Unilever to cut 1,500 jobs in global corporate restructure

Unilever has today announced it will cut 1,500 jobs, as part of a global corporate restructure and simplification to achieve a more category focused business.

The company plans to move away from its current structure and will be organised around five business groups: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition and Ice Cream.

Each Business Group will be fully responsible and accountable for their strategy, growth and profit delivery globally.

The proposed new organisation model will result in a reduction in senior management roles of around 15% and more junior management roles by 5%, equivalent to around 1500 roles globally.

Unilever has confirmed it does not expect factory teams to be impacted by the changes.

Leadership changes include Fernando Fernandez, EVP Latin America, who will take on the role of President Beauty & Wellbeing. Fabian Garcia, President North America, has also been appointed President Personal Care, responsible for skin cleansing, deodorants and oral care. These appointments will be effective from 1 April 2022.

Sunny Jain, President Beauty & Personal Care, will leave Unilever to set up an investment fund in technology megatrends.

Alan Jope, CEO at Unilever, 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.”

This news follows Unilever's recent refusal to increase its offer for the acquisition of GSK last week.