Jump to content

Unilever

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 130.88.170.117 (talk) at 23:04, 4 January 2006 (→Heartbrand). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Unilever
Company typePublic
ISINGB00B10RZP78 Edit this on Wikidata
IndustryManufacturing (foods, home and personal care)
PredecessorMichael Nairn & Greenwich
United Africa Company Edit this on Wikidata
FoundedMerger of Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie in 1930
FounderWilliam Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme Edit this on Wikidata
HeadquartersLondon and Rotterdam
Key people
Antony Burgmans, Patrick Cescau
ProductsSee brands listing
Revenue€48 760 million in 2002
6,049,000,000 Euro (2021) Edit this on Wikidata
Number of employees
247 000
Websitewww.unilever.com

Unilever (Euronext: UNA, LSE: ULVR, NYSE: UN) is an Anglo-Dutch company, with a history of colonial exploitation, on which it has steadily built its capital. Today it owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Unilever employs more than 247,000 people and had a worldwide revenue of €48 760 million in 2002. 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 Nestlé and Procter & Gamble.

History

In 1911 soap maker William Lever, later Lord Leverhume, arrived in the Belgian Congo because he could not find cheap palm oil concessions and forced labor in British West-Africa. The Belgian Congo was the place to be. Together with the Huileries du Congo Belge, Lever was responsible for some of the worst atrocities in the history of colonialism: the enslavement of hundreds of thousands of Congolese who had to work under the regime of the so-called "travail forcé" (which would now be considered slavery.) The forced labor in the palm oil plantations for Lever and later Unilever, provoked outrage in the Belgian public opinion, with some parliamentarians (mainly socialists) launching investigations into the alleged abuses and indignity of the system. The practise of summoning Congolese to do forced labor in Unilever's plantation camps continued well into the post-colonial era under dictator Mobutu.

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 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. Although the American unit is now headquartered in New Jersey, it maintains a presence at Lever House, the iconic skyscraper on Park Avenue in New York City.

Corporate governance

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.

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 in two categories as set out below.

Food and beverage brands

Ades, Becel, Ben and Jerry's, Best Foods, Bertolli, Birds Eye, Blue Band, Boursin cheese, Bovril, Breyers, Brooke Bond, Calvé, Carb Options, Colman's, Continental, Country Crock, Elmlea, Findus, Flora, Good Humor, Hellmann's, I Can't Believe it's not Butter!, Iglo, Imperial, Knorr, Lawry's and Adolph's, Lipton, Marmite, Pepperami, PG Tips, Pot Noodle, Ragu, Scottish Blend, Skippy peanut butter, Slim·Fast, Stork, Unox, Nogger Black.

Heartbrand

Main article: Heartbrand

File:Algida.jpg
A Menu from Unilever's italian subsidiary Algida.

Unilever operate a number of ice-cream companies refered 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:

Home and personal care brands

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Unilever&oldid=33899916"