company name	Unilever NVUnilever PLC
company logo
company type	Public company(AMS: UNA)()() (Unilever N.V.)() (Unilever PLC)
foundation	1930
location	Unilever House,London, United Kingdom Rotterdam, The Netherlands
area served	Worldwide
key people	Michael Treschow(Chairman)Lord Simon of Highbury(Vice Chairman)Paul Polman(CEO)
num employees	163,000 (2010)
industry	Conglomerate
products	See brands listing
revenue	€44,262 million (2010)
Operating income	€6,339 million (2010)
net income	€4,598 million (2010)
homepage	http://unilever.com }}

Unilever () is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products.

Unilever is a dual-listed company consisting of Unilever N.V. in Rotterdam, Netherlands and Unilever PLC in London, United Kingdom. This arrangement is similar to those of Reed Elsevier and Royal Dutch Shell prior to their unified structures. Both Unilever companies have the same directors and effectively operate as a single business. The current non-executive Chairman of Unilever N.V. and PLC is Michael Treschow while Paul Polman is Group Chief Executive.

Unilever's main international competitors include Nestlé and Procter & Gamble. They also face competition in local markets or product ranges from companies such as Beiersdorf, ConAgra, Danone, General Mills, Henkel, Mars, Inc., Pepsico, Reckitt Benckiser and S. C. Johnson & Son.

History

Unilever was founded on 1 January 1930 by Antonius Johannes Jurgens, Samuel van den Bergh and William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme.

The amalgamation of the operations of British soapmaker ''Lever Brothers'' and Dutch margarine producer ''Margarine Unie'' made sound commercial sense, as palm oil was a major raw material for both margarines and soaps, and could be imported more efficiently in larger quantities.

The initial harvesting of palm oil was from British West Africa, from where news reports seen back in England showed the workers abroad in favourable conditions. In 1911 the company received a concession for 750,000 hectares of forest in Belgian Congo, mostly south of Bandundu, where a system of forced labour operated. The subsidiary of Lever was named "Huileries du Congo Belge". During the great depression in the thirties, the Huileries sharply decreased the fee for gathered oil nuts, while the government of Belgian Congo strongly increased taxation. This resulted in social unrest in 1931, which are known as the Revolution of the Pende, in which eventually more than 400 members of the Pende-tribe were killed.

In the 1930s the Unilever business grew and new ventures were launched in Africa and Latin America. In 1972 Unilever purchased A&W; Restaurants' Canadian division but sold its shares through a management buyout to former A&W; Food Services of Canada CEO Jefferson J. Mooney in July 1996. By 1980 soap and edible fats contributed just 40% of profits, compared with an original 90%. In 1984 the company bought the brand Brooke Bond (maker of PG Tips tea).

In 1987 Unilever strengthened its position in the world skin care market by acquiring Chesebrough-Ponds, the maker of Ragú, Pond's, Aqua-Net, Cutex Nail Polish, and Vaseline. In 1989 Unilever bought Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Fabergé, and Elizabeth Arden, but the latter was later sold (in 2000) to FFI Fragrances.

In 1996 Unilever purchased Helene Curtis Industries, giving the company "a powerful new presence in the United States shampoo and deodorant market". The purchase brought Unilever the Suave and Finesse hair-care product brands and Degree deodorant brand.

thumb|250px|''Global employment at Unilever 2000–2008'' Black represents employment numbers in Europe, light grey represents the Americas and dark grey represents Asia, Africa, and Middle East. Between 2000 and 2008 Unilever reduced global workforce numbers by 41%, from 295,000 to 174,000. Note: Europe figures for 2000–2003 are all Europe; from 2004 figures in black are Western Europe. For 2004–2008 Figures for Asia, Africa and Middle East include Eastern and Central Europe. ''Source: Unilever Annual Reports 2004, 2008''In 2000 the company absorbed the American business Best Foods, strengthening its presence in North America and extending its portfolio of foods brands. In April 2000 it bought both Ben & Jerry's and Slim Fast.

