Unilever’s sales dip but shares rally in new CEO’s first Q1

Unilever’s overall sales dropped 0.9% to €14.8bn in the first quarter of 2025, driven by a weaker performance in personal and homecare products, with sales down 4.4% and 4.2% respectively compared to the same quarter last year. Despite this, the blue chip’s shares opened on the up and continued to rise throughout the morning as investors remain confident in new CEO Fernando Fernandez’s, who took up office in March, turnaround strategy. Overall underlying sales growth (USG) was up 3%, with volumes up 1.3% and price at 1.7%. The business expects a resilient trading year, with a modest underlying sales growth of 3% to 5%. Unilever’s productivity programme is also ahead of schedule and expected to deliver €550m of savings by year end. The separation of the business’s ice cream division is on track, with a demerger set for September 9. Despite a sluggish overall performance, food grew 0.1% year on year to €3.4bn and ice cream 2.8% to €1.8bn. Within food, lead brands Knorr and Hellmann’s put in a “good” retail performance over the quarter, with innovations supporting higher price points. The business’s Food Solutions division was, however “flat” as China “lapped” double digit growth due to a later Chinese New Year. In ice cream, Magnum’s sales upped by mid-single digits as a result of a new Utopia range and the rollout of Bon Bons. Ben & Jerry’s also saw mid-single digit growth, thanks to the launch of larger and shareable packs as well as Sundae flavours. “We have started the year with a resilient performance,” said Fernandez. “First quarter underlying sales growth of 3% reflects the strength of our increasingly premium and innovation-led portfolio in developed markets. “We have interventions in place in some emerging markets to step up growth in the remainder of the year.” In individual market performance, Europe’s USG was up 3.2%, with volume up 3% and prices at 0.2%. North America’s USG was up 6.2% with volume driving 4% and price 2.1%. Latin America saw a USG of 1.5%, though volumes dipped 3% while prices upped 4.6%. Asia Pacific’s performance was more modest at 2% USG, with 0.6% in volume and 1.3% in price. Of the business’s performance over the coming months, the CEO said: “Heightened global macroeconomic uncertainty is a fact; however, the quality of our innovation programme, the strong investments behind our brands and our improving competitiveness give us confidence we will deliver on our full year plans.” Unilever will continue to scale brands and deliver strong market execution to drive volume sales up with a view to delivering a higher performing business.