LONDON (Reuters) -Unilever launched a 1.5 billion euro ($1.6 billion) share buyback on Thursday after volumes increased for the first time in 10 quarters, although its CEO said its performance needs to improve. "Our competitiveness remains disappointing and overall performance needs to improve," Hein Schumacher said in a statement. "We are at the early stages of this work and there is much to do but we are moving with speed and urgency to transform Unilever into a consistently higher performing business."
When the Maersk Tanjong set sail from Thailand on Dec. 2, headed towards the Suez Canal to reach the U.S. East Coast, it was carrying cargo for retailers and clothing brands including Walmart, H&M, Adidas and ASOS, import and shipping data shows. On Dec. 17, it turned south to circumnavigate Africa's Cape of Good Hope, after Maersk paused sending vessels to the Suez through the Red Sea, where Houthi attacks on shipping have triggered delays, costs and uncertainty across global consumer and retail markets.
European, US retailers absorb Red Sea shock, wary of hiking prices zawya.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from zawya.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Unilever, the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, struggled to defend fourth-quarter grocery store market share across most of its categories in Europe and the United States, data shows, as it ceded some of its turf to private labels and cut products. The food and consumer products industry has increased prices sharply on basic goods in recent years to make up for soaring input costs that began with the pandemic and were exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These hikes prompted a cost of living crisis in Europe and the United States, and eventually pushed shoppers towards cheaper private label brands owned by retailers like Carrefour, Tesco and Walmart.
Consumer goods companies are
likely to post stronger fourth-quarter sales growth in Europe
than in the United States, monthly data indicates, boosted by
persistently higher prices in countries like.