Unilever reports improved first quarter results

One of the UK’s biggest advertisers, Unilever, has reported a strong start to the year, helped by favourable currency movements and an improvement in underlying sales.

For the first quarter of 2015, turnover increased 12.3% to €12.8 billion, while underlying sales rose 2.8%, excluding the impact of currency moves, acquisitions and disposals. Analysts on average were expecting a gain of 2.1%, according to a company-supplied poll.

Unilever – the fourth-biggest advertiser in the UK, responsible for brands including Dove soap, Lipton tea and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream – said that an improvement in China and an earlier Easter were largely responsible.

While the company’s CEO, Paul Polman recognised that trading conditions remain challenging overall, he said that Unilever is starting to see “more tailwinds than headwinds” in its markets.

“The actions we have been taking to put us on track for higher levels of growth are starting to pay off,” said Polman.

“Despite high levels of currency and commodity volatility, we are now starting to see more tailwinds than headwinds in our markets, and expect our initiatives to deliver a further improvement in volume growth in the remainder of the year.”

Unilever shares were up 3.6% in London on Thursday at 0825 GMT.

Unilever is ranked as the world’s leading advertiser by marketing intelligence firm Warc.