolt-on acquisition target of EUR1.5 billion to EUR2 billion, focused primarily on the U.S. and India.
Fernandez described two major portfolio moves: the separation of the ice-cream business into an independent entity, The Magnum Ice Cream Company, and the ongoing combination of Unilever’s food business with McCormick. He called the latter a step toward building “one of the best food companies in the globe.”
Hindustan Unilever, the Indian arm, turned over $6.5 billion with a $48 billion market capitalization and an EBITDA margin of 23.6% in fiscal 2024. Turnover doubled over the past decade to 2025, EBITDA grew threefold and operating cash flow quadrupled since 2015. The business reaches nine out of ten Indian households, sells 85 billion packs annually and operates through 9 million of the country’s 9.3 million retail outlets, holding number-one positions in more than 90% of its turnover categories.
India’s demographic tailwinds include a population of 1.5 billion with a median age of about 30, per-capita FMCG spend still underindexed at $63, 377 million Gen Z consumers and rising female workforce participation from 25% toward 40%. Digital payments account for roughly half of global activity. Unilever’s India creator network encompasses 30,000 creators mapped across 250,000 influencers spanning 19,000 ZIP codes, and its Minimalist brand doubled turnover from $50 million to a $100 million run rate since acquisition about 18 months ago.
Globally, Unilever engages 300,000 content creators and activated 120 markets with over 150 special items and 50,000 creators during the World Cup. The company reaffirmed mid-term guidance of consistent underlying sales growth of 4% to 6%, with at least 2 percentage points from volume, targeting a balanced split between 2% to 3% volume growth and 2% to 3% pricing growth. It expects 62% of future pure-play revenue to come from emerging markets.
