James Allison
Management
[Presentation] There we go. I'd say a small step for mankind, a big step for Unilever.
Unilever PLC (UL)
Q4 2012 Earnings Call· Wed, Jan 23, 2013
$56.99
-1.23%
Same-Day
-0.60%
1 Week
+1.15%
1 Month
-1.95%
vs S&P
-1.70%
James Allison
Management
[Presentation] There we go. I'd say a small step for mankind, a big step for Unilever.
Unknown Executive
Management
It's hot in there.
James Allison
Management
It's very hot. And I'm telling you, don't become an astronaut. Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: I think we've had a 150,000 applications for those 22 lucky people next year to go to the moon and that was within 4 days. And so I hope that you put your applications in, but the chances are low that you'll be taken. 2 of them are taken already in 2011 [ph].
James Allison
Management
I feel like saying ground control to Major Tom commencing countdown engines on. Martin [ph], you can probably use that later on. As you can see, we've got Paul and Jean-Marc, Lieutenant Paul and Sergeant Jean-Marc as there going to be known this morning, who are going to do the presentations, apparently in their astronaut outfits. So -- that probably means, they're going to lose about 10% of their body weight in sweat during the course. So the Axe -- tons of Axe that we have outside, we had an ulterior motive for that. You might be needing those by the end of the presentation. We have a number of the Unilever Executive here with us this morning. Let me just -- I'll let you know who they are. We've got Pier Luigi Sigimondi, who's our Chief Supply Chain Officer; over here, we have Doug Baillie, who you know very well our Chief HR Officer; we have Geneviève Berger, who is our Chief Science Officer. And next to her, we have Tonia Lovell, who is our Chief Legal Officer. So they're here and if your questions move in that direction, I'm sure Paul or Jean-Marc may ask them to make their particular contributions. So this morning, Paul is going to share his reflections on the year as a whole and Jean-Marc will cover the financial highlights. And Paul will then finish by briefly looking at some of the areas where we want to step up our performance as we strive to become fit to win. As usual, I draw your attention to the disclaimer relating to forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures. And with that, it's my pleasure to hand you over to Paul for his opening remarks.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Okay. We thought consumer goods products were dull. Anyway, happy New Year to everybody and obviously nice to see so many familiar places faces in the audience. You'll see from the chart, our new wonderful Axe campaign that you've been exposed to where we actually promised, as Jean-Marc said, to take 22 lucky people into outer space. So if any of you fancies to go beyond the Earth's atmosphere, you know what you have to do. And you don't have to wear this outfit to qualify. Now judging by some of the stuff that I actually read recently, it actually occurs to me that 1 or 2 of you are probably already no strangers to outer space in the first place. Now thanks for making time to join us today. And thanks also for those of you who are listening from around the world. I hope by now that the Unilever story is familiar to you. So we'll try to keep it brief this morning and leave more time for questions. It's worth reminding ourselves of what we set out to achieve. Simply put, it is consistent growth ahead of the market, consistent improvement in core operating margin and cash flow. And then obviously at the same time, consistently investing for the long-term health of this business. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan and our mission [ph] of doubling our turnover result environmental impact and providing positive social impact, obviously, guides us. Now we do this whilst at the same creating a performance culture with an acute, external orientation, an obsession for satisfying the needs of consumers and customers and agile enough to thrive in this focal world [ph] I talked about many times. This last year, our remark at 2011 had been one of the most challenging years that I…
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Thanks, Jean-Marc. Thanks, I appreciate it. The -- let me finish by just covering 2 areas briefly. First, the outlook for 2013 and then areas where I specifically think there is some room for us to further step up performance as usual. Now it's not obvious to me, first of all, that the markets are going to be any easier in 2013, as I mentioned to you. And certainly, the competitive environment is not going to be more benign either. Governments everywhere are treading a very fine line between their cuts and austerity measures at the one hand and then the central banks simultaneously providing the quantitative easing on the massive scale that you have seen just to keep our economies from stagnating. And I'm obviously talking here Europe especially, but also the U.S. And consumers will continue to feel the effect of these austerity measures more and more. Retailers also are feeling the pinch. They reflect the total economy, and they're fighting for consumers at a zero-sum game, increasingly looking for exceptional values. Many of our competitors have lost ground for too long, and I'm sure they will come back in 2013, increasing to some extent the cost to compete. So we are prepared once more for an even more challenging year and there are certainly more for us to do as we transition this company from what we call capable of delivering, consistent top and bottom line growth whilst having sufficient juice in the system to absorb the bumps that will come along the road. And at the same time, obviously, preparing this company even stronger for an increasingly resource-constraint future. Now where we need to focus on is that it demands for us even better progress on gross margin. Not only as a source of operating margin…
James Allison
Operator
Thank you. Thank you very much, Paul. So the usual routine here. So if you're in the room and you want to ask a question, just stick your hand up. And then if you get selected, please remember to hit that button on your console. Please tell us who you are, who you represent. And if you don't mind, can I restrict you to 2 questions, please. We'll also be taking questions on the phone lines. [Operator Instructions] So we're going to start in the room. Martin Deboo, did you have your hand up there? Do you want to go first, Chris? You go first, well, Martin is getting himself ready.