The company is 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); and Shanghai in China.

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

The company is said to promote sustainability and started a sustainable agriculture programme in 1998. In May 2007 it became the first tea company to commit to sourcing all its tea in a sustainable manner, employing the Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental NGO, to certify its tea estates in East Africa, as well as third-party suppliers in Africa and other parts of the world. It declared its aim to have all Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips tea bags sold in Western Europe certified by 2010, followed by all Lipton tea bags globally by 2015.

Covalence, an ethical reputation ranking agency, placed Unilever at the top of its ranking based on positive versus negative news coverage for 2007.

In 2007, Unilever's Dove "Evolution" video that ran only online, was named the first ever non-tv spot to win the Grand Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival. And in March, 2008, Unilever was named "Digital Marketer of the Year" by Advertising Age.

In 2008 Unilever was honoured at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Creation and Distribution of Interactive Commercial Advertising Delivered Through Digital Set Top Boxes" for its program ''Axe: Boost Your ESP.''

On 25 September 2009, Unilever decided to acquire the personal care business of Sara Lee Corporation: leading brands such as Radox, Badedas and Duschdas strengthened category leadership in Skin Cleansing and Deodorants.

On 9 August 2010, Unilever signed an asset purchase agreement with the Norwegian dairy group TINE, to acquire the activities of Diplom-Is in Denmark, as of 30 September 2010.

On 24 September 2010, Unilever announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its consumer tomato products business in Brazil to Cargill.

On 27 September 2010, Unilever purchased Alberto-Culver, the maker of personal care and household products such as Simple, VO5, Nexxus, TRESemmé, and Mrs. Dash for $US3.7 billion.

On 28 September 2010, Unilever and EVGA announced that they have signed an agreement under which Unilever will acquire EVGA’s ice cream brands (amongst others, Scandal, Variete and Karabola) and distribution network in Greece, for an undisclosed amount.

On 23 March 2011: Unilever announced that it has entered a binding agreement to sell the global Sanex business to Colgate-Palmolive for €672m. Unilever also announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Colgate-Palmolive’s laundry detergent brands (Fab, Lavomatic and Vel) in Colombia for US$215m.

See "Jurgens Generaties in Beweging" by M.A.J.Jurgens and drs. F.J.M. van de Ven, Volume I and II; Nederlands's Patriciaat Ao 1999, 82e Edition.

Products

Unilever owns more than 400 brands as a result of acquisitions, however, the company focuses on what are called the "billion-dollar brands", 13 brands, each of which achieve annual sales in excess of €1 billion. Unilever's top 25 brands account for more than 70% of sales. The brands fall almost entirely into two categories: Food and Beverages, and Home and Personal Care.

Unilever's brands include:

Aviance

Axe/Lynx

Ben & Jerry's

Blue Band

Dove

Flora/Becel

Heartbrand

Hellmann's

Knorr

Lipton

Lux (soap)

Omo/Surf (detergent)

Rexona/Sure

Wish-Bone

Sunsilk

TIGI (haircare)

Advertising

Unilever has produced many advertising campaigns, including:

Corporate governance

Unilever's highest executive body is called the Unilever Executive which is led by the Group Chief Executive (Paul Polman). It is responsible for delivering profit and growth across the company.

Members of the Unilever Executive include:

Paul Polman (Group Chief Executive)

Jean-Marc Huet (Chief Financial Officer)

Michael B. Polk(President Global Foods, Home & Personal Care)

Professor Geneviève Berger (Chief Research & Development Officer)

Jan Zijderveld (President Western Europe)

Kashif Naveed (Director, Home & Personal Care Pakistan)

Harish Manwani (President Asia,Africa, Central & Eastern Europe)

Dave Lewis (President Americas)

Doug Baillie(Chief HR Officer)

Pier Luigi Sigismondi (Chief Supply Chain Officer)

