The consumer-products giant said net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 was €1.25 billion ($1.77 billion), compared with €1.05 billion in the same period a year earlier. Total sales rose 13% to €11.55 billion from €10.2 billion.
"We have delivered another quarter of solid progress, driven by our emerging-markets business which again reported high levels of volume growth," Chief Executive Paul Polman said in a statement.
The Anglo-Dutch maker of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Knorr soup and Bertolli olive oil and household products such as Dove, Lynx and Cif, said underlying sales—which strip out acquisitions, disposals and currency movements—grew 3.6% in the third quarter. This measure of sales, which compares with 3.4% growth in the same period a year earlier and a 3.6% rise in the previous three months, is closely watched as a directly comparable measure of how the company's products are selling.
Underlying volumes rose 4.8%, compared with 3.6% a year earlier and 5.7% in the previous quarter. Unilever said it expects price rises to lift margins through until the end of the year.
In August, the London and Rotterdam, Netherlands-based group—which sells products in 170 countries and competes with U.S.-based market leader Procter & Gamble Co. and Switzerland's Nestle SA—posted second-half top- and bottom-line growth, but also cautioned it expects economic growth to slow in the second half, particularly in developed markets.
Unilever Profit Up
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