Christopher Wickham - Oriel Securities Ltd., Research Division
Analyst
Chris Wickham from Oriel Securities. Just a quick question on the growth. I mean, you've talked about food and acceleration there. I mean, do you think it's likely that the asymmetric pattern of your growth between emerging market and mature markets will shift so that we will start to see a better balance of the growth between the 2? And as a follow-up to that, does that have clearly positive implications for your ability to convert organic sales growth into EPS growth?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Yes, specifically talking of food, Chris?
Christopher Wickham - Matrix Group Limited, Research Division
Analyst
I'm talking food and the implications of that for the asymmetric nature of growth between emerging markets and mature markets?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
So as you know, although we have 55% of our food -- of our overall business in the emerging markets just to -- we has the statistics once more. On the food side, it's still more the 40%. Now while we are confident in our food business, obviously, is if you first look at it a little bit more granularly, increasingly, our food business is, really, if you take refreshments out because we're not -- that is food, the beverage and ice cream. But I'm talking about the rest of our business is basically now 3 big core activities. And that's -- we're getting nearly to that point now which is margarines, dressings and then hopefully savoury. And margarine, as I mentioned before, the markets are down and continue to decline but we have actually in margarine, we're growing our share. We're growing our share in a declining market. And we obviously play the volatility cycle and manage our cash flow. That will be a drag on the growth rates but it will be a contribution to the overall financial performance of the company. And we will continue to manage it that way, without expansion so you won't see any footprint shift in margarine in the foreseeable future. Then the second business is our Dressings business. Actually, a very healthy business. Growing very well by the way and we continue to expand that business. It was a good pipeline of innovations that you're familiar with and we're very confident there. And our Savoury business is the balance of the business where again it's about 40-60 ratio that we have to move to the other side. Our emerging market business is growing well. Our European business, we have too much of that is because we have of relatively small business in…
James Allison
Operator
Martin? Martin John Deboo - Investec Securities (UK), Research Division: Sorry, 2 questions if I may. First is on the refreshments business. I mean, it looks as if you had very good growth acceleration and accelerating margin expansion in H2 in that business is strikingly good. Can you just give us some more commentary on that but also is that a momentum that you would expect to carry into FY '13 in refreshments? Second question, Jean-Marc, is on gross margin. You're guiding to high single digit input inflation but obviously the other side of the equation is how you're managing the top line in terms of maxing the mix, et cetera. So what -- how would you expect the gross margin outlook to be in FY '13?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Okay. Thanks, Martin, on the refreshments side, we're actually on the Kevin Havelock's leadership, we're pretty happy with what is happening there because ice cream now is truly becoming a global business. Ice cream was a little bit where food was before was very much geared towards the Europe whilst the U.S. was a bulk in home business which frankly isn't very attractive. We have obviously with the launch of Magnum in the U.S. and some other activities that we've done, we are increasing our impulse business which is more profitable also out of home and that strategy is working for us. We've seen the same in Europe obviously, where out of home is still an enormous opportunity. We think that could be up to EUR 1 billion in incremental business. So changing this footprint from margin destroying in home bulk business to the more impulse added value out of home. Magnum is obviously an enormous success story. Since I started in the company, Magnum was EUR 550 million in turnover and now we just passed the EUR 1 billion barrier and that's just in 4 years time. It's one of the greatest success stories, I think, in the history of consumer goods. Perhaps not sexy for many, but certainly should be sexy for our investors. And we increasingly have taken their opportunity and their confidence to launch our ice cream businesses in the emerging markets. This is actually amazing if you think about it because the weather environment there is a whole year ice cream environment. That business doesn't need to be seasonal. And with the launches in Indonesia that you have seen when you were there which is an enormous success and continues to grow, we have added to that and all of the other places in the…
James Allison
Operator
Okay. James [ph]?
