Strong volume growth; full year outlook reconfirmed

A variety of Unilever's Power Brands arranged on a kitchen counter. From left to right, you can see a jar of Knorr chicken bouillon, a Degree deodorant spray labelled "WHOLE BODY DEO", a box of Magnum ice cream labelled "UTOPIA", a bottle of Dove body lotion pro-ceramides serum, a jar of Dove Intensive Repair cream and a bottle of Persil Wonder Wash. In the background, there's a modern kitchen with plants and various items on the shelves.

Statement from Fernando Fernandez, CEO

“We have started the year well with volume-led growth driven by our Power Brands and a positive performance across all Business Groups. There is broad-based momentum across our emerging markets business, with a strong performance in India, and a good recovery in Latin America following the decisive actions we have taken in that region.

“We continue to move at speed to build a simpler, sharper Unilever with a structurally higher growth profile and a brand portfolio fit for the future. In March, 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.

“Despite heightened macroeconomic uncertainty, the progress we are making to elevate our brands through Desire at Scale and improve operational execution means we remain confident of delivering on our guidance for the year ahead.”

Outlook

Our full year 2026 outlook remains unchanged.

We expect underlying sales growth for full year 2026 to be at the bottom end of our multi-year guidance range of 4% to 6%, with at least 2% underlying volume growth for the full year.

We anticipate a modest improvement in underlying operating margin for the full year versus 20.0% in 2025.

First Quarter Review: Unilever Group

Growth

Underlying sales growth in the first quarter was 3.8%, with volume growth of 2.9% and price growth of 0.9%. The strong volume growth was led by Power Brands, which grew underlying sales by 5.0%, with 4.0% volume growth. All Business Groups delivered volume growth, with strong volumes in Home Care driven by an acceleration in key emerging markets.

Beauty & Wellbeing: 3.6% underlying sales growth was balanced between volume and price. Growth was driven by continued strength in Dove and Vaseline, good momentum in our prestige brands, and a return to volume growth in Sunsilk. Wellbeing declined low-single digit against a very strong comparator in the first quarter.
Personal Care: 3.7% underlying sales growth, with 1.1% from volume and 2.5% from price, was driven by mid-single digit growth in deodorants and skin cleansing. Dove’s continued strong performance in both categories was supported by premium innovation. Deodorants returned to growth in Latin America following our actions to improve format mix in Brazil.
Home Care: 6.1% underlying sales growth, with 6.2% from volume and -0.1% from price, reflected improving momentum and competitiveness across key markets, including strong volume-led growth in India and Brazil, partly offset by weaker markets in Europe.
Foods: 2.2% underlying sales growth, with 2.4% from volume and -0.2% from price, was driven by continued strength in Hellmann’s and sequential improvement in Unilever Food Solutions. Emerging markets delivered mid-single-digit growth, while developed markets were flat as category conditions remained soft.

By region, growth continues to be led by emerging markets while developed markets remain resilient.

Developed Markets: 1.0% underlying sales growth, with 0.9% from volume and 0.1% from price, reflected growth in North America, led by Personal Care and Beauty, offset by a subdued European market.
Emerging Markets: 5.7% underlying sales growth, with strong volume contribution of 4.2%, and 1.5% from price. Growth was broad based across emerging markets, and included 7% growth in India, sequential improvement and a return to volume growth in Latin America and continued good progress in China and Indonesia.

Turnover was €12.6 billion, down -3.3% versus the prior year, as positive underlying sales growth of 3.8% and the net impact of acquisitions and divestments was offset by a negative currency impact of -7.7%.

Productivity programme

Our productivity programme, launched in 2024, continues to run ahead of schedule in its delivery of €800 million of savings by the end of 2026. Unilever delivered €750 million of savings by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

Unilever Foods combination with McCormick

In March 2026, we announced the agreement to combine Unilever’s Foods business with McCormick to create a scaled, global flavour powerhouse with a superior growth profile. The separation of Unilever Foods will position Unilever as a pureplay HPC business with leading positions in highly attractive categories, fast growing geographies and channels.

The combined Unilever Foods and McCormick is expected to realise approximately $600 million of annual run rate cost synergies net of growth reinvestments, and incremental cost and revenue synergies of $100 million that will be reinvested to further drive growth. Work is already underway to support the delivery of these synergies.

We expect no revenue or operational dis-synergies from the separation of Foods given the operational and go to market independence of Foods relative to our HPC Business Groups. We expect €400-500 million of stranded costs post the separation, which will be offset with savings over 2027 to 2029, incurring one-off restructuring costs of €500 million over that period.

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 will also be conducted 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.

In March 2026, we announced the agreement to combine Unilever’s Foods business with McCormick. This follows the December 2025 demerger of The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC).

Over the last year 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.
March 2026: Unilever completed the sale of its 61.9% stake in Kwality Wall’s (India) Limited to TMICC.
April 2026: Unilever completed the sale of our 55% stake in the Portuguese ice cream joint venture to TMICC.
April 2026: Unilever announced the acquisition of Grüns, the fast-growing VMS company with a leading position in the U.S. Greens Supplement category. The transaction is expected to close later this year.

The quarterly interim dividend for the first quarter is €0.4664, in line with the Q4 2025 dividend and up 3.0% vs Q1 2025.

