Dove success boosts Unilever results

Unilever saw its personal care brands start the year strongly, but its household categories are struggling. The multinational says its major restructuring programme is ahead of schedule.

Margins improving

Unilever saw its turnover fall by almost 1 % in the first quarter, as it has continued divesting several brands. Underlying turnover rose by 3 %, to which price increases contributed 1.7 %, and growing volumes 1.3 %. Dove, the multinational’s largest brand, grew by more than 8 %, while strong brands such as Vaseline, Liquid I.V. and Magnum also saw strong growth. However, performance in detergents and household products was disappointing.

Last year, the group announced a restructuring programme, which saw it cut around 7,500 office jobs worldwide and is said to be ahead of schedule. This year, the operation should already deliver 550 million euros in savings, the multinational says. The IPO of the ice cream division, planned for the fourth quarter under the name The Magnum Ice Cream Company, is also still on track.

CEO Fernando Fernandez does not fear the increased global macroeconomic uncertainty: “The quality of our innovation programme, the strong investment behind our brands and our improving competitiveness give us confidence we will deliver on our full year plans”.The company expects a slight improvement in margins during the year and states that the impact of import tariffs will be “limited and manageable”.