Unilever announces separation of its ice cream business, including Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum brands

Hygiene and food giant Unilever announced this Tuesday that it is divesting from its ice cream business, which includes the very popular Ben & Jerry’s brand in the United States, as well as Magnum and Cornetto.

The UK-based company made the announcement as it unveiled a growth action plan that includes cutting around 7,500 jobs worldwide over the next three years to save around £684 million ($869 million).

In a statement released this Tuesday morning, Unilever considered it appropriate to separate the ice cream business, which has “huge potential”, as it currently groups five of the ten best-selling brands in the world, which had a global turnover in 2022 . 7.9 billion euros ($8.6 billion).

The separation process will be completed by the end of 2025, and will mean that the ice cream division will have its own supply chain, factories and logistics units, and Unilever manages all options in that separation “to maximize shareholder benefits”.

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Unilever hopes separation of ice cream business will boost productivity

The planned job cuts across the group’s offices follow a large-scale restructuring programme, which will be led by its new CEO Hein Schumacher with the aim of improving the group’s performance.

Unilever, which is behind products such as Dove soap, is headquartered in London’s central Victoria neighborhood and has 6,000 employees in the UK and a global workforce of 128,000.

Its CEO, who took up the post last year, described the group’s balance sheet results for 2023 as “disappointing”.

Along with the planned revamp, the company clearly plans to invest in technology to increase productivity and save costs.

“Under the action plan for growth, we have committed to doing fewer things better and with greater impact,” the manager revealed.

With information from EFE

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