...Over the past several years the phrase c ommodity headwinds has been routinely uttered during the outset of many earnings announcements in this sector. Rising pulp cost was the issue in 2003, join ed by energy in late 2004, an d later, agricultural inputs, which are particularly important to pet food brands from The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) and Colgate-Palmolive Company (Colgate). High input costs appear to be permanent but the real issue is the volati lity they lend to earnings. The industry came into this year with an outlook for oil in the $90 -$100 range. In the first half of 2008 there was a surge in commodity prices, particularly on crude oil and petroleum derivatives. When oil escalated in the firs t half and peaked at $145.29 per barrel on July 3, 2008 on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), up roughly 105% from the same time last year, the phrase commodity maelstrom might have been more appropriate. The industry s response in 2008 was to take an aggressive...
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| Report Type: | Special Report
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| Company(ies): | Alberto-Culver Company, Avon Products, Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Company, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark de Mexico, S.A. de CV, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, L'Oreal SA, L'Oreal USA, Inc., Newell Rubbermaid, Inc., S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Spectrum Brands Inc, The Clorox Company, The Dow Chemical Company, Unilever NV, Unilever plc
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| Ticker(s): | 012032 , ACV , AVP , CL , CLX , DOW , HEN , JNJ , KIMBER.A , KMB , NWL , SPC , ULVR , UNA
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| Issuer: | Unilever NV
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| Free Sample: |
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| Format: | | PDF |  |
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