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Unilever
Company typePublic (Euronext: UNA, LSE: ULVR, NYSE: UN)
IndustryManufacturing (foods, home, and personal care)
FoundedMerger of Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie in 1930
HeadquartersLondon and
Rotterdam
Key people
Michael Treschow, Patrick Cescau
ProductsSee brands listing
Revenue€40.187 billion (2007)
€5.245 billion (2007)
€4.136 billion (2007)
Number of employees
179 000 [1]
Websitewww.unilever.com

Unilever is a multi-national corporation, formed of Anglo-Dutch parentage, that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents, and personal care products. Unilever employs nearly 180,000 people[2] and had a worldwide revenue of almost €40 billion, or just over US$50 billion, in 2005 (58.5 billion as of 2008).

Unilever has two parent companies: Unilever NV in Rotterdam, and Unilever PLC in London. This arrangement is similar to that of Reed Elsevier, and that of Royal Dutch Shell prior to their unified structure. Both Unilever companies have the same directors and effectively operate as a single business. The current non-executive Chairman of Unilever N.V. and PLC is Michael Treschow while Patrick Cescau is Group Chief Executive. The company is widely listed on the world's stock exchanges[3] [4].

Unilever's major competitors include Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Kraft Foods, Mars Incorporated, Reckitt Benckiser and Henkel.


History

Unilever was created in 1930 by the merger of British soapmaker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie, a logical merger as palm oil was a major raw material for both margarines and soaps and could be imported more efficiently in larger quantities.

In the 1930s the business of Unilever grew and new ventures were launched in Latin America. In 1972, Unilever purchased A&W Restaurants' Canadian division but sold its shares through a management buyout to former A&W Food Services of Canada CEO Jeffrey Mooney in July 1995 [1]. By 1980 soap and edible fats contributed just 40% of profits, compared with an original 90%. In 1984 the company bought the brands Brooke Bond (maker of PG Tips tea). ,

In 1987 Unilever strengthened its position in the world skin care market by acquiring Chesebrough-Ponds, the maker of Ragú, Pond's, Aqua-Net, Cutex Nail Polish, Pepsodent toothpaste, and Vaseline. In 1989 Unilever bought Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Fabergé, and Elizabeth Arden, but the latter was later sold (in 2000) to FFI Fragrances. [5]

In 2000 the company absorbed the American business Best Foods, strengthening its presence in North America and extending its portfolio of foods brands. In a single day in April 2000, it bought, ironically, both Ben & Jerry's, known for its calorie-rich ice creams, and Slim Fast.

In 1996, Unilever purchased Helene Curtis Industries, giving the company "a powerful new presence in the United States shampoo and deodorant market". [6] The purchase brought Unilever the Suave and Finesse hair-care product brands and Degree deodorant brand. [7]

Today the company is fully multinational with operating companies and factories on every continent and research laboratories at Colworth and Port Sunlight in England; Vlaardingen in the Netherlands; Trumbull, Connecticut, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in the United States; Bangalore in India (see also Hindustan Unilever Limited); Pakistan; and Shanghai in China. Its European IT infrastructure headquarters is based in Unity House, Ewloe in Flintshire, Wales.

The US division continued to carry the Lever Brothers name until the 1990s, when it adopted the parent company's moniker. The American unit is now headquartered in New Jersey, and no longer maintains a presence at Lever House, the iconic skyscraper on Park Avenue in New York City.

Unilever has recently started a five year vitality company initiative in which it began to converge the marketing of disparate arms of their business, including personal care, dieting, and consumables into an umbrella function displaying the breadth of their contributions to personal vitality. This plan has been implemented because of the lack of brand recognition that Unilever wields, even despite its ubiquitous presence. In 2006, it concluded with the sell off of the global frozen foods division, excluding the ice cream business and the Italian frozen vegetables businesses.

File:LiptonRAKericho.jpg
Unilever's Lipton brand certified by the Rainforest Alliance

The company publicly professes to take a strong stance on sustainability, as stated by its CEO, Patrick Cescau[8]. The company started a sustainable agriculture programme in 1998[9]. In May 2007, it became the first tea company to commit to sourcing all its tea in a sustainable manner[10], asking the Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental NGO, to start certifying tea estates in East Africa. It declared its aim to have all Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips tea bags sold in Western Europe certified by 2010, followed by all Lipton tea bags globally by 2015[11]. Covalence, an ethical reputation ranking agency, placed Unilever at the top of its ranking based on positive versus negative news coverage for 2007[12].

Corporate governance

Unilever's highest executive body is called the Unilever Executive which is led by the Group Chief Executive (Patrick Cescau). It is responsible for delivering profit and growth across the company.

Unilever is currently focusing on 400 brands in a bid to increase its profits by reducing the variety, and therefore cost, of advertising and packaging.

Brands

After some recent purges, Unilever now owns about 400 brands, many of them local that can only be found in certain countries. The brands fall almost entirely into two categories: Food and Beverages, and Home and Personal Care.

