Procter & Gamble vs. Unilever (PG, UN)

The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) and Unilever N.V. (UN) are in similar yet different situations. Both companies are cutting costs in order to drive earnings growth, but Brexit has had a much bigger impact on Unilever.

Brexit has led to a plunge in the pound, which has led to Unilever raising prices despite a highly promotional and challenging economic environment in the United Kingdom. This has already led to a dispute with grocery-chain Tesco. The dispute has been resolved, but it still might indicate challenging times ahead.

Unilever now generates approximately 40% of its revenue from skin and hair and sees those categories as key growth drivers. Therefore, it might look to inorganic growth within those categories.

Procter & Gamble is cutting costs at a rapid rate and hopes to save $10 billion over the next five years. At the same time, organic sales increased 3% in the first quarter. Organic sales increased in every segment:

Health Care +7%

Fabric & Home 4%

Beauty 3%

Grooming 3%

Baby, Feminine, and Family Care 2%

Despite cost-cutting measures and contrary to what many investors believe, Procter & Gamble is looking to grow via new product innovations. Procter & Gamble is banking on innovation building categories. This is in addition to innovations off existing products as well as inorganic growth. The biggest headwind for Procter & Gamble is a strong U.S. dollar.

Below are key metric comparisons for each company: