Unilever strives to keep price low despite tax reform program

Unilever Philippines, Inc. said that they will do their best not to pass on higher prices to consumers despite of being affected with the tax reform program and expects to have an increase as a whole.

“As much as possible we don’t expect to pass on the higher prices. We try to look for way to keep the price [low] so we might do some hedging, find some areas to save on costs. That has always been the agenda for marketing just to make sure that the prices are kept to a minimum. It’s something that we’re looking at,” Ed Sunico said Vice President for Sustainable Business and Communications.

Sunico said that they are hoping for growth on consumer spending despite the increase on crude oil and the raw materials coming from China. He added that only a small part of Unilever Philippines’ business will be affected by the first tax reform package which impose excise tax on sugar-sweetened drinks for health purposes and that is the Lipton iced tea brand.

They believe that 2018 will be as good or even better as last year.

“All products have been growing but last year has been very good for us in our foods and ice cream business because they were saying that we had a pretty long summer last year. The foods category is around 20% of our business,” he exclaimed.

Furthermore, Sunico added that in the first quarter, they will be opening their largest distribution center in the Philippines in Cabuyao, Laguna.

They are also working for a greener environment as they are planning to embrace CreaSolv, a German technology that helps reduce waste and plastic pollution.

They are currently looking for investors so they could build a recycling facility in the country. However, this project still depends on the success of the initial project that will be done in Indonesia.

Sunico also added that they want this technology to be used by the whole industry as it could help diminish pollution brought by plastic and other materials.

The Global Company Unilever has been working for this technology since 2011 together with Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Germany.

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