|
 Unilever said net profit rose to €3.11 billion, or $3.58 billion, for the six-month period ending June 30, 2017, compared with €2.51 billion in the previous year. According to the company, revenue grew to €27.72 billion from the previous year's €26.28 billion. Gross margin improved by 40bps to 43.1 percent, pushed by margin-accretive innovations and acquisitions, the company said.
"Unilever 2017 First Half Results", Unilever, July 20, 2017
|
 Unilever’s second quarter financials mostly beat Wall Street expectations – sales growth fell three percent short – but the rise in profit came from cuts in marketing expenses. In April the company said about $2.3 billion of its planned three-year $7 billion cost-cutting program would come from marketing and overhead. During the first half of this fiscal year, however, nearly a third of the cuts came only from marketing; half were attributable to both marketing and overhead. The company is cutting ad agency and production spending, but marketing spending overall will rebound in the second half when 60 percent of Unilever's new-product launches for the year will take place. [ Image credit: © Unilever ]
"Unilever Cuts Agency Fees and Production Costs, but a Media Surge Looms", Advertising Age, July 20, 2017
|