Unilever targets six per cent growth

UNILEVER GHANA Limited, the country unit of Unilever global is promising a six per cent growth leap in its 2011 growth from the 19 per cent recorded last year.
The Ghana subsidiary of the multi-national company last year recorded an impressive end of year growth rate of about 19 per cent after staggering through the first half of the year.
The Managing Director of Unilever Ghana, which now hosts Unilever West Africa operations, excluding those of Nigeria, Mr David Mureithi however, said the company now aimed at consolidating those gains it achieved in previous years. 
Speaking at the 15th Unilever Ghana Customer Awards and Gala Night in Accra, Mr Mureithi said "inspite of the difficulties in 2010, we ended the year with a growth rate of 18.9 per cent."
That acheivement, he said was "driven mainly by the investments the company made in its operations.
Global Unilever has a growth target of doubling its current turnover by 2020 and Mr Mureithi said  Unilever Ghana is determined to achieve that goal by 2015"
He thus thanked the company's customers and distributors for their commitment to their respective operations and urged them to devise more innovative marketing strategies to meet the challenges and opportunities in the years ahead.
He observed that the present socio-economic and political crises in  Cote d'Iviore and Northern Africa coupled with the surging global commodity and crude oil prices had the tendencies of inducing prices of the company's brand up.
"The price of palm oil, one of our key raw material has gone up by 60 per cent in the last six months", Mr Mureithi said adding that these events posed great challenges for the company's 2011 operations.
The MD also repeated the company's call on government to review the Environmental Tax which took effect this year. "We urge the government to meet industry half way by promptly reviewing its plans for the sector for the year in the light of the current realities. The relevant representatives must therefore be engaged to draw up an implementation win-win strategies to enable industry continue to operate cost-effectively", he said.
According to him, Unilever Ghana would in the coming days share with its clients and other stakeholders its plans of reducing environmental impact as it had done with its growth targets for the year.
Mr Akofa Ata, the Customer Development Director (CDD) of the company said Unilever Ghana valued the services and operations of its clients and distributors and would support them in various ways necessary to enable them deliver effectively to the success of both sides.
 About the future, Mr Akofa said "it is our hope to partner you a lot more for us to co-creat some elements of our mixes together." He also used the opportunity to declare 2011 as a 'Turbo Charged Year'  for the company's operations.
Various customers and distributors of the company's numerous brands were awarded various sums of money ranging from GH¢1,500 to Gh¢60,000 as prices for their sterling performances in their respective fields of operations.