DEAR SHAREHOLDER.* UNILEVER Unilever Either of two linked companies, Unilever PLC (based in London) and Unilever NV (based in Rotterdam). They are the holding companies for more than 500 firms worldwide that manufacture and sell soaps, foods, and other products. This Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant churned ahead with strong growth and aggressive cost-cutting, but analysts say revenues are likely to fall below company projections for Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. for the rest of this year Sluggish sales are also expected for Bestfoods, the US$20 billion acquisition Unilever continues to integrate. * COCA-COLA The economy may be soft in Latin America, but soft drink sales aren't. Following a boost in local marketing, beverage giant Coca-Cola saw strong sales growth throughout the region. Despite Argentina's abysmal a·bys·mal adj. 1. Resembling an abyss in depth; unfathomable. 2. Very profound; limitless: abysmal misery. 3. Very bad: an abysmal performance. economy, Coca-Cola posted 16% growth there for the second quarter as new products helped it nab a bigger share of the market. * PRAXAIR The regional slowdown For articles with similar titles, see Slow Down (disambiguation). A slowdown is an industrial action in which employees perform their duties but seek to reduce productivity or efficiency in their performance of these duties. is slamming The unauthorized switching of your long distance telephone provider. Unethical marketing organizations contact the local telephone company and claim that certain customers have authorized them to handle their long distance. Praxair, the largest industrial gases company in North and South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . With sales down and a recovery not expected until 2002, the company is bolstering its e-commerce e-commerce, commerce conducted over the Internet, most often via the World Wide Web. E-commerce can apply to purchases made through the Web or to business-to-business activities such as inventory transfers. operations in order to cut sales costs. Currently, 10% of its clients buy online; Praxair wants 25% by 2004.
BIG COMPANY WATCH
Latin American sales in US$ millions as of June 30, 2001
% CHANGE
IIQ00/11Q01
Company SALES IIQ01 Percent of
USS MILLIONS total sales
UNILEVER 1,599 37.8 12.7
COCA-COLA 589 14.8 11.1
KELLOGG 175 9.1 7.5
CATERPILLAR [1] 370 7.5 7.2
AVON 495 7.1 34.0
ERICSSON 922 5.0 16.0
MCDONALD'S 432 0.5 4.2
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE 614 -3.5 26.3
GOODYEAR [2] 251 -5.3 8.0
WHIRLPOOL 379 -5.6 14.7
PRAXAIR [3] 166 -8.3 12.6
NOTES
(1) Machinery and engine sales only.
(2) Tire sales only.
(3) South American
SOURCES: Company reports, LATIN TRADE.
Note: Table made from bar graph
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