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☆ It’s never been harder to be Mister Softee
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-24 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Once, there were more than 2,000 Mister Softee trucks in 38 states during the company’s peak in the 1960s. Now, there are only around 630 Mister Softee trucks looping around neighborhoods and parks in 21 states. A Mister Softee truck during a spring training baseball game in Goodyear, Arizona, in 2013. A freshly made cup of Mister Softee ice cream is displayed during a bicycle safety event held in Evesham Township, New Jersey, in 2024. As goes the nation, so goes Mister SofteeThe Mister Softee business is a window into changes in neighborhoods, family sizes and children’s habits.

Persons: New York CNN — It’s, Softee, ” Mike Conway, Mister Softee, Mister, James, William Conway, John Sleezer, ” William Conway, Carlos Vazquez, Alexi Rosenfeld, Vazquez, ”, “, Chris Lachall, Graeme Pitkethly, Conway, They’re, ” Carlos Vazquez Organizations: New, New York CNN, Mister, CNN, Kansas City Star, Tribune, Service, Getty, USA, Unilever, Census Bureau Locations: New York, Runnemede , New Jersey, Philadelphia, United States, Goodyear , Arizona, New York City, Van Leeuwen, Maine, California, Evesham Township , New Jersey, Europe

☆ Deodorants are the big winners of the return to office movement
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Consumer goods giant Unilever reported strong deodorant sales in the third quarter of 2023. AdvertisementAdvertisementPeople returning to the office and going out socializing again are driving the sales of deodorants, according to consumer goods giant Unilever. Deodorant sales were particularly robust in Latin America and Europe, the company in its third-quarter earnings release. AdvertisementAdvertisementUnilever reported a similar strong deodorant sales growth last year and saw a big demand surge for deodorants after people started socializing as COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns eased. Overall, Unilever reported a 5.2% rise in underlying sales in the third quarter of the year from a year ago, meeting analysts' average forecast.

Persons: —, Graeme Pitkethly Organizations: Unilever, Guardian, Service, Strong Locations: America, Europe

☆ Unilever is selling Dollar Shave Club, the quirky direct-to-consumer pioneer that never really fit in with the massive company
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Unilever is selling Dollar Shave Club seven years after paying $1 billion for the brand. Unilever struggled to grow Dollar Shave Club, sources previously told. "Dollar Shave Club did not deliver as expected, and the economics of the DTC model changed," then-CEO Jope said during an earnings call in 2022. "Dollar Shave Club will also serve as a platform for additional brands with a similar DNA." Do you have a story idea about Dollar Shave Club or Unilever to share?

Persons: —, Fabian Garcia, Michael Dubin, Mark Levine, Schick, Dubin, Graeme Pitkethly, You've, Alan Jope, hadn't, Jope, Michael Cohen Organizations: Unilever, Nexus Capital Management, NEW, Service, Care, Gillette, Schmidt's Naturals, Procter & Gamble, Club Locations: cologne

☆ Unilever is selling Dollar Shave Club after 7 long, awkward years of trying to make it work
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

☆ Unilever's new CEO lays out plans to simplify business, shares fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Klondike, a brand of Unilever, is seen on display in a store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Unilever's (ULVR.L) new chief executive Hein Schumacher on Thursday laid out long-awaited plans to simplify the business after admitting it had underperformed in recent years, but shares fell as some investors were unimpressed. Unilever reported a 5.2% rise in underlying sales, meeting analysts' average forecast, a company-provided consensus showed. Underlying price growth for the third quarter was 5.8% while underlying volumes were down 0.6%. The company also announced a senior executive shake-up, naming Fernando Fernandez, currently president of the beauty and wellbeing business, as its new chief financial officer.

