The world’s largest producer of soap, Unilever said on Thursday that it will keep raising prices for its soaps, detergents and packaged food.
This is owing to its rising production cost. However, it is projected to ease up the hikes in the second half of the year 2023.
According to Reuters, the London-based manufacturer of Marmite, Fairy dishwashing liquid, Dove soaps, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and Dove soaps anticipates cost inflation to continue in 2023 and projects net material inflation of around $1.6 billion in the first half.
The Finance Chief, Graeme Pitkethly said, “When it comes to coverage of the inflation that we’ve seen, we’re currently only sitting at about 75% of the total cost inflation covered.
“That needs to go above 100% to repair our gross margin.”
Pitkethly added that prices will reduce at a lower in the second half.
According to him, “it will be a lower rates of increases…we are probably past peak inflation, but not yet past peak pricing.”
The past years for Unilever saw three unsuccessful acquisition proposals for the consumer health division of GSK.
Also, activist Nelson Peltz joined the board, and Chief Executive Alan Jope announced his departure.
Reuters reported that Hein Schumacher, a dairy executive, was named the company’s new CEO at the end of the previous month.
Meanwhile, it was reported that in the fourth quarter of the year, the underlying sales at Unilever rose 9.2 percent.
This is higher than the analyst’s predicted 8.2 percent increase.
