It was not a triumphant sign-off from Alan Jope, the now former Unilever boss. Look past the sales and margin headlines, both better than the market had been expecting, and the consumer goods group is winning less market share. True, underlying sales growth of 7.9 per cent in the second quarter beat the 6.4 per cent forecast by analysts, enough for the new boss Hein Schumacher to lift guidance to an increase this year of above 5 per cent. That’s beyond its usual plodding range of 3 to 5 per cent, within which it has historically lingered towards the bottom end.
Again, bumping up prices, which rose an average 8.2 per cent over the quarter, offset an albeit less severe than expected 0.3 per cent
