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History & Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Early Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Global Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Modern Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Company Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Recent Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Company DNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Social Media Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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Unilever was created when British firm Lever Brothers and the Dutch-owned
Margarine Unie signed an agreement
Built on 2nd of September 1929
William Lever thought his first business lesson: there had to be potential in
improving things
Second business lesson: expansion brought success
Passing of the Trademark Act in 1875, William prompted to trademark
Levers Pure Honey
William want to package his quality soaps from several suppliers all under
the Sunlight brand name
With the help of two soap-making experts they made a winning recipe
formula based on Copra oil, tallow, cotton oil, and resin.
Production for packaging the soap with full-colour visual on the box started
in January 1885.

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Two years later, his factory was bursting at the seams, making 450 tons a
week
By the mid-1890s, Sunlight sales were at a staggering 40,000 tons a year
Lifebuoy was launched in 1894
Launched Sunlight Flakes, a waste from the bar cutting machines
It was then rebranded as Lux Soap Flakes in 1900
Cleaning needs like scouring powder with Vim launched in 1904
Laundry powder with Omo first conceived simply as a bleaching powder in
1908
William never forgot the lesson as a salesman: scale was a big benefit
1915 was his greatest triumph being the snaring of the famous Pears soap
company

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In 1919, William Lever set up operations in United States, Switzerland,
Canada, Australia and Germany
In 1892, he begun the integration back up of his supply chain of Copra oil to
an arduous journey to Fiji and Samoa
The company began developing a palm plantations in the Solomon Islands
In 1920, an investment in Nigeria was near disastrous and terminal for
Williams leadership
The Niger Company purchase had precipitated, installed one of the
companys accountants, Francis DArcy Cooper, as the new managing
director
In 1921, the company's head office was moved from Port Sunlight to London
William Lever passed away in 1925
In 1914, it starts to manufacture margarine, as per asked by the British
Government

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Unilever has two holding companies with had different shareholders:
British Unilever Ltd. listed on the London Stock Exchange and
capitalized in sterling
Dutch Unilever NV listed on the Rotterdam Stock Exchange and
capitalized in guilders
The largest U.S. manufacturer of tea, the Thomas J. Lipton Company, was
acquired
In the war years, Lifebuoy soap provided a free washing and bathing service
to bomb out civilians in Britain
The most notable acquisition in 1943 was the purchase of Batchelor Foods
Unilever had majority stakes in Frosted Foods, owned by Birds Eye brands
according to U.K. rights
1944 was the acquisition of Pepsodent Toothpaste

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In 1919, Crosfield was acquired
Post-war acquisitions were Chicago-based margarine manufacturer and
Americas oldest cosmetic firm, Harriet Hubbard Ayer
In 1954, they launched Sunsilk in U.K. and by the end of the decade it was
being sold in 18 countries
Purchased a French soap and toothpaste company, Thibauld Gibbs in 1956
It then transitioned over to hair-care products under the more alluring-
sounding name of Elida Gibbs
Unilever runs the very first television advertisement for Gibbs S.R. toothpaste
Signal was launched in the U.S. market in 1957, as a breath-freshening
toothpaste
Also launched Dove, a brand of soap containing 25% moisturizing crme

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In 1959, Germany operation came up with the idea of selling margarine in
tubs
Netherlands Unilever bought an ice cream company
The Niger Company renamed to United African Company
By the mid-1950s it was earning 15% of Unilevers entire profits
In 1960, bought The Streets in Australia (now Magnum Bar) and Frisko in
Denmark
Their U.S. Operations bought the Breyers Good Humor brand in 1961
1962 acquisition of Italys Spica, with Cornetto in its portfolio brought
success into the company
Followed acquisition in Europe was a juiced up partnership with Nestle
Cif/Jif, the first liquid abrasive household cleaner, quickly spread around the
Unilever empire

