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Unilever to shed 1,500 jobs as focus changes to ice cream and beauty
https://www.whatjobs.com/news/business-news/unilever-to-shed-1500-jobs-as-focus-changes-to-ice-cream-and-beauty
By Hugh Fort in Business News, posted January 26, 2022
Unilever has announced a restructure with its efforts focusing around areas including ice cream as 1,500 job roles are set to be cut.
The company, which employs 13,000 people in the US, will focus on five key areas of the business.
These are: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition, and Ice Cream.
Each of the groups will be fully responsible for their own strategy, growth and profit delivery around the world.
The changes is set to have a big effect on senior and junior management staff.
The company, which has its US head office in Englewood Cliffs in New Jersey, will reduce these roles by around 15 per cent, which means around 1,500 roles will be cut around the world.
There is currently no breakdown as to how many people this will affect in the US but Unilever says it does not expect factory teams to be affected.
CEO Alan Jope said: "Our new organisational model has been developed over the last year and is designed to continue the step-up we are seeing in the performance of our business.
"Moving to five category-focused Business Groups will enable us to be more responsive to consumer and channel trends, with crystal-clear accountability for delivery.
"Growth remains our top priority and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this.”To enable Unilever to benefit from its scale and global capabilities, the five Business Groups will be supported by Unilever Business Operations, which will provide the technology, systems, and processes to drive operational excellence across the business.
"A lean Unilever Corporate Centre will continue to set Unilever’s overall strategy."
As a result of the new set-up, Unilever is making changes to its leadership team.
- Fernando Fernandez, EVP Latin America, has been appointed President Beauty & Wellbeing, which includes Hair Care, Skin Care, as well as Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements, and Unilever Prestige.
- Fabian Garcia, President North America, has been appointed President Personal Care, responsible for Skin Cleansing, Deodorants, and Oral Care.
- Peter ter Kulve will continue in his role as President Home Care, responsible for Fabric Care, Home & Hygiene, and Water & Air.
- Hanneke Faber, President Foods & Refreshment, has been appointed President Nutrition, which will be home to Scratch Cooking, Healthy Snacking, Functional Nutrition, Plant-Based Meat, and Food Solutions.
- Matt Close, EVP Ice Cream, has been appointed President Ice Cream, a Business Group in its own right.
These appointments will come into place from April 1, 2022.
More changes are being made at the top of the company, including:
- Nitin Paranjpe, Chief Operating Officer (COO), will take on a new role as Chief Transformation Officer & Chief People Officer, leading the business transformation, and heading the HR function.
- Reginaldo Ecclissato, Chief Supply Chain Officer, will lead the Supply Chain and Unilever Business Operations as Chief Business Operations Officer.
Sunny Jain, President Beauty & Personal Care, will leave Unilever to set up an investment fund in technology megatrends.
Other members of the Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE) will remain in role, including Sanjiv Mehta who will retain executive leadership of Hindustan Unilever.
All costs related to setting up the new organization will be managed within the company's existing restructuring investment plans.
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