So, Unilever etc. Gaspingly large consumer products company.
One of the brands is Persil. Which has been on sale in my local supermarket for 3 years now. It is always – and I do mean always – 40 to 60% off.
That could be the supermarket running it as a loss leader but even then brands don’t like to be made to “look cheap” in that manner.
It’s also true that it’s just one brand in a portfolio and this is just one supermarket in a minor European market.
The thing is, based on this extremely limited evidence, I’d not be all that sure that Unilver is preserving the premium nature of its brands. Which isn’t good at all for a company which is based on the very idea of being able to charge a premium for premium brands.
Instead, Jope has served up several nasties too messy for the cleansing power of Persil or Surf. First came a sales warning in December 2019, then a margin miss in February last year. These were topped off with more bad news on margins in July caused by inflation in ingredient and packaging prices. Shares in the consumer goods giant fell by a cumulative 20 per cent on these days.
Bad news on margins, eh?