Unilever NYSE:UL, a global consumer-products company spanning beauty, personal care, home care and food, jumped 5.8% to 48.96 in Tuesday's European trading after reporting its strongest quarterly volume performance in more than a decade. The shares had climbed as much as 6.8%, placing them on course for their largest daily gain in approximately two years. Underlying second-quarter sales increased 5.8%, exceeding the 4.3% growth expected by analysts and supporting an upgraded annual outlook.
Sales volumes advanced 5.5% as Unilever's beauty and well-being, personal-care and home-care businesses each delivered volume growth exceeding 5%. Food volumes declined 0.1%, showing that improvement was not evenly distributed across the portfolio. The company has been concentrating more heavily on beauty and well-being while preparing to separate its food operations into a business valued at approximately $65 billion through an agreement involving McCormick, a global flavorings and packaged-food company. Unilever expects that separation to be completed no later than the middle of 2027.
Management now expects underlying sales to increase between 4% and 6% in 2026, compared with its previous expectation near the lower end of that range. The company anticipates growth of approximately 4% to 5% during the second half, with pricing expected to become a larger contributor. Marketing spending represented 16.1% of turnover, reflecting continued investment behind the company's brands. Unilever's 5.8% underlying sales growth exceeded the analyst estimate by 1.5 percentage points, potentially giving management greater flexibility as it restructures the portfolio and supports its higher-growth businesses.