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It is set to expand their slaughter house business for the Walls and Hartog
Meat Brands
The company was also expanding its operations in animal feeds, chemicals,
paper, packaging and transportation
Unilever had an in-house advertising agency called Lintas
Unilever was now in over twenty countries and taking on work from any
non-competing advertiser
United African Company was the main agent for Caterpillars heavy earth-
moving equipment
Also for Africas largest brewer through joint ventures with Heineken and
Guinness
United African Company was expanding beyond Africa
The company opened up operations in the Middle East and Pacifica Islands

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In the late 1960s, Unilever almost merged with Allied Breweries
In the end of 1960s, Unilever had more sales than P&G, Colgate-Palmolive,
Nestle and Henkel combined
Unilever enjoyed a 12% global market share, 50% of the market share
accounted for by butter
In personal care, the company was barely beginning has a global share of
4%
Unilever became the worlds second-largest soup manufacturer in a
subsidiary of T.J. Lipton
The Dutch meat business Zwanenbergs was acquired in 1970
Launched the Impulse deodorant in South African business
Bought a chemical company, National Starch for $487 million in 1978

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It was during the U.S. production crisis low-down
In 1983, the supplier launched a brand of its own, a low-fat spread called
Country Crock
It became an immediate success
A bright spark in the ice cream R&D team was Vienetta
Vienetta is an affordable luxury ice cream dessert
It has a production technology protected by patent with many years left to
run
The French personal products division created Axe body spray (branded Lynx
in the U.K.)
By the end of the decade, Axe was Unilevers largest deodorant
Dove had been relaunched in the United States and then became the
countrys best-selling soap bar

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Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland and Holland were the thriving Lever
Brothers sales agencies by 1889
In 1906, 25% of the capital employed were from Belgium, Germany,
Switzerland, Canada, Australia and US
Sunlight Soap became the largest selling soap in the world in 1880s.
Sales offices in New York and Toronto were opened in 1888
In 1899, William Lever bought an American manufacturer, Benjamin Brooke
&Co., the makers of the popular Monkey Brand soap
After William died, operations in Thailand, Indonesia, China, Argentina, Brazil
started
One of the best example of any western company cracking an emerging
market is India
India, as a leading part of the British Empire, first sold Sunlight in their
market by 1888, soon followed by Lifebuoy in 1895

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Other Lever bestsellers such as Pears, Lux and Vim followed
In 1918, Vanaspati was launched, a brand of hydrogenated vegetable fat
used in place of butter in Indian cooking
Vanaspati was the first Unilever brand to be manufactured in India itself,
starting up in 1932
Two years later a modern soap factory was up and running in Bombay,
followed by the setting up of third subsidiary, United Traders Limited
The three companies merged to form Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL) in 1956
HUL, by which time has a Calcutta-based factory making a range of personal
products
By 1967, Hindustan Unilever Ltd. was one of the top five companies in India

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It has 7,000 employees and 6 factories producing a highly diversified
product
At the governments request, HUL sold condoms
In the mid-1970s, the leading detergent brand Surf was decimated due to a
low cost competitor
Launched Wheel in 1987, which six years later had a market share of over
20%
Came a merger between Hindustan Unilever Ltd. and Tata Oil Mills Company
in 1993
In 1996, HUL formed a 50:50 joint venture with another Tata subsidiary,
Lakme
In 1994, HUL and Kimberly Clark had a joint venture to market Huggies and
Kotex
HUL also set up a subsidiary in Nepal, Unilever Nepal Limited (UNL)

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In 1994, Brooke Bond India and Lipton India (BBILI) merged to form Brooke
Bond Lipton India Ltd.
The merger immediately launched the Wall's range of frozen desserts
It also acquired distribution rights for other leading brands
Brooke Bond India and Lipton India (BBILI) merged with Hindustan Unilever
Ltd. in 1996
It was followed by the merger of Pond's (India) Limited with Hindustan
Unilever Ltd. in 1998
In 2000, Unilever had 74% of the government-owned bread business,
Modern Foods
HUL acquired the full control two years later
Unilevers first soap powder brand sold in Brazil had been the cheap and
cheerful Rinso
In 1959, it was supplanted by Brazils first synthetic brand, Omo

