Hindustan Unilever's Q1 profit more than doubles

Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever, the Indian unit of Anglo-Dutch Unilever, Monday said its quarterly profit had more than doubled, helped by higher sales in key product groups.
The company said in a statement that net profit for the three months to June soared 112 percent to 13.31 billion rupees ($242 million) from the same period a year earlier, outstripping market forecasts.
"We saw a quarter of strong volume-led growth with an improvement in margins," said HUL chairman Harish Manwani.
But he called the economic environment "challenging due to domestic inflation and the general economic slowdown".
Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India's biggest consumer goods firm by revenues, said sales in the first quarter rose 14 percent to 62.5 billion rupees despite a tougher retail climate in the face of a weakening economy.
The earnings by the company, which sells such brands as Dove soap and shampoo Clinic Plus, topped market expectations of a 7.0-billion-rupee profit.