Unilever has beaten expectations to report rising sales growth as consumers snapped up products to use and eat while working from home.
Shares in the company, behind brands including Pot Noodle, Marmite, Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s, added 52p to 4,756p as sales growth gained 4.4% in the three months to the end of September.
This was significantly above the 1.3% analysts such as Investec had predicted.
But the picture was mixed across different products and regions.
The company said the UK’s mid-single digit growth in the period was driven by continued high demand for hand sanitiser and other hygiene products and by customers buying more of its food brands to eat at home.
Sales declines in antiperspirant and other grooming products slowed as lockdowns eased worldwide over summer.
Unilever saw emerging markets perform better, but its Europe-wide underlying sales growth fell by 0.8%, largely driven by price slashing “driven by a step up in promotional intensity”.
Holiday season ice-cream sales were also down, particularly in Italy and Spain.
Finance chief Graeme Pitkethly, who highlighted the growth in Unilever’s e-commerce business by 76%, said: “It has been a really strong performance from Unilever. In the UK, our skin cleansing business and home and hygiene business are really driving the growth, as is our foods portfolio."
The Anglo-Dutch firm maintained its quarterly dividend for shareholders, to be paid next month, at €0.4104 per share.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley said: "We think expectations post the strong results from peers were probably around 3.5-4%, so this even [Unilever performance] beat elevated expectations."
