Unilever 2003 Annual Report Download - page 12

Unilever Annual Report & Accounts and Form 20-F 2003 09
About Unilever
The figures quoted in the following discussion on pages 9 to 14
are in euros, at current rates of exchange, ie the average or
year-end rates of each period.
Description of business
Unilever is the world’s leading supplier of fast moving consumer
goods across foods, home and personal product categories.
Unilever’s portfolio includes some of the world’s best known
and most loved brands.
Business structure
Our operations are organised into two global divisions – Foods
and Home & Personal Care (HPC) – headed by Divisional
Directors. This structure allows the appropriate focus on foods
and home & personal care activities at both regional and global
levels and allows us to optimise synergies across the product
portfolio.
The two divisions’ operations are organised into business groups
on a regional basis, with certain exceptions: the global businesses
of Prestige, our fragrance business within HPC, and within
Foods, Ice Cream and Frozen Foods, Slim•Fast Worldwide and
UBF Foodsolutions. The regional and global businesses are headed
by Business Presidents. These businesses remain the driving force
behind Unilever, comprising the operating companies which
provide the key interface with customers and consumers, allowing
quick response to the needs of local markets.
Full details of significant acquisitions and disposals can be found
on pages 17 and 18.
Foods
Savoury and dressings
We are the global leader in savoury and dressings, with strong
brands rooted in chefmanship and taste, including Knorr,
Hellmann’s, Calvé, Wishbone, Amora and Bertolli.
Our leading savoury brand, Knorr, is Unilever’s biggest brand,
and is sold in over 100 markets. Its product range includes
soups, bouillons, sauces, snacks, noodles, frozen food and meal
solutions. Our wider savoury product range is marketed around
the world under a variety of brand names. Our combined
dressings business is the biggest in the world. With Bertolli, which
began as a leading Italian olive oil brand, we are building on the
qualities associated with Italian food to extend the brand into
spreads, dressings and pasta sauces.
Spreads and cooking products
We lead the spreads and cooking products category with two key
brand families with increasingly consistent positionings around
the world. Healthy Heart brands Becel and Flora deliver strong
growth through health benefits enabling people to enjoy life to
the full. Family brands including Rama, Blue Band and Country
Crock are building a positioning based on tasty, nutritious foods
for the family.
Health & wellness and beverages
Consumers increasingly demand healthier options in their food
and drinks. We respond with products and brands across our
portfolio including Slim•Fast, whose range includes meal
replacement drinks, soups and snack bars. In developing and
emerging markets, we meet consumers’ needs for good nutrition
in affordable formats with Annapurna and, under AdeS, a range
of tasty, nutritional, soy-based drinks.
We lead the market in tea-based beverages with Lipton, the
global market leader in leaf and ready-to-drink tea. Innovations
including Lipton Ice Tea Green and Lipton Fusion target the
growing market for healthy, refreshing beverages. A new joint
venture, the Pepsi Lipton International partnership, will help us
to extend the reach of our brands through a distribution network
complementary to our own supply chain.
Ice cream and frozen foods
We are the world’s leading producer of ice cream, with sales in
more than 40 countries. Ice cream products under the Heart
brand, including Cornetto, Magnum, Carte d’Or and Solero, are
sold internationally. Breyers, Ben & Jerry’s, Klondike and Popsicle
are leading North American-based brands. Ben & Jerry’s is also
sold in Europe.
Our frozen foods business is number one in Europe, focused on
the Birds Eye/Findus brand family and Iglo.
UBF Foodsolutions
Although not a separate reporting category as its results are
reported within the categories above, UBF Foodsolutions is our
global food service business providing solutions for professional
chefs and caterers. For example, it provides pre-prepared
ingredients that save time and new ways of serving food
on a large scale at consistent quality.
Home & Personal Care
Home care
We are market leaders in laundry products in developing and
emerging markets, with number two positions in North America
and most of Europe. Our products have been developed to meet
the diverse requirements of consumers to clean and care for their
clothes. They include tablets for convenience, traditional powders
and liquids for washing by hand or machine, and for soaking. In
developing and emerging markets, tailored products, including
soap bars, are available for lower income consumers.
Our brands are available in over 100 countries, many of them
holding leading market positions. They include Comfort, Omo,
Radiant, Skip, Snuggle and Surf.
In household care, our products are designed to tackle most
cleaning and hygiene needs around the home. In this category
we are strongest in Europe, where Cif and Domestos hold leading
positions in the key markets in which they operate.
Personal care
We lead the global skin cleansing and deodorants markets, and
are in the top three in daily hair care and mass-market skin care.
Six global brands – Axe, Dove, Lux, Pond’s, Rexona and Sunsilk –
form the core of our business in these categories, each with its
own distinctive character. These brands are complemented by
others such as Suave, principally in North America, together with
‘health brands’ such as Clear, Lifebuoy and Vaseline and
regional/local ‘jewels’.