{"id":41800,"date":"2026-05-20T14:24:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/41800\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:24:29","slug":"unilever-begins-share-buyback-as-india-and-latam-growth-offsets-slow-developed-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/41800\/","title":{"rendered":"Unilever begins share buyback as India and LatAm growth offsets slow developed markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c3b704dcf29290f7c584aa2c65bfc8af.jpeg\" alt=\"Unilever begins share buyback as India and LatAm growth offsets slow developed markets\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"443\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-lglytj  loaded\"\/> Unilever begins share buyback as India and LatAm growth offsets slow developed markets Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock      <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/ULVR.l\" data-ylk=\"slk:Unilever PLC (LSE:ULVR);elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Unilever PLC (LSE&quot;}\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Unilever PLC (LSE:ULVR)<\/a> said it is launching a \u20ac1.5 billion share buyback today as it posted better-than-expected growth for the first quarter of the year, with volume growth driving a rise in underlying sales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The owner of consumer brands ranging from Cif and Colgate to Hellman&#8217;s and Marmite reported 3.8% underlying sales growth in the first three months of 2026, with volumes up 2.9% and pricing contributing 0.9%.\u00a0Forecasts were for sales growth of just over 3.6%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Turnover fell 3.3% to \u20ac12.6 billion, reflecting currency headwinds despite positive trading momentum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">For the full year, the company said it\u00a0expects underlying sales growth at the lower end of its 4% to 6% range and at least 2% volume growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Alongside the\u00a0buyback, a 3% rise in the quarterly dividend was announced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Chief executive Fernando Fernandez said: &#8220;We have started the year well with volume-led growth driven by our Power Brands.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Growth was broad-based across divisions, with Home Care the strongest performer at 6.1% underlying sales growth, while Beauty &amp; Wellbeing, Personal Care and Foods also expanded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Emerging markets led the performance, with 5.7% underlying sales growth thanks to strong demand in India and a recovery in Latin America. Developed markets grew 1.0%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Power Brands delivered 5.0% underlying sales growth and 4.0% volume growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">During the quarter, the group agreed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk\/companies\/news\/1089834\/unilever-falls-on-deal-to-spin-off-foods-arm-into-mccormick-merger-1089834.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:combine its Foods business with McCormick &amp; Company;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;combine its Foods business with McCormick &amp;amp&quot;}\" class=\"link \">combine its Foods business with McCormick &amp; Company<\/a>, a move aimed at reshaping the business towards higher growth categories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Fernandez said the deal would help create \u201ca global flavour powerhouse\u201d but the share price reaction shows many investors do not agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unilever begins share buyback as India and LatAm growth offsets slow developed markets Proactive uses images sourced from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20694],"tags":[20951,21057,21056,21054,12213,21055],"class_list":["post-41800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-unilever","tag-fernando-fernandez","tag-power-brands","tag-sales-growth","tag-share-buyback","tag-unilever","tag-volume-growth"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116607363668043664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}