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By 1970, Unilever had 22 operating companies with an annual sales of over
30 million a year
14 companies were based outside the U.K. and the Netherlands
Excluding North America and Europe, Unilever India was accounting for 24%,
South Africa 11% and Turkey 7%
Japan had also been a rocky road for the company
In 1913, Lever had built a soap factory in Japan but was sold after 10 years.
The company name became Nippon Lever in 1977
The breakthrough came with the ever-dependable Sunsilk, launched in 1977
In 1985, Unilever formed a 50:50 venture to form Shanghai-Lever
Beginning with the production of Lux in 1987

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By 1990, Unilevers sales in China had reached a respectable $32 million a
year
Though, the figure was still small in comparison to the companys total
overseas sales (excluding Europe and North America) of nearly 5 billion a
year
In Czech Republic, Hungary and Russia by 2001 the company had seven
manufacturing sites
It included a margarine factory in Moscow, dressing, tea, home and personal
care factories in St Petersburg, and food and ice cream factories in Tula and
Omsk

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The company embarked on its first-ever hostile takeover bid, that is winning
through in September 2004 at a price of 390 million
Unilever bought Chesebrough-Ponds in January 1987 for 2 billion
Brands such as Vaseline and Ponds catapulted Unilever to 4th largest global
skincare company
Most notably acquisition approached to Unilever was Elizabeth Arden-
Faberg who made their pitch in October 1988
This deal was consummated in 1989 for 996 million and soon followed by
Calvin Klein with its highly successful Obsession and Eternity brands
One small acquisition that would pay back many times over was that of a
small U.S. margarine manufacturer, J. H. Filbert
The Becel margarine brand was proving a success
Sunsilk now selling in over 30 countries

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The brand has 12% of the world shampoo market in 1985
Signal was sold in 18 countries and had 5% of world toothpaste sales
The companys Unipath subsidiary developed a successful pregnancy testing
kit called Clearblue
The Dove brand began its European rollout in 1989
The same year that the Magnum brand appeared as a response to the entry
of Mars into the ice cream category
The remaining portions of UAC - finally sold by 1994
Agribusinesses followed in 1995
The meat processing and fish businesses in 1997
The same year that the chemicals division was sold to ICI for a hefty 4.9
billion
Significant acquisitions includes the Helene Curtis hair-care business, Ben &
Jerrys, Slimfast in early 2000

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Breyers ice cream was also bought which made Unilever Americas largest
ice cream company
In 2000, companys biggest acquisition by far was Bestfoods
It took total company sales to $52 billion a year
Bestfoods brought some leading brands into the fold like Knorr and
Hellmans
40% of Unilever sales is from outside North America, an ideal fit with the
globalized Unilever
1,000 of the brands delivered only 8% of total company sales
The collateral damage was that 100 of the 350 factories would go along with
25,000 employees
Only a year later the company portfolio was down to 900 brands as 87
businesses were sold off

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Unilever was set up with two distinct capitalized entities. Those entities
shared the same board of directors and had separate chairmen. It has an
agreements in place to ensure dividends were paid equally
The first board meeting of each year has each country delegated executive
to the Special Committee which had two British and one Dutch member who
collectively acted as the CEO
There was an understanding that the Dutch side would run continental
Europe, while the British side run the rest of the world
By 1960, an existed structure beneath the Special Committee and the boards
to manage around five hundred operating companies
The six management groups consist of UK Committee, Continental European
Group, Overseas Committee, Plantation, UAC and North America
By 1960, Product Committees had set up for detergents, foods, toiletries and
edible fats, all based in Rotterdam

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In 1972, McKinsey (Unilever CEO at that time) had recommended extending
co-ordination to all the other European countries
In 1989, a new Foods Executive was formed in Rotterdam
The three foods co-ordinations were replaced by five new product
groupings: spreads, oils and dressings; meat and meal components; ice
cream and sweet snacks; beverages and savoury snacks; and professional
markets
In 2001, Unilever was organized into two global divisions, Food and Home
and Personal Care, with the aim of optimizing synergies across the product
portfolio
In early 2005, this was simplified into a matrix structure, with the two
divisions responsible for strategy and brand development
The regional groups of each division were merged, with the regional level
responsible for go-to-market execution

