Reported turnover fell almost 4%. Underlying sales rose 3.5%. Learning to tell those two apart is the whole point of this chapter.
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✦ The bottom line
Unilever's reported turnover fell to €50.5B — down 3.8%. But that drop is mostly a strong euro and the deliberate exit from ice cream. Strip those out and the real, like-for-like measure — underlying sales growth — was +3.5%. The headline shrank; the business grew.
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✦ Teach me
Underlying sales growth
Unilever earns money all over the world and reports in euros. When the euro is strong, the dollars and rupees it earns abroad convert into fewer euros — so the headline can fall even when the company sold more.
To cut through that, Unilever reports underlying sales growth (USG): how much it really sold, stripping out currency swings and businesses it bought or sold. USG = volume (more units) + price.
Wall Street calls this
Organic / like-for-like sales growth
For a company that reports in euros but sells globally, the reported number can mislead. Underlying growth is the cleaner read on whether the business is actually winning.
Turnover · fiscal year 2025 (continuing operations)
€50.5
B
Down 3.8% as reported — but the decline is driven by a strong euro and the ice-cream spin-off, not by selling less product.
A falling headline on a healthy company is exactly the trap that catches new investors. The euro is a translation effect — it tells you about exchange rates, not about whether shoppers are buying. So look at the number that strips currency out: did people actually buy more Unilever this year?
Underlying sales growth · fiscal year 2025
+3.5
%
The real, currency-adjusted growth — and this time it included 1.5% more volume, not just higher prices. People bought more, the healthy way to grow.