Persons: Andrew Kelly, Hein Schumacher, Schumacher, Richard Saldanha, Alan Jope, Nelson Peltz, we've, Graeme Pitkethly, Fernando Fernandez, Richa Naidu, Mark Potter, Jason Neely Organizations: Unilever, REUTERS, Aviva, Thomson Locations: Manhattan , New York City, U.S, Europe

Reuters GraphicsReuters spoke to four shareholders that have launched activist campaigns who said that some big consumer goods companies are ripe for executive changes after failing to impress. Reuters GraphicsMany large consumer goods companies generally hold low levels of debt and are cash generative, said André Medeiros, managing director and Alvarez & Marsal's EMEA consumer and retail leader. 'ADVOCATING FOR MANAGEMENT CHANGE'Gianluca Ferrari, founding partner of investor Clearway Capital, said his firm had some consumer companies on its radar but declined to name them. He did not identify specific executives nor disclose the nature of his work with consumer companies. In October, Reuters reported that Peltz had approached former CEOs of consumer goods companies as candidates for the Unilever top job.

Persons: Danone's, Emmanuel Faber, David Samra, Samra, Alvarez, Marsal, André Medeiros, Nelson Peltz, Artisan's Samra, We're, Peltz, Heinz, Gianluca Ferrari, Ferrari, Clearway, Glanbia, Faber, Bluebell, Nicolas Ceron, Ceron, underperformance, Kraft Heinz, KHC.O, Andrew Hayes, Russell Reynolds, John Long, Korn, Long, Alan Jope departure's, Unilever's, Graeme Pitkethly, Hein Schumacher, Heinz's, Bill Johnson, Nelson, Richa Naidu, Matt Scuffham, Daniel Flynn Organizations: Artisan Partners, Reuters, Danone, Evian, Unilever, Consumer Products, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Reuters Graphics, Marsal's EMEA, Billionaire, Artisan, Cadbury Schweppes, Heinz, Trian, Bluebell Capital, shareholders, Bluebell, Diageo, Russell Reynolds Associates, Thomson Locations: York, H.J, Frankfurt, Western Europe, North America

☆ CFOs are stepping into a rapidly revolving door
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Chief financial officers are stepping into an increasingly rapidly revolving door. loadingIn the first half of this year, 103 of the top 1,000 companies ranked by Fortune lost their CFO, according to executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. CFOs are grappling with rising inflation and interest rates – in some cases, for the first time in their careers. High CFO turnover looks far from transitory. Follow @jennifersaba on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSTesla said on Aug. 7 that its Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn was stepping down.

Persons: Elon Musk, Zachary Kirkhorn, Francois, Xavier Roger, Anna Manz, Fortune, Refinitiv, Ruth Porat, Morgan Stanley, Mike Cavanagh, NBCUniversal, Mike Lenz, Unilever’s, Graeme Pitkethly, Walt Disney’s, Christine McCarthy, James Kehoe, Crist Kolder, Tesla, Vaibhav Taneja, Kirkhorn, Peter Thal Larsen, Sharon Lam, Aditya Sriwatsav Organizations: Reuters, Finance, Walgreens Boots Alliance, London Stock Exchange, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Comcast, Walgreens, CFOs, Thomson Locations: Swiss

☆ Major global firms warn of slow China sales as post-pandemic surge fades
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Aug 2 (Reuters) - From consumer goods giant Unilever (ULVR.L) to automaker Nissan (7201.T) and machinery maker Caterpillar (CAT.N), global firms have warned of slowing earnings in China as the world's second-largest economy loses its post-pandemic bounce. A continued rebound has been limited to a handful of sectors such as dining and luxury goods, driving double-digit China sales growth for the likes of Starbucks (SBUX.O) and LVMH (LVMH.PA). Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) cut its full-year sales target last week due to a sales dip in China, its top market. "Unfortunately, our (China) sales outlook is now falling far below our production capacity," Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said last week. "We mentioned during our last earnings call that we expected sales in China to be below the typical 5% to 10% of our enterprise sales.

