LONDON — After two years of questions and challenges from the British media, the investor neighborhood and exterior organizations, Unilever has bought its Russian subsidiary.
Hein Schumacher, chief govt officer of Unilever, mentioned Thursday the Russian enterprise has been bought to Arnest Group, a Russian producer of fragrance, cosmetics and family merchandise.
“The sale consists of all of Unilever’s enterprise in Russia and its 4 factories within the nation. Our enterprise in Belarus can also be included within the sale,” he mentioned.
“Over the previous 12 months, we have now been rigorously getting ready the Unilever Russia enterprise for a possible sale. This work has been very complicated, and has concerned separating IT platforms and provide chains, in addition to migrating manufacturers to Cyrillic. The completion of the sale ends Unilever Russia’s presence within the nation,” Schumacher added.
The phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Stress had been mounting on the buyer large, mother or father of manufacturers together with Dove, Vaseline and Hellmann’s, to tug out of the area totally, however Unilever at all times argued that any transfer to divest its pursuits can be sophisticated.
As reported in July 2023, Ukraine’s Nationwide Company on Corruption Prevention added Unilever to its Worldwide Sponsors of Battle listing, accusing the buyer large of “contributing to [Vladimir] Putin’s warfare machine.”
NACP chief Oleksandr Novikov mentioned the company added Unilever to the listing as a result of its “lots of of thousands and thousands in tax contributions to the Russian state are serving to to fund its assaults on Ukraine, and might be not directly funding a mercenary prison group.”
Unilever Home in London.
Courtesy picture
Novikov referred to as on Schumacher, who had not but taken up the CEO function, to make a “new begin and dwell as much as [Unilever’s] values of human rights.” On the time, he mentioned Unilever ought to “go away Russia now, or historical past will file its complicity.”
Unilever didn’t reply publicly to the NACP criticism, however had earlier that 12 months issued a press release confirming that in March 2022 it ceased all commerce with Russia.
It additionally put an finish to all media and promoting spend and capital flows into and overseas following Putin’s invasion in February 2022.
On the identical time, Unilever continued to produce on a regular basis meals and hygiene merchandise made in Russia to individuals within the nation.
“We perceive why there are requires Unilever to depart Russia. We additionally need to be clear that we’re not attempting to guard or handle our enterprise in Russia. Nevertheless, for corporations like Unilever, which have a major bodily presence within the nation, exiting shouldn’t be simple,” the assertion from 2023 mentioned.
On the time, Unilever argued that it didn’t have many choices in Russia. The corporate mentioned closing down the enterprise would imply the lack of round 3,000 jobs, and an opportunity for the Russian state to take management.
“It’s clear that had been we to desert our enterprise and types within the nation, they might be appropriated — after which operated — by the Russian state. As well as, we don’t suppose it’s proper to desert our individuals in Russia,” the corporate mentioned.
Unilever added that promoting the enterprise may result in “the Russian state probably gaining additional profit,” whereas the third choice “is to permit the enterprise to run with the strict constraints” that Unilever put in place in March 2022.
The corporate mentioned “none of those choices is fascinating. Nonetheless, we consider the third stays the most suitable choice, each to keep away from the chance of our enterprise ending up within the fingers of the Russian state, both instantly or not directly, and to assist defend our individuals.”