{"id":45827,"date":"2026-04-01T14:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/unilever-ceo-reshapes-company-around-beauty-and-personal-care-products\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:22:18","slug":"unilever-ceo-reshapes-company-around-beauty-and-personal-care-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/unilever-ceo-reshapes-company-around-beauty-and-personal-care-products\/","title":{"rendered":"Unilever CEO Reshapes Company Around Beauty and Personal Care Products"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Consumer products giant Unilever is undergoing a massive transformation under CEO Fernando Fernandez, who is steering the company back toward the beauty and personal care sectors where he built his career.<\/p>

The 59-year-old Argentine executive, who previously scored major success expanding the TRESemm\u00e9 hair care brand throughout Brazil about 15 years ago, has orchestrated the sale of Unilever’s entire food division since taking over as CEO last year.<\/p>

This week, the company finalized an agreement with spice manufacturer McCormick that creates a massive $65 billion food conglomerate encompassing everything from sauces to seasonings. Under the arrangement, Unilever will maintain approximately 10% ownership while shareholders control another 55%.<\/p>

The divestiture strips away food products ranging from Magnum ice cream to Hellmann’s mayonnaise, leaving behind a streamlined organization concentrated on beauty, personal care, and household products – sectors where Fernandez devoted most of his 38-year tenure at Unilever promoting items like Dove soap and Surf laundry detergent.<\/p>

“This is the right step at the right time to build a simpler, sharper, higher-growth Unilever,” Fernandez explained to financial analysts following the McCormick agreement.<\/p>

“We are creating a 39-billion-euro household and personal care pure play with leading positions in highly attractive categories, a stronger exposure to fast-growing geographies like the U.S. and India,” he added.<\/p>

The restructuring centers around Unilever’s 23 primary home, beauty and personal care “power brands” that generate most of the company’s revenue, including Dermalogica, Pond’s, Sunsilk and Cif cleaning products.<\/p>

Stock market reaction proved mixed, with Unilever shares dropping to two-year lows Tuesday and declining further Wednesday as investors expressed concerns about the extended timeline for completing the transaction in 2027.<\/p>

However, some financial backers recognize long-term advantages in concentrating on faster-expanding beauty, personal care and home product markets.<\/p>

“Perhaps the most overlooked benefit is the increased focus gained by simplifying Unilever’s business model,” explained David Samra, managing director at Artisan Partners, a Unilever investor. “The company moves from operating in two distinct industries to concentrating on a narrower group of brands in faster-growing markets.”<\/p>

While the food segment maintained high profit margins, its sales expansion consistently trailed other divisions, hampering Unilever’s objective to boost annual revenue by 4%-6%.<\/p>

“The prize of a pure-play home and personal care company will be worth it in the end,” stated Barclays analyst Warren Ackerman.<\/p>

The strategic pivot comes after sustained pressure from investors and board members demanding organizational changes, including billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz, who holds a $1.73 billion stake and serves on the board.<\/p>

This pressure contributed to the departure of two previous CEOs, most recently Hein Schumacher, who was removed for insufficient progress in streamlining the company’s brand portfolio. Fernandez, who served as finance chief under Schumacher, received promotion to accelerate the restructuring process.<\/p>

These transactions represent a dramatic reversal after Unilever spent most of the past century acquiring food and beverage companies including Marmite, Colman’s and Horlick’s.<\/p>

However, increasingly health-focused consumers and the emergence of GLP-1 weight-loss medications have weakened demand for packaged foods while intensifying competition from lower-priced store brands has further challenged the sector.<\/p>

Currently, Unilever trades at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 14.8 times, below competitors L’Oreal, Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Danone, which range between 17.2 and 25.3 times, according to LSEG Workspace information.<\/p>

“Unilever has historically traded at a discount to pure-play HPC peers like L’Or\u00e9al or Procter, partly because of the drag from lower-growth food categories,” noted Will Nott, portfolio manager at Ninety One, another Unilever investor.<\/p>

“There is clearly re-rating potential, but it won’t happen overnight. The market will want to see clean execution through the transition,” he concluded.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unilever’s new CEO Fernando Fernandez is dramatically restructuring the consumer goods giant by selling off its food divisions to focus on beauty and personal care brands. The 59-year-old executive sealed a $65 billion deal with spice company McCormick to divest the food business. This strategic shift aims to create a more focused company centered on faster-growing categories like household and personal care products.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":45826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[834],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1775067738341.jpg?fit=450%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbtNqq-bV9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39883,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/food-giant-unilever-in-talks-to-sell-hellmanns-business-to-mccormick\/","url_meta":{"origin":45827,"position":0},"title":"Food Giant Unilever in Talks to Sell Hellmann’s Business to McCormick","author":"Admin","date":"March 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Consumer goods company Unilever has confirmed it's discussing the sale of its food division, including popular brands like Hellmann's mayonnaise and Knorr soup, to U.S. spice maker McCormick. 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