Unilever Q3 sales growth misses expectations

Consumer goods giant Unilever reported weaker-than-expected growth in third-quarter sales on Thursday as growth in India and China slowed.

Third-quarter underlying sales growth was 2.9%, missing consensus expectations of 3%. Meanwhile, turnover increased 5.8% from 2018 to €13.3bn.

Growth was driven by emerging markets, which saw underlying saw sales up 5.1% amid strong growth across South East Asia. Unilever said growth in India softened further while China slowed a little. In Latin America, the economic environment remains "difficult", it said.

In terms of categories, the home care segment performed the best, with underlying sales growth of 5.4%. Beauty and personal care saw a 2.8% increase, while foods and refreshment sales were up 1.7%.

Chief executive officer Alan Jope said: "We have maintained momentum in the quarter, with a good balance between volume and price. Emerging markets and home care have been the key growth drivers. We will step-up competitive top line performance through innovation and portfolio evolution to serve the faster growing geographies and channels.

"We are committed to delivering superior long-term financial performance and balanced, compound growth of the top and bottom line through our sustainable business model. We are taking action to remain relevant to the consumer of the future, such as setting stretching goals on plastic use which we recently announced."

For the full year, the company continue to expect underlying sales growth to be in the lower half of its multi-year 3-5% range.

At 1200 BST, the shares were up 1.4% at 4,663p.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "Your grandmother might have told you to drink hot tea to cool down on a hot day and maybe this explains why consumer goods giant Unilever has seen sales of brands like PG Tips and Lipton slide as summer 2019 fails to live up to the 2018 heatwave.

"The comparatively cooler and wetter summer undoubtedly meant more Ben & Jerry’s ice cream stayed in the freezer.

"This helps explain why third quarter performance was a smidge short of expectations with 2.9% growth and very slightly behind the performance of rival Nestle which also reported today."