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2004
Twelve brands had sales in excess of 1 billion
Approximately two-thirds of total sales derived from brands larger than 0.5
billion
That is no mean feat given a starting point of 1,600 brands
Knorr, the companys largest brand, was sold in over 100 countries
Dove, Signal and Pepsodent were all relaunched
The Pro-Activ cholesterol-lowering spread was extended into other dairy
categories
The ever-reliable Sunsilk grew by double digits
The 1 billion+ R&D programme had been realigned behind the new Vitality
agenda
It registered 370 patents in the year
The Latin American region had an underlying sales growth in the year
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All the unwanted brands and businesses were being sold off
For the first time since its formation, Unilever would have one chairman, one
board, one CEO with one executive team.
There would be two category presidents, one each for Foods, and for Home
and Personal care (HPC), responsible for R&D, brand development and
category development.
Alongside would be three regional presidents (Europe, The Americas,
Asia/Africa, Middle East and Turkey)
2005
More disposals, primarily of the Unilever Cosmetics International to Coty Inc.
for $800M
Sales grow to 3.1%, US grew by 3%, Asia/Africa grew by 9% with China up by
over 20% and a strong recovery in the key Indian market
For the first time, sales in all the developing and emerging markets exceeded
those in Europe
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The driver of most of the good regional performances was the personal care,
up over 6%
The company assessed the nutritional profiles of over 16,000 products in the
year and found many in difficulties
Fast-evolving consumer attitudes to saturated fats, sugar and sodium were
seriously compromising sales were some
Merged One Unilever single-country organizations accounted for 80% of
total turnover
2006
It has a structure that enabled rather than hindered its global scale and reach,
the company could, for the first time in its history, define a clear mission for
itself:
Our mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for
nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel
good, look good and get more out of life

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Top line sales grew by 3.8%
In Personal Care grow by 6% again and Omo is now over 2.5 billion
Launched Domestos 5x which killed germs in the toilet bowl for five times
longer than anything else on the market
Launched Surf Excel in India that has a low-rinse formulation, was reducing
the water needed for a wash-load by two-thirds
The Foods Division was wrestling with removing 37,000 tons of fats, 17,000
tons of sugar and 3,000 tons of sodium from its products without altering the
flavour, initiatives
China was really the only market where Unilever was growing at a new
entrants pace
On the opportunity side, the company was investing 350 million in
venturing activities to develop the winners of tomorrow

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2007
Sales grow by over 5% and even Europe pitching in with +3%
Clear, a new shampoo with enhanced proprietary anti-dandruff technology
was launched
Personal care grew by almost 7%
Rexona was the worlds largest deodorant brand and Axe the largest male
deodorant
Knorr was now almost a 4 billion brand
The top 25 brands accounted for almost 75% of turnover
44% of company sales came from developing and emerging markets
The companys roster of household cleaning brands grew by an impressive
9%; Vaseline grew by 8%
Doves Campaign for Real Beauty was partnering with organizations in over
twenty countries

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Hellmans Extra Light was using citrus fibre to deliver a very low-fat content
and a very high profit margin
Launched in Turkey under the brand name, Amaze Brainfood
Acquired Russias leading ice cream company, Inmarko
US grow by 4.1% while Asia/Africa grew by over 11% with volume and
contributing two-thirds of the growth
Areas of strength were India, the Philippines, South Africa and Turkey, which
all grew in double digits
2007
A regionalization of head office functions to jointly serve several country
markets.
A rationalization, arrived in the same year that some countries - Brazil,
Argentina and Mexico - were still catching up with the One Unilever single-
head-office-per-country notion

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2008
For the 3rd year in a row, Unilever increased its rate of underlying sales
growth by 7.4%
Home care charging ahead at +9.8% and ice cream and beverages bringing
up the rear at +5.9%
Savings from One Unilever and elsewhere provided over 1 billion
New CEO, Paul Polman, previously Chief Financial Officer and head of North
America for Nestl, still felt there was more to be lost
6,000 staff were finally brought together into one organization
Launch of Signal White Now, the worlds first toothpaste
Brands were managed under four sub-groups: savoury, dressing and
spreads, ice cream and beverages, personal care; and home care
Western Europe just had underlying growth of only 1.3% versus 6.5% for the
Americas and 14.2% for Africa/Asia

