Report & accounts 2002 in full - Unilever

32 Operating review by category – Home & Personal Care
position in Brazil and South Africa and to achieve market
share gains in such countries as Morocco and Thailand.
In Morocco, Omo overtook its rivals to become the market
leader. In Thailand, new innovations helped the brand to
extend its leadership, while in South Africa it maintained its
strong leadership position in a growing market.
Consumers increasingly demand detergents that don’t just
clean their clothes but are also gentle on their skin. In the
UK, we lead this growing ‘kind to skin’ market with Persil
Non-Bio. To reinforce our position in the sector we launched
Persil Aloe Vera. This successfully introduced new customers
to the brand. During 2002, Persil achieved its highest market
share for 10 years.
On 3 May 2002 we completed the sale of our DiverseyLever
business to Johnson Professional Holdings Inc., leading to a
10% reduction in turnover, despite underlying sales growth
of 1%.
2001 results compared with 2000 at
current exchange rates
€ million € million %
2001 2000 Change
Turnover 10 467 10 284 2%
Operating profit 667 578 15%
Group turnover 10 432 10 258 2%
Group operating profit 666 578 15%
2001 results compared with 2000 at
constant 2000 exchange rates
€ million € million %
2001 2000 Change
Turnover 10 884 10 284 6%
Operating profit BEIA 926 917 1%
Exceptional items (209) (323)
Amortisation of goodwill
and intangibles (19) (16)
Operating profit 698 578 21%
Operating margin 6.4% 5.6%
Operating margin BEIA 8.5% 8.9%
In 2001, turnover rose by 6%, however, operating margin
BEIA was slightly down.
Laundry products generated nearly a third of the division’s
income. In 2001, we retained our clear leadership in tablets in
Europe, however, in Canada and the US, tablets showed slow
consumer uptake.
Building on the success of tablets in Europe, we launched
liquid capsules. These provide the convenience and efficiency
of laundry tablets for those consumers who prefer to use
liquid detergents.
We demonstrated the enduring appeal of our laundry brands
in South Latin America, emerging after two years of intense
competition with significantly improved profitability.
Unilever Annual Report & Accounts and Form 20-F 2002
We made significant progress in aligning all laundry detergent
and fabric conditioners behind a limited number of our
leading brands, such as Omo, Skip, Surf, Comfort and
Snuggle. We rolled out standardised Omo packaging and
advertising in Latin America, Asia and Pacific, Africa, Middle
East and Turkey. In India, as part of this alignment, we
relaunched the popular Surf brand, investing in an improved
formulation and doubling marketing support.
We extended the Comfort fabric conditioner brand with the
successful launch of Comfort Vaporesse in Europe. Comfort
Vaporesse liquid is poured into the water wells of steam irons,
making fabrics smell fresher and preventing limescale.
We extended the Domestos brand, launching Domestos
Bi-Actif and Domestos WC Active Mousse in Europe and,
in Asia, reaching new consumers with products tailored for
low-income families. Other successes in household cleaning
included further innovations in Cif wipes.
In professional cleaning, DiverseyLever enjoyed a strong year
with growth in both turnover and operating profit.