Daily Briefing (Insiders Only): Unilever to Offload More Food Brands
Unilever is looking to sell several European food brands with combined sales of €1 billion (USD$1.05 billion), according to a Reuters report, with sources previously telling the publication that the conglomerate was in talks to sell some of its Dutch food brands, including Unox soups and Conimex seasonings, as well as smaller food brands in Britain.
The company already plans to spin off its ice cream business – which had revenue of €7.9 billion (USD$8.3 billion) last year and includes Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum, Breyers and others – into a standalone, publicly traded entity.
Unilever owns about 400 brands worldwide spanning personal care, beauty, household and food, including Hellmann’s and Knorr, which generate USD$2.1 billion and USD$5.2 billion in annual sales, respectively. Its top executive, Hein Schumacher, is leading a turnaround strategy that focuses on several dozen of the company’s biggest “power” labels that represent more than 70% of sales.
Over a little more than a decade, Unilever has exited a large portion of its food business with the divestitures of Skippy peanut butter, Wish-Bone and Western salad dressings, Mrs. Dash seasonings, P.F. Chang’s Home Menu frozen meals, Ragu and Bertolli pasta sauces, Slim-Fast weight management products, and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and Country Crock spreads.
Its latest moves follow a trend of corporations streamlining portfolios to focus on core competencies. General Mills divested its Yoplait, Go-Gurt and Oui yogurt brands to home in on cereal, snacks and pet food, Hain Celestial Group sold Thinsters and ParmCrisps snack brands this year, and the Campbell’s Company recently offloaded noosa yogurt and Pop Secret popcorn.
Meanwhile, J.M. Smucker Company just completed the sale of Voortman cookie brand to Second Nature Brands for $305 million, while Kraft Heinz is exploring the sale of Oscar Mayer, and B&G Foods has put Green Giant under strategic review.
