Unilever Delivers Steady Q3 Growth with 3.9% Sales Rise, Keeps 2025 Outlook on Track

Unilever delivered a resilient performance in Q3 2025, with underlying sales rising 3.9% despite currency headwinds and soft demand in some markets. The consumer-goods giant reaffirmed its full-year outlook and confirmed that its planned ice-cream business spin-off remains on schedule for 2025, underscoring its focus on efficiency and portfolio simplification.

Strong Q3 Growth Amid Headwinds

Unilever delivered underlying sales growth of 3.9% in the third quarter of 2025, exceeding expectations and driven by a mixture of volume and pricing gains. According to the company, this comprised about 1.5% volume growth and 2.4% price growth. Despite turnover falling 3.5% to €14.7 billion (largely due to currency headwinds and disposals) the underlying performance signals resilience.

Geographic & Product-Group Drivers

Growth was broad-based: developed markets delivered underlying growth of 3.7%, with North America especially strong (up ~5.5% in volume‐led growth) while emerging markets improved to 4.1% growth, though volumes remain under pressure. Unilever On the product group side, the company noted that its “Power Brands” (which account for the bulk of turnover) grew ~4.4% underlying, with strong outcomes in the “Beauty & Wellbeing” category and steady gains in Personal Care, Foods and Home Care.

Ice-Cream Spin-Off and Strategic Outlook

In parallel to the result, Unilever reaffirmed its full-year 2025 guidance of underlying sales growth in the 3–5% range and an improvement in margins. Directors Talk Interviews+1 The company also confirmed that the planned demerger of its Ice-Cream business (to become “The Magnum Ice Cream Company”) remains on track for 2025, and highlighted that excluding Ice-Cream the underlying sales growth was slightly higher at ~4.0%.

Market Implications for Traders

From a trading perspective, Unilever’s results bear several take-aways. First, the ability to deliver similar growth despite inflation, volume pressure and currency drag suggests defensive strength in consumer goods. Second, the premium segments (Beauty & Wellbeing) appear to provide the heft of growth, suggesting that within consumer portfolios selectivity matters. Third, the spin‐off of the Ice-Cream unit will be worth watching as a structural event: companies simplifying portfolios often unlock value, but execution risk remains. Lastly, the reaffirmation of guidance suggests management confidence; however, the global environment remains soft, so upside may be limited unless stronger signals emerge.

Summary

At SGFX, we view Unilever’s update as a steady positive in a cautious global backdrop. It does not signal a broad breakout in consumer demand, but it reinforces the theme of resilience in well-positioned brands amid macro uncertainty. For traders, the key will be watching the spin‐off timetable, margin expansion in the back half of 2025, and volume trends in emerging markets (where much of the upside remains latent). Balancing exposure to the stock or sector should lean toward structural conviction (brands, premiumization) rather than broad consumption optimism.