Unilever sales jump 12.3pc

Dutch food and cosmetics giant Unilever said Thursday its sales jumped by 12.3 per cent in the first quarter to 12.8 billion euros ($13.6 billion), boosted by favourable currency rates and an early Easter.
‘We have had a good start to the year, helped by favourable currency movements but also an improvement in underlying sales,’ Unilever’s chief executive Paul Polman said.
‘This despite a continued challenging trading environment in many parts of the world,’ Polman said in a statement.
Unilever’s foods arm including it’s biggest brand, soup and sauce maker Knorr, performed well and showed ‘strong sales in the run up to Easter which was earlier this year,’ the Rotterdam-based Unilever said.
It also made a solid start in the ice cream market, its star performers being Magnum Pink and Ben&Jerry’s Cookie core range in Europe.
The massive Dutch distributor added underlying profit rose by 2.8 per cent — beating a 2.1 increase forecast by analysts polled by Bloomberg news agency.
Unilever’s share price rose by more than four per cent to over 42 euros ($44) per share in early morning trade on the Amsterdam stock exchange’s AEX index. — AFP