Operator
Operator
We are about to hand over to Unilever to begin the conference call. [Operator Instructions] We will now hand over to Mr. James Allison.
Unilever PLC (UL)
Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 24, 2013
$56.99
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1 Week
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1 Month
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vs S&P
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Operator
Operator
We are about to hand over to Unilever to begin the conference call. [Operator Instructions] We will now hand over to Mr. James Allison.
James Allison
Analyst
Good morning, and welcome to our Third Quarter Results Presentation. This morning, Paul will begin with some introductory remarks, before Jean-Marc will review the sales performance in the third quarter. Paul will conclude by looking forward. We will then move on to Q&A in the usual fashion. But first, let me draw your attention to the usual disclaimer relating to forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures. And with that, I'll hand over to Paul.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
Thank you, James, and good morning, everybody. As you can imagine at the -- I was keen to communicate directly with you all in light of the short trading update we made a few weeks ago, call it character building, but let me reassure you that we were as disappointed as you were. Now some things came together that explained the results for the quarter, but let me first stress the bigger picture that for the year as a whole, we continue to expect to grow well ahead of the markets and to improve once more the operating margin. No difference here. So why was the quarter soft, and is this the start of a trend? These are obviously the right questions. Now first, as you know, we've been warning for a slowdown in emerging markets for a while. And as some of you mentioned, if you say it often enough, it will eventually come. The truth is that the World Bank and the IMF have reported emerging market growth rates going from 7.5% in 2010 to 6.2% in 2011 to 4.9% in 2012, with the latest one below 4.5%. Unlike some of our competitors, we've been able to grow ahead of this, despite an already high base, by developing these markets. That's a core competency of Unilever. We knew that we could not maintain the double-digit growth rates over the -- that we have shown over the last 9 quarters, but unfortunately, the recent currency movements have not helped. And the lack of sufficient structural economic reform during the good times in all these markets is actually now holding them back. And obviously, in many of these markets, we have big businesses. Now what makes the quarter especially soft for us is that we don't yet have sufficient pickup…
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
Thanks, Jean-Marc, for the comprehensive review. As you see, strong innovations, especially the new ones coming in, in the last quarter as well. Now let's briefly finish by looking forward, and again, once more, we'll go into more details in the December investor seminar. First, you've heard me say many times that I'm not a pessimist, but a realistic optimist, and realism is needed in this environment. The reality is that the global economy is not in as good a shape as some people would like to make it out. Short-term, we will have to live with some volatility, and perhaps more than we are used to. I also believe that we will have to calibrate our expectations a little bit more as we navigate these choppy waters. I said 5 years ago that Europe would be in for a long and slow recovery and that's still the case today. There is still a widespread fear out there about a whole host of issues: The U.S. domestic tension surrounding the debt ceiling debate and the latest fiscal impasse we've seen between the White House and the Republican arm of the Congress, and of course, concerns that the U.S. will not pick up as quickly as expected. In this country, we've bought some time, short-term, but have not solved the substantial issues there. There is also fear that the Europe's calm that we're seeing is being held together with, frankly, sticking plastic, which could fall off any minute. And although we again see short-term money inflow in the emerging markets, there is still concern in the emerging world of the consequences of a tapering of U.S. quantitative easing. Taking a longer-term perspective, the numbers will, however, remain attractive. Global GDP growth rates will return to the 3% to 4% from the…
James Allison
Analyst
Okay, so the normal routine applies here. I see we've already got a number of callers on the line. [Operator Instructions] I think, first up on the line, we do have Iain Simpson.
