Unilever’s profits beat expectations for the first half of 2024, despite sales missing analyst forecasts.

The FMCG giant saw underlying operating profit up 17.1% to €6.1bn (£5.1bn) for the six months to June, beating market expectations of €5.44bn (£4.5bn).

While the Hellmann’s and Ben & Jerry’s owner saw sales increase by 3.9% in the second quarter, this was less than analyst consensus of 4.2%.

However, underlying sales growth in the first half was 4.1%, which Unilever said was led by volume and price, while it kept up its full-year underlying sales growth forecast of 3% to 5%.

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In its nutrition division, underlying sales grew 3.2% and it returned to positive volumes in the second quarter at 0.4%.

Ice cream sales growth was up by just 0.6%, while volume was down 1% driven by weaker sales in China and a softer start to the summer season in Europe.

It comes as Unilever is to spin out its ice cream division – a move which will impact ice cream brands such as Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, Wall’s and Cornetto – with the “full separation” from the group expected by the end of 2025.

The decision is designed to help the development of the ice cream brands, which it said had “distinct characteristics” compared to other divisions, with Unilever believing the changes would “create a world-leading business” and “drive stronger performances”.

Unilever chief executive Hein Schumacher said: “We are focused on driving high-quality sales growth and gross margin expansion, led by our power brands. Over the first half, we made progress on those ambitions.

“Strong gross margin progression fuelled increased investment behind our innovations, and resulted in a step-up of our profitability.

“The implementation of a comprehensive productivity programme and the separation of ice cream are key to delivering on that commitment and we are progressing at pace. There is much to do, but we remain focused on transforming Unilever into a consistently higher performing business.”