Persons: Graeme Pitkethly, we're, Makoto Uchida, Jim Umpleby, Jacob Stausholm, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Jean, Jacques Guiony, Mimosa Spencer, Sophie Yu, Brenda Goh, Richa Naidu, Melanie Burton, Daniel Leussink, Victoria Waldersee, Miranda Murray, Rishav Chatterjee, Deborah Sophia, Ananya Mariam Rajesh, Yuvraj Malik, Miyoung Kim, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Unilever, Nissan, Caterpillar, Starbucks, Procter, Gamble, L'Oreal, Global, Volkswagen, Samsung, SK Hynix, Apple, Rio Tinto, Tinto, Yum, HK, KFC, Kailyn, Thomson Locations: China, KS, Rio, Yum China, Kailyn Rhone, New York, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, London, Melbourne, Tokyo, Victoria, Berlin, Bengaluru

Unilever's ice cream business, which includes the Wall's brands, accounts for about 15% of group turnover. "Will we see more ice cream sales? In quarterly results it reported on Tuesday the company said out-of-home ice cream underlying sales grew by a double-digit percentage with positive price and volume growth. Unilever owns, loans and maintains 3 million ice cream freezers around the world, according to its website. Some analysts expect the global market for impulse ice cream buying to grow 5.7% between 2023–2028.

Persons: Jerry's, Graeme Pitkethly, Pitkethly, Richa Naidu, Jason Neely Organizations: Unilever, World Meteorological, Thomson Locations: Europe

☆ Unilever quarterly sales beat estimates, boost shares
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoSummaryCompanies Underlying sales, price, volume growth beat forecastsPast peak cost inflation -finance chiefFocus is on volume growth -finance chiefShares jump 5%LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Unilever (ULVR.L) on Tuesday beat underlying sales growth forecasts after again raising prices to offset higher costs, boosting shares in the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry's ice cream. The British company reported a 7.9% rise in underlying second-quarter sales, beating analysts' average forecast of 6.4%, a company-provided consensus showed. The company said it expects underlying sales growth for the full year to be above 5%, ahead of its multi-year range, with underlying price growth continuing to moderate through the year. Unilever said the percentage of its "business winning market share" had reduced to 41%. The metric assesses what percentage of the company's revenue is coming from areas in which it is gaining market share on a rolling 12-month basis.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Hein Schumacher, Alan Jope, Jochen Kurz, Alan, Kurz, Graeme Pitkethly, Janus Henderson, Bernstein, Bruno Monteyne, Hein Schumacher’s, Richa Naidu, Jason Neely Organizations: REUTERS, Unilever, British, Kurz, Rivals, Nestle, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine

☆ The world’s biggest ice cream company says heat waves may not help sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Can it ever be too hot for ice cream? “When it gets too hot, people move away from ice cream and buy a cold drink instead,” he said. The consumer goods giant commands a fifth of global ice cream sales, according to Euromonitor. The company’s overall ice cream sales grew 5.7% in the first half of the year in value terms, compared with the same period in 2022. Price rises across Unilever’s products helped push up its sales by 9.1% in the first half, even though volumes fell marginally.

Persons: Cornetto, ”, Graeme Pitkethly, Jerry’s, Carte d’Or, Hein Schumacher, Schumacher —, FrieslandCampina — Organizations: London CNN, Unilever, UL, Health Locations: Europe, Spain, Italy, Greece, Ukraine

May 30 (Reuters) - Unilever Plc (ULVR.L) said on Tuesday Chief Financial Officer Graeme Pitkethly would leave the consumer goods giant by the end of May 2024 after more than two decades. Pitkethly, who has been with the maker of Dove soap since 2002, succeeded Jean-Marc Huët as finance chief in 2015. The 56-year-old previously served as executive vice president of Unilever's UK and Ireland business, including head of M&A and head of treasury. Unilever, which did not say why Pitkethly planned to "retire from the company", said it would proceed with a formal internal and external search for his successor. "Eight years as CFO of a multinational is a decent time and retiring in May 2024 should enable a useful handover to a new CFO."

