Unilever sales up on emerging markets volume

Packaged consumer products firm Unilever Plc reported a 7% increase in first quarter sales, helped by double digit volume growth in emerging markets such as India, it said in its earnings presentation on Thursday.

In homecare, emerging markets were again at the forefront, with several key markets including China, India, South Africa and Indonesia all seeing strong double digit growth, said Jean Marc Huët, chief financial officer, Unilever, at a quarterly earnings presentation on Thursday.

“In India, we continued to see performance step up, with sustained strong volume growth and judicious price increases”, He said.

The Anglo Dutch maker of household goods Dove, Rin, Wheel, Kissan and Knorr, however, reported gross margins impact of 500550 basis points (bps) due to rising input costs. One bps is 0.01%.

The preview reports of three brokerages for Indian subsidiary Hindustan Uniliver Ltd (HUL), which is still to announce results, predict double digit sales growth in the range of 10.5 12%. HUL is also likely to report an impact on its profitability due to rising input costs. A `Mint' survey of eight brokerages shows companies in the sector are expected to register growth in profit of 819% and increased sales of 1419% for the quarter ended March. HUL dropped 1.5% to close at `278.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

(Source- livemint)