Unilever Reports Strong Second-Quarter Sales Growth

Unilever, the multinational company behind popular consumer brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, and Domestos, has announced better-than-expected sales growth for the second quarter of the year. Despite a slight decrease in volumes, the company saw a significant increase in prices, leading to underlying sales growth of 7.9%. This surpassed analysts’ consensus of 6.4%.

In a statement, Unilever noted that while volumes remained flat overall, there was a notable improvement in performance in the Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care sectors, which offset volume declines in other areas. The company’s strategy of implementing price increases proved successful, resulting in an overall growth in sales.

For the first half of the year, Unilever achieved sales growth of 9.1%, surpassing its own compiled consensus of 8.3%. Furthermore, the company reported a pretax profit of 5.27 billion euros ($5.83 billion) for the first half, compared to EUR4.36 billion in the previous year.

Unilever’s turnover for the first half amounted to EUR30.43 billion, with EUR15.74 billion generated in the second quarter alone. Analysts had predicted turnover figures of EUR30.34 billion for the half-year and EUR15.59 billion for the second quarter.

Encouraged by its strong performance, Unilever has raised its guidance for full-year underlying sales growth in 2023 to be above 5%. The company had initially forecasted growth in the range of 3%-5%.

Finally, Unilever’s board declared a quarterly dividend of 42.68 European cents per share, maintaining the same level as the first half of 2022.