Unilever to make significant job cuts in Europe and "other markets to follow"

In its half year financial results presentation, the British FMCG company stated that it has “started (an) employee consultation process in Europe; other markets to follow”, as part of its “cultural change and productivity step-up” strategy.

It is speculated that the business plans to lay off between 3,000 and 3,200 workers in Europe by the end of 2025, which will mainly target office positions rather than factory jobs.

Unilever currently employs around 10,000 to 11,000 office workers in the European region.

CEO Hein Schumacher, who assumed the chief executive role last year, has since been under pressure to reform the company and initiated a Growth Action Plan​ last year in order to do this.

Overall growth: but still missed expectations​

Unilever has revealed its sales results for the first half of 2024, which has missed expectations but still delivered growth.  However, its mass-market beauty and wellbeing division has still seen success.

The company declared a turnover up by 2.3% to €31.1bn.

It also shared that underlying sales growth was up by 4.1%, and volume sales were up by 2.6%, which it has attributed to “innovation and brand investment”.  

The business has highlighted that invested 5.3% more of its budget into R&D in 2024, in comparison to 2023.

Mass market beauty sales still strong; while Prestige is “softer”​

Specifically, for its ‘Beauty & Wellbeing’ division, underlying sales grew by 7.1%, and volumes grew by 5.5%.

However, for the second quarter of 2024, the company said that its high-end beauty Prestige brands have seen “softer growth” and that this “reflected a slowdown in the US beauty market.”

In late June, the founding CEO of the Unilever Prestige division Vasiliki Petrou​ stepped down after leading and growing the division for over a decade.

Meanwhile, for the first half of 2024, the Personal Care division grew by 5.6% with 2.9% from volume sales, led by continued strong sales growth of Deodorants.

Going forward, in its Beauty & Wellbeing division, the company plans to focus on three key priorities:

• Elevating its core Hair Care and Skin Care brands to increase premiumisation
• Fuelling the growth of Prestige Beauty and Health & Wellbeing (which it groups together) with selective international expansion
• Strengthening its beauty and wellbeing capabilities

Schumacher said that the company will now continue to “embed the Growth Action Plan, doing fewer things, better and with greater impact.”

“There is much to do, but we remain focused on transforming Unilever into a consistently higher performing business,” he said.