Unilever

Unilever (, , ) is an Anglo-Dutch company that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Unilever employs more than 206,000 people and had a worldwide revenue of €39.67 billion (just over States dollar|US$" target="_blank" >^*50 billion) in 2005. Unilever has two parent companies: Unilever NV in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Unilever PLC in London, United Kingdom. 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 Antony Burgmans while Patrick Cescau is Group Chief Executive. Unilever's major competitors include Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Mars Incorporated, and Reckitt Benckiser to name but a few.

History

Formally, 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 advantageously in larger quantities.

In the 1930s, the business of Unilever grew and new ventures were launched in Latin America. 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), Fabergé and Elizabeth Arden, but the latter was later sold (in 2000) to FFI Fragrances. Unilever acquired Chesebrough-Ponds, the maker of Ragu, Ponds and Vaseline, in 1987, which strengthened its position in the world skin care market. The company later absorbed the American business Best Foods, strengthening its presence in North America and extending its portfolio of foods brands.

Today the company is fully multinational with operating companies and factories on every continent and research laboratories at Colworth and Port Sunlight in the United Kingdom; Vlaardingen in the Netherlands; Trumbull, Connecticut, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in the United States; Bangalore in India; and China.

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 completed 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.

Corporate governance

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

Members of the Unilever Executive include:

Patrick Cescau (Group Chief Executive)

Manvinder Singh (Vindi) Banga (President Foods)

Kees van der Graaf (President Europe)

Ralph Kugler (President Home and Personal Care)

Harish Manwani (President Asia and Africa)

Rudy Markham (Chief Financial Officer)

Sandy Ogg (Chief HR Officer)

John Rice (President Americas)

Executive and non-executive directors at Unilever are: Leon Brittan, Antony Burgmans, Patrick Cescau, Lynda Chalker, Bertrand Collomb, Wim Dik, Oscar Fanjul, Kees van der Graaf, Hilmar Kopper, Ralph Kugler, Rudy Markham, David Simon, and Jeroen van der Veer.

Currently unilever has chosen to focus on 400 brands out of its 1600 in a bid to increase its profits by reducing the variety of advertising and packaging.

Brands

After some recent pruning, Unilever now has a portfolio of about 400 brands, many of them local that can only be found in certain countries. The brands fall almost entirely into three categories as set out below.

Food and beverages

Ades or Adez - soya-based drinks
Annapurna - Salt and Wheat flour (India)
Becel - cholesterol-lowering margarine
Ben and Jerry's - ice cream
Best Foods - mayonnaise
Bertolli - pasta sauces and olive oil
Birds Eye - frozen food
Blue Band - sauces and soups
Boursin - cheese
Bovril - yeast extract
Breyers - ice cream
Brooke Bond - tea
Bru - Instant Coffee (India)
Calvé
Carb Options

Colman's - mustard
Continental - side dishes
Du Darfst (Germany)
Elmlea
Findus - frozen food
Flora - margarine spread
Good Humor
Hellmann's - mayonnaise
I Can't Believe it's not Butter! - margarine spread
Iglo
Imperial - margarine
Kissan - Ketchups Squashes and Jams ( India )
Knorr - sauces and stock cubes
Lao Cai Seasoning
Lawry's and Adolph's
Lipton - tea
Lipton Ice Tea - Ready to Drink Tea

Marmite - yeast extract spread
Peperami
PG Tips - Tea (UK)
Phase - Cooking Oil
Pot Noodle - cup noodles
Ragú - pasta sauces
Saga - Tea (Poland)
Scottish Blend - Tea
Skippy - peanut butter
Slim·Fast - diet products
Stork - margarine
Turun sinappi - Mustard (Finland/Sweden)
Unox

=Heartbrand

Unilever operate a number of ice-cream companies referred to as the "Heartbrand", since in general the only branding they have in common is a heart-shaped logo. They generally manufacture 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. A list of some of these brands is shown below: