14 November 2008 - Unilever is confident that the global economic downturn will not negatively impact its business.
At an investor seminar on Wednesday, Vindi Banga, who is President of the Foods, Home and Personal Care business for Unilever, argued that his company is in a relatively better position than many of its competitors due to the broad width of its category positions enabling opportunities and challenges in times like this.
"Our broad geographic footprint will also play to our advantage because different countries, economies, societies will be impacted very differently in different points in time", added Vindi Banga.
The Unilever executive also acknowledged the fact that Unilever is better prepared as the company has strengthened its brands and improved its cost structure over the last 3 years.
"So we enter this in a stronger and fitter ship as the waters get turbulent and I think that should help us", he said.
Vindi Banga also believes that Unilever is doing its best to realign its plans continuously and dynamically and expects that the economic downturn is going to play in Unilever's advantage but he did admit that there are tough times ahead.
Also commenting on the crisis, Unilever's CEO Patrick Cescau added that, contrary to common belief, he expects that the developing and emerging world will be impacted but it is far more resilient than in the past. He added that macroeconomic management is more transparent and foreign exchange is better. He also pointed out to positive consumption forecasts for these markets.
"We are unlikely to see boom and bust cycles in the developing world", he said.