Unilever's growth in the third quarter adversely affected by poor weather in Europe and natural disasters in the America, according to its latest trading statement.
The Anglo-Dutch maker of Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s noted, that in Europe, consumer demand remained weak and the retail environment challenging. Ice cream was the main source of volume decline across the region driven by poorer weather in the quarter against a strong prior year comparator.
However, this was partially offset by a good Home Care performance, particularly in the United Kingdom.
The sales trajectory of the spreads business 'continued to improve for another quarter with volumes now almost flat'.
Paul Polman, chief executive officer said that natural disasters in the Americas also affected the groups sales.
On a global scale the groups overall figures showed that it underlying sales increased 2.6% driven by emerging markets growth of 6.3% whilst developed markets decreased 2.3%.
Looking Ahead
In its statement, it outlined that its accelerating Connected 4 Growth (‘C4G’) programme is continuing to make good progress against the objectives the group has set out such as its new Country Category Business Teams which is helping to make its 'innovation pipeline stronger'.
This enables Unilever to roll out global innovations faster, and 'be more agile in responding to local trends'.
Looking ahead, Polman outlined, "For the full year, we continue to expect underlying sales growth within the 3 – 5% range, an improvement in underlying operating margin of at least 100 basis points and strong cash flow."
© 2017 - Checkout Magazine by Donna Ahern
