Unilever Sales Lifted by Currency Impact

LONDON-- Unilever PLC on Thursday said favorable currency movements and a shift into more premium products helped it post a big rise in first-quarter sales.

The maker of Dove soap and Axe deodorant said sales increased 12% to EUR12.8 billion ($13.7 billion) in the first three months of 2015. Underlying sales--which strips out the impact of acquisitions, disposals and currency movements--grew 2.8%, compared with 3.6% in the same period last year.

After years of soaring sales growth, Unilever has struggled of late as the developing markets in which it makes the majority of its sales have stalled. Underlying sales in emerging markets increased 5.4% in the first quarter, down from 6.6% a year earlier.

Unilever has helped mitigate slowing markets by raising prices and releasing premium versions of its products.

"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," Chief Executive Paul Polman said.

Write to Peter Evans at [e-mail]

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