OVERVIEW

Unilever is one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies

in the world1. Unilever was officially formed in 1929 by the merger of a margarine
Dutch company and a British soapmaker. The margarine company of Netherlands was
also a merger between the first margarine factory called in the world and another
factory of the same product and from the same city, Oss, in the Netherlands. The
soapmaker company revolutionized the market because it helped to a more hygienic
society and the manufacturing of the product was wrapped. The name of the company
is a fusion between the Dutch firm called Margarine Unie and the British firm called
Lever Brothers2. Since it was founded, Unilever established new business in several
countries, such as United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, USA, Argentina, Turkey,
Netherlands, Canada, China, South Africa, Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Russia, and Czech
Republic and operated its own production factory in 158 strategic locations in those
countries3.
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Unilever is a British-Dutch consumer goods company co-headquartered in
London (Unilever PLC) and Rotterdam (Unilever NV), employing over 150,000 people
globally with annual revenues of € 51 billion (US$57.35 billion) in 2018. The company
is one of the world’s leading suppliers of beauty & personal care, home care, and foods
& refreshment products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2.5 billion
consumers a day. Unilever has around 400 brands including Dove, Knorr, Dirt Is
Good,Rexona, Lipton, Lux, Magnum, Axe, Sunsilk and Surf. Since 2010 Unilever has
been taking action through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) to help more
than a billion people improve their health and well-being, halve its environmental
footprint and enhance the livelihoods of millions of people as the business grows.
Unilever has already made significant progress and continues to expand its ambition,
1
https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/unilever.pdf
2
https://accid.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Unilever-cas-empresa.pdf
3
https://mohammedfikri.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/unilever%E2%80%99s-strategies-for-
competing-in-foreign-markets/
4
https://www.scribd.com/document/434573407/Unilever-company-profile
most recently committing to ensure 100% of plastic packaging is fully reusable,
recyclable or compostable by 2025. The USLP creates value by driving growth and
trust, eliminating costs and reducing risks. In 2018, the companys Sustainable Living
Brands grew 69% faster than the rest of the business, compared to 46% in 2017.
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The main competitors of Unilever are other Fast-Moving Consumer Goods
(FMCG) companies with a similar structure and size. For example, the American
consumer goods multinational Procter & Gamble, the largest food company in the world
Nestlé, the British Reckitt Benckiser Group which produces hygiene, health and home
products, the global manufacturer Mars, the New York company Colgate-Palmolive,
Johnson & Johnson the consumer goods and pharmaceutical American multinational,
the Kraft Heinz Company 7 which is a recent merger and the german chemical and
consumer goods Henkel. All of them work internationally but try to understand
consumers’ demands in every country they operate.

5
https://accid.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Unilever-cas-empresa.pdf