Unilever's sales beat forecasts on strong beauty demand, firmer prices

(Reuters) -Unilever's third-quarter underlying sales growth topped market expectations on Thursday, driven by its beauty products across North America and emerging markets, and kept its annual outlook unchanged. Unilever, owner of Dove soap and Hellmann's mayonnaise, over the past few years has turned its focus to high-margin premium products through innovation and acquisitions, particularly in beauty and personal care, while looking to grow in key markets India and the United States.    Like its consumer goods peers, it is also streamlining its business, cutting costs, and aiming to bolster margins under new CEO Fernando Fernandez, as it faces weak consumer sentiment and economic uncertainty. "We're shaping a brand portfolio that's built for the future – with more Beauty, Wellbeing and Personal Care, prioritising premium segments and digital commerce, and anchoring our growth in the U.S. and India," said Fernandez, who took the helm in March. This week, Unilever delayed the spin-off of its Magnum-led ice cream business, originally scheduled for November 10, due to the U.S. government shutdown. It gave no update on the timing on Thursday, beyond reiterating that it expects to complete the spin-off by year-end. The Magnum listing presents a crucial test for Fernandez as he looks to shake up the consumer goods giant. Unilever's ice cream unit, which also owns the Ben & Jerry's and Cornetto brands, logged sales growth of 3.7% in the quarter.   Across all businesses, Unilever's sales grew by more than 3%, with sales in its beauty and wellbeing unit rising 5.1%. It said North America growth of 5.5% was driven by volume across personal care and beauty, and China and Indonesia returned to sales growth in the period. The consumer goods company, which also owns brands such as Vaseline and Liquid I.V., reported third-quarter underlying sales growth of 3.9%, beating analysts' expectations of 3.7% from a company-compiled poll, while keeping its 2025 outlook unchanged. Sales growth picked up from 3.8% in the second quarter. Pricing growth in the quarter was stronger than expected at 2.4%. Analysts had expected 2.2% growth in pricing.  Unilever said it remained ahead of plan in delivering 800 million euros in savings, and it expects lower restructuring costs of about 1.2% of turnover in 2025.  (Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru and Alexander Marrow in London; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sonali Paul)

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