Iain Galloway Simpson - Barclays Capital, Research Division
Analyst
Just a few questions from me. Firstly, when you talk about the impacts in the third quarter, what would be great would be if you could give us some sort of indication as to what percentage of your shortfall versus expectations came from increased competitor action, and what percentage came from weaker EM? And then a second question, which is the Ades recall in Brazil. It would be great if you could just give it a little around -- a bit of color around that and then sort of what your expectations for that business are for the fourth quarter and, indeed, 2014?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
Thanks, Iain. So it's really 1 question. But if you look at the -- very briefly, without being too granular here, the emerging markets have slowed down by about 2 percentage points as far as we can see. If you look at the 9% growth rates more or less that we were on for the 9 months and the 6% growth rates that we see now, you see that reflected. The macroeconomic numbers, by the way, would support that as well. Our 6%, 5.9% growth rates in the emerging markets compares to an IMF estimate at 4.3% to 4.5%, just put that into perspective. And that is, certainly for the shortfall that we're seeing, quite a lot. The second thing is obviously that these U.S. markets and the European markets, especially the U.S. market, is not picking up as fast as we would have expected, unfortunately. We've had poor performance there. And half of that certainly is due to the market not picking up, food market being down, for example. And probably half of that is due to us taking a little bit longer assessment of the competitive intensity to fully react to that. The Brazil Ades information, Jean-Marc actually talked about that. I don't want to go into that much more in detail. You got the numbers from Jean-Marc. But Brazil and, as a result, Latin America, because Brazil is such a big part of that, actually suffered in this quarter from both the effects of Ades recall, which we obviously regret and apologize for, but also about the swing of the implementation of our global IT systems that we're still rolling out, that obviously we sold it in a little bit preloading the previous quarter, and now, less shipments in this quarter. So those are the 3 effects that we suffer from. What is exceptional and what is not exceptional, we don't want to go into that granularity. These are the numbers that we have, and that's what we have to live with.
James Allison
Analyst
Thanks, Iain. Next up, I think we have Eileen Khoo on the line.
Eileen Khoo - Morgan Stanley, Research Division
Analyst
Gentlemen, Eileen Khoo here from Morgan Stanley. Two questions. The first one is actually on Food disposals. Q3 guided to disposals of up to EUR 500 million to EUR 750 million sales over the medium-term, I believe. But this year alone, you've divested about EUR 500 million worth. So does this mean you're pretty much where you want to be now in terms of your Food portfolio, or can we expect continued ongoing divestments going forward? And the second thing is just on the Fair and Lovely relaunch in India. It seems that, that has not perhaps gone as well as you'd hope. Perhaps you could give us a bit of color on that.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
Yes. I'll start with the Fair and Lovely little color because that's a very appropriate Freudian slip on your part. The -- India, I'll actually be there as of Saturday. I'm flying out there. What has not gone well is not the relaunch. The relaunch is actually going well. What had not gone well was the previous adjustments we made on the product, which, frankly, caused confusion to many consumers, because it also entailed a difference in appearance. Whilst the product was better and tested well in many of the rural communities, people have not access to the media environment that you are used to in the urban environment. So when we launched the new Fair and Lovely now a year ago or so, it started to increasingly to build confusion amongst that part of the population. And we've gone back to a product that more resembles the original Fair and Lovely. That relaunch is currently being rolled out. I won't go into the results, if I may. I have to apologize for that because India will announce its results, I think, the 26th of October by memory. So you will see a lot of the information coming through them, but we're in the midst of that relaunch now, and all I can say is that initial indications are very good. As you know, we continue to rationalize our Food portfolio to make it more attractive and really focus on our 5 core categories, which are our margarine business, which is starting to pick up bit by bit, and Jean-Marc talked about that; which is our Tea business, where we see improvements and now adding T2 to get into the premium side; which is our Ice Cream business, where we are making that more global and getting into impulse; which…
James Allison
Analyst
Thank you, Eileen. I think we've got Pablo Zuanic now next to ask his questions.
