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Unilever

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Unilever NV
Unilever PLC
Company typePublic company
(AMS: UNA)
(LSE: ULVR)
(NYSE: UN) (Unilever N.V.)
(NYSE: UL) (Unilever PLC)
ISINGB00B10RZP78 Edit this on Wikidata
IndustryConglomerate
PredecessorMichael Nairn & Greenwich
United Africa Company Edit this on Wikidata
Founded1930
FounderWilliam Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme Edit this on Wikidata
HeadquartersUnilever House,
London, United Kingdom
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Michael Treschow
(Chairman)
Lord Simon of Highbury
(Vice Chairman)
Paul Polman
(CEO)
ProductsSee brands listing
Revenue€44,262 million (2010)[1]
€6,339 million (2010)[1]
€4,598 million (2010)[1]
Number of employees
163,000 (2010)[2]
Websitehttp://unilever.com

Unilever (/[invalid input: 'icon']ˈjuːn[invalid input: 'ɨ']liːvər/) is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products.

Unilever is a dual-listed company consisting of Unilever N.V. in Rotterdam, Netherlands and Unilever PLC in London, United Kingdom. This arrangement is similar to those of Reed Elsevier and Royal Dutch Shell prior to their unified structures. 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 Paul Polman is Group Chief Executive.

Unilever's main international competitors include Nestlé and Procter & Gamble. They also face competition in local markets or product ranges from companies such as Beiersdorf, ConAgra, Danone, General Mills, Henkel, Mars, Inc., Pepsico, Reckitt Benckiser and S. C. Johnson & Son.

History

Unilever was founded on 1 January 1930 by Antonius Johannes Jurgens, Samuel van den Bergh and William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme.

The amalgamation of the operations of British soapmaker Lever Brothers ,William Hulme Lever and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie, Anton Jurgens en Samuel van den Bergh, a merger as palm oil was a major raw material for both margarines and soaps and could be imported more efficiently in larger quantities.

The initial harvesting of palm oil was from the British West Africa, from where news reports seen back in England showed the workers abroad in favourable conditions.[3] In 1911 the company received a concession for 750,000 hectares of forest in Belgian Congo, mostly south of Bandundu, where a system of forced labour operated.[4] The subsidiary of Lever was named "Huileries du Congo Belge". During the great depression in the thirties, the Huileries sharply decreased the fee for gathered oil nuts, while the government of Belgian Congo strongly increased taxation. This resulted in social unrest in 1931, which are known as the Revolution of the Pende, in which eventually more than 400 members of the Pende-tribe were killed.[5]

In the 1930s the Unilever business grew and new ventures were launched in Africa and 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 Jefferson J. Mooney in July 1996.[6] By 1980 soap and edible fats contributed just 40% of profits, compared with an original 90%. In 1984 the company bought the brand 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, and Vaseline. In 1989 Unilever bought Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Fabergé, and Elizabeth Arden, but the latter was later sold (in 2000) to FFI Fragrances.[7]

In 1996 Unilever purchased Helene Curtis Industries, giving the company "a powerful new presence in the United States shampoo and deodorant market".[7] The purchase brought Unilever the Suave and Finesse hair-care product brands and Degree deodorant brand.[8]

Global employment at Unilever 2000–2008
Black represents employment numbers in Europe, light grey represents the Americas and dark grey represents Asia, Africa, and Middle East. Between 2000 and 2008 Unilever reduced global workforce numbers by 41%, from 295,000 to 174,000. Note: Europe figures for 2000–2003 are all Europe; from 2004 figures in black are Western Europe. For 2004–2008 Figures for Asia, Africa and Middle East include Eastern and Central Europe.
Source: Unilever Annual Reports 2004, 2008

In 2000 the company absorbed the American business Best Foods, strengthening its presence in North America and extending its portfolio of foods brands. In April 2000 it bought both Ben & Jerry's and Slim Fast.

The company is multinational with operating companies and factories on every continent (except Antarctica) and research laboratories at Colworth and Port Sunlight in England; Vlaardingen in the Netherlands; Trumbull, Connecticut, and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in the United States; Bangalore in India (see also Hindustan Unilever Limited); and Shanghai in China.

The US division carried the Lever Brothers name until the 1990s, when it adopted that of the parent company. The American unit has headquarters in New Jersey, and no longer maintains a presence at Lever House, the iconic skyscraper on Park Avenue in New York City.