Unknown Analyst
Analyst
It's James of Australian [ph] from RBC. 2 questions if I may. Can you explain a bit more on the reasons for the Americas strength in Q4 and how sustainable that is? And also just around nerdy question but A&P, I think, you said was EUR 6.5 billion for the year. It was around EUR 470 million. On my calculation, that means a fall of about 30 basis points, but I think there was a chart where you showed it was flat. What's the difference between those 2?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Very quickly, James. On North America, again, as I said, we don't want to really take these discussions on quarterly numbers and once-offs, but we have this impact of this change that we have last year 2011 that for North America alone that's probably about 400, 500 basis points, by memory. So if you remember, it's a base question on the quarter. I think the North American market on a macroeconomic level, we'll see an economy that might be growing at around 2% level. It hasn't done that well in the last 2 years. But it's slightly there. Some signs that the U.S. is slightly picking up and we should be slightly above that with our innovation program net of divestiture obviously. On the A&P, I think what you probably looking at is apples and pears for the M&A, foreign exchange part of it. But if you look at the total, it's absolutely flat so we can take you through the calculation, if I may.
Unknown Analyst
Analyst
Yes, I'll do that afterwards. Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: Your point is the right one, don't extrapolate UVG in Q4, given the point that Paul mentioned on North Africa implementation in the 12 months prior.
James Allison
Operator
Jeremy?
Jeremy Fialko - Redburn Partners LLP, Research Division
Analyst
It's Jeremy Fialko, Redburn. Couple of questions. Firstly, on the commodity guidance, you're looking for low to mid-single-digit increase. Now that was certainly lower than what we've seen in previous years. In some of the commodities that we look at, things like edible oils, which are very big items to you. Look as if they're down very significantly year-on-year. So could you tell us as to why the guidance is not sort of lower than that and what sort of the main items where you're seeing kind of cost inflation this year are? And the second question is just on your overheads in 2013. Clearly, you're looking for gross margin, be the main sort of driver of your operating margin progression. Do you think that overheads could end up being up year-on-year as you choose to kind of reinvest more on your capabilities, you think it will be flat or could that be even an additional kicker to your operating margins?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Yes, you want to take the... Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: Yes. So thanks for pointing out because I think someone in the audience said the commodities would be mid-single-digit and it's indeed what we are saying is low to mid-single digits. And as you know, our policy in terms of hedging, simple forwards 3 to 6 months and so that's the P&L view that we have. So again, we maybe in a position to change our views by the half year. That's where we stand today. If you look at your screens on Bloomberg, there'll be spot prices. They can be different to the actual contracts in terms of purchasing. Secondly, there are whole variety of exposures in terms of commodities that we have some that have gone up, others that have gone down also depending on the region where you buy those. But also don't forget foreign exchange and other which we include in terms of our calculation of percentage increase because we're talking about the impact on our P&L.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
I tend to think on commodities that we have a good system, good people looking forward, what we had, what we don't have. This is done very professionally and increasingly so as we, under Pier Luigi's leadership, have globalized that organization. But the reality of today's market is enormous pressures that can come on you from one end to another. Just the drought of grain in the U.S. wiped out 20% of the U.S. crop there. So that has a tremendous effect on the global market at a very short period of time. Obviously, you cover for that. So what is equally important is that we create a system that is able to deal with these increasing shocks that will be coming. Climate change as being one of them. And I think we're in a very good position versus our competitive set because we spent a lot of time on how to deal with that. We're also in a very good position with our brands and the market positions that we hold to manage these things in a way that we don't have to take all of that pressure into our own P&L, if I may. On the indirects, I think that your point on investing in capabilities is absolutely key. We continue to look first and foremost in what capabilities do we need, quality capabilities to fuel the growth. Interestingly, if I go back over the last 4 years and take a little bit of a macro picture, we have invested enormous amounts of money in training and developing our people over EUR 100 million. We've invested enormous amounts of money in bringing our sales capabilities up. We've invested in these state-of-the-art customer innovation centers. We're now investing in the Personal Care capabilities. We've invested in R&D to be…
James Allison
Operator
Harold?
Harold Thompson - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Analyst
Harold Thompson, Deutsche Bank. Just got 2 questions. One is a bit of a follow-up on investing in capabilities. You note in your press release that the Personal Care margin is down because of such investments. Can you maybe slightly expand what you're doing whether it be price positioning of your Personal Care offering or the categories where you're looking to compete in? My second question is kind of following yesterday's announcement on royalty rates in India which is on the back of Indonesia and then there's the Pakistan move as well. Can you maybe just a little update us on your kind of minority participation view which seems to be changing versus maybe 3 or 4 years ago, and how do you see that over the next 5 or 10 years?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Harold, thanks for the question. To be very brief and quick, the views are not changing. The organizational model is changing. And because the organizational model is changing with tasks being performed in different places now. When we were very decentralized, we had a lot of activities in the countries. When we have a more interdependent global structure like ES IT is a good example, our brand groups, our innovation groups if you want to, we have a different organizational model now very clearly than we even had 4 years ago. And that needs to be reflected in these markets to recover the true costs, and that's all what we're doing and we will continue to always look at that. It's dynamic and we're happy with that -- that is the way that is done. By the way, very well auditors in those countries because we have minority shareholders that we need to respect, and we will be the first ones to do that as you can imagine. But if we don't, it's very difficult to defend to other countries. We very much believe in being in each of the countries counting for these countries the benefit of the added value but we also have to recuperate cost if it is somewhere else. On the first question, on the Personal Care capabilities, for example, what you see here is the gross margin in Personal Care actually good. But the investment is A&P, a lot of the investment in A&P went to actually Personal Care because that's where you've seen this great expansion and the 10%, 12% growth. That obviously is part of that. And then the second thing, our capabilities would be, for example, Dave Lewis who leads very capably our Personal Care business is obviously investing in, for example,…
James Allison
Operator
One more in the room and then we'll go to the telephone lines. Warren?
Warren Ackerman - Societe Generale Cross Asset Research
Analyst
It's Warren Ackerman of Soc Gen. Can I just ask about the balance sheet. I mean, the net debt is down. You told us about your priorities in Paris with the free cash flow improving. It looks like you could be kind of net cash almost within 2 years. Just wondering about your kind of priorities within that and would you consider a share buyback or are there more kind of Alberto Culver type deals out there or would you look at your dividend payout ratio because the balance sheet is really very, very strong at the moment. And then just secondly, on the Home and Personal Care growth, obviously, very pleasing that both Home Care and Personal Care grew double-digit in the year. I'm just wondering what you think the overall market growth in both Home Care and Personal Care was. And then you talked about the 60% where you're taking market share. I was just wondering about the other 40% where you're not taking market shares. Any kind of areas that you'd point to, the kind of things that you're doing to try to improve the situation?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Yes, the -- I think the balance sheet. Let me have first, Jean-Marc, if you can do that. Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: Yes, very simply, no change. You saw dividend today and we usually look at that at Q1 each and every year so that's when we will review firstly. Secondly, no intention on changes in terms of use on share buybacks. Yes, we're happy with the free cash flow that we've created, but now is not yet the right time to really look at a different funding financing strategy. In terms of M&A, it continues to be bolt-on M&A, very focused on the EUR 1 billion to EUR 2 billion mark. If it's bigger, that's fine as long as it's not distracting. But just like Paul said, these things are lumpy. We don't rely on it. It's ordinary course of businesses just to add to our existing categories.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
As you rightfully said, Warren, we have probably have 1 or 2 years. So ask the question again next year and we'll see, but let's not run too far ahead of ourselves on that one. The Home Care and Personal Care, actually the Home Care market interestingly is not growing that much. If you look at household cleaners, we see obviously the emerging market growth which is about 5% to 6% there but there's no growth in Europe or the U.S. And all the growth is coming from the added value where brands like Domestos or Cif with their innovation programs which are very strong and the introductions, by the way, we've introduced in 30 countries brands like Cif or Domestos are doing very well. So we're very pleased with that business. And that obviously is more and more for us since we're not in the U.S. really in significant way and in Europe, only in a few countries. It's an emerging market business and that's why you get that higher footprint that gives you higher growth rate. We are well beyond the 55% on those businesses. On laundry, the markets again, if you look at it on a global basis and for us, it's again all emerging markets. On a global basis, that market is probably growing 2% to 3%. In the emerging markets, again, you'll see the 5% to 6% growth rate. So with the double-digit growth rate that we are showing versus emerging market growth rates of 5% to 6%, if you average that out, we are outgrowing the market. And as a result, we are building share. I'm obviously very close to that business. And if you look at 16 sales that I look at, in 14 of those, we are growing share and we're very…
