Consumer goods giant Unilever on Wednesday said its turnover increased by 10.5 percent to 51.3 billion euros (68.2 million U.S. dollars) in 2012.

The underlying sales growth in 2012 was 6.9 percent, the company said.

The operating profit went up by 9 percent to 7.0 billion euros, while the net profit was 4.9 billion euros, up 7 percent.

In the fourth quarter, Unilever delivered a substantial revenue growth. Turnover in the fourth quarter amounted to 12.6 billion euros and the underlying sales growth was 7.8 percent.

"We continue to make good progress in transforming Unilever into a sustainable growth company," said CEO Paul Polman. "We have reported another quarter of good quality, profitable growth ahead of our markets."

"All categories and all geographies grew with a good overall balance between volume and price," Polman said.

"Emerging markets again contributed double-digit growth helping us exceed 50 billion euros turnover, an important milestone in our journey to double the size of Unilever from 40 to 80 billion euros whilst reducing our environmental impact." (1 euro = 1.33 U.S. dollars)