Unilever CEO Paul Polman said this morning (4 November) that the consumer goods giant made “solid progress” in the third quarter of 2010 thanks to the company’s emerging markets.

The Magnum ice cream and Knorr soup maker booked a 21% increase in net profit to EUR1.35bn (US$1.91bn) for the three months to the end of September. Operating profit also rose 21%, reaching EUR1.81bn.

Unilever’s turnover was up 13.2% at EUR11.55bn. The company’s underlying sales, which excludes foreign exchange and M&A from the numbers, increased 3.6%.

“We have delivered another quarter of solid progress driven by our emerging markets business which again reported high levels of volume growth. This reflects the strength of our position in these markets where competitive activity is intense,” Polman said.

“Overall volume growth remained strong on the back of stronger innovations and the extension of our brands into new markets.”

Click here for the complete statement from Unilever.