Unilever PLC (UL): ANSOFF MATRIX [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking for the clear, actionable growth playbook for Unilever PLC as they navigate 2025, and honestly, it's all mapped out in the Ansoff Matrix. After two decades analyzing these giants, I can tell you their strategy balances defense with bold moves: they are pushing hard on existing brands through increased investment and price competitiveness, while simultaneously anchoring growth in key markets like the US and India and launching major innovations costing over €100 million each. Plus, the planned Q4 2025 demerger of the Ice Cream unit sharpens their focus for targeted diversification, like the recent Dr. Squatch purchase, all while emerging markets still drive 56% of their group turnover. Dive below for the precise breakdown of where Unilever PLC is putting its chips next.

Unilever PLC (UL) - Ansoff Matrix: Market Penetration

Market penetration for Unilever PLC centers on deepening presence within existing markets, primarily through increased brand support and aggressive execution behind its core portfolio. This strategy is designed to drive volume by taking share from competitors and increasing purchase frequency among current users.

The commitment to brand investment remains high. Unilever PLC increased its brand and marketing investment (BMI) to 15.5% of turnover in the 2024 fiscal year, which represented an additional investment of €900 million that year. This 15.5% level was maintained through the first half of 2025, signaling a continued push to amplify consumer engagement and brand loyalty.

Execution focuses heavily on the 30 Power Brands, which are central to the Growth Action Plan 2030. These brands contributed 78% of turnover in the third quarter of 2025. The focus on these core assets is intended to capture competitor market share through superior execution.

Here's a quick look at how the Power Brands performed versus the total portfolio in Q3 2025:

Targeted promotions are a key lever to directly boost volume. The overall underlying volume growth for Unilever PLC hit 1.5% in Q3 2025. This volume drive is supported by specific category performances, such as the 2.5% volume growth in Home Care and 2.3% in Beauty & Wellbeing during that quarter.

The drive for market share is explicitly linked to delivering 'unmissable brand superiority.' This concept is a core component of the Excel pillar within the Growth Action Plan 2030, aimed at building market-making, superior brands.

Financial resources generated from efficiency gains are earmarked to support price competitiveness. Unilever PLC expects to realize around €650 million in savings from its productivity programme by the end of 2025, part of a larger €800 million initiative launched in 2024. These savings help fund actions to maintain competitive pricing, as seen by the overall underlying price growth of 2.4% in Q3 2025.

The actions underpinning this market penetration focus include:

• Driving 10-15 bold innovations at €100 million each across the Power Brands.
• Focusing on 24 top markets which represent nearly 85% of turnover.
• Achieving a medium-term guidance of underlying volume growth of at least 2%.
• Maintaining brand and marketing investment at 15.5% of turnover or higher.

Unilever PLC (UL) - Ansoff Matrix: Market Development

You're looking at how Unilever PLC is taking its existing product lines into new territories or adapting its approach in established, but under-tapped, geographies. This is Market Development in action, focusing on where they are placing their capital and execution muscle for the rest of 2025 and beyond.

Disproportionate investment is being anchored in the US and India for existing product lines. India, which represents 12% of the group's global sales as of the first half of 2025, is a key focus area for volume acceleration. The local unit, Hindustan Unilever, recently achieved 4% volume growth in a recent quarter, signaling positive momentum from these focused efforts. The company is building a marketing and sales machine to drive desire at scale in its power brands within these critical markets.

The strategy heavily leans on accelerating growth across emerging markets, which collectively account for 56% of group turnover as of the third quarter of 2025. For the third quarter of 2025, underlying sales growth in emerging markets stepped up sequentially to 4.1%, though volume growth was only 0.6% in that period, with price contributing 3.5%. This contrasts with the first half of 2025, where emerging markets saw underlying sales growth of 2.8%, with volume growth of only 0.2%.

In China, the go-to-market approach is being tailored to capitalize on premiumization trends, moving past the mid-single-digit declines seen in Q1 2025. The third quarter of 2025 showed a significant improvement in China, with a return to growth following decisive interventions. This aligns with the broader trend where premium segments are delivering strong results; for instance, Dove and Vaseline saw double-digit growth in Q1 2025, supported by premium launches in the Americas.

Expansion of digital commerce channels is a core priority for core brands like Dove and Hellmann's. Unilever is expanding its cloud-based e-commerce and AI-driven platform for small-format retail across emerging markets, aiming for this system to eventually drive more than €4 billion in annual turnover. Currently, this platform supports annualized sales of €2.5 billion, processing 75,000 orders daily across five Asian markets.

Unilever PLC is also focused on entering new regional markets with successful, adapted product variants. This is evidenced by the focus on improving performance in markets like Indonesia, which saw a (4.8)% sales decline in the first half of 2025 due to operational turnarounds, but showed sequential improvement in the second quarter, with the company expecting acceleration in the second half of the year.

Here's a quick look at the regional split and performance as of Q3 2025:

The focus on digital execution is supported by specific channel achievements:

• The B2B digital platform is set to serve up to 1.5 million micro-retailers.
• The platform currently connects nearly 500,000 retailers across five countries.
• Beauty & Wellbeing saw underlying sales growth of 5.1% in Q3 2025.
• The company expects full-year 2025 underlying sales growth to be within the 3% to 5% range.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Unilever PLC (UL) - Ansoff Matrix: Product Development

You're looking at how Unilever PLC is pouring capital into creating entirely new offerings or significantly upgrading existing ones to drive growth, which is the heart of the Product Development quadrant in the Ansoff Matrix. This isn't just tinkering; it's a deliberate pivot toward higher-value, science-backed segments, especially as they streamline the business by spinning off the Ice Cream division.