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Prices increases of 3.8% also dug deeply into European performance and
volume slipped by 2.5% while US business grew by 3.8% and Latin America
steamed ahead by 12%
The newly named Asia, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe region (AACEE)
seemed to be recession-free
Underlying sales in the region grew by an impressive 14%.
Unilevers top five developing and emerging markets in the region also grew
by approximately 20%
For a 3 billion total, the Boursin cheese brand, Lawrys and Adolphs brands
of seasoning and marinades and Bertolli olive oil and vinegar joined the
North American laundry business.
2009
The companys underlying growth was 3.5%, 2/3 of which was the result of
volume increases

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Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe was now the largest of the three at
nearly 15 billion
The region also delivered the biggest operating profit nearly 2 billion with
underlying sales growth of more than 7.7%, with volume up 4.1%
US and Brazil, were the strongest performers, helped by increases in
advertising and promotional spending paid for from cost savings
Dove Minimizing Deodorant had been launched in 37 markets
Clear shampoo was now in 35 markets
Signal White Now in 21 markets
Knorr Stockpots (using a proprietary gel formula) in 12 markets
Sales potential of greater than 50 million
With a new innovation center opened in Shanghai and a doubling of projects
in the pipeline
The company appointed its first ever Chief Global Supply Chain Officer
during 2009, a role long common elsewhere

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Acquisition of a Russian ketchup business and announcement of the
impending purchase of Sara Lees personal care brands, Sanex, Radox and
Duschdas would lead Unilever to take more globally
Louise Fresco, a Professor of International Development and Sustainability at
the University of Amsterdam, was appointed to the board
Unilever was actively developing products like Comfort One Rinse fabric
conditioner, which required less rinsing.
A campaign by Lifebuoy in India was launched
The campaign expanded to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia,
Vietnam and South Africa
Campaign was grown to include backing of Global Hand-washing Day, and
reached over 133 million people.
Lifebuoy was voted one of Indias most trusted brands

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New CEO Paul Polman announced a new strategy that would drive the new
Unilever hard
The new vision to double the size of the business while improving its
environmental footprint winning with brands and innovation
Winning in the marketplace
Winning through continuous improvement
Winning with people
The unique aspects were in details and stressed the same theme: overlaying
world-class performance standards on Unilevers unique global footprint
2010
The turnover finally left the 40 billion mark, rising 11% to over 44 billion
While 7% of the rise was due to currency changes
The remaining 4% is due an underlying volume increase of nearly 6% - the
highest for more than thirty years

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Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe excelled with an increase of 18% on
the currency-enhanced top line
The growth was underpinned by a 10% volume increase
China, India, Turkey and Vietnam being well into double-digit territory
Re-launching of Wheel detergent brand across 25 Indian states in just 49
days
Expanding their direct delivery network to another 630,000 stores in 110,000
new villages during the year
In the Americas, Latin America once again drove the volume increase to
nearly 5%
Gaining share in the hair and skin cleansing categories, although losing it in
spreads and weight management
Western Europe once again brought up the rear
1.4% volume growth from of Ireland, Greece and Spain, all substantial
Unilever markets
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The company grew volume by at least 2% and grew market share in the UK,
France, Italy and the Netherlands
More than forty innovations in the year were launched into more than ten
markets
Magnum Gold and Dove Men+Care rolled out to 30 markets
Unilever won Global Supplier of the Year award from both Wal-Mart and
Tesco.
Savouries, dressings and spreads had only 35% of its turnover in the D and E
markets and delivered an over 2.5% volume increase
Ice cream and beverages had 45% exposure and grew by 5.9%, whilst
personal care had 61% of sales and grew 7.9%. At the top was home care:
78% of D and E turnover grew by 8.2%.
Comfort gained 5.7 million new users in China
Rexona deodorant lotion picked up 5.3 million in Indonesia