Warren Ackerman - Societe Generale Cross Asset Research
Analyst
Just to clarify, there's a comment about the moderation in growth in HPC. Is that simply a reflection of very tough comps going into 2013 or is it more of a reflection of competitive response potential?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
No, it's a -- if I may be honest, the market growth might be 1% less or more. We don't really want to debate that. But if you continue to grow at 10%, 12% already for 6 quarters now and that's nearly double the growth of what the markets are seeing, we've obviously had a great momentum but it's difficult to -- we will try, but it's difficult to maintain that momentum in perpetuity as your business gets bigger and all that. And as probably some markets mature more and all the factors. So I have to be very transparent with the organization. I mean, obviously including you guys that as I expect that it will be more -- the pressures will be more towards the down than towards the up on that, I need the food business to then perform to give the same outstanding performance that you've become accustomed to. So businesses that we want to have, do better. In share terms, will be the beverage part will come through. The savoury part, those are big blocks for us already. And then in Personal Care, despite doing very well, we want our skin and especially our face business to do better as well. So we have even in Personal Care which has been a brilliant-performing business, we have some businesses that we would say have challenges on the -- and possibilities on the upside. But these are all great opportunities. If a business would grow 100% share which we now have in some of the markets is never healthy. Because if you grow 100%, then your ego starts to grow. So to have a few parts of the business that are suffering, keep you sharp overall. I like that actually so that's where we are.
James Allison
Operator
So we're going to go to the people waiting patiently on the telephone line. Celine, can you hear me and can you ask your questions, please? Celine A.H. Pannuti - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: Yes, I can hear you. I have -- well, my 2 questions. My first one will be on the margin that you did this year was 30 basis points basis, which was your best performance in the past years. So I was wondering whether this is the new sustainable type of rate that you imply when you talk about the being fit to win and a sustainable margin improvement? And am I right in understanding from your comment of the increase cost to compete that we should expect these delivery to be done, despite an increase in A&P in 2013? My second question is on price outlook. It has been a bit of interesting in the fourth quarter that we have seen that pricing as we accelerated in some of the region. So I was wondering whether we should -- what kind of pricing are we going to have in 2013 coming from 2012 actions and whether there is a further upside to pricing for 2013?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Celine, listen, on your 2 very valid questions. The margin improvement this year is a good benchmark of what we are striving for and that's all I want to say on that one. On the cost to compete is exactly why we need the gross margin to continue to improve that volatility that is going out there, including the competitive pressures or if Europe doesn't grow, the retail pressures, et cetera. You have to assume that, that is going to increase. That's the cost to compete. For that, we need to create more flexibility. We use these value in price and this reality checks was the external environment to be sure that the organization continues to focus on taking costs out of the system, et cetera. So I think we can manage them but we are just sharing with you some of the forces that we have to deal with. And then in terms of your last question. Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: Price outlook.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Yes, price outlook for next year, we don't know what happens with all the commodities, et cetera. But as it stands right now, half of the pricing will probably be carryover more or less and the other half will be incremental. And the incremental, I believe, will be more driven by some of the currency changes in the emerging markets. What you already see happening in Europe, for example, is exactly what I said last year. In an environment like this in Europe, it's very difficult to get pricing through. If a consumer has 15% less money or in Greece, 40% less money. If you're going to whack him with a 5% or a 10% price increase, you might as well fold your bags. That's very irresponsible. We are out there to help them. And I will work very hard personally and as a business, to be sure that the consumer doesn't have to suffer more from some of the things that really were outside of their control. So in Europe, we will work very, very hard to be able to take cost out of the system so that we don't have to price. And I'm sure, competition will do the same. So don't expect much. In the others, I think it's again once more, it's about half, half. Like it has been this year by the way. If you do your calculations, you might find to your surprise that there is some pricing over the second half more so than the carryover from the years before. Something that's some of you guys were skeptical about not the ladies obviously. The guys mainly. But you see now that we consistently have that pricing power as well where we need it.
