The growth of USCE is slowing down, considering it stood at 4.5% in 2015 compared with 2014.
However, the net profit was up almost 50% to RON3.7 million, on the year-ago period.
Unilever therefore continued to improve the bottom line, having stepped into the black in 2014, after slipping into the red in 2009. It posted RON22.7 million net profit and RON865 million revenue last year.
Unilever South Central Europe runs the operations in several countries in the region – Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Moldova and Kosovo from Bucharest. USCE imports and distributes products of the following brands – Knorr, Lipton, Napoca, Algida, Rexona and Dove, while Unilever Romania handles production. Unilever Romania posted RON67 million revenue in 2015 and has a plant in Ploiesti, which makes detergents on the other hand and margarine (Delma, Rama) and food seasonings (Knorr and Delikat) on the other. More than half of its production is exported.
USCE also established a new company in Romania, Unilever BCS SCE SRL, last year, which will handle the local margarine division only.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)