23 October 2025
If you are covering Unilever’s latest financial results, please find below a comment from Chris Beckett, consumer staples analyst at Quilter Cheviot:
“Given Unilever remains a company in the midst of a transition, its results today are fairly positive. The company beat expectations with 3.9% sales growth, which much of the market will be pleased about. Volume growth came in at 1.5%, which is reasonable given the tough backdrop for consumer goods companies. Some categories are doing better than others and the trend in people spending on beauty and personal care continues. Indeed, Unilever continues to innovate in its product line up in this space, looking for new products that catch the eye of consumers and take advantage of that willingness to spend. Household cleaning products are doing well too, following a similar trend to what Reckitt has seen, but laundry detergents and fresheners are not doing as well, suggesting customers will use branded goods to a point.
“Regionally, Europe continues to be the weak point, as is the case for most consumer goods companies. However, concerns around the US consumer from earlier this year now look overblown as that market has done well with over 5% sales growth. Emerging markets too continue to perform, but it is now Indonesia and China driving this, rather than India which has seen some negative tax headwinds of late.
“All in all, it is a solid set of numbers with guidance reiterated. We should see an acceleration in the second half of the year, but one disappointing element is the fact that market expectations for earnings growth next year are quite low. With the Ice Cream business demerger held up by the US government shutdown, it is important Unilever kicks its transition back into gear and starts to find the bottom line growth it is looking for.”
