The Unilver CEO commented:
"I am pleased to report another good quarterly performance, with particularly strong growth in Personal Care and the emerging markets, reinforcing our position as the emerging markets consumer goods company.
Growth was strong across all categories and helped by technology-based innovation, now routinely rolled out quickly to multiple markets. In addition we are increasingly driving the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan as an integral part of the way we do business.
We also continue to strengthen the portfolio through bolt-on acquisitions. The integration of Sara Lee and Alberto Culver has progressed well and we are beginning to leverage some of these brands into new markets - for example TRESemmé is already being launched in Brazil. In addition, the recently announced acquisition of Concern Kalina, the leading local Personal Care company in Russia, will significantly strengthen our business in this important market.
These results are especially encouraging against the backdrop of very uncertain consumer demand, hugely volatile commodity markets, natural disasters and geo-political uncertainty in many parts of the world. Even more so given we have taken pricing earlier than competition.
In this context it is more important than ever that we prioritise investment in our brands, our products and the supporting systems and infrastructure. Importantly in 2011, we have sought to mitigate the impact of commodity inflation on consumers by pricing to recover cost rather than to maintain margin. As a result of these factors we now expect underlying operating margin in 2011 to be flat to slightly down.
Our long term priorities remain: to deliver profitable volume growth ahead of our markets, steady and sustainable underlying operating margin improvement and strong cash flow."
