Commenting on the results, CEO Paul Polman says: 'The first quarter shows growth once more ahead of our markets. This reflects our continued investment in both innovations and brand support, and reconfirms the strength of our long term sustainable compounding growth model.

'The change programme 'Connected for Growth', which we started implementing in the autumn last year, is clearly bearing fruit and is making Unilever more agile and closer to the local markets, unlocking both further growth and margin.

'The actions we are taking keep us on track for another year of underlying sales growth ahead of our markets, in the 3-5% range. We also expect an improvement in underlying operating margin this year of at least 80 basis points and strong cash flow. We are raising the dividend by 12%, reflecting the confidence in our outlook.'

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