Unilever Ghana, last year, increased its profit margin by 23 percent, the company disclosed when it took its turn at the ‘Facts Behind the Figures’ forum organised by the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) for listed companies.

At the event, its Managing Director George Owusu-Ansah disclosed that the company’s revenue increased to GH¢559million in 2021, up from the GH¢456m recorded in 2020. This represented a 23 percent increase in turnover over the period. The company ended the year having recorded a gross profit of GH¢108million, representing a 43 percent increase over the previous year’s performance.

“Operating profit for the year was GH¢2.8m, an improvement over the same period the previous year – when a loss of GH¢22million was recorded – and profit after tax for the year was GH¢400,000 versus the GH¢50million loss recorded in 2020,” he said

Overall, the company’s performance was an improvement over the previous year’s – driven largely by significant investments it made in product innovations and building the equity of its brands. Thirty-eight percent of the company’s portfolio gained market shares as a result. The company also prioritised reduction of waste from its operations.

Mr. Owusu-Ansah disclosed that in addition to a successful conclusion to separation of the Tea Business in 2021, growth was recorded in all three arms of operation – beauty and personal care, home care, and food and refreshments.

“BPC achieved underlying sales growth of 26.8 percent driven by all subcategories… and our purpose-led activities around Pepsodent and Lifebuoy continued in earnest. We reached over 1.5 million mothers and kids, sharing with them good oral and personal hygiene practices,” he explained.

“The HC category achieved underlying sales growth of 24.8 percent despite stiff competition.

The category focused on margin improvement through a mix of product logic initiatives, price increases and grammage reductions to recover from commodity cost increases… the foods and refreshment category achieved an underlying sales growth of 23.5 percent in the year under review… with its ‘owning the seasons’ activities, Annapurna engaged over 400,000 consumers directly and a million more digitally throughout the year,” he added.

He announced that Unilever Ghana is tracking well on its journey to ‘Rediscovering its Greatness’ through its purpose-driven brands.

The managing director remained upbeat about Unilever’s sustainability programmes. He mentioned the company is investing to unlock growth, build talent and help develop skills of the youth. The company’s objective remains to make sustainable living commonplace for all.