UNLYF - Unilever PLC (UL) Q1 2024 Sales/Trading Statement Conference (Transcript)
2024-04-27 02:22:07 ET
Unilever PLC (UL)
Q1 2024 Sales/Trading Statement Conference
April 25, 2024 03:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Hein Schumacher - CEO & Director
Fernando Fernandez - CFO & Director
Jemma Spalton - Head of Investor Relations
Conference Call Participants
Warren Ackerman - Barclays Bank
Celine Pannuti - JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Guillaume Delmas - UBS
Fulvio Cazzol - Berenberg
Jeffrey Stent - BNP Paribas Exane
Bruno Monteyne - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
Thomas Sykes - Deutsche Bank
David Hayes - Jefferies
Jean-Olivier Nicolai - Goldman Sachs Group
Presentation
Hein Schumacher
Good morning, and welcome to Unilever's First Quarter 2024 Trading Statement. We expect prepared remarks to be around 20 minutes, followed by Q&A for around 30 minutes. And all of today's webcast is available live transcribed on the screen. In a moment, I will hand over to Fernando to take you through the details of the first quarter results. And after that, we will take your questions.
Now first, let me set out some of the highlights of the quarter as I see them. On the results themselves, we delivered underlying sales growth of 4.4% with volume growth increasing to 2.2%. This growth was led by our Power Brands, up 6.1% in the quarter, with volumes up 3.8%, with growth across all five business groups.
It is only the first quarter of the year, but with these results, we do see signs of improved momentum that supports our full year guidance. At the same time, we have used the quarter to progress our Growth Action Plan. We've also announced some important changes to the portfolio, and we launched a major productivity drive.
Let me take these briefly in turn now, starting with the Growth Action Plan or, as we call it here, the GAP. As a reminder, this is a plan with three elements: intended to deliver faster growth, a more focused and productive way of operating, and a sharper performance edge; and all this with the goal of ensuring that in everything we do, Unilever is simpler, better and more impactful.
Now first, on faster growth, it starts with our Power Brands. The enhanced focus here is to ensure a stronger execution of the core GAP plans as a means to deliver faster growth, including through category expansion. And the measures we are putting in place to achieve this will inevitably take time, but they are on track....
Unilever PLC (UL) Q1 2024 Sales/Trading Statement Conference (Transcript)