Founded

Merger of Lever Brothers and

Margarine Unie in 1930

Headquarters

London, England, UK

Rotterdam, Netherlands

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Michael Treschow(Chairman)

Harish Manwani (President

Asia,Africa, Central & Eastern Europe)

Lord Simon of Highbury

(Vice Chairman)Paul Polman

(CEO)Industry Conglomerate

Net income

▼ € 4.136 billion (2007)

Employees

174,000 (2008)

Product chain

UNILEVER HOUSE(WEENA 455)

COMPANY’’S HISTORY'Two heads are better than one' applies to

business,

Then certainly Unilever is a prime example. The food and consumer products giant actually has two parent companies: Unilever PLC, based in the United Kingdom, and Unilever N.V., based in The Netherlands. The two companies, which operate virtually as a single corporation, are run by a single group of directors and are linked by a number of agreements. Unilever considers itself the second largest consumer goods firm in the world, and produces numerous brand name foods, cleaning products, and personal care items. About 52 percent of revenues are generated in the foods sector; brands include Imperial and Promise margarines, One-quarter of sales come from the personal care area; brands include Caress and Dove soap, Pears and Pond's skin care products, and Sure deodorants, Suave and Salon Selective hair care items, Close-Up, Mentadent, and Pepsodent oral care products, and Calvin Klein, Elizabeth Arden, and Elizabeth Taylor prestige fragrances as well as such miscellaneous brands as Q-Tips and Vaseline. Unilever's third major sector is that of cleaning products, which is responsible for about 22 percent of turnover; and this area also includes the company's line of institutional cleaning products. Unilever maintains production facilities in 88 countries and sells its products in an additional 70. About 47 percent of revenues originate in Europe, 21 percent in North America, 14 percent in the Asia-Pacific region, 12 percent in Latin America, and six percent in Africa and the Middle East.Unilever operates numerous local companies. The Directory of Multinationals lists over 300 companies in 70 different countries. Few international corporations have such a decentralised style. Unilever claims ‘to have deep roots in many countries’ and depicts itself as ‘a truly multi-local multinational’. The local operating companies are organised into ten regional groups (which are either part of the global food division -Unilever Bestfoods Regions- or part of the global HPC(Health & personal care) division. Unilever has five of its offices based in London (including one of Unilever's two corporate centres, and to two world-leading Unilever research centres).

The company is fully multinational with operating companies and factories on every continent (except Antarctica) and research laboratories at Colworth and Port Sunlight in England; Vlaardingen in the Netherlands; Trumbull, Connecticut, and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in the United States; Bangalore in India (see also Hindustan Unilever Limited); Pakistan; and Shanghai in China.

The US division continued to carry the Lever Brothers name until the 1990s, when it adopted the parent company's moniker. The American unit now has headquarters in New Jersey, and no longer maintains a presence at Lever House, the iconic skyscraper on Park Avenue in New York City.

Unilever bought Ben&Jerry’s for about £204 million in April 2000. Unilever’s main competitor Nestle was also interested. Both companies have declared ice-cream as a strategic and high-growth product category. Unilever and Nestle comfortably lead the ice-cream market worldwide and compete head-to-head in many developed and emerging markets (Ice Cream, the battle for leadership, April 2001) [33]. Controversy surrounded the Unilever take-over of Ben&Jerry’s, that was considered a model ‘ethical’ company. Of course, neither Ben nor Jerry (Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the co-founders of B&J's) wanted to sell. But when your shares miss out on one of history's great bull market runs, shareholder pressure is bound to take its toll.To keep up with consumer needs and increase operating margins, Unilever wanted to consolidate its 1,600 brands to 400. By consolidating its brands, Unilever plans to focus on stronger product innovations, strengthening marketing efforts, building a world-class supply chain, and simplifying business processes

Principal operating unit:

Africa; Central Asia & Middle East; China; East Asia Pacific; Latin America; Food & Beverages--Europe; Ice Cream & Frozen Foods--Europe; Home & Personal Care--Europe; Central & Eastern Europe; Foods--North America; Home & Personal Care--North America.

