Some companies measure their success based on return on equity or invested capital, or by how much earnings outpace the GDP of the local economy. In the case of Unilever, the mantra is underlying sales growth.
The blue-chip consumer goods producer behind Domestos bleach, Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has a target of generating annual underlying sales growth of between 3 per cent and 5 cent — no mean feat in mature economies.
While it might be tempting to assume that a business that churns out plenty of health and hygiene brands would have benefited from the virus-induced rise in consumer demand for cleanliness, that’s not quite how things turned out last year.
It benefited in some areas — Lifebuoy soaps, for
