Unilever Indonesia Profit Slides Again in Q1 2025 on Consumer Shift, Tariff Risks
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JAKARTA, investortrust.id – Consumer-goods company PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk has posted another profit decline in the first quarter of 2025, underscoring how quickly Indonesian shoppers are trading down amid a tougher economic backdrop.
Net profit fell 15 percent to Rp 1.23 trillion (about US$78 million) for the three months ended March, compared with Rp 1.44 trillion a year earlier. Revenue slipped to Rp 9.46 trillion from Rp 10.07 trillion, while gross profit narrowed to Rp 4.55 trillion. Earnings per share eased to Rp 32 from Rp 38 as EBITDA retreated to Rp 1.82 trillion.
President Director Benjie Yap said the company had “taken bold, decisive actions” over the past year to stem a six-year profit slide. Those measures ranged from price adjustments and plant-wide cost efficiencies to an ongoing plan to divest the loss-making ice-cream unit—steps he described as necessary to restore “healthy” gross margins.
Unilever’s profit has dropped every year since 2019, sliding from Rp 7.39 trillion to Rp 3.4 trillion in 2024, despite repeated efforts to refresh its product mix and revamp distribution. Shareholders last month approved a wider business overhaul aimed at stabilising earnings in 2025.
The overhaul comes as the company braces for fresh external shocks. Speaking at an online briefing on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, Mr Yap warned that President Donald Trump’s proposed reciprocal tariffs could hit input costs just as a weaker rupiah inflates the price of imported raw materials and packaging.
“We face direct exposure on imported ingredients as well as indirect exposure through packaging,” he said. “We have hedged currency risk, renegotiated supply contracts and reshaped our cost base so we can react quickly over the next few months.”
He added that Unilever had introduced targeted price rises and stepped up collaboration with suppliers to soften the currency blow. Those actions, combined with accelerated cost-cutting, were intended to keep margins within the “healthy range” in coming quarters.