LONDON-- Unilever PLC on Thursday said favorable currency
movements and a shift into more premium products helped it post a
big rise in first-quarter sales.
The maker of Dove soap and Axe deodorant said sales increased
12% to EUR12.8 billion ($13.7 billion) in the first three months of
2015. Underlying sales--which strips out the impact of
acquisitions, disposals and currency movements--grew 2.8%, compared
with 3.6% in the same period last year.
After years of soaring sales growth, Unilever has struggled of
late as the developing markets in which it makes the majority of
its sales have stalled. Underlying sales in emerging markets
increased 5.4% in the first quarter, down from 6.6% a year
earlier.
Unilever has helped mitigate slowing markets by raising prices
and releasing premium versions of its products.
"Despite high levels of currency and commodity volatility, we
are now starting to see more tailwinds than headwinds in our
markets, and expect our initiatives to deliver a further
improvement in volume growth in the remainder of the year," Chief
Executive Paul Polman said.
Write to Peter Evans at peter.evans@wsj.com
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