Net profit jumped an impressive 37 per cent, up from €737m in the corresponding quarter last year to reach €1.01bn.
"Commodity pressures have increased sharply, but we have successfully offset these through timely pricing action and continued delivery from our savings programmes," said Patrick Cescau, company chief executive.
The result was driven by solid sales increases for the group as a whole, with growth of 1.2 per cent taking total sales up to €10.24bn, compared to €10.12bn a year earlier. At a constant rate this figure represented growth of 4 per cent, after taking into account the positive impact of currency exchange.
For the first nine months of the year sales were up 1 per cent to reach €30.30bn, while net profit was up 18 per cent to reach €3.35bn.
On a regional basis sales were impacted by a relatively poor performance for the company's Americas operations, which account for a third of all revenues. Sales in the region were down by 2.3 per cent to €3.36bn for the quarter, mainly on account of the poor exchange rate for the US dollar, but were up 2.8 per cent on an underlying basis.
However, the company experienced strong sales from the Skippy spreads, Bertolli frozen meals and Hellmann's mayonnaise brands, as well as good general results from emerging markets in Argentina, Andina and Central America.
European sales, which also account for more than a third of total sales, did not fair so well either, with sales falling 0.6 per cent to €3.88bn, but up 0.7 per cent in underlying terms.
As in the Americas region, the company said there were "positive sales" from emerging markets in Southern Europe, Russia and Poland.
Sales of ice-cream, usually one of Unilever's best selling products in the region, dropped two percentage points to 0.7 per cent, blamed by the company on poor weather over the summer months.
The biggest gains were experienced in the Asian and African region, where sales were up 8.1 per cent to exceed €3bn for the first time.
Growth in this region varied from country to country, with tea selling particularly well in India, China and Japan.
Sales of personal care products were weaker than in the food divisions, the company said, due to a "different phasing of innovation" together with lower skin care sales in a competitive market.
The division reported sales down 0.3 per cent for the quarter, to reach €2.95bn, whereas they were up 1.6 per cent for the nine month period to reach €8.47bn.
Although the results were broadly applauded by the financial world, challenges are expected to lie ahead for the company in the next quarter as commodity costs bite further and the possibility of an economic slowdown looms.
