Unilever said on Thursday that third quarter growth continued to soften in India whilst slowing down in China.
Shares in the consumer goods company (LON:ULVR) were up during trading on Thursday morning.
Unilever revealed an underlying sales growth of 2.9%, with 1.4% from volume and 1.5% from price. Meanwhile, turnover grew by 5.8% driven by sales growth.
Underlying sales growth missed an average forecast of 3% from a company supplied analyst consensus, according to Reuters.
Beauty and Personal Care underlying sales were up 2.8%, Home Care increased 5.4% and Foods and Refreshment rose 1.7%.
“We have maintained momentum in the quarter, with a good balance between volume and price,” Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever, commented on the results.
“We will step-up competitive top line performance through innovation and portfolio evolution to serve the faster growing geographies and channels.”
“We are committed to delivering superior long-term financial performance and balanced, compound growth of the top and bottom line through our sustainable business model,” the CEO continued.
Alan Jope said that the company is “taking action to remain relevant to the consumer of the future, such as setting stretching goals on plastic use which we recently announced”.
“For the full year, we continue to expect underlying sales growth to be in the lower half of our multi-year 3-5% range, an improvement in underlying operating margin that keeps us on track for the 2020 target and another year of strong free cash flow.”
The consumer goods giant revealed in its half year results in July earlier this year that poor weather had hit its ice cream sales in Europe and North America.
It posted a stronger-than-expected growth in its underlying sales for its first quarter.
As for its full year 2018 results, the consumer goods business said it had seen continued profitable growth despite the “volatile” market conditions.
Shares in Unilever plc (LON:ULVR) were up trading at +0.92% as of 10:47 BST Thursday.
