Household cleaning and food company Unilever was unable to meet its own growth forecast in the third quarter. In the first two quarters of 2019, it still worked. CEO Alan Jope promised in a statement that the Anglo-Dutch group will be in order in the near future by innovating and making adjustments to his brand portfolio. Unilever therefore maintains its objectives for the entire year.

Underlying sales, excluding the effects of exchange rates, acquisitions and divestments, grew by 2.9 percent in the third quarter compared to a year ago. The company aims to achieve organic sales growth of between 3 and 5 percent in the medium term, but warned that this year, growth is likely to be at the bottom of that bandwidth. The total revenues in the reporting period were 13.3 billion euros. Market experts were counting on Unilever to narrow its growth forecast.

Sales of ice creams in Europe and tea in several markets in particular fell short of the expectations of the owner of brands such as Ben & Jerry’s and Lipton. Last year the summer in Europe was particularly hot, so the ice cream revenues in 2018 formed a challenging comparison basis for this year.

Food manufacturers such as Unilever have recently had to review their brand portfolios because of changing tastes among consumers. People are increasingly interested in local and traditional products and pay more attention to the ingredients list. Unilever’s competitor, Nestlé, showed an annual growth of 3.7 percent over the past nine months.