UNILEVER
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company, headquartered in London, United Kingdom and Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Unilever products include food, sweets, energy drinks, baby food, soft drinks, ice cream, tea, cleaning agents, coffee, pet food, bottled water, chewing gum, frozen pizza, pregnancy tests, juice, beauty products, personal care, breakfast cereals, medicine and pharmaceutical healthcare products. Unilever is the largest producer of soap in the world. It is one of the oldest multinational companies and its products are available in around 190 countries.
Unilever owns over 400 brands, with a turnover in 2017 of 53.7 billion euros, and thirteen brands with sales of over one billion euros: Axe/Lynx, Dove, Omo, Heartbrand ice creams, Hellmann's, Knorr, Lipton, Lux, Magnum, Rexona/Degree, Sunsilk and Surf. It is a dual-listed company consisting of Unilever N.V., based in Rotterdam, and Unilever plc, based in London. The two companies operate as a single business, with a common board of directors. Unilever is organised into four main divisions – Foods, Refreshment (beverages and ice cream), Home Care, and Beauty & Personal Care. It has research and development facilities in China, India, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States.
Unilever was founded on 2 September 1929, by the merger of the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and the British soapmaker Lever Brothers. During 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), Chesebrough-Ponds (1987), Best Foods (2000), Ben & Jerry's (2000), Alberto-Culver (2010), Dollar Shave Club (2016) and Pukka Herbs (2017). Unilever divested its specialty chemicals businesses to ICI(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 showing slow growth.
Unilever plc has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Unilever N.V. has a primary listing on Euronext Amsterdam and is a constituent of the AEX index. The company is also a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. Unilever N.V. also has a primary listing in NYSE.
The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan
The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan sets out to decouple our growth from our environmental footprint, while increasing our positive social impact.
Our Plan has three big goals to achieve, underpinned by nine commitments and targets spanning our social, environmental and economic performance across the value chain. We will continue to work with others to focus on those areas where we can drive the biggest change and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We have three big goals:
-Improving health and well-being for more than 1 billion. By 2020 we will help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being.
-Reducing environmental impact by half. By 2030 our goal is to halve the environmental footprint of the making and use of our products as we grow our business.
-Enhancing livelihoods for millions. By 2020 we will enhance the livelihoods of millions of people as we grow our business.