Pablo E. Zuanic - Liberum Capital Limited, Research Division
Analyst
Two questions. Regarding EBIT margins for this first half [indiscernible] margin expansion. You had margin expansion in the first half. You have guided for a full year margin expansion. What does that mean for [indiscernible]? And the second question, which is related and maybe more important, when we think about your price difference, how are we to distinguish how much of that comes from the cost of inflation [indiscernible] and how much [indiscernible] from competitive activity, whereas your plans to make [indiscernible] for the global brands? [indiscernible] on the pricing plans is that we are going to be faced with weaker [indiscernible] market currencies [indiscernible] price? [indiscernible] from pricing [indiscernible] Pressure [indiscernible] inflation related?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
Okay. Pablo, the second question was very bad. We couldn't understand it. But I'll try to see what you're trying to say there and you just have to be satisfied with that. The first question, we did understand, which is margin expansion over the first half versus the second half. Let me first turn that to Jean-Marc and then I'll come back. Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: Sure. No comment, first half versus second half, but as Paul said, our priorities remain sustainable, core operating margin improvement for the year. You should take note of the fact that we have been pruning less margin business within Ice Cream, in North America, as an example. You should be aware that a high priority this year has been Maxing the Mix that we discussed at our Investor Conference in Paris last year, and there's been an important drive to increased discipline throughout the year. And so we're confident in our plans of growth, profitable growth, and making sure that our core operating margin improves in a sustainable basis, including this year.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
On the second point which is, I believe, the emerging markets, let me first show -- tell you that the business, obviously, is very much skewed towards Home and Personal Care. And what you've seen in both Home and Personal Care in the results that we published again, very strong volume growth. Home Care, 5.5%, Personal Care, 4.3% just for the quarter, and nearly 6% year-to-date. So indeed, what you see is pricing coming off or lapsing year-ago pricing. This performance, by the way, versus all our competitors that we see is very healthy, and that's why we continue to see our share growth there. The pricing effects in emerging markets have a little bit of a lag. We saw, for the first time, at least in my history being associated with the emerging markets, which is only 30 years, we saw enormous drops in exchange rates in about 6 or 7 markets at the same time, from the reals to the rupiah to the rupee to the rand, and so forth, all at the same time. Whilst we normally can deal with one or another and compensate that globally, this really came as a shock to the global economy in total. And it really followed the short-term comments at that time by Bernanke in the U.S. The second thing is, as these markets have adjusted, we obviously have a little bit of a lag effect. But at the same time, some of these emerging markets suffered from governments taking some actions that put further pressure on the consumer. I take, for example, Indonesia, which is an important market for us, where the government abolished significant subsidies and moved fuel prices up. That's an enormous shock. In India, we saw an enormous food price inflation with onions, which is a main staple there, going up 250%. So currency effects, import price pressures, government adjustment pressures, all at the same time, and we're obviously working our way through that. As we work our way through this, we also feel more confident for the quarter ahead of us, because the question is always, if this quarter was less than you expected, how do you know that next quarter is better? Part of that is the innovation program that we have, which is strong over the last quarter, and part of that is the one-offs. But part of it is also the actions that we can take, which have a little bit of a lag effect, in these emerging markets. I hope Pablo that, that was your second question, because we could barely hear it. We'll take the next one.
James Allison
Analyst
Yes. We're going to move on now to Celine Pannuti. Hopefully, we can hear you a bit better, Celine. Celine A.H. Pannuti - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: Yes. The line is very bad so I hope you can hear me.
