Unilever passes costs on to consumers The ability to pass on price increases to consumers has offset slowing growth in emerging markets and helped boost first-quarter sales at Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate. The maker of Dove soap, Knorr stock cubes and Magnum ice cream on Thursday reported an 8.4 per cent increase in underlying sales compared with the same period last year. Unilever, whose brands also include Marmite, Vaseline, Lynx and Lipton, attributed the higher turnover to its ability to pass on price increases without denting sales, as well as solid growth in emerging economies. "Emerging markets, now 56 per cent of the business, have again delivered strong growth and whilst the good performance in developed markets was against a weak prior year comparator, our performance is pleasing given struggling economies, continued fragile consumer confidence and competitor activity." said Paul Polman, Unilever chief executive. The group warned, however, that growth in emerging markets had slowed, adding: "The external macroeconomic environment remains difficult and high input cost headwinds persist." The figures were well received by the City, which pushed up Unilever shares by 4 per cent, or 85p, to £21.64 in early London trading. "Even allowing for the leap day, an early Easter and a weak comparison in Europe, Unilever's first-quarter sales performance, in our view, is impressive," said Graham Jones at Peel Hunt. Unilever is generating decent growth in both developed and developing markets, and across its range of categories. Unilever has lagged behind its competitors in recent years and been forced to tackle higher prices of commodities such as palm oil and sugar. Unilever's commodity costs for 2011 were 15 per cent higher than in 2010, but the group expects this to slow to a mid-single digit increase in 2012. In the three months to March 31, turnover rose from €10.9bn to €12.2bn year on year, and the quarterly dividend was boosted 8 per cent to 24.3 euro cents. Sales of personal care items rose by more than 10 per cent to €4.26bn, while home care products increased by a similar percentage to €2.2bn.