Keith Weed (Chief Marketing and Communication Officer)

Executive and non-executive directors at Unilever are:

Michael Treschow

Professor Geneviève Berger

Louise Fresco

Ann Fudge

Charles E. Golden

Kees J. Storm

Jeroen van der Veer

Byron E. Grote

Hixonia Nyasulu

The Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind, MP

Paul Walsh

Sunil Bharti Mittal

Corporate image

Unilever claims that corporate social responsibility is at the heart of its business. However, the transition to a responsible and sustainable company is ongoing and Unilever has attracted a variety of criticisms from political, environmental and human rights activists on not achieving the high aims it communicates on a number of topics.

Environmental issues

Unilever's stated goals are to decouple growth from the company's environmental impact by

halving the environmental footprint of its products

helping 1 billion people improve their health and well-being

sourcing all of its agricultural raw materials sustainably

;Palm oil Unilever has been criticised by Greenpeace for causing deforestation, Unilever was targeted in 2008 by Greenpeace UK, which criticised the company for buying palm oil from suppliers that are damaging Indonesia's rainforests. Unilever, as a founding member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), responded by publicizing its plan to obtain all of its palm oil from sources that are certified as sustainable by 2015.

In Côte d'Ivoire, one of Unilever's palm oil suppliers was accused of clearing forest for plantations, an activity that threatened a primate species, Miss Waldron's Red Colobus. Unilever intervened to halt the clearances pending the results of an environmental assessment.

On 4 July 2010, Unilever announced that it has secured enough GreenPalm certificates of sustainable palm oil to cover the requirements of its European, Australia, and New Zealand business. GreenPalm is a certificate trading programme, endorsed by the RSPO, which is designed to tackle the environmental and social problems created by the production of palm oil.

;Rainforest Alliance Unilever has committed to purchase all its tea from sustainable, ethical sources. It has asked the international environmental NGO, Rainforest Alliance, to start by certifying tea farms in Africa.

Lipton and PG Tips will be the first brands to contain certified tea. The company aims to have all Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips tea bags sold in Western Europe certified by 2010 and all Lipton tea bags sold globally by 2015.

;Animal testing Unilever states it is committed to the elimination of animal testing, and where it is a legal requirement in some countries, it tries to convince the local authorities to change the law. Some activists argue that this is little more than an effort to gain good publicity and Unilever continue to use animal experimentation such as the LD50 poisoning test.

Social issues

Race and advertisements Hindustan Unilever, had been showing television advertisements for skin-lightening cream, Fair and Lovely, depicting depressed, dark-skinned women, who had been ignored by employers and men, suddenly finding new boyfriends and glamorous careers after the cream had lightened their skin.

The Austrian branch of Unilever (Eskimo) is producing and marketing an ice-cream under the name Mohr im Hemd. "Mohr" (moor), is a colonial German word for African or black people, has a heavily colonialist and racist connotation., "Mohr im Hemd" (moor in the shirt) is a traditional Austrian chocolate speciality which refers to naked, "wild" Africans. Unilever refutes any racist intentions and claims that it has tested the name in broad market studies in Austria without any critical feedback.

Sexism in advertisements The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood criticized Unilever for the 2007 Axe marketing campaign, which they considered sexist. Unilever's response is that the Axe campaign is intended as a spoof and "not meant to be taken literally".

Unilever has launched the Dove "Real Beauty" marketing campaign, which encouraged women to reject the underfed and hyper-sexualized images of modern advertising in 2007.

Child labour In 2003 Hindustan Unilever was accused of making use of child labour, among others.