James Allison
Analyst
No, it's perfect. Celine A.H. Pannuti - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: Well, I'm sorry, I'm going to come back to emerging markets. I understand your explanation. I am just a bit surprised by the, I dare to say, almost violence of the Sudan which we not have seen in some of your competitors that have reported before. And then the point you are talking about a lag effect, I'm not sure that I understand, but how should we look at price increase in emerging markets to recover FX at a time where volumes have been weak in the past quarters when your pricing was weaker too, so if you could explain how we should look at the ramp-up in pricing there. My second question is North America. Clearly, as the pricing, or let's say, a disappointment, can you talk about how the weak situation in North America and the tough comps you have in the fourth quarter will play out in the fourth quarter as you are talking about the rebound of the rewards for the group?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
We're not going into the details by region for the fourth quarter because that would be totally inappropriate for the third quarter call, so I apologize for that. But you are right to come back to the emerging markets because that happens to be, in 30 years' time, about 80% of the world population and we are treating this still as one little afterthought, so I'm glad that we focus a little bit more on that. What is happening in these emerging markets is the speed with which these currencies came down once more is enormous. And at the same time, these government actions that took place in some of these markets was actually quite enormous as well. These are all markets where we have -- basically, we represent the market. And many -- much of our growth, over the last few years, which has been well-above competition, has been because of our ability to develop these markets in a broad range of categories. We're not in just in one category or another. Our oral care, for example, business actually is very strong and picked up. But we are a total portfolio, so we reflect what happens in these markets across a total portfolio, unlike some of our competitors. Even if you don't look at our performance now versus our competitors, we don't see that much of a difference, except if you get very excited about 90 days, which we clearly do less than some of you. The second thing is the North America. In North America, again, we are growing our Personal Care business. We're actually growing share in Personal Care, but that share growth has been slowed down by heavy competitive activity. Because we are growing share, we have taken an approach to see if this irrational activity,…
James Allison
Analyst
The second part of Celine's emerging market question was about pricing to cover the ForEx weakness and how that would play through. Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: Yes. So just a couple of points. As you know, in terms of hedging, we have a 3-to-6-month policy, why is it that length? That's basically the time that it takes to either increase or decrease, but mostly increase prices. And so that's the type of time, all other things being equal, it would actually take to be able to take pricing. We're not going to make any comments except for the fact that our UPG, as we said in the past, is going to be less in the second half than in the first half. There are places where we're taking pricing, Celine, in emerging markets. We're doing it in a judicious manner because, again, we have to be sensitive of consumers. But be it Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, in selective places, we are taking pricing. And the pricing in developed markets, obviously, muted. When it comes to 2014, we'll give an update in January. Celine A.H. Pannuti - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: Am I right to believe that the Q4 pickup you are talking about is because there will be a pickup in pricing, or is it rather volume-driven?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
We don't split the quarter right now. We'll talk that, as Jean-Marc says, early next year.
James Allison
Analyst
Okay. Thank you, Celine. I think we've got Robert Jan Vos on the line now.
Robert Jan Vos - ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Research Division
Analyst
I have 2 questions as well. Is it possible to shed some light on phasing of growth in the quarter, for example, was September weaker than July, or was growth evenly spread? And second question, you already commented on it in your previous question, but could you, like for currencies, give some indication of the pricing component for the year, assuming today's prices?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
The first question, we already have a hard time explaining to you 90 days. Without the weekends, it's 76 days. I'm coming on the call because I feel bad as well about the miss that we had versus what we want, so I want to face the blues, but I'm not going to be even more granular by breaking down the 90 days into 30-day periods, which, again, without the weekends is probably even less so. So that is totally useless, and I think you shouldn't focus on that. The second one is on the pricing and the effect of currencies. Jean-Marc, if you want to... Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: Yes. Well, just -- I'm not sure if I understood exactly your question, but if it was about foreign exchange, it's just a good opportunity to reiterate that the impact on top line of foreign exchange this year, as it stands today, minus 6% top line, a little more on the bottom line. If your question is about the pricing, I think the answer that we gave Celine is the answer on pricing. In a quarter, there are a lot of moving parts behind pricing. It could be around promotional activity. It could be actual price increases. Let me give an example. While commodities for the year, low- to mid-single digit, if you take tea as an example, this is a commodity that is just increasing. And so there we're taking some important price increases in places like North America. So quite a few moving parts when it comes to the pricing. But I go back to the point, in January, we'll describe the components of our growth volume versus price.
