Unilever will separate its ice cream division through a demerger by listing the business in Amsterdam, London and New York.
The owner of brands like Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s brands announced plans last year to separate its €8bn ice cream division but questions remained over exactly how it would be done.
“This decision follows a full review by the board of separation options, focused on maximising returns for shareholders,” the company said. The separation is on track to be completed by the end of 2025.
Jean-François van Boxmeer has been appointed as chair designate for the separated business. Van Boxmeer is currently chair of Vodafone and non-executive director of Heineken, having been CEO of Heineken for 15 years.
Unilever made the announcement alongside its full year results for 2024. It reported underlying sales growth of 4%, falling short of the 4.1% forecast by analysts.
This was led by volumes rising 2.9% and price rises of 1.3%.
The company’s ‘power brands’ – which make up over 75% of turnover – helped fuel the growth, with underlying sales up 5.3%, driven by volume growth of 3.8%. Dove, Comfort, Vaseline and Liquid IV were particularly strong.
“Today’s results reflect a year of significant activity as we focused on transforming Unilever into a consistently higher-performing business,” said CEO Hein Schumacher.
“Fewer, bigger innovations helped to deliver volume growth consistently above 2% in each quarter.”
Revenue was up 1.9% to €60.8bn due to negative effects from currency and the disposal of other businesses. Operating profit was up 12.6% to €11.2bn.
Unilever said it expected underlying sales growth for 2025 to fall within its multi-year range of 3% to 5%. Market growth slowed throughout 2024 and it anticipates a slower start to 2025.
As prices increase through the year to reflect higher commodity costs, it expects the growth to improve with a more balanced split between volume and price.
Last year, Unilever announced an €800m cost-saving programme to try and simplify the business. This will lead to 7,500 job losses of mainly office-based roles “creating a leaner and more accountable organisation,” it said.
After completing a €1.5bn share buyback programme in November, it announced a new share buyback of up to €1.5bn starting this week and to be completed in the first half of the year.
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