Principal Competitors:

Alberto-Culver Company; Amway Corporation; Avon Products, Inc.; Beiersdorf AG; Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc.; Bestfoods; Campbell Soup Company; The Clorox Company; The Coca-Cola Company; Colgate-Palmolive Company; ConAgra, Inc.; Dairy Farmers of America; Del Monte Foods Company; The Dial Corporation; The Gillette Company; Hormel Foods Corporation; Johnson & Johnson; Kraft Foods, Inc.; L'Oréal; Mars, Inc.; Nabisco Holdings Corp.; Nestlé S.A.; The Pillsbury Company; The Procter & Gamble Company; Reckitt & Colman plc; Revlon, Inc.; Sara Lee Corporation; S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.;

Products/ProjectsUnilever is basically an ‘Armada of brand names’. The multinational owns many subsidiaries all over the world. Unilever’s famous brands include Dove, Knorr, Lipton, Magnum, Omo, Slim-Fast, Blue Band and Lever2000. Unilever categorizes its products as follows:

Home and Personal Care (HPC) Products include cosmetics, perfumes, personal wash, soap, toothpaste, deodorants, shampoo, fragrances, detergents for fabric cleaning, diagnostics.

Food Products include tea, ice-cream, fish, margarine, frozen foods, spreads & cooking products, salad dressings, culinary products, meat snacks, olive oil, cheese

Professional cleaning: DiverseyLever provides cleaning and hygiene products and services to industrial and institutional customers

Plantations, Plant Science and Trading Operations: Unilever operates tea plantations and develops raw materials for the vegetable, tomato, edible oil and bakery categories. The company also has oil milling operations.

R&D: In 2000, Unilever spent 1,187 million euro (£748,235.37) on R&D, 25% of total turnover.

INTRODUCING UNILEVER PAKISTAN LTD .

Unilever Pakistan (70.4% Unilever equity) is the largest FMCG(fast moving consumer good) company in Pakistan, as well as one of the largest multinationals operating in the country. The company had a turnover of Rs. 23.3 bn  (Euro 309 mn) in 2007, and enjoys a leading position in most of its core Home and Personal Care and Foods categories, e.g. Personal Wash, Personal Care, Laundry, Beverages (Tea) and Ice Cream.The company operates through 4 regional offices, as well as 4 wholly owned and 6 third party manufacturing sites across Pakistan.

Accountable to our stakeholders

Since the time Unilever Pakistan began its operations in 1948, the Company has been closely connected to the Pakistani people and its brands have been an integral feature in their daily lives. In fact, the nature of our business enables our brands to be the pulse and heartbeat of the 164 million people in Pakistan.

This is a huge commitment, which makes us responsible and accountable to all our stakeholders and society as a whole and strengthens our resolve to:

Make a positive difference to the lives of low income consumers Create new opportunities for growth Improve the overall quality of life in Pakistan, by promoting education,

nutrition, health and hygiene

Unilever's corporate mission – to add vitality to life– shows how clearly the business understands 21st

century-consumers and their lives.

Balancing profit with responsible corporate behaviour

In the late 19th century the businesses that would later become Unilever were among the most philanthropic of their time. They set up projects to improve the lot of their workers and created products with a positive social impact, making hygiene and personal care commonplace and improving nutrition through adding vitamins to foods that were already daily staples. 

Today, Unilever still believes that success means acting with 'the highest standards of corporate behaviour towards our employees, consumers and the societies and world in which we live'. Over the years we've launched or participated in an ever-growing range of initiatives to source sustainable supplies of raw materials, protect environments, support local communities and much more.  

As a multi-local multinational unilever aim to play their part in addressing global environmental and social concerns through local actions and in partnership with local governments and organisations

ALWAYS WORKING WITH INTEGRITY

Conducting unilever operations with integrity and with respect for the many people, organisations and environments business touches has always been at the heart of their corporate responsibility.

Positive impact  

Unilever aim to make a positive impact in many ways: through their brands, their commercial operations and relationships, through voluntary contributions, and through the various other ways in which they engage with society. 

