Unilever sales disappoint as competition bites big brands

Unilever reported lower-than-expected third-quarter sales, losing market share to smaller competitors and dampening hopes that an aborted takeover offer from Kraft Heinz would spark a swift improvement.

Underlying sales rose only 2.6 percent, Unilever said on Thursday. That was below the 3.9 percent growth expected by analysts in a company-supplied consensus, and below the 3 percent seen in the first half of the year.

Unilever's shares were down 4 percent at 0828 GMT, having risen by about a third since Kraft's unsuccessful $143 billion takeover bid for the maker of Magnum ice cream and Dove soap in February.

The company blamed poor weather in Europe, hurricanes in the United States and earthquakes in Mexico for disrupting its sales. But it also cited the growing threat from local competitors in markets such as US ice cream and Southeast Asian personal care.