LONDON/BERLIN, May 30 (Reuters) - Nestle (NESN.S), the world's biggest packaged food company, said on Tuesday it had hired the London Stock Exchange Group's (LSEG) finance chief Anna Manz as its new chief financial officer. Manz will replace Francois-Xavier Roger, who the company said is stepping down to "pursue new professional challenges" after eight years in the role. Nestle, whose more than 2,000 brands include Kit Kat, Haagen-Dazs and Nescafe, said Manz will join Nestle as soon as she is released from her current duties. "We trust that Anna will pursue Francois' legacy, considering her strong career at Diageo," Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy said. Rival Unilever Plc (ULVR.L) also said on Tuesday that CFO Graeme Pitkethly would leave the consumer goods giant by the end of May 2024 after more than two decades.

The British company, which sells Cornettos cones and Talenti tubs, on Thursday reported a 0.2% dip in overall quarterly sales volumes, but a more than 4% decline in ice cream volumes. Its ice cream prices rose 10.5% in the quarter, driving turnover of 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion). About 60% of Unilever's ice cream business is "in-home" - bought from stores - while the rest is eaten in parlours and other venues. "Ice cream is the most discretionary category that we have across all of our categories," finance chief Graeme Pitkethly said. When consumers are under pressure, because ice cream is more discretionary, ice cream gets dropped from the basket."

The 10.7% increase in prices was, however, lower than in recent quarters, adding to signs inflationary pressures might be easing as input costs declined. Packaged goods companies have been hiking prices as they grapple with a surge in costs of everything from sunflower oil and shipping to packaging and grain. Unilever reported a 10.5% rise in underlying first-quarter sales to 14.8 billion euros ($16.4 billion), beating analysts' average forecast for a 7.2% increase, according to a company-provided consensus. That included a 10.7% increase in prices and a 0.2% dip in volumes. Rivals P&G (PG.N) and Nestle (NESN.S) have also recently reported stronger than expected quarterly sales, with price hikes offsetting lower volumes.

"It's principally around the costs of labour, logistics and energy and what our suppliers see in their own production bases," finance chief Graeme Pitkethly said. On Thursday, Unilever said it had raised prices by 10.7% in the first quarter. "People are looking towards the second half of this year for some relief in costs - we'll see if that actually plays out," Richard Saldanha, a fund manager at Unilever and Nestle investor Aviva, said. "Clearly these companies are still displaying a pretty decent ability to push pricing ... Unilever is able to manage what is still a very elevated cost environment." Reporting by Richa Naidu Editing by Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/3] Ben & Jerry's, a brand of Unilever, is seen on display in a store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 24, 2022. Nestle said cutting products saved 1 billion Swiss francs last year ($1.06 billion), while Unilever said the practice saved $2 billion. Food makers tend to cull products without much fanfare. At the consumer products conference they highlighted new offerings, many of them increasingly popular handheld foods that people can eat while scrolling on phones. "You'd be shocked by the loyalty and personal connections people have to food products," he said.

[1/3] Ben & Jerry's, a brand of Unilever, is seen on display in a store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 24, 2022. Eliminating less popular products is part of a "decomplexity program" underway at Kraft Heinz, its executives said at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference this week. Nestle said cutting products saved 1 billion Swiss francs last year ($1.06 billion), while Unilever said the practice saved $2 billion. At the consumer products conference they highlighted new offerings, many of them increasingly popular handheld foods that people can eat while scrolling on phones. "You'd be shocked by the loyalty and personal connections people have to food products," he said.

☆ Soaring energy costs triggered by war in Ukraine could push 141 million into extreme poverty, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Tara Subramaniam | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine could push 141 million people worldwide into extreme poverty, according to a new report published Thursday in the journal Nature Energy. In low-income countries, the report said poorer households already facing severe food shortages were at greater risk of poverty due to higher energy costs. Households in higher income countries also felt the impact of rising energy prices but were more likely to be able to absorb them into household budgets, the report said. Energy price hikes caused by the crisis in Ukraine have also resulted in the increased cost of necessities like food. According to the report, many governments worldwide have already taken steps to lessen the impact of soaring energy prices on households, from reducing energy taxes and providing energy bill discounts to one-off energy subsidies and price caps.