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Announcement of the blockbuster purchase of the Alberto Culver Company
for $3.7 billion
Unilever was, as the CEO described, Now fit to compete
2011
Underlying volume growth dropped back to 1.6%
Significant cost-driven price increases totaled 2.4 billion
It drove the underlying sales growth up to a recent high of more 6.5%
Performance differences between emerging and developed markets were
marked.
India, China, Turkey and South Africa again grew double digit
11.5% sales increase across all emerging markets: the companys developed
markets trod water
Dove became the companys first 3 billion personal care brand
More than 3 million shops signed up to Unilever Perfect Store program

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The combination of price increases and a further 1.5 billion in cost savings
protected the operating margin and enabling a modest increase in the
companys 6 billion advertising budget (Unilever are the worlds second-
largest advertiser)
Axe Excite was launched in 100 markets in the year, 70 innovations were
launched into more than ten markets
TRESemm had been launched into Brazil, Simple into the U.S., and Motions
into South Africa
Genesis program was now producing some genuine breakthroughs
It was incorporated into PG Tips and Lipton Yellow Label
The Motionsense technology that greatly prolonged the efficacy of Rexona
deodorant
Personal care led the way with a volume growth of over 4%
Home Care delivered 2.2% more volume

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Refreshment (the newly-named Ice cream and beverages category) grew
volumes by only 1.4%
Beleaguered foods division dropped 1.2% by volume
Spreads, dressings and soups were not D and E favorites
2012
Core operating margin increased to 13.8%, boosted by Magnum and Sunsilk
Unilever now have 14 brands with sales of more than $1 billion/year
These key brands accounted for almost 50% of the 2012 growth
The launch of TRESemme in Brazil was also one of the companys most
successful ever
Adding 150 million to turnover, which increased by 10.5% and took Unilever
above the 50 billion barrier for the first time
They now account for more than 55% of total business

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Much of the uniqueness of the company was traced back to the companys 3
key elements:
1. William Lever himself;
2. The 1929 merger that created a multi-category, multi-national
company; and
3. The companys remaking into a focused packaged goods company
William Lever saw almost from the very beginning that acquisitions were the
path to success in the soap and detergents battlefield
Lever acquired his way to complete UK market dominance
Similarly, the companys Dutch margarine barons employed the same before
the big the merger
Almost all of Unilevers history, it has been a serial acquirer of businesses
Emerging Markets - The scale of Unilevers emerging markets business,
accounting for 54% of the sales and rising

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Second comes organic sales growth, which Unilever has been achieving ever
since emerging markets hit the radar with a 9% underlying sales increase
over the past twenty years in these very fertile markets
The company has unparalleled experience of operating in sometimes
extremely basic and volatile economic conditions.
Local Roots with Global Scale - The divestment of non-packaged goods
businesses followed by the creation of a global operating structure has
created a new
Recent addition to the Unilever DNA: a superb balance of global and local
capabilities
The sharpening of Unilevers somewhat lax historical performance culture by
the current CEO looks like being the final piece of a now-complete puzzle
that should make Unilever the very best global-local packaged goods
business

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Unilever is the best example of how understanding a companys formation,
roots and early evolution helps us to understand it both today and
tomorrow
The company seems to have been evolving since the day of the merger and
is only now emerging from its chrysalis.
The company has built skills and market positions that now simply cannot be
replicated.
We believe the rest of the foods division should be added too, and for four
key reasons:
The logic that brought margarine and detergents together in the first
place no longer applies: technologies and ingredients
As the company becomes global in what and how it operates, many of
the foods brand are more local in strength, with thousands of differing
recipes. 65% of sales are outside emerging markets where the company
is strategically advantaged.

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While the benefits of green tea in the companys Unilever Sustainable
Living Plan are plain to see, its hard to see how the planet will benefit
from the sale of more Hellmanns Mayonnaise.
We believe the Unilever of today would not buy Bestfoods if it were still
independent and up for sale
The tea and ice cream businesses have global scale, with global and
regional brands and a much clearer role in the companys strategy.

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Website: www.unilever.com/

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