Unilever (ULVR) business of spreads looks about as tight as hot margarine. The spreads category includes such hidden Staples like butter, peanut butter, cream cheese, Marmite, even Nutella - see how it works. Spreads make up 7 percent of sales at Unilever and consumer goods conglomerate concentrates strongly on the butter substitute - spread sadness largely a history of margarine to decline seems. The company sold the stuff under a dizzying array of brand name - I can't believe, there is no butter, country crock, Imperial, Brummel & Brown, promise, Becel, flora, Rama and blue band, among them - and there is little advantage in the game.
Last week, when sales for its food in the first half of the year fall Unilever a 1 percent reported , noted the special pain caused the company by "a decline in spreads" and highlighted some problems with margarine as the culprit. Consumers don't like the taste of certain brands (flora, in particular, is not fool anybody to think it would be butter), rivals have been compete on price and shoppers now prefer natural products of the people caused fat come, seem like a useless idea. While growing health awareness can be a factor, consumers seem not categorically averse to buying fat sale of Unilever Hellmann products grow. A variety of nonbuttery alternatives vying for toast topping privileges, including The fast-growing segment of the hummus. These are problems that would be powerless to resolve also Fabio flowing locks.
Maybe this is more a Unilever problem than a worldwide rout of margarine. While global sales of butter and spreadable oils ticked down in 2012, according to data from Euromonitor international, investment business margarine post - an increase of 1.1 percent. But sales is one of the largest U.S. brands of Unilever, I can't believe it's not butter, by 3.9 percent to $418 million.
Unilever Chief Paulus Gerardus Polman said last week earnings conference call, that rotate the spread business requires more than compete on price. "It's about the right taste," he said. "And it's about the perceived naturalness of our products." What Unilever sees, such as his "better-tasting products", such as Becel introduces gold, more markets and "do well", said Polman. The company plans to improve the marketing of its spread as "the healthy alternative to butter", he noted. Unilever does not respond to a request for comment.
Polman says he sees business improve the printed sheets so as it remains "a difficult market." So you dry oily tears.