Working with others

They want to work with suppliers who have values similar to our own and work to the same standards we do. Their Business partner code, aligned to their own Code of business principles, which include covering business integrity and responsibilities relating to employees, consumers and the environment.

ENVIRONMENTAL CARE POLICY

They are committed to meeting the needs of their consumers in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner. Unilever Pakistan is committed to integrating business as a part of society, and the company actively engages in initiatives that improve the quality of life, particularly of the lesser privileged members of our society.

Making a difference

Our commitment to operate in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner applies to both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing functions of Unilever Pakistan Limited and is disseminated across the Company as a policy document. Our aims are to:

Align our environmental strategies and implementation plans with the respective business groups of the Company on a yearly basis and maintain follow-up by reporting progress on the Key Performance Indicators to Regional Business Group.

Operate our plants and processes in a way that ensures the safety of our products and the environment. With the help of our Regional Technology Centres (RTC), we develop innovative products and processes which reduce levels of environmental impact.

Reduce waste, conserve energy and explore opportunities for re-use and recycling.

Encourage our suppliers to develop environmental awareness and co-operate with the other members of the supply chain to improve overall environmental performance.

Work with industry bodies, government agencies, business partners and other concerned organisations to promote environmental care.

Prevent pollution through the application of best practice in the industry, Unilever Framework Standards and legal compliance.

Ensure that employees are aware of the Company's environmental policy and motivated to apply it; are aware of their own responsibilities and given the support and training necessary to fulfil them

IMPROVING EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

The Citizens Foundation

The Citizens Foundation (TCF) is a non profit organisation, striving to provide quality education to the children of under privileged communities in Pakistan.

TCF does this in a structured process through its network of purpose built and well-administered schools, trained teachers, a properly developed curriculum and an effective system of monitoring and evaluation. More than 28,000 students are studying in 224 TCF school units nationwide and over 2,600 jobs have been created.The Unilever-TCF partnership was established in the year 2003. Since then, the partnership has flourished as we have built 3 new schools and are supporting another 12 nation-wide

Private public partnerships

The Rahim Yar Khan School project came into being in 2003 with Unilever adopting a local government school, thus focusing on education development, particularly in the primary sector.

Introducing female staff and pupils, initiating extracurricular activities and teacher training programmes were some of the initial steps taken. So far, Unilever is providing the following facilities, other than student and teacher programmes.

A new building New furniture

Uniforms for needy students (about 10% of the total strength)

Stationery

Computers

A highly developed library   

In 2006, Unilever Pakistan Limited signed a Private Public Partnership (PPP) tripartite agreement with the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) and the district government of Ghotki, to provide infrastructure, teacher training and learning material support to the Government Girls School Kamo Shaheed, Ghotki, Sindh.

PCP is an independent non-profit organization with a mandate to promote the volume and effectiveness of philanthropy, for social development in Pakistan. This tripartite agreement creates strong links between the public sector primary schools, corporate philanthropists and local communities, to provide better access to, and improve the quality of education for the under-privileged.

CARE Foundation (“CARE”) is a charitable trust which was founded in Pakistan in 1988 with the primary aim of providing quality marketable education to the country’s underprivileged children. CARE’s aim is to empower these children to change the destiny of their lives, and thus create a happier and more prosperous

Pakistan for us all. CARE’s philosophy is that by educating a child, you empower the nation.

Unilever in 2007 provided support to CARE to improve infrastructure and education standards in the Bilal Ganj government school, Lahore.

Blue Band   & Energile support   Gusto Magazine

Unilever Pakistan in Collaboration with the Alif Laila Book Bus Society launched “Gusto” in May 2007, a magazine for children who like to read about current affairs, arts and crafts, science, trivia and much more.

The magazine aims to enhance reading and creativity in children and has been especially developed to cover a vast area of interest for children of school going ages.The Alif Laila Book Bus Society (ALLBS) was established in 1978 as a children’s library housed in a double-decker bus. 

The small library in the park gradually grew into a comprehensive complex with a reference library and a mobile library (Story Teller) that serves three city schools and forty rural schools in the Sheikhupura District.  The visits to rural areas by the Story Teller bring innovative and creative concepts to children who would otherwise not be exposed to interactive and interesting learning techniques. ALBBS has also been chosen by The International Board on Books for Young People as its National Section of Pakistan.

Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)   MBA Programme

LUMS is a national university established by the country’s leading private and public sector corporations. The university has expanded rapidly since 1986 and presently has two schools the Graduate school of Business Administration and the School of Arts and Sciences.

Unilever Pakistan together with LUMS is offering a unique opportunity to women from all over Pakistan.  This programme is focused towards women from lesser-privileged areas to pursue their MBA at the University with financial support.  Through this fund, women who qualify are eligible for a seven-year interest free loan that covers all or part of their expenses through out the two-year degree.

This programme hoped to encourage talented female students to apply by reaching out to them and providing them an opportunity to pursue a professional degree at one of Pakistan’s premier academic institutions. 

Unilever has also committed a 3 year endowment to the LUMS school of science and engineering.

Fair & Lovely and BeaconhouseNational University (BNU)

The company’s social development initiatives are focused in the areas of education, health and water sustainability. In the area of education, while the main thrust has historically been towards primary education, financial support is also now provided to students in professional colleges, with the objective of extending quality education to the lesser privileged. Unilever Pakistan in June 2007 signed an MOU with BNU to provide scholarship support to four deserving students, of which two are sponsored by Fair & Lovely. Fair and Lovely has also awarded over 200 post graduate “kismet ke sitaray” scholarships in two years to deserving girl students across Pakistan

Chartered by the Government of Punjab, BNU was established in 2003 for the purpose of imparting education with a modern, rational, course content while ensuring that the history, culture and the demands of Pakistani society are respected. BNU is planned as a non-profit, world class private university disseminating learning and encouraging research in diverse areas where the essential focus of the programs offered has been determined by the type of the work force identified for the future economic, business, academic, cultural and technological advancement of the country.

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI) and HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry (HEJ)

Unilever is conscious of the fact that many young people today, with the necessary pre-requisites to pursue higher professional education, are some times denied the opportunity because of their personal financial constraints. In order to assist such students achieve their professional qualifications, Unilever continues to support educational initiatives that enable access to the less privileged members of our society.

Unilever signed MOU’s with GIKI and HEJ and commits to providing scholarships to females wanting to study B.sc in engineering and Mphil in food technology.

Personal and immediate response to disaster

The Company has contributed around Rs. Rs.88 Million for Earthquake relief, comprising of:

Rs.35.5 Million to the President’s Relief Fund for immediate provision of food, shelter and warm clothing to affected people and communities Rs.35.5 Million to TCF (The Citizen's Foundation) for long-term reconstruction and rebuilding for the affected areas in partnership with TCF (The Citizen's Foundation). TCF is also Unilever Pakistan’s CSR partner for promoting primary education in the country

Rs.4.5 Million of employee contributions to the President’s Relief Fund which were matched by the Company

Rs. 3.5 Million of donations from overseas colleagues in Sri Lanka, Turkey and Indonesia.

A further Rs. 8.8. million has been paid to employees and Third Party partners as compensation for the  death of family members and  to enable them to re-build /repair their homes.    

In addition the company provided Rs.5 Million worth of goods for immediate relief including tents, blankets, tea and soap. 

CURRENT PROJECTS

The Kidney Centre

Since 1985, Kidney Centre has been providing essential medical assistance to patients requiring renal treatment. It is a testament to the success that can be achieved when a group of individuals get together and provide voluntary support to a medical facility, with the help and assistance of generous private contributions. 

It is for this very reason that we have been in the forefront, providing consistent support to the Centre, ensuring that it continues to provide this essential medical treatment to needy patients.

We support the treatment of 8 dialysis patients, which amounts to approx Rs.1.7 m a year.

Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre

The Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre (MALC) has been dedicated to providing free treatment to Leprosy patients throughout Pakistan for over 45 years. The Centre is now providing services for three major health issues, leprosy, tuberculosis and community eye health, completely free of cost and has approximately 170 clinics.

Health is one of the key values in Unilever’s commitment towards “Making a Better World” and we have partnered with MALC in providing treatment and prevention of leprosy and tuberculosis for four consecutive years. We have signed a four year agreement to support the MALC Loralai and Peshawer Clinics.         

