Unilever 2001 Annual Report Download - page 8

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Underlying sales grew by 4% in Europe. Growth was broad-
based and included a strong contribution from Central and
Eastern Europe. It was particularly pleasing to see sales of
spreads and cooking products growing by 4.6% fuelled by
the success of pro•activ, Bertolli and the roll-out of Culinesse.
In North America there were excellent performances from
ice cream and Slim•Fast. Our Home and Personal Care
brands across the skin, hair and deodorant categories all
performed strongly.
In Asia and Pacific, sales grew by 6% with a strong
performance in Japan, including the successful launch of
Dove hair care. In India, the more focused brand portfolio
delivered improved growth and profitability.
In Africa, Middle East and Turkey and in Latin America,
a key feature of the year has been our determination to
move prices to recover devaluation-driven cost increases.
Underlying sales grew by more than 5% in these regions.
Responsible corporate behaviour
In 2001, Unilever published its first Social Review spelling
out our approach to corporate social responsibility. We
encourage all our people to play a positive part in the
communities in which they live and work.
We updated Unilever’s Code of Business Principles because
we believe that our reputation for high corporate standards is
a key asset which needs to be fresh and living throughout our
business. The Code is printed in full on the following page.
Our environmental strategy is publicly available and we
are committed to tracking our performance against specific
targets. We made significant progress in developing guidelines
for sustainable production of crops which are key to our
foods business and are working towards the sourcing of
all fish for our business from sustainable sources by 2005.
The number of our local partnerships in the Global Nature
Fund’s Living Lakes initiative grew to 11.
The way ahead
In 2001 a step-up in the growth of our leading brands,
a record operating margin, strong cash flow and the
continued reshaping of our portfolio all provide confidence
about the strategy we have put in place and our ability to
deliver – on time and in full. Our task in the year ahead is to
maintain the momentum notwithstanding a weaker world
economy. In 2002 we are planning to sustain the growth of
the leading brands reinforced by those of Bestfoods and to
again deliver low double-digit earnings growth. Our
confidence comes from the momentum developed in 2001,
and from the energy and enthusiasm which is alight in the
Unilever team.
Antony Burgmans Niall FitzGerald
Chairmen of Unilever
Unilever Annual Report & Accounts and Form 20-F 2001
CHAIRMEN’S STATEMENT >5
Report of the Directors