Consumer goods giant Unilever posted slightly weaker-than-expected sales growth and pointed to a “slower start to 2025.”Consumer goods giant Unilever posted slightly weaker-than-expected sales growth and pointed to a “slower start to 2025.”
Consumer goods giant Unilever
The company also provided an update on the spin-off of its ice cream business, which houses brands including Ben and Jerry’s and Magnum, saying it would be demerged through a triple listing.
The maker of Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise posted a 4% rise in fourth-quarter underlying sales, slightly missing the 4.1% rise forecast in a company-compiled estimate.
Full-year underlying sales grew 4.2% versus a company-compiled analyst consensus of 4.3%. Underlying operating margins came in at 18.4% versus 18.3% estimated. Both figures were in line with the company’s full-year forecasts.
“Today’s results reflect a year of significant activity as we focused on transforming Unilever into a consistently higher performing business,” CEO Hein Schumacher said in a statement.
“Market growth, which slowed throughout 2024, is expected to remain soft in the first half of 2025,” he added.
Sharing its 2025 outlook, the British firm said it expected full-year sales growth in line with its multi-year range of 3% to 5%. It also said it anticipated a “modest improvement” in underlying operating margin, which would be realized in the second half of the year.
Unilever, which is home to about 400 brands, is looking to sell several food lines with combined sales of around 1 billion euros ($1.04 billion), Schumacher told Dutch financial daily FD in December.
Schumacher did not name the specific brands, but Unilever had said in March that it was spinning off its ice cream unit.
In an update Thursday, the company said the unit would be separated via a demerger, with listings in Amsterdam, London and New York — the same three exchanges on which Unilever shares are currently traded — and that it was on track to complete by the end of 2025.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.