See also

Morris Tabaksblat, a previous CEO

Gorton's of Gloucester, a former subsidiary

Palm Line, a former shipping company

Unilever Australasia

References

External links

Sustainable Living Plan

Foodservice website

Lady Lever Art Gallery

Unilever Category:Companies established in 1930 Category:Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Category:Companies based in London Category:Multinational food companies Category:Dental companies Category:Dual-listed companies Category:Manufacturing companies of the Netherlands Category:Multinational companies headquartered in the Netherlands Category:Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom Category:Household and personal product companies of the United Kingdom Category:Organisations based in the City of London

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Paul Polman (born 11 July 1956, Enschede,Netherlands) is the CEO of the multinational Anglo-Dutch food and detergent company, Unilever.

Early life

From the University of Groningen he gained a BBA/BA in 1977. From the University of Cincinnati he gained an MA in Economics and an MBA in Finance and International Marketing (both) in 1979. He grew up in a town called Enschede and has 3 brothers and 2 sisters.

Career

He has worked for Procter & Gamble for 27 years (from 1979), initially as a Cost Analyst, becoming Managing Director of P&G; UK from 1995-8, President Global Fabric Care from 1998–2001, and Group President Europe in 2001.

Nestlé

He then joined Nestlé in 2006 as Chief Financial Officer and head of the Americas At Nestlé, he was replaced by Luis Cantarell.

Unilever

On 1 January 2009, he succeeded Patrick Cescau as Chief Executive Officer of Unilever. This had been announced in September 2008. At this point in the company's (strictly) Anglo-Dutch history, its main headquarters are based in London and Rotterdam

Recognition

Polman has received honorary doctorates from Northumbria University (LLD, 2000) and the University of Cincinnati (2009). In 2011, he gave the Durland Lecture at Cornell University.

Personal life

He is married with three children and enjoys mountaineering, volleyball and classic car racing. He is President of Kilimanjaro Blindtrust.And Chairman of Perkins international advisory board

References

External links

Unilever

Ethical Corporation

News items

''Times'' September 2008

Category:Dutch chief executives Category:University of Groningen alumni Category:University of Cincinnati alumni Category:1956 births Category:People from Enschede Category:Living people Category:Unilever people Category:Dutch businesspeople

nl:Paul Polman

name	Tacita Dean
birth place	Canterbury
nationality	English
field	Conceptual art, installation art
training	Falmouth School of Art
movement	Young British Artists
awards	}}

Tacita Dean (born Canterbury, Kent, 1965) is an English visual artist who works primarily in film. She is one of the Young British Artists, and was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998.

Life and work

Tacita Dean was born in Canterbury, in Kent. She was educated at Kent College, Canterbury. Her brother is architect Ptolemy Dean. She studied at Falmouth School of Art, graduating in 1988. From 1990–2, Dean studied for a Masters degree at the Slade School of Fine Art. Dean held her first solo exhibition ''The Martyrdom of St Agatha and Other Stories'', at Galerija Skuc, Maribor, Slovenia.

In 1995, she was included in ''General Release: Young British Artists'' held at the XLVI Venice Biennale. She is one of the "key names", along with Jake and Dinos Chapman, Gary Hume, Sam Taylor-Wood, Fiona Banner and Douglas Gordon, of the Young British Artists (YBAs). Her work actually had little in common with the prominent YBAs, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

In 1997, Dean moved to London. That same year she began to exhibit splices of magnetic tape cut the length required to document the duration of the sound indicated, such as a raven's cry. In 2001 she was given a solo show at Tate Britain. In 2000 Dean was awarded a one-year German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship to Berlin, where she moved that year. She devoted attention to the architecture and cultural history of Germany. She has made films of such iconic structure as the Berliner Fernsehturm and the Palast der Republik. Other projects have concerned important figures in post-war German cultural history, such as W.G. Sebald and Joseph Beuys.

2006 saw the most comprehensive retrospective of her work to date, ‘Analogue', held at Schaulager Basel.

In 2009, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation has presented ''Still Life'', Tacita Dean’s first major solo exhibition in Italy, on the first floor (piano nobile) of Palazzo Dugnani, a historic building in the centre of Milan. The exhibition has presented a selection of fourteen works, including the world premiere of two films commissioned and produced by the Nicola Trussardi Foundation: ''Still Life'' and ''Day for Night'', filmed in the Bolognese studio of painter Giorgio Morandi.

