Unilever Raises Outlook After Quarterly Sales Volume Growth Hits 16-year High — 2nd Update

By Aimee Look

Unilever bumped up its outlook for the year after quarterly sales volume growth surged to more than a 16-year high.

The consumer-goods giant's underlying sales growth accelerated to 5.8% in the second quarter--driven by a 5.5% increase in volumes and a 0.2% rise in pricing. It was well above company-compiled estimates, and growth of 3.1% in the same period a year prior.

Underlying volume growth reached its highest point since the first quarter of 2010, when volumes grew 7.6%.

In its beauty and wellbeing segment, which houses brands like Dove soap and Vaseline jelly, underlying sales rose 8.1%. Its home care segment, hosting the Cif brand, saw a rise of 9.1%. The jump in both segments was led by volume growth.

Volume growth, an indicator of how well brands are able to withstand cash-strapped consumers tending to trade down to white-label brands, is front of mind for consumer-goods companies at the moment.

London-based Unilever's volumes accelerated in all categories in the second quarter except for foods, where underlying sales growth was up 0.2%. The result came ahead of a looming separation of the business.

"This was a very good quarter for Unilever, with even the bit that didn't go well (food in Europe) playing into management's decision to offload that business," RBC Capital Markets analyst James Edwardes Jones said in a note.

After a slow pivot away from foods over the past decade, Unilever is exiting foods by combining the business with the U.S. maker of spices and seasonings McCormick. It first sold its margarine and spreads brands to KKR, then spun off its ice-cream arm into Magnum Ice Cream.

The proposed combination of Unilever's foods business with McCormick is expected to close in 2027 and create a company valued at more than $65 billion, including debt. The deal with the U.S.-headquartered McCormick is part of Unilever's broader strategy shift to focus on beauty, personal-care and home products.

As part of it, McCormick is catering toward Unilever's heavy investor base in Europe through a London listing--which aims to facilitate capital flows and bolster liquidity for shareholders, according to the U.S. company. It plans to have international headquarters and keep a presence in the Netherlands, where Unilever has deep roots.

Also on Tuesday, the consumer-goods giant lifted its outlook for the year. It said it expects underlying sales growth within its 4% to 6% multi-year guidance, having previously anticipated it to be at the bottom end of the range.

Unilever said it now expects around 3% underlying volume growth, compared with an earlier expectation of at least 2% growth for the year.

Shares were trading just under 6% higher in early morning trading.

Write to Aimee Look at aimee.look@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2026 04:51 ET (08:51 GMT)