File:LiptonRAKericho.jpg
Unilever's Lipton brand

The company is said to promote sustainability[9] and started a sustainable agriculture programme in 1998.[10] In May 2007 it became the first tea company to commit to sourcing all its tea in a sustainable manner,[11] employing the Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental NGO, to certify its tea estates in East Africa, as well as third-party suppliers in Africa and other parts of the world.[12] 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.[13]

Covalence, an ethical reputation ranking agency, placed Unilever at the top of its ranking based on positive versus negative news coverage for 2007.[14]

In 2007, Unilever's Dove "Evolution" video that ran only online, was named the first ever non-tv spot to win the Grand Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival. And in March, 2008, Unilever was named "Digital Marketer of the Year" by Advertising Age.

In 2008 Unilever was honoured at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Creation and Distribution of Interactive Commercial Advertising Delivered Through Digital Set Top Boxes" for its program Axe: Boost Your ESP.[15]

On 25 September 2009, Unilever decided to acquire the personal care business of Sara Lee Corporation: leading brands such as Radox, Badedas and Duschdas strengthened category leadership in Skin Cleansing and Deodorants.[16]

On 9 August 2010, Unilever signed an asset purchase agreement with the Norwegian dairy group TINE, to acquire the activities of Diplom-Is in Denmark, as of 30 September 2010.[17]

On 24 September 2010, Unilever announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its consumer tomato products business in Brazil to Cargill.[18]

On 27 September 2010, Unilever purchased Alberto-Culver, the maker of personal care and household products such as Simple, VO5, Nexxus, TRESemmé, and Mrs. Dash for $US3.7 billion.[19]

On 28 September 2010, Unilever and EVGA announced that they have signed an agreement under which Unilever will acquire EVGA’s ice cream brands (amongst others, Scandal, Variete and Karabola) and distribution network in Greece, for an undisclosed amount.[20]

On 23 March 2011: Unilever announced that it has entered a binding agreement to sell the global Sanex business to Colgate-Palmolive for €672m. Unilever also announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Colgate-Palmolive’s laundry detergent brands (Fab, Lavomatic and Vel)in Colombia for US$215m.[21]

See "Jurgens Generaties in Beweging" by M.A.J.Jurgens and drs. F.J.M. van de Ven, Volume I and II; Nederlands's Patriciaat Ao 1999, 82e Edition.

Products

For a full list of billion dollar brands, see List of Unilever brands.

Unilever owns more than 400 brands as a result of acquisitions, however, the company focuses on what are called the "billion-dollar brands", 13 brands, each of which achieve annual sales in excess of €1 billion. Unilever's top 25 brands account for more than 70% of sales.[22] The brands fall almost entirely into two categories: Food and Beverages, and Home and Personal Care.

Unilever's brands include:

Advertising

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

Unilever has produced many advertising campaigns, including:

Corporate governance

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

Corporate image

Unilever claims that corporate social responsibility is at the heart of its business.[26] However, the transition to a responsible and sustainable company is ongoing and Unilever has attracted a variety of criticisms from political, environmental and human rights activists on not achieving the high aims it communicates on a number of topics.[27]

Environmental issues

Unilever's stated goals are to decouple growth from the company's environmental impact[28] by

  • halving the environmental footprint of its products
  • helping 1 billion people improve their health and well-being
  • sourcing all of its agricultural raw materials sustainably
Palm oil

Unilever has been criticised by Greenpeace for causing deforestation,[29] Unilever was targeted in 2008 by Greenpeace UK,[30] which criticised the company for buying palm oil from suppliers that are damaging Indonesia's rainforests. Unilever, as a founding member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), responded by publicizing its plan to obtain all of its palm oil from sources that are certified as sustainable by 2015.[31]

In Côte d'Ivoire, one of Unilever's palm oil suppliers was accused of clearing forest for plantations, an activity that threatened a primate species, Miss Waldron's Red Colobus. Unilever intervened to halt the clearances pending the results of an environmental assessment.[32]

On 4 July 2010, Unilever announced that it has secured enough GreenPalm certificates of sustainable palm oil to cover the requirements of its European, Australia, and New Zealand business.[citation needed] GreenPalm is a certificate trading programme, endorsed by the RSPO, which is designed to tackle the environmental and social problems created by the production of palm oil.

Rainforest Alliance

Unilever has committed to purchase all its tea from sustainable, ethical sources.[33] It has asked the international environmental NGO, Rainforest Alliance, to start by certifying tea farms in Africa.

Lipton and PG Tips will be the first brands to contain certified tea. The company aims to have all Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips tea bags sold in Western Europe certified by 2010 and all Lipton tea bags sold globally by 2015.

Animal testing

Unilever states it is committed to the elimination of animal testing, and where it is a legal requirement in some countries, it tries to convince the local authorities to change the law.[34] Some activists [who?] argue that this is little more than an effort to gain good publicity and Unilever continue to use animal experimentation such as the LD50 poisoning test.

