Pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream are seen on a shelf at Ultimate Contemporary Market of Church Ave on March 19, 2024 within the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn borough in New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Photographs
Client items large Unilever on Thursday posted barely weaker-than-expected gross sales progress and pointed to a subdued begin to 2025, though it expects this to reverse within the second half of the yr.
The corporate additionally offered an replace on the spin-off of its ice cream enterprise, which homes manufacturers together with Ben and Jerry’s and Magnum, saying it will be demerged via a triple itemizing.
The maker of Dove cleaning soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise posted a 4% rise in fourth-quarter underlying gross sales, barely lacking the 4.1% rise forecast in a company-compiled estimate.
Full-year underlying gross sales grew 4.2% versus a company-compiled analyst consensus of 4.3%. Underlying working margins got here in at 18.4% versus 18.3% estimated. Each figures had been according to the corporate’s full-year forecasts.
Shares of Unilever fell 5.5% shortly after the market open Thursday.
“As we speak’s outcomes replicate a yr of great exercise as we centered on reworking Unilever right into a persistently increased performing enterprise,” CEO Hein Schumacher mentioned in an announcement.
“Market progress, which slowed all through 2024, is anticipated to stay smooth within the first half of 2025,” he added.
Sharing its 2025 outlook, the British agency mentioned it anticipated full-year gross sales progress according to its multi-year vary of three% to five%. It additionally mentioned it anticipated a “modest enchancment” in underlying working margin, which might be realized within the second half of the yr.
Unilever, which is house to about 400 manufacturers, is seeking to promote a number of meals traces with mixed gross sales of round 1 billion euros ($1.04 billion), Schumacher instructed Dutch monetary each day FD in December.
Schumacher didn’t identify the precise manufacturers, however Unilever had mentioned in March that it was spinning off its ice cream unit.
In an replace Thursday, the corporate mentioned the unit could be separated by way of a demerger, with listings in Amsterdam, London and New York — the identical three exchanges on which Unilever shares are at the moment traded — and that it was on observe to finish by the top of 2025.
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