James Allison
Analyst
Okay. Thank you, Robert. Now, Martin. Martin John Deboo - Investec Securities (UK), Research Division: Gentlemen, it's Martin Deboo here. Two questions. First one comes from what Jean-Marc has just said. I just want to reconfirm, Jean-Marc, that your commodity guidance is low to mid-single digits, as you just said, which, I read, is no change to Q2, but could you just confirm that? And second one, Paul, you made an interesting comment in the intro, where I think you said the slowing top line continues to require adjustments in the business, and I'm just interested in the word adjustments. Is that a reference to the portfolio, the innovation pipeline, the cost base? Could you clarify? Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: So on the first point, I can be very short. No change, low- to mid-single-digit. And while you see a very benign commodity environment, when we're talking about increases, we include foreign exchange, which obviously has had its impact, as well as import tariffs, which just continues. So you take that all into account, low to mid-single digit, no change.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
You see 3 things happening that you are obviously trying to juggle with, and here, we are just talking a quarter again, but that you're trying to juggle with in this environment. And the 3 things are coming together, which makes it a little bit more difficult to navigate exactly on a 9-month -- a 90-day basis. But the one is slower growth that has come quite quickly in these emerging markets and we've talked about that enough. The other one, as the growth is slower and, by the way, not picking up as fast as people have hoped for in this developed markets, the competitive intensity also increases. So you're dealing with slower growth, more competitive intensity and higher volatility. And as you deal with these factors that are in, call it, the external environment, you have to continuously look at your business model to can see where you can sharpen it. If you look at Unilever over the last few years, obviously, we've become much stronger, otherwise, we wouldn't put in a quarter again that is a good quarter for us, as where the market growth is, or a year that is ahead of the market growth, whilst at the same time, doing operating margin improvements. Our innovations are stronger. The company is more agile. We are winning more battles than not, all these other things. But at the same time, you have to be looking ahead a little bit. So where we need to continue to make the adjustments is indeed in our operating model, not abandoning the compass, not abandoning the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, but continuously challenging ourselves to put the innovations higher. We are putting more emphasis now on margin accretiveness of these innovations. Obviously, that compromises a little bit of top line versus just going for volumes. We are looking, again, significantly at our cost base and simplicity in the organization to move faster and become more agile. And we will always look at our portfolio to see what makes sense and what doesn't make sense. More details of what we are planning to do moving forward, as the next step to lift this company to the next level, we really will talk in the December Investor Seminar, so we don't want to really use the time, the precious time, that we now have for that.
James Allison
Analyst
Thank you, Martin. Next caller on the line, I think, is Harold Thompson. Hello, Harold.
Harold Thompson - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Analyst
I've got 2 questions. The first one is on Hair. You clearly flagged in the release that, that business unit has been performing strongly. Last year, we got some big successes in terms of the TRESemmé launches into Brazil, the full entry in North America. You said that Clear is doing pretty well. So could you maybe just give us some updates on how the hair business is performing in the markets where you had already launched this time last year? So it's not just launch incitement, there is actually a good follow-through in terms of success. The second question is on, again, emerging markets. Paul, you say you've been 30 years in the industry there. How do you -- how do local players, which remain very large in emerging markets, tend to behave in periods of a flux, like ahead of some price increases because of input-related currency devaluations? How has that played out in the past and how do you think about them when you're trying to implement your own strategy?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
No, thanks, Harold, both questions are appreciated. On Hair, we're actually very pleased. One of our best performing brands is obviously Dove, not to go into the details, but we have the Dove Repair Expertise, for example, as a line. We have a very strong competitive base, obviously, 1 competitor keeps trying to come back with relaunch after relaunch, and that is closer positioned to Dove, but Dove, as a brand, keeps growing. These are -- this is a category that grows more than the single digits consistently and is building a share globally nicely. So we are on a good momentum in Hair, a credit to all the people in the Hair category. The Toni&Guy expansion now, also in some other places, the U.S. being one of them. The expansions of upgrades of some of our other products in our hair care line are performing well, so this category is actually hitting the marks, I think, in most places. In the U.S., again, coming in from a position that was a #2 or #3 only 4 or 5 years ago, and to hold on to category leadership despite enormous competitive attacks shows you the robustness of that portfolio. Clear, one of the other brands, very important to us, is one of our fastest-growing brands in the Unilever portfolio and continues to be. So we think there are some challenges, but we think that the category is doing well. I just came back from Japan, Harold, and the relaunch that we've done there on Lux is really impressive. And I know that's a very volatile environment, if you talk about volatility behind innovations, but we're getting good pickup. And Michelle and his team that run Hair should get a lot of kudos. They get it from me, but there's wrong…
James Allison
Analyst
Thank you, Harold. I think we've got Jeff Stent on the line now. Hello, Jeff.
