23rd Oct 2014 06:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - Consumer goods giant Unilever PLC Thursday reported a further weakening in trading, as market growth continued to slow in emerging markets, particularly in China, and its European markets continued to be hit by volume and price declines.
The company said revenue declined 2.0% to EUR12.2 billion in the three months to end-September, with currency movements taking 2.6% off the figure. That was an improvement compared with the first nine months of the year, when revenue declined 4.3% to EUR36.3 billion including a 6.6% currency movement hit.
However, underlying sales and volume growth slowed in the third quarter. Underlying sales growth was 2.1%, compared with 3.2% growth for the whole nine months, while volume growth in the quarter was just 0.3%, compared with growth of 1.4% in the first nine months of the year. Pricing was up 1.8% in both the third quarter and the nine-month period.
"Market growth slowed in emerging countries and particularly in China where we also experienced substantial trade de-stocking. Europe saw price deflation and poor summer weather compared with last year but conditions in North America started to improve," Chief Executive Paul Polman said in a statement.
The CEO warned that the company expects markets to remain tough for at least the remainder of the year, and said it has further accelerated its initiatives to cut costs and simplify the business.
"We are confident that we will achieve another year of profitable volume growth ahead of our markets, steady and sustainable core operating margin improvement and strong cash flow," Polman said.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Unilever