Food and beverages

Heartbrand
File:Algida.jpg
An ice cream menu from Unilever's Italian subsidiary Algida.
File:Old heartbrand.jpg
Algida's old logo

Unilever is the world's biggest ice cream manufacturer, with an annual turnover of €5 billion[13]. Except for Breyers and Ben & Jerry's, all its ice cream business is done under the "Heartbrand" brand umbrella, so called because of its heart-shaped logo. Unilever currently operates eleven ice cream factories in Europe; the biggest include factories at Heppenheim in Germany, Caivano in Italy, St. Dizier in France and Gloucester in the United Kingdom.

The Heartbrand was launched in 1999 (and slightly modified in 2002) as an effort to increase international brand awareness and promote cross-border synergies in manufacturing and marketing ("centralisation"). It is present in more than 40 countries[13]. Although the logo is common worldwide, each country retained the local brand so as to keep the familiarity built over the years, one notable exception being Hungary where the previous Eskimo brand has been replaced with Algida in 2003.

A freezer in Queens, NY filled with Strauss ice cream from Israel with the Heartbrand

In 2005, Glidat Strauss received special permission from Unilever to export their brand of ice cream to the United States because of the strict kosher certification the products in Israel have. Under terms of the agreement, Strauss ice cream and krembo may be sold only in kosher supermarkets and import shops. It is distributed in North America by Dairy Delight, a subsidiary of Norman's Dairy.

Partial list of national brands:

Prior to the heart logo, each country could choose its own logo, although the most common one consisted of a blue circle with the local brand's name over a background of red and white stripes; second most common old logo, used by Wall's in the UK and other countries, was a yellow logo with Wall's in blue text.

Unilever generally manufactures the same ice-cream with the same names, with rare occasions of regional availability, under different brands. Some of these ice-creams include Carte D'Or, Cornetto, Magnum, Solero and Viennetta.

Home and personal care brands

Advertising

Unilever is well known for memorable advertising around the globe like;

See also

Environmental Record

In January of 2008, Unilever along with 20 other major UK food and drink companies agreed to cut down on their water use 20% by the year 2020.[15]

Criticism

Unilever's status as a large multinational has attracted a variety of criticisms from political activists [16]. For example, it has been criticised for causing environmental pollution by Greenpeace [17], for testing products on animals by PETA, and for making use of child labour [18], among others.

According to the Telegraph, Hindustan Unilever, was forced to withdraw television advertisements for its women's skin-lightening cream, Fair and Lovely. Advertisements depicted depressed, dark-skinned women, who had been ignored by employers and men, suddenly finding new boyfriends and glamorous careers after the cream had lightened their skin.[19]

The band Chumbawamba has a song critical of Unilever, simply named after the company.

The most recent criticism is the Axe/Dove controversy.

Main article: Unilever, Axe/Dove controversy

There has been widespread criticism of Unilever by political advocates concerning the mixed messages being sent by the Axe marketing campaign (sexist) and the Dove marketing campaign (caring) [20][21] [22]

Unilever's response is that the Axe campaign is intended as a spoof of 'the mating game' and "not meant to be taken literally." [23]

References

  1. ^ Unilever at a glance: Key facts - 2007-05-06
  2. ^ Unilever at a glance: Key facts 2007-05-06
  3. ^ Euronext.com
  4. ^ londonstockexchange.com
  5. ^ New York Times, February 15, 1996 "Unilever Agrees to Buy Helene Curtis".
  6. ^ New York Times, February 15, 1996 "Unilever Agrees to Buy Helene Curtis".
  7. ^ Id.
  8. ^ Ethical Corporation article
  9. ^ Unilever's sustainable agriculture programme
  10. ^ San Diego Times
  11. ^ Unilever press release
  12. ^ Covalence Ethical Ranking 2007 Press Release, 2 January 2008
  13. ^ a b "Unilever Heartbrand". Unilever. Retrieved 2006-09-08.
  14. ^ Streets Ice Cream
  15. ^ "Companies promise to cut water use" Financial Times, January 28, 2008. Accessed April 17, 2008
  16. ^ "Unilever Corporate Crimes". Corporate Watch. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
  17. ^ "Unilever admits toxic dumping: will clean up but not come clean". Greenpeace. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
  18. ^ "Monsanto, Unilever use Child Labour in India". India Committee of the Netherlands. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
  19. ^ India's hue and cry over paler skin - Telegraph
  20. ^ dove onslaught: Blogs, Photos, Videos and more on Technorati
  21. ^ Ax the Axe Campaign
  22. ^ Shaping Youth » Unilever Disrobed: Interview With Dove/Axe Mashup Artist
  23. ^ Unilever Shuns Stereotypes of Women (Unless Talking to Men) - New York Times

(Note: Some of these references have incorrect 'retrieved' dates. Those marked 'August 2007' were actually retrieved before 28th May 2007.)


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