Jeff Stent - Exane BNP Paribas, Research Division
Analyst
It's Jeff here calling from Exane. And just a quick question on the Maxing the Mix initiative. You highlighted H1, that you were going to replace the balance of top line growth with gross margin. And I'm just wondering, obviously, the broader market slowdown is a big factor here, but is there a bit of a tension here between these 2? Are people maybe being not quite as clever on pricing as they should be? Is there a plan to hit a gross margin target, et cetera? And any thoughts on that would be appreciated.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
No, but just a big macro thought on this is that, as you try to max the mix, first of all, I want to stress again that, that is extremely important. We already started showing at the end of last year when we reported, and all the reporting that we've done until now with the numbers that you have seen on our P&L reporting, that we are moving the Maxing the Mix forward. That is a reflection of the strength of our innovations, which ideally should be carrying the Maxing the Mix and some smart choices about channels or SKUs. It's very important that we do this, and you should actually insist that we do this because that provides the longer-term fuel to get to the consistency of operating margin expansion that we're starting to show now. And this is actually the first time, and I can say this year, we will try to do this again, but we'll talk when the year is finished. This will be the fifth year in a row of consistency of top and bottom line growth. That, to us, is far more important. So obviously, as you balance a little bit in markets, the Maxing the Mix, there is a more pressure on top line growth. You cannot, by focusing on Maxing the Mix, expect that you accelerate the top line growth as well. You have to be realistic. And a good example, as what we've pointed out, is the discontinuation of some of these SKUs in the U.S. Now we could have not done it this quarter and show a little bit better numbers and have less to explain, but that's why we keep saying, we don't run it on a quarterly basis. And it's better to do these things right and get the long-term benefits from that, than getting very excited about 90-day periods. But this is what our organization always tries to balance. There's no doubt about this. And we don't get it always right. I want to be very clear there. But broadly, on our Maxing the Mix efforts, I'm very pleased and the numbers support that, and, hopefully, we can share with you more numbers when we talk the full year results.
Jeff Stent - Exane BNP Paribas, Research Division
Analyst
Just one brief follow-up. Are people being targeted on gross margin?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
Right now, on our compensation system, no, because we haven't touched it. And if I may be 100% honest, they are obviously on core operating margin. But there is one thing that we do, Jeff, which is the quality of results. For example, in our system which was, in the past, the case, and you rightfully accused us of that, of using A&P as a balancing item. I think we are now firmly out of those discussions, that A&P is not a balancing item anymore, and that is -- but it's not in people's results. It's because we look at the quality of results. So the system now understands, you just can't cut A&P to make your results work. So although they get compensated for core operating margin, the key engine to arrive at these results is to improve your gross margin.
James Allison
Analyst
Thank you very much, Jeff. I think we're starting to draw towards the end, but maybe time for another couple of questions, if you guys have got the time? Marco Gulpers, waiting patiently on the line there, Marco?