Layton Rehmatullah Benevolent Trust (LRBT)

From its inception in 1985, LRBT has provided free eye treatment to over 11 million poor patients through free hospitals all over Pakistan. Since 2004, we have been channelling our support into helping the community in a very tangible way through outreach clinics, mobile vans and the LRBT Hospital in Khanewal

In 2006, employees volunteered to help LRBT in the development of HR and IT Audit systems.

In addition, Wall’s donated various outdoor sites to the organisation for the LRBT Zakat campaign during Ramzan this year.

Life Buoy promotes hand pumps & hygiene awareness

Historically Lifebuoy has always been committed to ensuring a better life through health and cleanliness for its consumers ---a germ free environment. So to serve the community in keeping with the brand objectives the Lifebuoy brand team worked with the CSR department to provide better hand washing solutions for the people in the poorer rural areas of Pakistan.

This CSR activity was executed with the help of Leads Pakistan, an NGO working for educating Pakistanis to practice better health and hygiene. It was identified that lack of knowledge about better hand washing practices resulted in the spread of epidemic diseases likediarrhoea& gastro-enteritis. Also, lack of accessibility to clean and continuous supply of water prevented the development of proper, frequent and regular hand washing.

Children are the biggest sufferers from poor hand washing practices as they are very young, need supervision and guidance from their elders. Also children’s lifestyle mostly includes playing games, which virtually makes them more vulnerable to dirt, dirty water, and through dirty hands, dirty food.

With this in mind, Lifebuoy brand worked with LEAD and donated 20 hand pumps to twenty schools in the areas of Khairpur and Sukkur. Through this installation, 3,324 students and 123 teachers are benefiting from having Lifebuoy hand pumps.

Fair & Lovely supports breast cancer awareness

In 2007, the brand took a step further in support of women and joined hands with both Shaukat Khanum Memorial hospital and Pink Ribbon to support breast cancer.

Fair & Lovely supports the treatment of two breast cancer patients at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH&RC).

Breast cancer is not only lethal but also commonest cancer that’s killing females in Pakistan. In view of the foregoing glooming scenario and to save the precious lives of mothers of the nation our organization WEG (Women Empowerment Group) decided in 2003 to create awareness in the society by launching “BreastCancer Awareness Campaign”. The overall objective of the organization is to improve the quality of life of women folk.

Unilever’s Fair and Lovely brand supports this cause and in 2007 a ‘Pink Ribbon Day’ was celebrated at Unilever Pakistan at the head office in Karachi. “Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer for any Asian population. Every year 83,000 women are detected while 40,000 women are killed by this disease. It is a dire need of time that people should shun unnecessary reservations and start taking the matter seriously as this disease is taking precious lives every year.

Fair & Lovely also sponsored the ‘Wear it Pink Day’ at Lahore College for Women University in December 2007. It was also part of Pink Ribbon Awareness campaign started to sensitize the youth so that not only they can be educated but their mothers, aunts and sisters also could be reached through them.

COMPANY KEY INFORMATIONCOMPANY’S HISTORY

PRINCIPLE OPERATING UNITS

PRINCIPLE COMPETITORS

PRODUCTS &PROJECTS

INTRODUCING UNILEVER PAKISTAN LTD

ACCOUNTABLE FOR STAKE HOLDERS

BALANCING PROFIT WITH RESPONSIBLE CORPORATE BEHAVIOR

ALWAYS WORKING WITH INTEGRITY

ENVIRONMENTAL CARE POLICY

IMPROVING EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

THE CITIZEN FOUNDATION

PRIVATE PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP

BLUEBAND & ENERGILE SUPPORT GUSTO MAGZINE

LUMS MBA PROGRAM

FAIR & LOVELY AND BNU

PERSONAL AND IMMEDIATE RESPONSE TO DISASTER

CURRENT PROJECTS

MARIE ADELAIDE LEPROSY CENTER

KIDNEY CENTER

LRBT

FAIR & LOVELY SUPPORT BREAST CANCER AWARNESS