25 February 2025
If you are covering the departure of Unilever’s CEO, please find below a comment from Chris Beckett, head of equity research at Quilter Cheviot:
“Losing a chief executive after 18 months is never a good thing. For Unilever, especially during a strategy turnaround, it does not suggest things were going well behind the scenes or the business was firing on all cylinders. The last set of results suggested that turnaround had stalled somewhat, with weak guidance and sales growth only likely to improve as the company passes on higher commodity costs.
“Evidence of quick operational improvements are needed when you are embarking on a new strategy, and with new management. The change at the top of Unilever will not see a change in that strategy, which is positive, and guidance has been reiterated. However, the new CEO, current chief financial officer Fernando Fernandez, will have been pivotal in agreeing and implementing that strategy and ultimately is the best the company could do for now. He is well liked and respected and is unlikely to rock the boat, but clearly, as recent results show, work still needs to be done to bring back that momentum.
“Unilever has a long way to go on its road to recovery. The share price offers a bit of headroom to do that, but events such as this will not go down well with investors. Results will be watched even more closely now to ensure there are no signs of cracks within that turnaround strategy.”
