Desire at Scale powering strong H1 performance

Statement from Fernando Fernandez, CEO

“We have delivered a strong volume-led performance in the first half, with a significant step-up in the second quarter – the best volume quarter at Unilever in over a decade. Our Power Brands continued to outperform, with all Business Groups delivering volume-led growth. Emerging markets showed momentum – India, Indonesia and Latin America all delivered strong growth – while North America again outperformed its market.

“These results show our ability to continue performing while transforming our portfolio. Our brands are stronger, our execution is sharper and we are driving Desire at Scale. Our combination of Foods with McCormick is progressing well and will unlock significant value, making Unilever a focused pureplay HPC company, while giving Foods the platform to thrive as part of a global powerhouse in flavour.

“The macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, but our consistency, discipline and strong first half performance give us confidence that we are well positioned to deliver our upgraded full year outlook."

Outlook

Following strong performance in the first half, we have upgraded our outlook for 2026:

• We expect underlying sales growth for full year 2026 to be within our multi-year guidance range of 4% to 6%, with around 3% underlying volume growth.
• We expect underlying sales growth in the second half of 4% to 5%, led by pricing.
• We anticipate a modest improvement in underlying operating margin for full year 2026 versus 20.0% in 2025.

First Half Review: Unilever Group

Growth

Underlying sales growth (USG) in the first half was 4.8%, with 4.2% from volume and 0.6% from price, accelerating in the second quarter to 5.8% USG, led by 5.5% volume. On a two-year average basis, volume growth in the first half was 2.7%^[a]. Power Brands continued to lead growth, delivering 6.0% USG with 5.4% volume.

All Business Groups delivered volume-led growth in the first half. Performance was led by HPC, with Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care and Home Care growth all accelerating in the second quarter. Underlying price growth was lower in the second quarter due to three temporary factors: strong Personal Care pricing comparators, planned FIFA World Cup 2026™ promotional activity, and the carryover impact of 2025 Home Care actions to restore competitive price gaps in Brazil. We expect underlying price growth to accelerate in the second half as commodity-driven pricing continues to land in market.

• Beauty & Wellbeing: 5.9% USG with 4.5% volume and 1.3% price. This was led by double-digit growth in the largest Power Brands Dove, Sunsilk and Vaseline, alongside strong growth in our prestige beauty brands. Wellbeing grew low-single digit, with improved growth in the second quarter.
• Personal Care: 4.8% USG with 4.1% volume and 0.7% price. Skin cleansing and deodorants both delivered mid-single digit growth, supported by strong performance from Dove’s premium innovations and our FIFA World Cup 2026™ related campaigns and activations in the second quarter.
• Home Care: 7.6% USG with 7.4% volume and 0.2% price, led by our largest markets, India and Brazil. Growth accelerated in the second quarter driven by emerging markets, which delivered double-digit USG and volume. Developed markets grew low-single digit in the first half.
• Foods: 1.2% USG with 1.2% volume and flat price. Growth was led by emerging markets, while developed markets declined reflecting a softer market environment and increased competition in US condiments, where we are taking steps to correct share loss in new growth segments within premium and avocado mayonnaise. Unilever Food Solutions grew low-single digit.

Developed markets (40% of group turnover) underlying sales grew 1.5%, with 1.9% volume. Growth was led by North America, while Europe remained subdued. Growth improved to 2.0% in the second quarter, with 2.8% volume.

• North America: 2.7% USG with 3.2% volume and -0.5% price. We continued to outperform the market on volume with strong performances from Personal Care and our prestige beauty brands. While Foods was below expectations, overall growth in North America improved to 3.6% in the second quarter with 4.4% volume.
• Europe: -0.9% USG with -0.2% volume and -0.6% price, driven by soft markets and price in Foods. Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care grew, and Home Care gained share while lapping a high-single digit volume comparator in the first half of 2025.

Emerging markets (60% of group turnover) underlying sales grew 7.0%, with 5.8% volume, led by broad-based strength across Asia Pacific Africa and Latin America. Growth accelerated to 8.3% in the second quarter, with 7.4% volume.

• India: 8% USG with 6% volume. Performance was broad-based with continued market share gains, led by double-digit growth in Beauty & Wellbeing and Home Care. Growth accelerated to 10% in the second quarter as both Home Care and hair care reached their highest ever market shares.
• China: mid-single digit USG driven by strong premium innovation, and digital and e-commerce execution. Beauty & Wellbeing led growth, with all Business Groups growing.
• Indonesia: 7% USG driven by focus on high growth segments, social-first demand generation and go-to-market transformation. Growth was broad-based, with double-digit growth in Home Care and Beauty & Wellbeing.
• Latin America: 7.6% USG with 5.7% volume and 1.7% price. This strong growth reflected the corrective actions taken last year in Brazil, which grew double-digit in the second quarter, and strong double-digit growth in Argentina with mid-single digit volume. Mexico grew volume low-single digit. Growth accelerated in the second quarter to 8.9%, with 8.8% volume.

Turnover was €25.6 billion, up 0.5% versus the prior year, including 0.7% from acquisitions net of disposals and -4.9% from currency. In the second quarter, the adverse impact from currency was lower at -2.4%.

