Unilever beat analyst expectations with a 3.8% rise in gross sales in the course of the second quarter of 2025. Regardless of the expansion, the proprietor of Dove and Persil noticed working revenue fall by 4.8% within the first half of the 12 months.
However, CEO Fernando Fernandez has elevated the CPG’s advertising and marketing price range to construct what he referred to as a “advertising and marketing and gross sales machine.”
The Numbers
$34.45 billion – Income within the first half of 2025, up 3.4% within the first half, pushed by its private care and ice cream manufacturers.
15.5% – The share of income (roughly $5.17 billion) Unilever spent on advertising and marketing in H1 2025, up 0.4% 12 months over 12 months.
$6.64 billion – Unilever’s working revenue for the primary half of the 12 months, down 4.8% year-on-year
Watercooler Speak
Unilever’s Q2 and first half outcomes topped analyst expectations. Gross sales had been up whereas revenue declined (although barely lower than anticipated) amid rising prices and elevated funding in advertising and marketing and model constructing, in addition to bills tied to its upcoming ice cream enterprise spin-off.
The U.Okay.-based firm’s ice cream division, set to turn out to be The Magnum Ice Cream Firm in November with Unilever retaining a 20% stake, was a shiny spot in Q2, rising 5.9% year-on-year. Its private care manufacturers phase, which incorporates Dove and Axe, additionally carried out properly, with a 4.8% gross sales increase.
When Fernandez took on the CEO job in February, he heralded in a brand new “influencer-first” advertising and marketing technique that allocates 30% to 50% of Unilever’s $9 billion annual advert price range within the creator area. It’s a blueprint that has to date resulted in creator-led campaigns for manufacturers together with TRESemmé.
Addressing traders on Thursday (July 31), Fernandez stated the group had “elevated model and advertising and marketing funding behind key improvements and market developments.”
Whereas monetary outcomes had been blended, Fernandez said Unilever wouldn’t sacrifice growing its advertising and marketing price range at the price of small revenue wins.
“The occasions of Unilever buying and selling off decrease, uncompetitive funding in our manufacturers to ship some extra revenue are gone. We’ll shield the funding behind our manufacturers,” he stated.
Whereas U.S. rival P&G predicted a $1 billion hit in 2026 from President Trump’s tariffs throughout its earnings replace earlier this week, Unilever’s performing CFO, Srinivas Phatak, stated within the short-term, the affect of any levies was “properly inside [Unilever’s] margin steering” for the second half of the 12 months.
Key Quote
“Trying forward, our priorities are clear: extra magnificence and wellbeing, and private care; disproportionate funding within the U.S. and India; and a sharper give attention to premium segments and digital commerce,” Fernandez stated.
“We’re constructing a advertising and marketing and gross sales machine that drives need at scale in our energy manufacturers and ensures execution excellence throughout all channels to ship constant quantity development and gross margin enlargement.”
