There hasn’t been much praise lately for Alan Jope, the boss of Unilever, pilloried by some big shareholders for an ill-judged and failed bid for GSK’s consumer healthcare division. And though the giant consumer goods group may have lifted sales guidance for this year, investors should be wary of heaping gratitude his way.
Because of price increases, organic sales growth this year is expected to be above the top end of the range of 4.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent suggested previously. Underlying price growth across the group’s three divisions was 9.8 per cent during the first half of the year, which offset a 1.6 per cent decline in sales volumes. That decline is set to worsen over the second half, but the company
