2025 Full Year Results
Sharper focus and disciplined execution driving competitive performance
Full Year Key Highlights
• Underlying sales growth (USG) 3.5%, with 1.5% volume growth; stronger fourth quarter USG of 4.2%, with 2.1% volume
• Turnover €50.5 billion, down (3.8)%; with adverse currency (5.9)% and net disposals (1.2)%
• Power Brands (78% of turnover) leading growth with 4.3% USG and volume up 2.2%
• Strong gross margin 46.9%, up 20bps, supporting brand & marketing investment up 10bps to 16.1%
• Underlying operating margin expansion to 20.0%, up 60bps, driven by disciplined overhead management
• Underlying EPS increased 0.7%; diluted EPS increased 6.2%
• Productivity programme delivering ahead of plan, with cumulative c.€670 million savings by end of 2025
• 100% cash conversion with FCF of €5.9 billion; down €0.4 billion primarily due to Ice Cream demerger costs
• Quarterly dividend raised 3% vs third quarter 2025
• New €1.5 billion share buyback announced
• Further portfolio transformation; Ice Cream demerged and 10 transactions closed or announced since start of 2025
Note: Following the demerger of the Ice Cream Business, all figures are on a continuing basis, which excludes Ice Cream, unless specifically noted.
Full Year Key Figures
| Underlying performance | GAAP measures | ||||||
| (unaudited) | 2025 | vs 2024(b) | 2025 | vs 2024(b) | |||
| Full Year | |||||||
| Underlying sales growth (USG) | 3.5% | Turnover | 50.5bn | (3.8)% | |||
| Beauty & Wellbeing | 4.3% | Beauty & Wellbeing | €12.8bn | (2.3)% | |||
| Personal Care | 4.7% | Personal Care | €13.2bn | (3.4)% | |||
| Home Care | 2.6% | Home Care | €11.6bn | (6.4)% | |||
| Foods | 2.5% | Foods | €12.9bn | (3.2)% | |||
| Underlying operating profit | €10.1bn | (1.1%) | Operating profit | €9.0bn | 2.4% | ||
| Underlying operating margin | 20.0% | 60bps | Operating margin | 17.9% | 110bps | ||
| Underlying earnings per share | €3.08 | 0.7% | Diluted earnings per share | €2.59 | 6.2% | ||
| Free cash flow | €5.9bn | €(0.4)bn | Net profit | €6.2bn | 2.9% | ||
| Fourth Quarter | |||||||
| USG | 4.2% | Turnover | €12.6bn | (2.7)% | |||
| Quarterly dividend payable in March 2026 (a) | €0.4664 | per share(b) | |||||
(a) See note 9 for more information on dividends
(b) 2024 comparatives have been re-presented to reflect the demerger of the Ice Cream Business Group
Chief Executive Officer Statement
“In 2025 we became a simpler, sharper, and faster Unilever, delivering our commitment to volume growth, positive mix and strong gross margin. Our underlying sales growth improved throughout the year as we landed a strong innovation plan, drove improvements in key emerging markets and successfully completed the Ice Cream demerger.
We are moving at speed to build a business that drives desire at scale in our brands, execution excellence across all channels and cost discipline. We have set clear priorities for growth – building a brand portfolio for the future, with more Beauty, Wellbeing and Personal Care, prioritising premium segments and digital commerce, and anchoring our growth in the US and India.
Despite slowing markets, our sharper focus and disciplined execution underpin our confidence for 2026 and beyond.”
Fernando Fernandez
Strategic Highlights
In 2025 we accelerated the strategic reshaping of Unilever, further focusing our portfolio on higher-growth categories, with increased exposure to Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care. We continue to be disciplined, with targeted bolt-on acquisitions including Dr. Squatch in North America and Minimalist in India, alongside disposals of non-core and local brands, primarily in Foods. The demerger of the Ice Cream business was completed in December, creating a simpler Unilever with a clearer strategic and capital allocation focus.
We advanced our shift towards a more category-led and execution-focused operating model. We created separate sales organisations by Business Group across the largest markets to strengthen accountability and speed of decision-making, while the One Unilever model simplified operations in smaller markets. In parallel, we took decisive actions to reset our businesses in Indonesia and China, including changes to route-to-market and portfolio optimisation. Both markets showed improving trends as these actions took hold through the year.
We strengthened the capabilities required to support our strategy and drive sustained volume growth, positive mix with structurally higher gross margin. We scaled premium innovations across the core portfolio and expanded platforms such as Whole Body Deodorants and Wonder Wash across new variants and new markets. We also accelerated our shift to social-first demand generation, with brands such as Dove and Vaseline embracing creator-led content and always-on digital engagement.
Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on the three shifts that will be critical to support sustained outperformance in rapidly changing markets: building desire at scale with our brands, ensuring the organisation is fit for the AI age, and reinforcing a play to win culture with clear accountability.
Outlook
We expect underlying sales growth for full year 2026 to be within our multi-year guidance range of 4% to 6%, with at least 2% underlying volume growth. 2026 growth is expected to be at the bottom end of the underlying sales growth range reflecting the slower market conditions. We anticipate a modest improvement in underlying operating margin for the full year versus 20.0% in 2025.