Food and consumer goods group Unilever beat forecasts with a 7.2 per cent rise in first-quarter underlying sales today and said it expected sales in the year to beat its own target range.
Anglo-Dutch Unilever, which makes Sunsilk shampoo, Dove soap and Knorr soups, reported the underlying sales rise for the first three months of 2008 which compared with forecasts for a 4.8 to 6.4 per cent increase and a 5.7 per cent consensus.
Quarterly earnings per share at the world's third-largest consumer goods group also beat forecasts with a 35 per cent rise to €0.47, boosted by disposal profits, against forecasts of €0.23 to €0.38 and a consensus of €0.30.
"While it is early in the year, we now expect underlying sales growth in 2008 to exceed our 3 to 5 per cent target range," said group Chief Executive Patrick Cescau in a statement.
Back in February, Unilever had expected to increase sales only at the upper end of its 3 to 5 per cent target range.
Mr Cescau said the group had seen a good start to the year with strong growth across all its categories and regions, and emerging markets being particularly strong, while it saw an underlying rise in operating margins of 0.3 percentage points.
He expected to deliver competitive growth and an underlying rise in operating margins in 2008 despite challenging conditions and added the group had increased pricing 4.8 per cent in response to rising commodity prices.
Although Unilever's 7.2 per cent quarterly underlying sales rise beat forecasts, it still lags European food rivals with Nestle SA reporting a 9.8 per cent increase and Groupe Danone SA a 11.4 per cent jump.