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42 Unilever Annual Review 1998 Categories
Turnover £ million
6 496
94
Operating profit £ million
460
94
5 456
95
315
95
6 265
96
457
96
6 081
97
480
97
5 905
98
562
98
Home & Personal Care
Home care and professional cleaning
£ million 1998 1998 1997 Change
at current at constant at constant
rates rates rates
Turnover 5 905 6 357 6 081 5%
Operating profit 562 602 480 25%
Operating profit before exceptional items 603 643 537 20%
Our home care and professional cleaning business made good progress
overall, particularly in Western Europe and North America. A better
product mix and increased efficiencies meant operating margins again
rose, after further marketing investment.
Home care Our laundry business achieved increases in both turnover
and profits. In Europe, consumer demand for our new laundry tablets
underscored our ability to grow in mature markets. This product’s
convenience and quality, backed by a substantial marketing
programme, swiftly established us as leader in the European laundry
tablets market. Our laundry market share also advanced in almost all
developing and emerging markets.
In Europe, effective targeting introduced a wider band of consumers
to our fabric conditioners. TheVitality variant, for example, which is
colourfully packaged with a contemporary fragrance, has been
attracting younger consumers.
In household care, we maintained our track-record for labour-saving
innovation with Domestos Active Toilet Gel. This patented product smells
pleasantly, kills germs and removes limescale – the first European
brand to achieve these three key elements of lavatory cleaning with
one action. It was launched successfully in five European countries.
Other launches, around the world, included Sunlight machine dish
wash tablets in the United States and Cif/Jif extensions in Latin America
and Europe.
Professional cleaning 1998 was DiverseyLever’s second full trading
year since we merged Lever Industrial International with Diversey. The
business, which supplies professional cleaning materials and services
to institutional and industrial markets, had a somewhat disappointing
year. Underlying volume was flat, with turnover up by 4%.
Results were reasonable in Southern Europe, the United Kingdom
and North America but we experienced difficulties in other parts of
Western Europe and the Far East. In May 1998, Unilever bought
Michigan-based cleaning and hygiene business AmeriClean Systems,
which became part of DiverseyLever.