Volumes challenging in India due to GST, says Unilever

FMCG major Unilever's volume in India for the first half of this year was "flat in aggregate" on account of destocking of trade partners due to migration to new tax regime GST and economic crisis in Brazil.

Besides, business in countries like Indonesia was adversely impacted by fewer trading days due to public holidays, Unilever PLC said in its first half (H1) results statement.

"In India, trade stock levels thinned in the second quarter ahead of the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, while markets in Indonesia were adversely impacted by fewer trading days due to public holidays," it said.

The overall market conditions have remained challenging and volumes were virtually flat in aggregate during the January to June period, it added.

"Volumes in the second quarter were adversely affected by some trade destocking ahead of the Goods and Services Tax implementation in India," the FMCG giant said.

In contrast, it said, China demonstrated a good first half performance, driven by rapid e-commerce sales and modest growth in other channels.

In the personal care segment, Unilever continued to grow the core while expanding in high-growth segments and building in premium positions but market as India eclipsed the overall growth rate.

"Challenging market conditions in some of the key markets - such as India, Brazil and Indonesia - weighed on the overall growth rate," it added.

In the six month period, Unilever's turnover increased 5.5 per cent to 27.7 billion euro, which also included a positive currency impact of 1.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent from acquisitions net of disposals.

Unilever's Asia/AMET/RUB geographical zone, which includes India, reported a turnover of 12.1 billion euro during the period.

"Underlying sales growth was 5.5 per cent in the first half as pricing has increased in Asia in response to rising commodity costs," it said.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman said, "Our first-half results show continued growth well ahead of our markets and a substantial step-up in profitability despite the persisting volatile global trading environment."

Unilever's home care delivered good growth enabled by continued market development and benefit-led innovations.