☆ Nestlé says food prices will rise further this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Food, including ice cream, will see significant price increases in 2023, CEO Alan Jope said on the same call. Unilever said price increases caused sales volumes to decline by 2.1% in 2022. Heineken, meanwhile, said it expected to sell less beer in Europe this year because of “steep” price increases related to energy costs. At the time, Tesco (TSCDF) described the company’s price increases as “unjustifiable.” Once the products were restored, prices were unchanged on Heinz’s most popular lines. Gabby Jones/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesTesco has also “fallen out with other suppliers” over price increases, its chairman John Allen recently told the BBC.

"Because the consumer is now under more pressure, and Walmart is under pressure, that sets up a dynamic where there's probably not a lot of pricing going forward." The clout Walmart holds over suppliers also means that Walmart would likely get the lowest percentage of any price hikes manufacturers implement, according to investors who track the company. In 2018, Walmart pulled Campbell Soup Co's (CPB.N) products during the key winter season over a dispute over prices and shelf space promotion. At the time, Tesco labeled Heinz's price hikes as "unjustifiable." After raising prices four times in 2022, he said, Clorox doesn't "have any additional plans" to hike prices this year.

☆ Morning Bid: Corporate scatter
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan. A hail of mega corporate updates distracted stock markets from a confusing macro picture - but offers little more clarity with scattergun fortunes and ambiguous readouts for the wider economy. The flub fed worries that the Google parent is losing ground to rival Microsoft (MSFT.O) in the renewed craze around artificial intelligence. European shares touched a fresh nine-month high on Thursday as Germany's Siemens and UK's AstraZeneca boosted earnings euphoria, while Britain's bank, commodity and pharma heavy FTSE100 hit another record high. Norway's $1.35 trillion sovereign wealth fund said it had recently divested virtually all its remaining shares in the Adani group.

☆ Unilever says prices hikes will continue into this year, easing in H2
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Bottles of Dove body wash, produced by Unilever Plc, at an Iceland Foods Ltd. supermarket in Christchurch, UK, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Unilever Plc said on Thursday it would continue to raise prices for its detergents, soaps and packaged food to offset rising input costs, and ease up those hikes in the second half of 2023. The packaged goods industry has hiked up prices over the past year to cope with surging costs of everything from cocoa and sunflower oil to wheat. The industry had already been battling Covid-era supply chain issues and raw material expenses when Russia invaded Ukraine, further boosting prices of energy and other commodities. Underlying sales at Unilever rose 9.2% in the fourth quarter, beating a company-provided analyst estimate of an 8.2% increase.

☆ Zero-Based Budgeting, Currency Hedges Among the Tools CFOs Can Use to Weather Headwinds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Nina Trentmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

One area to which finance chiefs scouting for efficiencies have turned is zero-based budgeting, a tool that gained popularity early in the pandemic and requires finance executives to question and justify each line item in every new budget period. Reese’s peanut-butter cup maker Hershey Co., based in Pennsylvania, regularly goes through every line of its profit and loss statement, Finance Chief Steve Voskuil said. Detroit-based General Motors Co. is slowing and in some areas even freezing hiring, and homing in on other fixed costs, Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson has said. Facing high inflation and an uncertain outlook, finance chiefs are using zero-based budgeting to lower expenses in areas including operations, real estate, logistics, sales and marketing. Finance executives at large U.S. companies, including Coca-Cola Co. and materials-science company Dow Inc., are increasing their foreign-currency hedges and covering longer time periods.

☆ In Europe, consumer businesses like Amazon face holiday reckoning
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The extraordinary plummet put Europe in the spotlight for a company typically hurting from expansion in more emerging markets. Brian Olsavsky, Amazon's chief financial officer, told reporters: "Fuel cost and the impacts of the Ukraine war are hitting the economies in Europe even harder than the U.S., and that's showing up in consumer spend." "Consumer sentiment in Europe is at an all time low," Unilever PLC (ULVR.L) Chief Financial Officer Graeme Pitkethly told reporters, warning likewise of rising inflation and depleted household savings. Mastercard Inc's (MA.N) chief financial officer said Thursday that the credit card provider so far noticed little change in European consumer spending volumes. Still, a wide range of multinational companies have warned of weakness in European markets.

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