Social issues

Race and advertisements
Hindustan Unilever, had been showing television advertisements for skin-lightening cream, Fair and Lovely, depicting 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.[35]

The Austrian branch of Unilever (Eskimo) is producing and marketing an ice-cream under the name Mohr im Hemd. "Mohr" (moor), is a colonial German word for African or black people, has a heavily colonialist and racist connotation.,[36][37] "Mohr im Hemd" (moor in the shirt) is a traditional Austrian chocolate speciality which refers to naked, "wild" Africans. Unilever refutes any racist intentions and claims that it has tested the name in broad market studies in Austria without any critical feedback.

Sexism in advertisements
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood criticized Unilever for the 2007 Axe marketing campaign, which they considered sexist.[38] Unilever's response is that the Axe campaign is intended as a spoof and "not meant to be taken literally".[39]

Unilever has launched the Dove "Real Beauty" marketing campaign, which encouraged women to reject the underfed and hyper-sexualized images of modern advertising in 2007.[40]

Child labour
In 2003 Hindustan Unilever was accused of making use of child labour,[41] among others.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Annual Report 2010" (PDF). Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  2. ^ Unilever: About us
  3. ^ Brtish Pathe News, Wealth of the World, 1950
  4. ^ Jules Marechal, "Travail forcé pour l’huile de palme de Lord Leverhulme L’Histoire du Congo 1910–1945". Part III. Editions Paula Bellings. pp.348–368.
  5. ^ Congo, David van Reybrouck
  6. ^ "Chronolgy of A&W Root Beer Canada". Islandnet.com. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  7. ^ a b New York Times, 15 February 1996 "Unilever Agrees to Buy Helene Curtis".
  8. ^ Id.
  9. ^ "Ethical Corporation article". Ethicalcorp.com. 6 April 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  10. ^ Unilever's sustainable agriculture programme
  11. ^ Nicholson, Marcy (25 May 2007). "San Diego Times". Signonsandiego.com. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  12. ^ "Unilver: Sustainable Tea". Unilever.com. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  13. ^ "Unilever press release". Unilever.com. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  14. ^ Covalence Ethical Ranking 2007 Press Release, 2 January 2008[dead link]
  15. ^ "59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards" (PDF). Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  16. ^ Unilever buys Sara Lee's personal care division for £1.17bn Daily Telegraph, 25 September 2009
  17. ^ Unilever acquires Diplom-​Is operations in Denmark Food Bev, 11 August 2010
  18. ^ Cargill Acquires Unilever Tomato Business Food Processing, 30 September 2010
  19. ^ Post a Job (27 September 2010). "Unilever to Purchase Alberto Culver for $3.7 Billion". Businessweek. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  20. ^ Unilever buys Greek Ice Cream Manufaturer Food News, 28 September 2010
  21. ^ Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive exchange brands Marketing Week, 23 March 2011
  22. ^ 2008 Annual Report and Accounts pp.2–3.
  23. ^ "Blue Band, Rama".
  24. ^ "Unilever Completes TIGI Acquisition". GCI magazine. 14 April 2009.
  25. ^ "TIGI consumer site".
  26. ^ "Beyond Corporate Responsibility:Social innovation and sustainable development as drivers of business growth" (PDF). Unilever. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
  27. ^ "Unilever Corporate Crimes". Corporate Watch. Retrieved 2 August 2007.
  28. ^ "Sustainable Living Plan". Unilever. 15 November 2010.
  29. ^ "Unilever admits toxic dumping: will clean up but not come clean". Greenpeace. Retrieved 2 August 2007.
  30. ^ "Ape protest at Unilever factory". BBC. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
  31. ^ "Unilever has announced its intention to have all of its palm oil certified sustainable by 2015". Retrieved 1 May 2008.
  32. ^ "Manifesto for the Conservation of the Tanoé Swamps Forest". Retrieved 19 July 2008.
  33. ^ "Unilever sustainable tea Part 1: Leapfrogging to mainstream". Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  34. ^ "Developing Alternative Approaches To Animal Testing". Retrieved 5 August 2010.
  35. ^ Dhillon, Amrit (1 July 2007). "India's hue and cry over paler skin". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  36. ^ "Der Standard: "I will mohr!: Werberat prüft"". Derstandard.at. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  37. ^ "Will i mohr?". FM4. 20 July 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  38. ^ "Ax the Axe Campaign". Commercialexploitation.org. 9 October 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  39. ^ "Unilever Shuns Stereotypes of Women (Unless Talking to Men)". The New York Times. 15 October 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  40. ^ "Unilever Disrobed: Interview With Dove/Axe Mashup Artist". Shapingyouth.org. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  41. ^ "Monsanto, Unilever use Child Labour in India". India Committee of the Netherlands. Retrieved 2 August 2007.
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