Unilever beats quarterly sales growth forecasts

(Reuters) -Unilever’s first-quarter sales grew by a better than expected 4.4%, it said on Thursday, as one of the world’s biggest consumer goods companies won back shoppers who had traded down to cheaper products.

Unilever, which makes products ranging from Dove soaps to Hellmann’s mayonnaise, said it was confident in its ability to deliver sustained volume growth and maintained its full-year outlook.

The company increased its sales volumes by 2.2%, its second quarter of growth after several consecutive quarters of volumes falling. It raised prices by 2.2% during the quarter.

Analysts had expected sales volumes to rise by 1.2% and prices to increase by 1.8%. Its underlying sales growth of 4.4% was above the 3% estimate seen by the analysts in a company-provided consensus.

(Reporting by Agata RybskaEditing by David Goodman and Matt Scuffham)