The chief executive of Unilever has said the company has had a "good start to the year", with "strong" growth across all its categories.

Patrick Cescau was speaking after Unilever announced results that showed underlying sales growth in the first quarter was 7.2 per cent.

Growth in all categories was up, especially in tea, ice cream and laundry. Moreover, operating profit was 39 per cent higher than this time last year.

"We continue to invest behind our brands, while taking the necessary pricing action to recover a sharp increase in commodity costs," stated Mr Cescau.

He added: "We expect our productivity and value improvement initiatives to continue to deliver excellent results."

Unilever expects underlying sales growth for 2008 to exceed its target of three to five per cent.

The company, which employs thousands of people in Manchester, Warrington and Merseyside, recently acquired Inmarko, a leading Russian ice cream business, which had a turnover of £86 million last year.