Full-year profit at Unilever soars, sales edge lower

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Consumer products multinational Unilever, whose brands include Dove soaps and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, says Europe’s hot summer and the sale of its spreads division helped drive up net profit to 9.8 billion euros ($11.2 billion) last year, from 6.5 billion euros ($7.5 billion) a year earlier.

The company said Thursday that sales in the fourth quarter of 2018 fell 5.3 percent to 12.15 billion euros ($13.9 billion). That contributed to full-year sales of 51 billion euros ($58.5 billion), down 5.1 percent from 2017 due to the sale of the spreads division and exchange rate fluctuations.

Unilever’s new CEO, Alan Jope, says 2018 was a solid year. He adds that “in 2019 we expect market conditions to remain challenging.”