The €1.5 billion share buyback programme, announced in February 2026, commences today and is expected to complete on or before 6 July 2026. As stated in the Unilever Foods announcement, on 31 March 2026, cash receipts are expected to support a total of €6 billion of share buybacks between 2026 and 2029.

First Quarter Review: Business Groups

Beauty & Wellbeing

25% of Q1 Group turnover

Beauty & Wellbeing underlying sales grew 3.6%, with 1.9% from volume and 1.6% from price. We delivered a strong performance in our Power Brands and prestige portfolio, including double-digit volume-led growth in Dove and Vaseline. Growth reflected strong momentum in emerging markets, notably Asia Pacific Africa with mid‑single‑digit volume growth, with a flat performance in developed markets.

Hair Care grew high-single digit, led by volume. This was driven by continued momentum in Dove, which delivered double-digit growth following the 2025 launch of its Fibre Repair technology range. Performance was further supported by double-digit growth in India, and by sequential improvement and a return to volume growth in both Sunsilk and Clear. Our prestige brand K18 delivered another quarter of strong volume-led growth. This was partially offset by the impact of delisting some unprofitable hair care brands in the US in 2025 as we increasingly focus our portfolio on our Power Brands.
Skin Care grew low-single digit. Continued good momentum in the US, with mid-single digit growth, and in Vaseline, which delivered double-digit volume growth supported by premium innovations including the launch of Gluta-Hya Lip Serum Gloss, was offset by softer performance in Asia Pacific Africa. Prestige growth was led by strong performances in Hourglass, Tatcha and Dermalogica.
Wellbeing declined low-single digit, impacted by a very strong comparator in the first quarter. Olly grew double-digit supported by strong digital growth and distribution gains. We expect Wellbeing performance to improve as actions to increase Liquid I.V. usage occasions and optimise Nutrafol’s customer conversion gain traction.

Personal Care

26% of Q1 Group turnover

Personal Care underlying sales grew 3.7%, with 1.1% from volume and 2.5% from price. Growth was driven by mid-single digit growth in both deodorants and skin cleansing, led by strong growth in North America. Dove continued to lead brand growth, and Rexona and Axe improved sequentially, reflecting progress from actions taken in Brazil in the second half of 2025 to improve format mix. Growth was partially offset by a flat performance in Europe amidst subdued market conditions. We anticipate an uplift in the second quarter supported by our FIFA World Cup 2026™ related campaigns and activations.

Deodorants grew mid-single digit, with balanced volume and price. Performance was driven by double-digit growth in Dove, continued scaling of Whole Body Deodorants, and sequential improvement in Rexona and Axe. Deodorants returned to growth in Latin America as actions to improve format mix in Brazil continued to gain traction.
Skin Cleansing grew mid-single digit, with positive volume and price. Growth was driven by North America and emerging markets, partially offset by a decline in Europe. Dove continued to lead growth, supported by the strength of its premium body serum ranges.
Oral Care was flat, with growth in Asia Pacific Africa offset by subdued market conditions in Europe.

Home Care

24% of Q1 Group turnover

Home Care underlying sales grew 6.1%, with 6.2% from volume and -0.1% from price. Volume growth reflected improving momentum and competitiveness across key markets, including strong performance in its two largest markets: India and Brazil. Growth was partially offset by softer performance in Europe, where slower market conditions and a high prior-year comparator impacted results. We expect elevated commodity costs to support increased pricing for the balance of the year.

Fabric Cleaning grew mid-single digit, led by double-digit growth in our premium liquids portfolio and a return to growth in powders. In India, our market leadership strengthened further as liquids continued to deliver double-digit growth. Brazil returned to positive volume growth with good momentum following corrective actions, including on price gaps, taken in the second half of 2025.
Home & Hygiene grew mid-single digit, with mid-single digit volume growth. Cif delivered double-digit growth as its Infinite Clean range continued to perform well, supported by new variants and expansion into additional markets.
Fabric Enhancers grew mid-single digit, led by volume. Performance was driven by high-single digit, volume-led growth in Comfort.

Foods

25% of Q1 Group turnover

Foods underlying sales grew 2.2%, with 2.4% from volume and -0.2% from price. Performance was driven by continued strength in Hellmann’s which grew volumes mid-single digit and sequential improvement in Unilever Food Solutions. Growth was led by emerging markets, which delivered mid-single digit volume-led growth, while performance in developed markets was flat.

Cooking Aids grew low-single digit, led by price. Performance was driven by strong growth in Asia Pacific Africa, where volume grew mid-single digit. Knorr grew low-single digit with positive volume and price.
Condiments delivered low-single digit growth led by volume across both emerging and developed markets. Hellmann’s remained the key growth driver, with mid-single digit volume growth supported by premium, flavour-led innovation, including new flavours and pack formats across both emerging and developed markets.
Unilever Food Solutions grew low-single digit led by volume. This reflected a better start to the year in China, its largest market, with low-single digit growth supported by improved trading over the Chinese New Year period and gradual improvement in away-from-home consumption. North America continued to perform well, with low-single digit volume-led growth.

On 31 March 2026, we announced that Unilever and McCormick had entered into an agreement to combine Unilever’s Foods business with McCormick, creating a scaled, global flavour powerhouse. The transaction is expected to close by mid-2027 at the latest, subject to McCormick shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. At this stage, Foods continues to be reported as part of our continuing operations.

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