Unilever achieves profitable growth during challenging 2014

Unilever has announced its financial results for 2014, during which it was able to achieve profitable growth, despite the ongoing challenges posed by current trading conditions.

The company's turnover for the year came to 48.4 billion euros (37.23 billion pounds) – down by 2.7 percent compared to 2013, but this was mostly due to negative currency trends. When looking at underlying sales, the firm achieved year-on-year growth of 2.9 percent.

It means Unilever was able to outperform the rest of the market, with earnings per share up by 11 percent at constant exchange rates, in spite of economic headwinds. This continued the pattern the group has been able to establish over the last six years.

According to Unilever, this is evidence of the company's strong resilience. Given that significant improvements in market conditions are not expected in 2015, the next 12 months are anticipated to follow a similar pattern.

Unilever chief executive officer Paul Polman said: "We expect our full-year performance to be similar to 2014, with the first quarter being softer but growth improving during the year."

Earlier this month, the company welcomed prime minister David Cameron for a tour of its hub in Port Sunlight, which was recently expanded following a 200 million pound investment, making it the new home of the TRESemme and Radox brands.