What’s behind Unilever’s third quarter 2026 results?

Cooking Aids

Cooking Aids was broadly flat, as positive price was offset by volume decline. Good growth in emerging markets, in particular across South-East Asia, Brazil and Africa, was offset by a decline in developed markets.

Condiments

Condiments was broadly flat, as positive price was offset by volume decline. Emerging market growth was offset by weakness in developed markets, reflecting soft market conditions and lower presence in the fastest-growing segments of premium and avocado mayonnaise in the US, which we are taking decisive actions to address. We are confident of Hellmann’s future delivery, given the brand’s continued strong equity and category leadership position.

Unilever Food Solutions

Unilever Food Solutions grew low-single digit with balanced volume and price. Growth was led by acceleration in North America to mid-single digit growth, reflecting our strong customer proposition. China delivered continued low-single digit growth.

Frequently asked questions

• How was Unilever’s performance in the third quarter?

  Unilever delivered another quarter of competitive growth, led by continued strong volume delivery. Underlying sales grew by 5.2%, with 2.9% from underlying volume growth and 2.3% from price. Our Power Brands continued to lead performance, delivering 5.8% underlying sales growth with 3.3% volume, with strong growth across Home Care, Personal Care and Beauty & Wellbeing. Following this performance, Unilever upgraded its full-year 2026 outlook.

• What is driving Unilever’s growth, and is the performance sustainable?

  Unilever’s growth is being driven by stronger brands, improved innovation and sharper execution across a broad range of businesses and markets. Strong performance continued in the third quarter in an environment that remains demanding. Underlying sales grew 5.2% with volume up 2.9%. Volumes remained strong while pricing stepped up to 2.3%. Across the eleven quarters since the start of 2024, underlying volume growth has averaged 2.7%, above our multi-year objective of >2%. This comes from continued progress on our strategic priorities, Desire at Scale at work across our brands and higher-quality execution across our business.

• Which Unilever businesses and markets are performing the strongest, and where does performance need to improve?

  Performance was led by Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care and Home Care, which all delivered volume-led growth. Foods was flat, as growth in emerging markets and Unilever Food Solutions was offset by softness in developed market retail. By region, growth was led by emerging markets, while developed markets reflected tougher comparators and soft market conditions.

• What is Unilever’s outlook for growth and margins in 2026?

  Following strong performance in the first nine months of the year, Unilever upgraded its outlook for 2026. Unilever expects:

  • Underlying sales growth for full-year 2026 to be within our multi-year guidance range of 4% to 6%, with at least 3% underlying volume growth
  • Underlying sales growth in the second half of around 5%
  • A modest improvement in full-year underlying operating margin compared with 20% in 2025

• How is the combination of Unilever Foods with McCormick progressing?

  The proposed combination of Unilever Foods with McCormick remains on track.

  Separation and integration work is progressing well, and completion is expected by mid-2027 at the latest, subject to McCormick shareholder approval, required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.