I) Unilever : short Presentation
a) History
Unilever was born in 1930 after the merger between the UK company Lever Brothers – which was created in 1885 – and the Dutch company Margarine Unie – which grew in 1920 through mergers of several margarine companies. Hence the history of the Unilever company goes back over 100 years.
Actually two parent companies were created, Unilever plc in the United Kingdom and Unilever N.V in the Netherlands. These two companies were two holding companies supervising the operations of hundreds of manufacturing and trading firms worldwide.
Besides, the turnover of Unilever in 2007 was 40 billion euros and that there is an increase of 1% of this turnover comparing with 2006. They hire 240.000 people in all around the world which allow Unilever to be considered as a global player in the international trade. Indeed, Unilever divides the global market in 5 areas:
? Europe
? North America and Latin America
? Africa
? Middle East and Turkey
? Asia and Pacific
b) The importance of global brands
Brands are the main way of communication for Unilever because some people are more familiar with the brands’ names than the company’s ones. This situation explains why Unilever gives a great importance to its global brands. Unilever has a portfolio of several brands in the area of fast-moving consumer goods - food, home, and personal goods.
In spite of the weight of this global brands, in 2007 Unilever decided to sell several brands like “Boursin” or “Bertolli” due to the economic and str ...