Dean has undertaken commissions for London's defunct Millennium Dome, the Sadler's Wells Theatre, and for Cork, Ireland, as part of that city's European City of Culture celebrations. She has also completed residencies at the Sundance Institute, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, U.S., and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Berlin

She lives and works in Berlin.

Themes

Tacita Dean is best known for her work in 16mm film, although she utilises a variety of media including drawing, photography and sound. Her films often employ long takes and steady camera angles to create a contemplative atmosphere. Her anamorphic films are shot by cinematographers John Adderley and Jamie Cairney. Her sound recordist is Steve Felton. She has also published several pieces of her own writing, which she refers to as 'asides,' which complement her visual work. Since the mid-1990s her films have not included commentary, but are instead accompanied by often understated optical sound tracks.

Especially during the 1990s, the sea was a persistent theme in Dean's work. Perhaps most famously, she explored the tragic maritime misadventures of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur English sailor whose ambition to enter a race to solo circumnavigate the globe ended in deception, existential crisis and, eventually, tragedy. Dean has made a number of films and blackboard drawings relating to the Crowhurst story, exploiting the metaphorical richness of such motifs as the ocean, lighthouses and shipwrecks.

Re-turning to her, attraction with the sea, ''Amadeus (swell consopio)'' was made for the Folkestone Triennial (three year art show) in 2008 .

Recognition

Following her 1996 film ''Disappearance at Sea'', Dean was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1998. She has since been awarded the Aachen Art Prize (2002), Hugo Boss Prize (2006), and Kurt Schwitters Prize (2009), among others.

Solo shows

These include:

Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (1997);

Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, with US tour (1998);

Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2000),

MACBA, Barcelona (2001);

Tate St Ives (2005).

Schaulager, Basel Tacita Dean. Analogue: Films, Photographs, Drawings 1991–2006 (2006)

Guggenheim Museum[The Hugo Boss prize 2006">Guggenheim Museum[The Hugo Boss prize 2006 Tacita Dean 23 February – 6 June (2007)

''Still Life'', Palazzo Dugnani, Nicola Trussardi Foundation, Milan (2009)

Filmography

See also

Ptolemy Dean, brother to Tacita Dean.

Book Works, publisher.

References

Further reading

Barcelona 2001: ''Tacita Dean''. Barcelona: Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona and Actar.

Godfrey, M.: ‘Photography Found and Lost: On Tacita Dean’s Floh,’ ''October'' vol. 114, Fall 2005, 90–119.

Royoux, J-C. et al.: ''Tacita Dean''. London: Phaidon, 2006.

Trodd, T.: ‘Film at the End of the Twentieth Century: Obsolescence and Medium in the Work of Tacita Dean,’ ''Object'' 6, 2003/4.

Vischer, T. and Friedli, I.: ''Tacita Dean. Analogue: Drawings 1991–2006''. Basel: Schaulager, 2006.

De Cecco, E.: ''Tacita Dean''. Milano: postmedia books, 2004.

External links

Tacita Dean exhibition at Tate St Ives, UK, 2005

Tacita Dean in the Tate Collection — artist biography and works viewable online

Tacita Dean: Recent films and other works — Past exhibition at Tate Britain

Tacita Dean — Aerial View of Teignmouth Electron, Cayman Brac. 16 September 1998

Waterlog exhibition featuring recent work ''Michael Hamburger'' 2007

Frith Street Gallery, London

Tacita Dean at Fondazione Nicola Trussardi

Works by Tacita Dean in Cal Cego. Contemporary Art Collection

Artinfo.com.au review of 2009 ACCA exhibition by Tony Lloyd

Category:English artists Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:People from Canterbury Category:Alumni of University College Falmouth Category:Contemporary artists Category:British women artists Category:People educated at Kent College

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