Profitability

Underlying operating profit was €5.2 billion, up 0.9% versus the prior year, with operational performance partially offset by currency headwinds. Underlying operating margin was up 10bps at 20.3%, with healthy gross margins of 46.8% and continued competitive investment behind our brands at 16.1% of turnover.

• Gross margin was 70bps lower at 46.8%, reflecting the benefits of volume leverage and productivity, offset by commodity inflation and calibrated pricing. This was particularly pronounced in Home Care. We also invested in planned promotions to support our FIFA World Cup 2026™ campaigns. We expect our gross margin percentage in the second half to be broadly similar to the first half in absolute terms, as price growth accelerates.
• Brand and marketing investment (BMI) was broadly stable at 16.1% of turnover, down 10bps, as we continued to invest competitively behind our brands following the significant step up in BMI over recent years. Our investment continues to be focused on our Power Brands.
• Overheads improved strongly, by 70bps, driven by the delivery of our productivity programme ahead of plan and continued cost discipline across the organisation.
• Operating profit was €4.9 billion, up 2.6% versus the first half of 2025, reflecting operational performance and lower restructuring costs.

Productivity programme

Our €800 million productivity programme, launched in 2024 to simplify the business and remove stranded overheads related to Ice Cream, was completed ahead of schedule.

Unilever Foods combination with McCormick

In March 2026, we announced an agreement to combine Unilever’s Foods business with McCormick, unlocking value by shaping Unilever into a leading pureplay HPC company and creating a global flavour powerhouse in Foods.

Separation and integration work is progressing well, led by dedicated project teams. Workstreams are underway including around carve-out financials, tax and anti-trust, synergy delivery, and integration.

On 23 July 2026, McCormick announced the planned operating model and executive team of the combined company, along with the secondary listing location in London.

We expect completion by mid-2027 at the latest, subject to McCormick shareholder approval, receipt of required regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Works Council consultation is underway and will also be completed prior to closing of the transaction.

Capital allocation

Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. We will invest in the growth and productivity of Unilever as a priority. Alongside this we will continue to reshape our portfolio through bolt-on acquisitions and selective disposals, return capital to shareholders through our attractive dividend and use surplus cash to fund share buybacks.

The quarterly dividend for the second quarter is €0.4664, in line with the Q1 2026 dividend and up 3.0% versus the second quarter of 2025.

In June 2026, the €1.5 billion share buyback programme announced in February 2026 was completed. As stated in the Unilever Foods announcement, on 31 March 2026, cash receipts from the separation along with operational performance are expected to support a total of €6 billion of share buybacks between 2026 and 2029.

During the first half we have also undertaken targeted acquisitions and divestments to access growth opportunities in our priority areas and to focus on fewer, bigger and more scalable brands.

• January 2026: Unilever announced the agreement to sell our Home Care businesses in Colombia and Ecuador. The transactions are expected to close during 2026.
• February 2026: Unilever completed the sale of Graze.
• March 2026: Unilever completed the sale of our Indonesia Tea Business.
• April 2026: Unilever completed the sale of our 61.9% stake in Kwality Wall’s (India) Limited to The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC).
• April 2026: Unilever completed the sale of our 55% stake in the Portuguese ice cream joint venture to TMICC.
• June 2026: Unilever completed the acquisition of Grüns, the fast-growing VMS company with a leading position in the US Greens Supplement category.

Update on Non-Executive Director appointment

Belén Garijo López has informed Unilever that she will no longer be able to take up her position as an independent Non-Executive Director, which was expected to take effect during 2027. Belén was appointed as CEO of Sanofi in May 2026 and it is anticipated that, as a result of this appointment, she will no longer have the time available to commit to a role as an independent Non-Executive Director of Unilever.

First Half Review: Business Groups

Beauty & Wellbeing

Beauty & Wellbeing underlying sales grew 5.9%, with 4.5% from volume and 1.3% from price. Growth was led by our Power Brands Dove, Sunsilk and Vaseline, which all delivered double-digit volume-led growth, alongside strong performance from our prestige beauty brands. By region, emerging markets delivered consistent high-single digit growth over the first half, with developed markets accelerating in the second quarter to mid-single digit growth.

• Hair Care delivered high-single digit growth, with mid-single digit volume and low-single digit price. Dove grew double-digit led by its premium innovations, including the Fibre Repair technology range, while our ultra-premium hair care brand, K18, delivered very strong double-digit growth driven by its biotechnology-led innovations. In emerging markets, Sunsilk and Clear accelerated over the first half, with double-digit growth in the second quarter, while in the US, Dove’s strong delivery and TRESemmé’s improvement led to high-single digit growth in the second quarter.
• Skin Care grew low-single digit, driven by volume. Our portfolio continued to premiumise with double-digit growth in Vaseline driven by premium innovations, while our prestige beauty brands accelerated further over the first half, with particularly strong performances from Paula's Choice, Hourglass and Tatcha in the second quarter. This was partially offset by a softer performance in Asia Pacific Africa.
• Wellbeing grew low-single digit, led by volume, with improved growth in the second quarter. Liquid I.V. grew high-single digit, with double-digit growth in the second quarter reflecting the timing of shipments and good execution. Olly grew double-digit, driven by momentum in emerging markets, digital channels and distribution gains. Nutrafol customer retention remains strong and actions are underway to optimise new customer conversion, including with Nutrafol as a complement to a GLP-1 regimen.

