Unilever boss says his revamp still has backing of activist investor

London — Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher said board member Nelson Peltz was “fully behind” a recently devised strategy to reinvigorate the company, showing that he still had the backing of the activist investor who endorsed his appointment last year.

Schumacher told Reuters he wanted Unilever, whose brands include Dove soap, Hellmann’s condiments and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, to chart a “systematic” marketing strategy for its top brands.

He also said he would not shy away from streamlining Unilever’s 127,000 workforce.

His predecessor, Alan Jope, was criticised for allowing the group’s brand portfolio to grow to about 400, leaving management with too little time to focus on its best performers.

Some investors had also said Unilever was too slow to revive margins in the wake of the pandemic while Fundsmith’s Terry Smith lambasted the company for being “obsessed” with sustainability at the expense of performance.

When Unilever reported fourth-quarter earnings last week, some investors and analysts said it was still not regaining lost market share quickly enough and needed to do more to protect its margins.

Despite that, Peltz remained on side with the group’s turnaround plan, Schumacher told Reuters.

Schumacher said Peltz’s views were “very much in line” with Unilever’s growth strategy. This involves investing more in its top 30 brands, which represent more than 70% of sales, supporting its innovation pipeline for the next few years and working towards a better operating discipline.

The investor also liked Unilever’s model of splitting its business lines by category instead of region, Schumacher said. This is similar to that which Peltz’s Trian Partners investment fund is widely thought to have influenced at rival P&G and contrasts with Nestle’s geographically focused structure. Trian declined to comment.

Unilever shares were down 0.4% in late afternoon trading in London.

Reports emerged in January 2022 that Peltz had been building a stake in Unilever through Trian, and he eventually took a seat on Unilever’s board in July of that year. As of March 2023, the fund had a 1.45% stake in Unilever, LSEG data shows.

By September 2022, Jope’s departure was announced, with Schumacher eventually becoming CEO in July the following year.

“Nelson came on the board [because] there was dissatisfaction with the performance,” Schumacher said. “He saw an opportunity to buy at the share price where he thought there was potential.”

Some investors have in recent years called for Unilever to go one step further and spin out its food business, which owns brands including Marmite spreads and Knorr stock cubes.

When asked if he would consider such a move, Schumacher said: “When you talk about bigger portfolio changes, obviously I’m looking at that, but the biggest opportunity for now is executing our growth action plan.”

Unilever launched a €1.5bn share buyback last week after volumes increased for the first time in 10 quarters. Its nutrition and ice cream businesses were the only ones to report fourth quarter volume sales falls.

Schumacher worked with Peltz at HJ Heinz when the investor was orchestrating a merger with Kraft Foods. His appointment as Unilever CEO was warmly welcomed by Peltz, who has a record of shaking up consumer goods companies.

Schumacher’s top priorities after his appointment included “performance culture changes”. “That will mean that some part of the workforce will say ‘not for me’,” he said.

Under Schumacher, Unilever has overhauled much of its leadership team, replacing executives including long-time finance chief Graeme Pitkethly and appointing others like Esi Eggleston Bracey, now head of growth and marketing officer.

Schumacher said he wanted Eggleston Bracey to chart a very clear two- to three-year road map on market development for Unilever’s top brands. “We don’t have it today as systematic as I’d like it to be,” he added.

Some investors told Reuters in October that they were disappointed when Schumacher initially outlined long-awaited strategic plans, saying they would have preferred a more in-depth restructuring.

“I’m now in the mode of ‘OK, I heard you and this is what we’re doing about it’,” he said. “History will judge whether I will be a good or bad CEO.”

Reuters