Cosmetics
Unilever has acquired American start-up Dollar Shave Club, which has a subscription-based business model for shaving and toilet products. No fee was disclosed, but sources indicate it may be some 900 million euro.
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General
Unilever has promised it will no longer use sexist ads in the future, after a study demonstrated only 2 % of ads displayed intelligent women.
Food
British-Dutch food giant Unilever has sold its Latin American soy drink branch to Coca-Cola for 575 million dollars. The Americans hope to counter stagnant soda sales with non-sparkling drinks.
Unilever, Henkel and L’Oréal have all tabled a bid for shampoo manufacturer Vogue International, valued by some sources at 2.5 to 3 billion dollars (2.2 to 2.7 billion euro).
As one of the last major brand manufacturers, Unilever has now also entered Aldi's German product range: from now on, both Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd will have items from amongst others Knorr and Magnum for sale.
Unilever has beaten Nestlé to be the most sustainable of the ten largest food companies in the world according to Oxfam's yearly report.
Unilever's turnover in the first quarter of its fiscal year reached 12.5 billion euro: a slight drop compared to the year before, that was entirely due to negative exchange rate fluctuations.
Marijn Dekkers, currently German Bayer's CEO, will become British-Dutch Unilever's new chairman in April, succeeding Michael Treschow.
Detergent and food manufacturer Unilever will transfer a number of jobs abroad, which means that about 200 people in the Netherlands will lose their jobs, something the labour unions find deplorable.
It is out there for everyone to see: whether it is sodas, ice cream or candy, an increasing number of major brands has released smaller packaging. There is a double intended goal: to reduce the amount of calories and to get better margins.
