BREAKING: Unilever reports sales growth despite challenging global markets

Consumer goods giant Unilever saw its total sales and turnover grow in the third quarter of 2015 despite “soft global markets”.

The British-Dutch firm, which operates its main research and development laboratory in Bebington, Wirral, saw its underlying sales increase by 5.7% in the three-month period, while total turnover rose by 9.4% to €13.4bn (around £9.94bn).

Unilever’s CEO, Paul Polman, said: “The strong delivery in the third quarter shows that our focus to build our company for the long term is paying off.

“Growth was however helped by some specific factors such as a soft comparator in China, strong ice cream sales and some advanced sales in Latin America.”

While Unilever owns food and beverage brands such Hellmann’s, Knorr and Lipton, personal care continued to be the company’s biggest segment, hitting year-on-year Q3 growth of 12.9% to reach a turnover of €5.07bn.

Speaking further about the results, Mr Polman said: “We continue to see soft global markets with no immediate sign of getting help from an improving global economy.

“We are responding fast to accelerating change and high volatility with a focus on continuous cost management while increasing our organisational agility. We will continue to invest steadily behind our brands, innovations and go-to-market capabilities.”

The CEO said that with volume growth ahead of the wider markets, Unilever is on track to deliver full-year underlying sales growth within the 2-4% range.