Underlying operating profit was €1.3 billion, up 1.0% versus the prior year. Underlying operating margin increased 10bps to 19.5% as an improvement in overheads was partially offset by a decline in gross margins and an increase in brand and marketing investment behind our Power Brands and premium innovations.

Personal Care

Personal Care underlying sales grew 4.8%, with 4.1% from volume and 0.7% from price. Our largest brand, Dove, grew high-single digit with good performances in both deodorants and skin cleansing. By region, the US and emerging markets grew mid-single digit, while Europe grew low-single digit. Performance in the second quarter was supported by the success of our FIFA World Cup 2026™ related campaigns and activations. Price growth reflected strong price comparators and planned promotional activity in the second quarter, but is expected to increase in the second half due to higher commodity costs.

• Deodorants grew mid-single digit, with mid-single digit growth in both developed and emerging markets. The US grew high-single digit supported by share gains. Growth in Brazil was high-single digit in the second quarter, led by volume, following our actions to improve format mix and reset shelf space.
• Skin Cleansing grew mid-single digit, led by volume. Dove grew high-single digit supported by the success of its premium Serum Body Wash, while Lux grew mid-single digit with premium innovations including a new fragrance-led range in China. By region, mid-single digit growth in emerging markets and in the US was partially offset by a flat performance in Europe.
• Oral Care grew low-single digit, with balanced volume and price.

Underlying operating profit was €1.5 billion, up 4.8% versus the prior year. Underlying operating margin increased 10bps to 22.2% as investments in FIFA World Cup 2026™ related marketing and promotions partially offset the benefits from lower overheads.

Home Care

Home Care underlying sales grew 7.6%, with 7.4% from volume and 0.2% from price. This strong performance was broad-based across categories and geographies and supported by share gains, including India reaching its highest ever Home Care share. In our top two markets, we delivered double-digit growth in India and high-single digit growth in Brazil. Power Brands delivered strong performances, including double-digit growth from Cif and high-single digit growth from Dirt Is Good, Comfort, Sunlight, Domestos and Radiant.

By region, emerging markets grew high-single digit while developed markets grew low-single digit. In the second quarter, commodity-driven price increases were partially offset by the carryover impacts from corrective actions to restore price gaps in Brazil during 2025.

• Fabric Cleaning grew high-single digit, with strong performances across its largest markets. India delivered double-digit growth in the first half, with balanced volume and price in the second quarter following commodity-linked price rises. Brazil and Indonesia delivered double-digit growth in the second quarter supported by premium innovations and strong in-market execution. Our second quarter delivery also benefitted from our supply security and balance sheet strength relative to local competitors.
• Home & Hygiene delivered mid-single digit growth, led by volume. Cif grew double-digit and Domestos grew high-single digit driven by premium innovations.
• Fabric Enhancers grew high-single digit led by volume. Comfort delivered high-single digit volume-led growth, supported by premium formats and fragrance-led innovation.

Underlying operating profit was €0.9 billion, up 3.2% versus the prior year. Underlying operating margin increased 30bps to 15.8% as significant pressure from commodity and foreign exchange headwinds led to a gross margin decline, which was more than offset by disciplined brand investment and improved overheads.

Foods

Foods underlying sales grew 1.2%, with 1.2% volume and flat price. This was led by broad-based growth in emerging markets. In the second quarter, growth was below our expectations reflecting softer conditions in developed markets and increased competition in US condiments. India grew mid-single digit led by double-digit growth in Horlicks. Unilever Food Solutions delivered low-single digit volume-led growth with good progress in its largest markets, China and the US, supported by continued investment in expanding our go-to-market footprint. Foods growth is expected to accelerate in the second half of the year, led by innovation and improved developed market performance.

• Cooking Aids was flat, with flat volume and price. Knorr grew low-single digit as good performance in emerging markets, in particular across Asia Pacific Africa, was partially offset by declines in developed markets due to category softness.
• Condiments delivered low-single digit growth, led by volume. Hellmann’s grew volume low-single digit with continued strong momentum in emerging markets including Brazil and Asia Pacific Africa. In the US condiments category, we are taking steps to correct recent share loss in new growth segments within premium and avocado mayonnaise. Growth is expected to improve in the second half led by innovation and commodity-driven price increases.
• Unilever Food Solutions grew low-single digit, led by volume. China delivered low-single digit growth reflecting increased reach and penetration and gradual improvements in away-from-home consumption. US grew mid-single digit, driven by volume, reflecting our strong customer proposition.

Underlying operating profit was €1.5 billion, down 4.3% versus the prior year. Underlying operating margin was flat, as a decline in gross margin, linked to commodity cost inflation and increased investment in our value proposition, was offset by a slight improvement in overheads, while brand and marketing investment remained well above the peer average.