Dive Brief:
- For Q1, Unilever reported a 2.8% boost in underlying sales, excluding currency moves, acquisitions, and disposals. This beat analysts' average predictions of a 2.1% increase.
- In its food segment, sales growth came in at 2.9% and volume growth at 3%.That volume growth was the highest across all segments. Profit growth, however was the lowest for this segment, as it dropped 0.1%.
- Unilever's refreshment market, which includes the Ben & Jerry's brand, saw sales growth of 2.5% but also showed a volume loss of 0.2%.
Dive Insight:
Cooking ingredients in emerging markets and soups in Europe contributed to Unilever's success in the food segment while Hellmann's new squeezable packaging in the U.S. also led growth in the dressings market. Unilever attributes positive numbers in the refreshments category to innovations in some of its premium ice cream brands, particularly Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, and Magnum Pink and Black varieties.
"Despite high levels of currency and commodity volatility, we are now starting to see more tailwinds than headwinds in our markets, and expect our initiatives to deliver a further improvement in volume growth in the remainder of the year," said the company's CEO Paul Polman in a statement.