Unilever has announced the launch date for its soon-to-be standalone ice cream division, which will be rebranded as The Magnum Ice Cream Company.
In its first-quarter trading update on 24 April, the consumer goods giant confirmed it is on schedule to complete the separation of its Ice Cream division in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Set to operate independently from 1 July, The Magnum Ice Cream Company will be spun off from Unilever through a separate listing in Amsterdam, London, and New York. The company will remain headquartered in Amsterdam.
The announcement comes as Unilever reported a decline in turnover for the first quarter of 2025, despite growth from its 'Power' brands like Dove.
For the 12 weeks ending 31 March 2025, Unilever's sales declined by 0.9% to €14.8 billion. However, underlying sales growth remained at 3% for the quarter, supported by a 1.3% increase in volume and a 1.7% rise in value.
The FTSE 100 giant's performance was driven by strong portfolio leaders like Dove, which saw an 8% growth thanks to new innovations including premium lines and hair care ranges. Other contributors to the boost included Vaseline, Liquid I.V., and Magnum.
Unilever's ice cream division also performed well, achieving 4.0% underlying sales growth, with 1.8% coming from volume and 2.2% from price increases.
Commenting on the company’s results, new CEO Fernando Fernandez described the performance as “resilient” and praised the recent innovations driving growth.
Fernandez said, “We have started the year with a resilient performance. First quarter underlying sales growth of 3% reflects the strength of our increasingly premium and innovation-led portfolio in developed markets,”
“We have interventions in place in some emerging markets to step up growth in the remainder of the year. Heightened global macroeconomic uncertainty is a fact; however the quality of our innovation programme, the strong investment behind our brands and our improving competitiveness give us confidence we will deliver on our full year plans.
“Creating desirability at scale for our brands and brilliant in-market execution are the pillars of our plan to turn Unilever into a consistently higher performing business. We are moving at pace, confident in making progress in 2025 and beyond.”
Looking ahead, the company stated that it expects underlying sales growth to fall within the range of 3% to 5%, driven by strong innovation, solid momentum in developed markets, and operational improvements in Indonesia and China.
