About the Unilever Group:
Unilever is undoubtedly one of the world leaders in the production and commercialisation of food products and cleaning products. The major part of its turnover comes from hygiene and cleaning products and the rest through food products.
All continents are targeted by the commercial strategy of Unilever but particularly those of Asia and Africa followed by Europe and the Americas.
Unilever’s main competition:
The Unilever company one of the world’s food industry giants, sharing the market with only a few other big multinationals. The latter obviously represent a strong competition and traders wishing to invest on this asset should be familiar with them before investing on this stock. In order to help you carry out your analysis, here’s a ranking of the biggest companies in this line of business worldwide.
- Nestlé is currently the industry leader in terms of sales volumes. Its headquarters are based in Switzerland.
- Unilever is ranked second in terms of sales volume. It owns over 30 brands.
- Then comes Pepsico, based in the USA, occupying the third place.
- Kraft Food, also based in the USA, is the fourth biggest food industry in the world.
- Finally, Coca-Cola ranks fifth in this global ranking.
It is essential to monitor the evolution of each of the market shares of each of the companies in this line of business in order to establish a complete and serious fundamental analysis of the Unilever asset.
Unilever’s main partners:
Of course, Unilever has reached this level of profitability and sales volume thanks to a well-established development strategy based on numerous redemptions and mergers, but also thanks to the implementation of certain strategic partnerships.
In 2003, Unilever established a strategic partnership with one of its competitors, namely Pepsico, with which it created a joint-venture giving birth to the range of ready to serve Lipton tea.
Most recently in 2016, Unilever signed a deal with a Cuban company named Intersuchel with the purpose of creating a joint-venture which they’d call Unilever Suchel. Consequently, Unilever is now considering launching a line cosmetics, personal hygiene and personal care products which would be based in Cuba.
Analysis of the Unilever share price:
The Unilever share price is actually quoted on the Euronext market in Amsterdam.
The real time stock market charts give us a great deal of information including the historical rates.
In fact, following 2005, the price of Unilever shares experienced a severe drop continuing until November 2006 after which came a general rising recovery that can still be observed today. This share price is expected to continue to follow a rising trend over the long term as over the medium term.
Important stock market data concerning Unilever shares:
To conclude this article let us now look at the position of the Unilever Company on the International stock markets. For this we have gathered here some detailed and useful information about this company and its shares on the stock markets that will assist you in increasing your knowledge and develop your understanding of the company and thereby improving your ability to profit from your trading activities:
- In 2017 the stock market capital of the entire Unilever Company amounted to 84,630.39 million Euros.
- The number of shares issued by the Unilever Company and currently in circulation on the stock markets is around 1,714,728,000.
- The Unilever share price is actually quoted in the major section of the European stock market Euronext Amsterdam in Holland.
- Unilever company share prices are also included in the composition of the Euronext 100 European stock market Index.
- Shareholdings in the Unilever Company are composed as follows: 8.72% of shares held by the Vanguard Group, 2.02% held by Nirges Bank Investment Management, 1.83% held by Deutsche Asset Management Investment, 1.23% by State Street Corporation, 1.17% by Lyxor International Management, 1.15% by AAM SA, 1.05% by Blackrock, 0.86% by Wellington Management and 0.78% by FlossbachvonStorch.
Economic and financial history of the Unilever Company:
For an improved interpretation of the historical technical analysis of the Unilever share price, here are some dates to remember relating to major events of this company over recent years.
- In 2010 Unilever purchased Alberti Culver in the United States for the amount of 3.7 billion dollars. In the same year it sold Puget oils to Lesieur.
- In 2011 Unilever purchased 82% of Kalina, the Russian leader in beauty products, which enabled it to become leader of the skin care product sector in Russia.
- In 2013 the Unilever Group sold its peanut butter brand Skippy to the American company Hormel Foods for the sum of 700 million dollars. In the same year it sold its sauce brands Wish-Bone and Western to Pinnacle Foods for the sum of 580 million dollars and the brands Unipro oil and Royal Pasta. Finally, it also sold its hygiene and beauty brands Soft & Beautiful, TCP and Pro-Line to Strength of Nature.
- In 2014 Unilever sold its sauce brands for Ragu and Bertolli pasta to Mizkan for 1.57 billion dollars. In the same year it sold Slim-Fast to Kainos Capital for an undisclosed amount. Still in 2014 Unilever purchased the soap brands Camay and Zest and industrial assets with 170 employees from the Procter & Gamble Company.
- In 2015, the Unilever Group purchased Murad for an undisclosed sum.
- In 2016, Unilever announced the purchase of the Dollar Shave Club, an American shaving products company, for the sum of around one billion dollars. In the same year the group also purchased Seventh Generation, a company specialised in ecological hygiene products.
- Finally, in 2017, the Kraft Group renounced the purchase of Unilever. In the same year, the group announced the purchase of Quala’s hygiene activities for an undisclosed amount.
The advantages and strong points of the Unilever share price as a stock market asset:
Before investing online in the Unilever share price it is of course important that you understand the strengths and weaknesses of this company and therefore its ability to face the future which will of course influence the movements of its share price on the stock markets. We will therefore commence with detailing the major strengths and advantages of this company and its share price as a stock market asset.
Initially, we would of course bring to mind that the major strength of the Unilever group lies with the diversity of its various brands. This group does of course own certain brands that are extremely popular and benefit from strong positions on the consumer goods market. Due to this strong advantage Unilever benefits greatly from a strong penetration of the markets that is greater than many of its direct competitors which enables this company to easily gain other market parts.
The strategy implemented by Unilever over the last few years that has prioritised the increase in its size and the variety of its products through mergers and acquisitions around the world has also enabled the group to improve its organisational growth and therefore of course its revenue. This is therefore another strong point of this group.
We also note that the Unilever group has perfectly mastered the economies of scale. Due to this it is able to benefit from a productive efficacy and thereby implement an attractive pricing policy to increase consumer appeal and lead to an improved production flow of its products.
We also note of course the expansion abilities of the Unilever Company on an international level that has occurred after several years of strategy. Increasingly present on the worldwide market Unilever has therefore increased its position year by year in popularity which is of course another of its strong points.
We could therefore summarise the strength analysis of the Unilever Company as a group that has the capacity of maintaining its growth in the coming years and consolidate its presence on the consumer goods market worldwide.
The disadvantages and weaknesses of the Unilever share price as a stock market asset:
After reviewing the major advantages of the Unilever Group it is now time to also examine the group’s major weaknesses as although this company does have many strong points it also has a few weak points that should also be taken into account.
Firstly, one of the major weaknesses of the Unilever group is related to the actual type of its products. In fact Unilever mainly sells products that can be imitated and therefore easily sold in competition by other companies. This problem occurs even though Unilever has invested significantly in the development of useful and innovative products and it could well represent a true risk of losses.
The fact that the Unilever group has concentrated its activities in the production and sale of only consumer items is also a handicap for this company. In fact, its competitors that have extended the range of their products are also more likely to generate revenue from these different sectors.
Finally, we also note that the Unilever group heavily depends on its external distribution network and retailers to commercialise its products which stops it from having a direct influence on the consumers apart from the centralised advertising it can run on its products.
We can therefore summarise the weaknesses of the Unilever Group as a lack of innovation and diversity in company’s range of products as well as a marketing strategy that could be significantly improved.