Unilever saw its turnover decrease 4.8% in its third quarter as it was affected by the disposal of its spreads business and adverse currency impacts.
The company – which owns brands such as Lipton, Knorr and Hellmann’s – recorded turnover of €12.5 billion for the quarter.
The announcement comes just weeks after the firm abandoned plans to move its global headquarters from London to Rotterdam following a backlash from the company’s shareholders.
On an underlying basis, excluding any change in turnover resulting from acquisitions, disposals and changes in currency, sales increased 3.8%.
In its food and refreshment unit, turnover was down 13.4%. However, underlying sales growth in the division was up 3.2%.
Unilever said that its ice cream brands delivered “strong growth” led by innovations including the new Kinder ice cream and the new Magnum Praline variant. Ice cream sales were also helped by good weather in Northern Europe.
During the quarter, Unilever secured a deal with JD.com to distribute its products such as Lipton tea in China.
Commenting on the results, Unilever CEO Paul Polman said: “Growth accelerated in the third quarter across all divisions. We were able to increase prices while still maintaining good volume growth which reflects the strength of our brands and quality of our innovation programme. Our focus on building our business for the long term continues to deliver high-quality growth.
“We are progressively reaping the benefits of our Connected 4 Growth programme, which is now well embedded throughout the organisation, making us simpler, faster and better connected with our consumers.”
He added: “Our innovation pipeline continues to strengthen and in the third quarter alone we have launched four new brands. We have now successfully completed the disposal of our spreads business and continue the acceleration of our efficiency programmes.
“We continue to expect underlying sales growth in the 3%-5% range, an improvement in underlying operating margin and strong cash flow. We remain on track for our 2020 goals.”
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