James Allison
Operator
Okay, one more on the line and then back into the room, Celine. So Alain Oberhuber, could you ask you questions, please?
Alain-Sebastian Oberhuber - MainFirst Bank AG, Research Division
Analyst
I have 2 questions. The first is about the inventory turnover. What could be the outlook for 2013 giving that you were very efficient in 2012? And then on the portfolio, Paul, you mentioned about the trimming in the portfolio. Could we expect that such kind of a trimming will be more in the food or in HPC? And what about the parameters? Is it about the size of a brand or the future growth rate of that potential brand which could be divested? Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: Good. Thanks, Alain. So on the first one, just very briefly. If you just do a benchmarking in the broadest sense of our industry, we come very quickly to the conclusion that there's still a lot more that we can do in inventories. If you're actually looking at trade working capital that's probably the place where we can make the most progress. And so that will just continue each and every year. And as Paul said, it's just also a reflection of our systems, our processes working. And that is the real enabler to get stocks down but that will just continue.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
Yes. Alain, I don't want to talk too much about what other businesses would be looked at when we have the acquisitions and divestitures other than we probably have about EUR 0.5 billion to EUR 750 million still of turnover that needs to be looked at because it's either a distraction or it's not -- it's margin dilutive and top line dilutive or it also has no capabilities of global expansion. And we can afford with our current growth rates and momentum to be a little stricter on that because we have enough opportunities to focus the organization as you see behind businesses that are really important to us. So I'm talking about the smaller businesses that you might find. Under some of these conditions are not belonging to one of the global franchises, not being globally expandable, being dilutive for the top and bottom line, then you have to have a very good explanation of why it doesn't work. We, for a long time held onto our Frozen Foods business in Italy under the excuse that we couldn't sell ice cream, otherwise. That turned out to be a fallacy. We sold that business. We did reasonably well in selling it. It allowed us to focus more and our Italian businesses, despite the tough environment there is doing reasonably well. So you get your returns by doing that. You have to be very selective. And likewise, on some of the other minor businesses that you might not even hear about, but the Brazilian tomato business was a commodity business that we ended up having from a historical perspective. We're not going to expand canned tomatoes globally. We have significantly more exciting initiatives like the baking bag or the jelly bouillons that are high-margin businesses growing truly of franchise like Knorr. So we will be looking at those type of things carved out probably a little bit more skewed still in the food side where there are less -- sorry, where there are more remnants still than in the Personal Care side. But there you have it. And we'll talk to them in due time. So with that, I don't -- do we have more time? One more question here. Thanks, Alain, for the question.
James Allison
Operator
We have more one and then we'll be done. So any last question in the room? Alex?
Alex Smith - Espirito Santo Investment Bank, Research Division
Analyst
Sorry, Alex Smith from Espirito Santo. Just maybe if you could jump back to foods. You spend quite a bit about dressings and savoury but you didn't really elaborate much on the spreads business. I think you said it was doing quite well. It was gaining share. If I think back at Q3, I thought the situation was different. I think you said you were losing share and some of your pricing was out of line with your competition. You've made some adjustments in the U.S. You're looking to make some adjustments in Europe. It sounds like things have turnaround. I just wonder if you could elaborate a bit more in spreads.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Management
That's a good memory and that's absolutely correct. You've given the answer. We have put the price equation right again. We found ourselves in a very unique situation than the butter prices were cheaper, although obviously significantly less healthy product but with the pressures on the economy, again, it forces some people perhaps to buy that. Now we have good initiatives coming through like the liquids, the aerated, the gold, Becel Gold is a good example. So on the one hand, we have good initiatives. As we said, winning differently in this category. They are coming through. They're actually growing. And on the other hand, it's exactly what you said. We have corrected the price equations where we needed to on the volatilities of this input costs. Some of that has helped obviously the lower prices on palm oil that we now see and some other things help us there. So we are managing the equation very well. And as a result of that, we see increasingly our business growing share there. In a market, though, I want to reiterate once more that it's not growing to the extent that some of our other markets are growing. But there you have it. As I've said many times, I personally think that actually the people managing that category do actually a very good job in managing it better than I think anybody else can do that I'm aware of. And it plays a crucial role in our total company. And what you buy into, obviously, is Unilever. And what you see here today again once more be it a fight in one of our categories in one part of the world, be it significant cost of expansion of our portfolio in other parts of the world, be it one part of…