Helped by robust sales in the emerging markets and higher prices, the world’s second-largest producer of branded consumer products Unilever PLC reported Thursday that there was an underlying sales growth of 7.8% in the third quarter. However, the company cautioned that demand in European and American markets is not encouraging.
The dampened demand in Europe and North America was more than offset by booming consumer purchases in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America shifting the focus of the globalized industry to these emerging markets.
Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Huet said that the growth of 13% in the emerging markets has made this fast-growing sector to now account for 53% of Unilever’s total business. In mature markets, the company is facing a challenging outlook from cut-throat competition and austerity measures.
Unilever reported a turnover of euro 12.1 billion in the third quarter with volume growth of 1.9% and prices up 5.8%. Chief Executive Paul Polman said “These results are especially encouraging against the backdrop of very uncertain consumer demand, hugely volatile commodity markets, natural disasters and geo-political uncertainty in many parts of the world even more so given we have taken pricing earlier than competition.”
At 0815 GMT, Unilever shares were down 1.6% at 2,039 pence, in a wider FTSE 100 index that was 0.7% lower.
Read More : Unilever Posts Higher Sales on Robust Performance in Emerging Markets
The dampened demand in Europe and North America was more than offset by booming consumer purchases in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America shifting the focus of the globalized industry to these emerging markets.
Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Huet said that the growth of 13% in the emerging markets has made this fast-growing sector to now account for 53% of Unilever’s total business. In mature markets, the company is facing a challenging outlook from cut-throat competition and austerity measures.
Unilever reported a turnover of euro 12.1 billion in the third quarter with volume growth of 1.9% and prices up 5.8%. Chief Executive Paul Polman said “These results are especially encouraging against the backdrop of very uncertain consumer demand, hugely volatile commodity markets, natural disasters and geo-political uncertainty in many parts of the world even more so given we have taken pricing earlier than competition.”
At 0815 GMT, Unilever shares were down 1.6% at 2,039 pence, in a wider FTSE 100 index that was 0.7% lower.
Read More : Unilever Posts Higher Sales on Robust Performance in Emerging Markets
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