Unilever rakes in cool cash with Q3 ice cream sales

Shares closed up 3.6% in London at GBP28.90 ($44.36) as Unilever said it expects underlying sales growth for the year toward the upper end of the 2%-to-4% range it had previously disclosed.

Units sold in the quarter rose 4.1 per cent, supporting the company’s forecast that selling volumes would improve over the course of the year. Sales figures in Latin America climbed as Unilever increased prices while North America “returned to growth boosted by both volume and price”.

Relatively soft trading in China previous year and a few advance sales in Latin America also contributed.

On the surface, Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant Unilever appears to be an ideal bell-weather for the global economy.

“We would not take the improved numbers as a sign of green shoots”, said Susquehanna analyst Pablo Zuanic, adding that consumer-goods companies face continued challenges outside of North America.

Savoury demonstrated good volume-driven growth led by cooking products in emerging markets and innovations around naturalness and health.

So, there would appear to be cause to celebrate when it reports a 9.4% rise in quarterly revenue at a time when doomsayers are shaking their heads at China’s hard (or at least turbulent) landing, the corresponding and impending implosion in commodity-dependent emerging markets and the uninspiring economic performances of Europe and Japan.

When the company missed its sales expectations past year, the company’s chief executive Paul Polman said that Unilever didn’t plan on a “significant improvement in market conditions” over 2015.

Ice-cream is behind soaring sales at Unilever, better known as the world’s largest producer of spreads, or for its toiletries, like Dove and TRESemmé shampoo.

In refreshments-essentially the tea and ice cream businesses-underlying sales jumped 8.5% while in home-care they rose 6.6%.

02 October 2015 — Unilever has acquired the premium Italian gelato business, GROM.