Unilever may have taken several years to get there, but it has finally made the right decision. Thursday’s move to unify its prehistoric dual-company structure — half Dutch, half British — will create a better business.
In the last review, the Marmite to Cif giant made the blunder of cocking a snook at London and declaring it was shifting HQ to Rotterdam. Finance chief Graeme Pitkethly said it had been “a finely balanced decision”.
Not really. Just because the Dutch company is fractionally bigger than the UK one doesn’t mean you throw your key London investors under the bus. RELX had identical issues, chose London and got unanimous approval.
Anyway, water under the bridge and all that. Now the right solution has been found and Unilever can act more swift-footedly, especially on takeovers or demergers. And there’s plenty of those to ponder, even setting aside the tea business still under review.
It is frustrating to see Estée Lauder and L’Oréal stealing a march in the posh beauty market. Unilever bought Dermalogica, which has done well, but more please, especially in China.
US homecare is another one. Flogger-in-chief Niall FitzGerald sold a bunch of its brands in 2003 and they’re now doing nicely for Henkel. Unilever could push harder there, especially now everybody is obsessed with cleaning to fight the Covid bogeyman. It can do this with existing brands such as Lux and Dove, but takeovers will help.
Now Unilever has dealt with the albatross of the corporate structure, it can focus on rejigging the portfolio. As Pitkethly puts it, “let’s crack on”.
