Description
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, ice cream, wellbeing vitamins, minerals and supplements, tea, coffee, breakfast cereal, cleaning agents, water and air purifiers, pet food, toothpaste, beauty products, and personal care. Unilever is the largest producer of soap in the world. Unilever's products are available in around 190 countries.
Unilever owns over 400 brands, with a turnover in 2020 of 51 billion euros, and thirteen brands with sales of over one billion euros: Axe/Lynx, Dove, Omo/Persil, Heart (Wall's) ice creams, Hellmann's, Knorr, Lipton, Lux, Magnum, Rexona/Degree, Lifebuoy, Sunsilk and Sunlight.
Unilever is organised into three main divisions: Foods and Refreshments; Home Care; and Beauty & Personal Care. It has research and development facilities in China, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the 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 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 has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Unilever has a secondary 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 also has a listing in the New York Stock Exchange. The completion of the unification of Unilever's Dutch and UK arms under a single London-based entity was announced on 30 November 2020.
