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22 Unilever Annual Review 1998 Business Overview
Turnover £ million
2 856
94
Operating profit £ million
267
94
2 991
95
269
95
■ Profits and margins moved ahead strongly
■ Underlying volume growth slowed from mid-year
■ Personal care performed strongly
3 306
3 222
96
317
307
96
■ total business including discontinued operations
■ continuing business
3 368
3 326
97
285
282
97
3 362
98
328
98
Latin America
£ million 1998 1998 1997 Change
at current at constant at constant
Continuing business rates rates rates
Turnover 3 362 3 524 3 326 6%
Operating profit 328 347 282 23%
Operating profit before exceptional items 355 374 304 23%
Our Latin American business again performed well. Profits and
margins moved ahead strongly, most notably in personal care.
Our continuing strategy of focusing on corporate categories and
countries was key to our success. This was underpinned by greater
cost effectiveness and efficiency in our operations. We increased our
spending on marketing and were able to improve market shares
in important categories.
Economies in the region started to falter around mid-year. This
reduced consumption in many markets, particularly in the south,
and slowed our underlying volume growth.
In Brazil, our largest business in the region, ice cream and personal
care products led a significant profit advance. Kibon, the ice cream
company we purchased in 1997, made us market leader in the region
and made an important contribution to profits. In Foods, an important
restructuring programme began to improve margins. In laundry, an
increased investment in marketing reduced profits but boosted our
share of the market.
Chile and Colombia showed good sales growth and, together with
Argentina, their profits advanced strongly.
We continued to make progress in Mexico where changes to the
portfolio increased the focus on core operations. We made significant
advances in profits and underlying volumes grew: personal care
performed particularly well. We purchased a leading bakery business
in 1998.