Marco Gulpers - ING Groep N.V., Research Division
Analyst
A follow-up question basically on the Refreshments category. Can you update us on how Tea actually within the category is doing? Is that already turning more positive? And sorry for asking another question on the emerging market and related to the currency impact. Can we say that Unilever in the past has more or less been trying to protect margin first in order to protect volumes second? Is that still the case or has that changed over time?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
Yes. Why don't we have Jean-Marc start with the second? Do you want to start with it? Raoul Jean-Marc Sidney Huët: Sure, I can take both or either. On Refreshment, let me start then with the Refreshments and your question specifically on Tea. We're seeing good performance on Tea. I mentioned Brooke Bond is just one example in India, but we also have some pretty good innovations taking place. Now let me just iterate that some of the innovations are early days. Example of that is K-cup in the U.S. But we are really starting to get onto our front foot in terms of innovations launching in the marketplace. We have, in emerging markets, some very good performances in places like Egypt, Nigeria and Turkey. So around Lipton specifically, things are going actually quite well. So the growth continues in the third quarter like it was in Q1, Q2. And as you know, there is a little bit of a turnaround story in our Tea business. But there is more that we can do within Tea. If you just go back to currencies, your second question in terms of margin and volume, let me, if I may, just start off with what we're going to do with is what's right for the consumer in the local marketplace? So as Paul was mentioning in terms of pricing, we take the overall consumer health into account. We take into account the local players in the marketplace, as well as the global players, because at the end of the day, we're going to make the right decisions to be competitive in the marketplace. So it's not just a question about margin or volume. There are many different levers that are important. Now volume is obviously very important for us. It represents the health of our business growing, and we do not want to price ourselves out of the market. And volume is profitable as you drive scale and the like, and then you can get margin. And again, that's where Maxing the Mix plays an important role. So if you get good volume, you do pricing, which is disciplined in the local marketplace, drive Maxing the Mix, you can get the volume, as well as the margin. And it's a bit the point that Jeff is actually raising, what we're trying to do this year is grow, grow profitably, and demonstrate a good performance on the top and bottom line.
James Allison
Analyst
Thank you, Marco. Just one more. We'll take one last from Jon Cox, and then the rest we'll take in the IR team afterwards. So apologies to those who we haven't got to. Jon?
Jon Cox - Kepler Capital Markets, Research Division
Analyst
Yes. Jon Cox with Kepler Cheuvreux. Just a couple of sort of follow-up questions. Just on the overall portfolio, Paul, just to put into context, you've been in the job now 5 years. You've done a lot of sort of streamline of the portfolio in terms of the foods, Food angle, while boosting the sort of the HPC side of things. And I'm wondering if what you're talking about there, about you'd rather announce sales rather than preannounce intentions, and again maybe looking at the overall portfolio, should we expect some sort of major transformational change in the portfolio given the fact that you've spent 4 or 5 years trying to sort of turn around that Food business? That's my first question. Just on the second question, just about North America. I'm just wondering what you think in terms of the recovery there because minus 2% organic in Q3 looks a bit worrying. I can see there's some one-offs. Should we expect that to stabilize around 0 in Q4, or do you think it's going to go on for a couple of more quarters?
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Analyst
Yes, thanks, Jon. So very briefly, we indeed have done major portfolio management over the last 5 years and it has served us well. We were just going through that with the Board and without bothering you with the statistics, our M&A activities have paid out very well. And obviously, our divestitures have also served us well. We continue to look at that. Our Food business is accelerating its footprint in the emerging markets, and we see a pickup as a result of that, especially our core savoury business. And our performance actually is very competitive with what we see as our key competitor there. And the same thing on our Refreshment business. Our Tea business is picking up period after period. We don't look at it at 90 days. But if you take 6 months' trends, you clearly see that as well, and we are very confident there. Obviously, the total business, Food and Refreshments, including Home and Personal Care, has given us good results. We always talk about the spreads business, which is now 7% of our total portfolio. Yes, that's a business we inherited, and we're trying to make it work. We look at all options all the time. And the most attractive option is to continue to make it work. It gives an enormous amount of cash flow to us that has allowed us to give these enormous results in these emerging markets. And we'll continue to do so. But we have to continuously look at all of our businesses and we are doing them. Don't be worried that, that is not the case. I think the portfolio is getting healthier, but we do require from all of our brands in the portfolio to put the performance in, and sometimes, it takes a little bit longer…
Operator
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this conference has been recorded. Details of the replay number and access codes can be found on Unilever's website. An audio webcast will also be available on Unilever's website, www.unilever.com, and on the Investor Relations app.