Unilever Q1 Underlying Sales, Excl. Spreads, Up 3.7% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Unilever plc (UN, ULVR.L, UL) reported that its first-quarter underlying sales growth, excluding spreads, was 3.7% with an encouraging shift to volume-led growth compared to the prior year. Underlying sales growth was 3.4%. On GAAP basis, first-quarter turnover decreased 5.2% to 12.6 billion euros, which included an adverse currency impact of 9.8% and 1.5% from acquisitions net of disposals. Turnover excluding spreads were 11.9 billion euros, down 5.2%.

Paul Polman, CEO, said: "The first quarter demonstrates another good volume-driven performance across all three Divisions. The broad-based growth, including over 4% volume growth in emerging markets, shows that the 'Connected 4 Growth' programme is working and enhancing our long-term compounding growth model. We are further improving the quality and speed of our global and local innovation as a result of a more agile, consumer-facing organisation. At the same time, we are maintaining strong delivery from our savings programmes and expecting to complete the exit from spreads in the middle of the year."

For the full year, the Group continues to expect underlying sales growth in the 3% - 5% range and an improvement in underlying operating margin and cash flow that keep it on track for the 2020 goals.

The Group's quarterly dividend has been raised 8% to 0.3872 euros per share. A share buy-back programme of up to 6 billion euros is intended to start in May 2018.