The financial muscle behind this push is clear. For the quarter ending June 30, 2025, Unilever's long-term investments hit $1.700B, marking a substantial 39.82% increase year-over-year. This investment fuels the pipeline. Furthermore, the company's gross margin reached 45.7% in the first half of 2025, which directly enabled brand and marketing investment to rise by 40 basis points (bps), landing at 15.5% of turnover. This increased spend is earmarked for innovation platforms.

The strategic intent is to scale multi-year innovation platforms specifically within Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care. These divisions are now the core growth engine. In the first half of 2025, Beauty & Wellbeing accounted for 21% of group turnover, delivering 3.7% underlying sales growth, while Personal Care grew by 4.8%. By the third quarter of 2025, the momentum accelerated, with Beauty & Wellbeing sales rising 5.1% and Personal Care up 4.1%.

The focus is heavily on introducing premium, science-backed product lines. This is where you see the strategy in action, moving consumers up the value chain. For instance, Dove's premium body care range emphasizes skin microbiome nourishment, and Vaseline's Gluta-Hya range leverages ingredients like glutathione and hyaluronic acid. Whole-body deodorants are specifically noted as contributing to category momentum within Personal Care. The success of these premium plays is evident:

• Prestige beauty brands like Hourglass and K18 posted double-digit growth in H1 2025.
• Vaseline achieved double-digit volume-led growth, supported by new launches in India.
• Liquid I.V.'s sugar-free line now contributes nearly 30% of that brand's total sales.

Reformulating existing products to meet new sustainability and wellness standards is also a major component, often overlapping with premiumization. The strong performance in the Wellbeing sub-segment, which offset slower growth in beauty in H1 2025, shows this focus is working. The company is channeling its beauty agenda in a more holistic direction, combining beauty with wellness.

This entire effort is designed to focus on higher-margin segments within current categories. The CEO has clearly stated a priority for a 'sharper focus on premium segments and digital commerce'. This aligns with the overall financial goal to achieve an underlying operating margin of at least 18.5% in the second half of 2025, a significant improvement from the prior year. The productivity programme, targeted to deliver €800 million in savings, with a cumulative c.€650 million expected by the end of 2025, frees up capital to be reinvested directly into these higher-margin innovation areas.

Here's a snapshot of the divisional performance underpinning this product development investment:

The commitment to innovation is also reflected in the investment in brands generally. Brand and marketing investment rose to 15.5% of turnover in H1 2025. Finance: draft the Q4 2025 capital allocation plan prioritizing B&W and PC innovation spend by next Tuesday.

Unilever PLC (UL) - Ansoff Matrix: Diversification

You're looking at how Unilever PLC is pushing into entirely new territory, which is the riskiest but potentially most rewarding quadrant of the Ansoff Matrix. This is about new products in new markets, or in this case, entirely new business models and categories.

The first major move here is simplifying the core structure to free up capital and management attention for these diversification bets. Unilever PLC expects the demerger of its Ice Cream unit to complete in Q4 2025, with the business group reported as a discontinued operation from the fourth quarter of 2025. This separation is intended to create a simpler Unilever with a sharper focus. For context, in Q3 2025, the Ice Cream unit itself reported sales growth of 3.7%. The company is still maintaining its full-year underlying sales growth forecast of 3% to 5% for 2025.

To execute this diversification, Unilever PLC is actively pursuing targeted acquisitions. A prime example is the September 2025 purchase of Dr. Squatch for $1.5 billion. This move brings a digital-native men's grooming brand into the fold, complementing existing lines like Axe and Dove Men+Care.

Also in the Beauty space, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a Unilever subsidiary, is expanding into high-growth, actives-led segments. HUL signed an agreement in January 2025 to acquire the premium actives-led beauty brand Minimalist. This deal involves acquiring a 90.5% stake in the parent company, Uprising Science, with completion expected in Q1 of FY 2026. Minimalist had rapidly scaled to cross an Annual Revenue Runrate (ARR) of ₹500 crore (or about US$57.85 million) in just four years.

The push into new categories is also evident in functional nutrition and supplements, which falls under the Foods Business Group. Unilever's 2024 Foods business turnover was €13.4 billion. The company has set a goal for 85% of its portfolio to meet its Science-based Nutrition Criteria by 2028, having achieved 84% progress by 2024. As part of this, in 2024, the Foods business delivered 164 billion servings fortified with at least one of five key micronutrients.

Finally, Unilever is exploring new B2B service models by leveraging the expertise within Unilever Food Solutions (UFS). UFS, which accounts for over 20% of Unilever's Foods Business Group, has seen its Future Menus initiative contribute to turnover reaching nearly €3 billion. This initiative has driven a 12% increase in new customers since its 2023 launch, generating 81,000 new leads in 2024. Separately, Unilever's eB2B system in Asia connects 500,000 small retailers and supports annualized sales of €2.5 billion ($2.67 billion USD).

Here's a quick look at the capital allocation and portfolio changes supporting this diversification:

• Ice Cream demerger expected completion: Q4 2025.
• Dr. Squatch acquisition cost: $1.5 billion.
• Minimalist acquisition stake: 90.5%.
• Productivity savings expected by end of 2025: €650 million.
• UFS turnover contribution: Over 20% of Foods Business Group.

The scale of these concurrent actions is significant, requiring tight execution.

The move into actives-led beauty and functional nutrition shows a clear intent to shift capital toward structurally higher-growth spaces, away from the legacy structure being separated.

• Beauty & Wellbeing Q1 2025 underlying sales growth: 4.1%.
• Foods Q1 2025 underlying sales growth: 1.6%.
• UFS New Customer Increase (since 2023 launch): 12%.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.