Unilever PLC ([3][4]) is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded in 1930 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever Brothers.
The company's products include baby food, beauty products, cleaning agents, healthcare and hygiene products, and toothpaste. It is the largest producer of soap in the world,[5] and its products are available in over 190 countries.[6]
The company is organised into four main business groups: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, and Nutrition. It has research and development facilities in China, India, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[7]
In the 1930s, Unilever acquired the United Africa Company. In the second half of the 20th century, the company increasingly diversified from being a maker of products made of oils and fats, and expanded its operations worldwide. It has made numerous corporate acquisitions, including Lipton (1971), Brooke Bond (1984), Pond's (1987), Colman's (1995), Hellmann's (2000), Ben & Jerry's (2000), SlimFast (2000), Knorr (2000), Alberto-Culver (2010), Dollar Shave Club (2016), and Pukka Herbs (2017). Unilever divested its speciality chemicals businesses to Imperial Chemical Industries in 1997. In the 2010s, under the leadership of Paul Polman, the company gradually shifted its focus towards health and beauty brands and away from food brands that showed slow growth.
Unilever is listed on the London Stock Exchange with secondary listings on the Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.[9]
History
1930–1940
Unilever was formed by a merger of Dutch Margarine Unie and British soapmaker Lever Brothers in 1930, with the name of Unilever a blend word of the name of both companies.[10]
In the 1930s, the business grew, and new ventures were launched in Africa and Latin America. During this time, Unilever acquired the United Africa Company, created from a merger of the African & Eastern Trade Corporation and the Royal Niger Company, which oversaw British trade interests in present-day Nigeria during the colonial era.[11] The Nazi occupation of Europe during the Second World War meant that Unilever was unable to reinvest its capital into Europe, so it instead acquired new businesses in the United Kingdom and the United States.[12]
Corporate operations
Legal structure
Unilever's registered office is at Port Sunlight in Merseyside, United Kingdom and its head office at Unilever House in London, United Kingdom.[100] The company has been restructured several times, for example in 2018 and 2020 (see "history").
In 2018, Unilever announced its intention to simplify this structure by centralising the duality of legal entities and keeping just one headquarters in Rotterdam, abandoning the London head office. Business groups and staff would have been unaffected, as would the dual listing.[101] On 5 October 2018 the group announced it would cancel the restructuring due to concern that the United Kingdom shareholders would lose value if the company fell out of the London FTSE100.[102][103]
Brands
Brands
Unilever's largest brands include Dove, Axe / Lynx, Lifebuoy, Lux, Persil / Omo, Rexona / Sure, Sunlight, and Sunsilk.[6]
Advertising
Logo
In 1930, the logo of Unilever was in a sans-serif typeface and all-caps. The current Unilever corporate logo was introduced in 2004 and was designed by Wolff Olins, a brand consultancy agency and Miles Newlyn.[130] The 'U' shape is now made up of 25 distinct symbols, each icon representing one of the company's sub-brands or its corporate values.[131] The brand identity was developed around the idea of "adding vitality to life".[132]
Dove
Dove describes itself as being dedicated to "help ... women develop a positive relationship with the way they look – helping them raise their self-esteem and realize their full potential".[133]
Competition
Unilever's largest international competitors are Nestlé and Procter & Gamble.[145]
Controversies
Price-fixing
In April 2011, Unilever was fined €104 million by the European Commission for establishing a price-fixing cartel for washing powder in Europe, along with Procter & Gamble and Henkel.[146]
In 2016, Unilever and Procter & Gamble were both fined by Autorité de la concurrence in France for price-fixing on personal hygiene products.[147][148]
Hampton Creek lawsuit
See also
Further reading
- Austin, James and James Quinn. Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission and Brand within Unilever (Harvard Business School Publishing, 2005)
- Fieldhouse, D. K. Unilever overseas: The anatomy of a multinational 1895–1965 (Hoover Institution Press, 1979).
- Jones, Geoffrey. Renewing Unilever: Transformation and Tradition (2005) excerpt
- Podevijn, Dirk. The Jurgens and the van Haaren families, Unilever and Ackermans & van Haaren. In Hendrik Willem Ackermans. Notes of an industrial pioneer, 1887–1937. Antwerp, 2013.(ISBN:D/2013/012/55)
- Sitapati, Sudhir. The CEO Factory: Management Lessons from Hindustan Unilever (2019)
- Wilson, Charles. 1954. The History of Unilever: A Study in Economic Growth and Social Change. Cassell and Company.
- Wubs, Ben. International business and national war interests: Unilever between Reich and empire, 1939–45 (Taylor & Francis, 2008)
External links
References
- Annual Results 2025 Unilever, retrieved 12 February 2026^
- Careers Unilever, retrieved 12 February 2026^
- Longman Pronunciation Dictionary Pearson Longman, 2008^