...Industry-Leading Organic Growth: Fitch Ratings expects Unilever NV/PLC to maintain its healthy pipeline of new products. Since 2015, organic growth has been strong (4.2% in 9M16), driven by a balance of volume and price growth. The small spreads business suffered again in 2015 from a contraction in sales. Elsewhere, product innovation is paying off across all categories, supporting volume and pricing growth as well as gross profit margin expansion. Unilever's large exposure to emerging markets (58% of sales) supports revenue growth. This was confirmed in 2015, despite an overall weaker consumer environment compared with 2010-2013. Profit Margin Expansion: We believe Unilever is well placed to deliver profit margin expansion of between 20bp to 40bp on average over 2016-2018 given its track record over the last few years in difficult trading conditions. In 2015 it continued its gross profit margin and operating profit margin expansion. The core operating profit margin grew to 14.8%, a 30bp...
