UNILEVER PLC

In 2025, we became a simpler, sharper and faster company, delivering on

our commitment to volume growth, positive mix and strong gross margin.

Underlying sales growth (USG) of 3.5% represented a good performance

against the backdrop of slowing markets and reflected a sequential

improvement in the second half of the year.

Growth was led by our Power Brands, which delivered 4.3% USG, driven

by an increasingly strong innovation plan and more disciplined execution.

These brands now account for 78% of turnover, reflecting our ambition to

make Unilever a simpler, more focused business. We saw improvements

in key emerging markets, including Indonesia and China – which benefited

from operational resets – and an improving performance in India. Our

largest market, the US, continued to outperform the market. Latin America,

however, had a challenging year.

In terms of profitability, we remain focused on gross margin expansion,

which increased to 46.9% last year, driven by productivity initiatives,

volume leverage and positive mix. This structural improvement in gross

margin, alongside strong control of overheads, helped to deliver an

improvement in underlying operating margin, which increased to 20.0%,

while fuelling continued strong investment behind our brands.