A good ice-cream and lolly season, and better performance in China, helped Unilever to report a stronger third quarter.
The Anglo-Dutch group, which makes Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum ice cream, said that turnover had increased by 9.4 per cent to €13.4 billion in the quarter. Underlying sales rose by 5.7 per cent after volumes jumped by 4.1 per cent and prices rose by 1.5 per cent.
Unilever’s emerging market sector also performed well, with underlying sales growth rising by 8.4 per cent.
Emerging markets, particularly in Asia, account for more than half of the consumer group’s turnover. Last year it generated more than €20 billion of sales in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Paul Polman, the chief executive, said the performance showed that the group’s long-term strategy was paying off.
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Unilever has focused on four categories — food, personal care, refreshment and homecare — and diversified geographically. It has been criticised by some analysts for placing too much focus and investment on emerging markets.
However, Mr Polman said: “Our model of competitive, profitable, consistent and responsible growth is built on sustained investment in our brands, infrastructure and people.
“The sharpened strategies across the four categories are gaining traction and a stronger innovation pipeline is increasingly driving growth.”
He said that the quarter had also been helped by “some specific factors such as a soft comparator in China, strong ice-cream sales and some advanced sales in Latin America”.
In the first nine months of the year turnover grew by 1.1 per cent to €40.4 billion with underlying sales up by 3.8 per cent. There was a 6.8 per cent jump in underlying sales in emerging markets.
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However, Mr Polman said that, although trading had been strong, Unilever continued to “see soft global markets with no immediate sign of getting help from an improving global economy”.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said that Unilever’s third quarter was “good but not great”, but Martin Deboo, of Jefferies, said: “Third-quarter sales have beaten [expectations] handsomely and full-year sales guidance is being lifted. The shares added 100p, or 3.5 per cent, to close at £28.90.