Unilever

William Hesketh Lever founded Lever Brothers in 1884 in Warrington, England, to produce Sunlight Soap — the world's first packaged and branded soap. The soap was made partly from vegetable oils rather than tallow, was white and consistent in quality, and was sold in individual bars with a guarantee of purity. Lever was not just a businessman; he was a social visionary who built Port Sunlight in Merseyside in 1888 — a model village of 800 houses for his factory workers, with libraries, schools, recreational facilities, and hospitals. The Port Sunlight model became a reference point for corporate social responsibility decades before the concept was formalised.

Unilever was formed on January 1, 1929, through the merger of Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie — the holding company for two Dutch margarine producers, Van den Bergh and Jurgens. Both companies had been competing for similar raw materials (vegetable oils and animal fats) and both had expanded internationally. The logic of combination was industrial: shared sourcing, shared distribution, shared research. The merged entity immediately became one of the world's largest consumer goods companies, selling soap, margarine, and food products across Europe and beyond under a dual Anglo-Dutch corporate structure that would persist until the 20th century.

Through acquisitions and organic growth across the 20th century, Unilever assembled one of the most valuable brand portfolios in consumer goods. Lipton tea (acquired 1972), Hellmann's mayonnaise, Knorr soups and seasonings, Dove soap and personal care, Lynx/Axe deodorant, Magnum ice cream, and Ben & Jerry's (acquired 2000) gave Unilever products in virtually every daily consumption category. The company operated in over 190 countries, sold 2.5 billion units daily, and was a primary supplier to retailers on every continent.

Former CEO Paul Polman's "Unilever Sustainable Living Plan" made the company a reference point globally for purpose-driven business — arguing that companies addressing sustainability challenges could grow faster and more profitably than those that didn't. His successor Hein Schumacher pivoted under activist investor pressure to a more commercially focused strategy, cutting brands that couldn't justify their scale, reducing headcount, and concentrating investment on 30 "Power Brands." Ben & Jerry's became a recurring conflict: the ice cream brand's independent board used its social mission mandate to take political positions that created tension with Unilever's corporate structure.

Unilever reported €60.8 billion in turnover for 2024 — up 1.9% — with underlying operating margin expanding to 18.4%, the highest gross margin in a decade at 45%. The company announced the separation of its Ice Cream division (Magnum, Ben & Jerry's, Wall's, Cornetto) as a standalone public company. In early 2026, Unilever announced a landmark combination of its Foods division with McCormick — the global flavour and spices giant — creating a combined Foods and Flavours business of approximately €25 billion in sales. Unilever was reinventing itself as a focused personal care and home care company, shedding the food heritage that traced back to the original 1929 merger of a soap company and a margarine producer.