Unilever to review tea business as company posts slowest growth in a decade

Unilever initiated a review of its global tea business after the company posted its slowest quarterly growth in a decade.

The 1.5 per cent fourth-quarter gain in underlying sales growth at the maker of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and Dove soap compared with a 1.4 per cent consensus analyst estimate.

Consumers have been shifting away from black tea to herbal tea, hitting the owner of Lipton.

The personal-care business, Unilever’s largest, was hurt by weak pricing of shampoo and other hair products in the US in the latest quarter, compounding the Anglo-Dutch company’s woes.

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The souring performance comes a month after chief executive Alan Jope warned investors that sales gains would be below the company's earlier guidance in 2019 and in the lower half of its expected range in 2020 as shoppers jilt mass-market brands.

The results cap a tough first year at the helm for Mr Jope, who has said he wants the company to be a benchmark of how businesses can do well by doing good. – Bloomberg