Unilever’s sales increase, driven by ice-cream & dressings

Turnover increased 14.9%, including a currency impact of 5.6%

British FMCG firm Unilever has announced results of first half of 2022. Underlying sales growth in the first half was 8.1% with 9.8% from price and (1.6)% from volume. Growth was broad-based across all Divisions.

Foods & Refreshment grew 7.3% with slightly negative volume at 0.9 %, although volumes were flat excluding ekaterra. Ice cream out-of-home and Unilever Food Solutions showed strong double-digit growth in the first half, compensating for lower growth of in-home ice cream. Pricing was broad-based and particularly high in dressings given the input cost increases.

Magnum and Cornetto continued their growth momentum supported by new variant innovations, while ice cream suffered from supply issues in the United States. In-home sales were slightly up, although volumes declined in Europe and North America where markets contracted as a result of some post-COVID-19 channel switching by consumers.

Foods also grew high single-digit with slightly negative volumes. Unilever Food Solutions landed strong double-digit growth and achieved sales above pre-COVID-19 levels despite the severe China lockdown impact in the second quarter. In-home foods grew high single-digit driven by high pricing and marginally negative volumes, on the back of a strong comparator. Hellmann’s delivered double-digit, price-driven growth, which was supported by its global purpose campaign “Turn nothing into something”.