Unilever, the maker of Surf and Rin laundry detergents, reported the slowest third-quarter revenue growth in five years amid a slowdown in emerging markets in Asia.
Underlying sales rose 2.1 per cent in the period ended 30 September, the London- and Rotterdam-based company said in a statement. The median estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 3.9-per-cent increase.
Unilever, along with other consumer-product companies, has struggled to lift sales over the past year, as emerging markets continue to decelerate while mature regions like Europe stagnate. Finance chief Jean-Marc Huet said last month that market growth has shrunk to less than 2 per cent from 4 per cent in 2013, with no signs of improvement.
“We expect markets to remain tough for at least the remainder of the year,” chief executive officer Paul Polman said in the statement. “We have further accelerated our initiatives to remove unnecessary cost, simplify the business and ensure that Unilever is both agile and resilient.”
Emerging markets such as India and Indonesia, which account for about 57 per cent of Unilever’s sales, grew 5.6 per cent, slower than the first half’s 6.6-per-cent uptick and a far cry from the 12-per-cent growth it enjoyed in the same period two years ago. Revenue in developed regions fell by 2.5 per cent.
“Relative to hopes of improvement, conditions remain bleak in Unilever’s markets,” Martin Deboo, an analyst at Jefferies, said in a note prior to today’s results.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
