London, April 27, 2026, 14:01 BST
- Unilever shares were quoted lower in London on Monday, three days before the Dove maker is due to publish its first-quarter trading statement.
- The update will test investor confidence in Chief Executive Fernando Fernandez’s reshaping of the group after the planned combination of Unilever Foods with McCormick.
- A fresh jump in energy and commodity costs has raised pressure across consumer goods, with peers including Procter & Gamble and Nestlé already reporting or warning on the quarter.
Unilever PLC shares slipped in London on Monday as investors looked ahead to a first-quarter update that will show whether the consumer goods group can defend sales growth while higher oil and input costs squeeze the sector.
The company is due to report on April 30, with analysts compiled by Unilever expecting first-quarter underlying sales growth of 3.6%. Underlying sales growth is a measure of comparable revenue growth, stripping out items such as currency moves and portfolio changes.
That matters now because Unilever is trying to prove that a narrower business can grow faster. Since spinning off ice cream and agreeing to combine its foods arm with McCormick, Fernandez has pushed the maker of Dove soap, Rexona deodorant and Hellmann’s mayonnaise toward beauty, wellbeing, personal care and home care.
Unilever’s London shares were quoted at 4,248p to sell and 4,249p to buy, down 0.74% from the previous close, AJ Bell data showed. The stock remains under pressure after a sharp fall when the McCormick transaction was announced last month.
The McCormick deal would value Unilever Foods at $44.8 billion, with Unilever and its shareholders receiving a 65% stake in the combined company and $15.7 billion in cash. Unilever said the separation would leave it with about €39 billion of 2025 revenue in beauty, wellbeing, personal care and home care.
Fernandez called the transaction “another decisive step” in sharpening Unilever’s portfolio, while McCormick Chief Executive Brendan Foley said the combination would reinforce McCormick’s focus on flavour. The deal uses a Reverse Morris Trust, a tax-efficient structure in which a company spins off a business and merges it with another group. Unilever
The near-term issue is less strategic and more basic: price. Reuters reported on Monday that consumer companies face a renewed pricing test after higher energy and commodity costs hit packaging, plastics and logistics. “This time round, consumer staples companies will try their best to pass on any extra costs, but they might struggle,” AJ Bell head of markets Dan Coatsworth said. Reuters
P&G, a key Unilever peer in personal care and household products, reported 3% organic sales growth for its fiscal third quarter on Friday and maintained its full-year guidance. It also said commodity costs would be a roughly $150 million after-tax headwind in fiscal 2026, with tariffs adding about $400 million.
Nestlé, another bellwether for branded consumer goods, said last week that first-quarter organic sales grew 3.5%, helped by coffee and pet food, with emerging markets growing faster. Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy said Nestlé was showing “early signs of reigniting volume growth.” Reuters
For Unilever, the question is whether emerging markets and higher-margin personal care can offset slow demand in developed markets. In February, the company warned that 2026 sales growth would come in at the lower end of its 4% to 6% multi-year guidance range, after weaker trends in the United States and Europe.
Analysts are watching volume, not just pricing. RBC Capital Markets analyst James Edwardes Jones wrote in February that there were signs of progress at Unilever, “however we think it will take time,” while Quilter Cheviot’s Chris Beckett said cost-of-living pressure in developed markets left the consumer “far from firing on all cylinders.” Reuters
But the risk is that another round of price rises weakens demand just as volumes begin to recover across the sector. Reuters said consumer heavyweights including Unilever, Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark and Mondelez had yet to outline the impact of higher energy prices, and eToro analyst Zavier Wong said the choice between defending prices and relying on volumes “will only get harder” if energy costs keep climbing. Reuters
Labour is another uncertainty around the reshaping of the group. Reuters reported last week that Unilever’s European workers are seeking job protections in talks over the likely McCormick merger, similar to those secured during the Magnum ice cream spin-off. Unilever said it was consulting works councils and wanted to reduce uncertainty in the months ahead.
Thursday’s statement will not settle the McCormick integration, labour talks or the energy-cost question. It will, though, give investors a cleaner read on whether Unilever’s post-foods, post-ice-cream story is gaining traction, or whether the old problem remains: getting shoppers to buy more without leaning too hard on price.
