A strong rise in sales volumes at Unilever has pushed the fmcg giant’s underlying revenue growth up 3.8%.
Achieving underlying growth across all divisions, Unilever pulled in €12.6bn in revenue in the quarter to 31 March 2026. Thanks to the strong euro exchange rate, headline revenues were down 3.3%.
The group’s rise in underlying sales came thanks to strong performances in its emerging markets, where it achieved 5.7% underlying sales growth thanks in part to a return to volume growth in Latin America.
Unilever’s strong global rise in volumes was thanks in part to a 6.2% jump in homecare volumes.
In its first results since announcing the sale of its food division to McCormick – expected by mid-2027 – Unilever achieved a “positive performance” according to CEO Fernando Fernandez, who said he was “confident” Unilever would deliver on its financial guidance.
Unilever said in February it expects sales growth at the bottom end of its multi-year guidance of 4%-6%, with at least 2% volume growth for the full year.
Fernandez is leading a transformation at the fmcg giant, with the carve-out of Unilever’s food business designed to cut slower-growing subsidiaries and concentrate efforts in the group’s more profitable markets.
“We continue to move at speed to build a simpler, sharper Unilever with a structurally higher growth profile and a brand portfolio fit for the future,” he said alongside the Q1 results.
Bernstein analyst Callum Elliott called the results a “solid set of numbers”, though added the bar had been lowered by February’s downward revision of guidance to the lower end of its 4%-6% range.
”Most notable is strong volume growth performance with 2.9% growth by far the strongest performance for the past year,” he said.
“That marks a big unexpected acceleration from 2025, with volumes over 100bps ahead of consensus. However, this appears to be driven to a large extent by pricing, which disappoints somewhat.”
No comments yet