Ice
Cream -> Unilever Ice Cream
Unilever Ice Cream
Unilever ice cream
is an Anglo-Dutch company that owns many of the world's consumer
product brands in foods,
ice cream beverages, cleaning agents and also personal
care products. Unilever employs more than 248,000 people and
had a worldwide turnover of €48 660 million in 2001.
Unilever has two parent companies: Unilever NV in the Rotterdam,
Netherlands, and Unilever PLC in the London, United Kingdom.
This arrangement is similar to that of Royal Dutch/Shell prior
to their unified structure. Both Unilever companies have the
same directors and are very effectively operate as a single
business. The current non-executive Chairman of the Unilever
N.V. and PLC is Antony Bergman’s while Patrick Cesar
is Group Chief Executive. Unilever's major competitor includes
Nestlé and Procter & Gamble. 
History
Unilever was created in the
year 1930 by the merger of British soap maker Lever Brothers
and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unite, the logical
merger as palm oil was a major raw material for both margarines
and soaps and can be imported more advantageously in larger
quantities. In the 1920s, the business of Unilever grew and
new ventures were launched in Latin America. By 1970, soap
and edible fats contributed just 40% of profits, compared
with an original 90%. In 1983 the company bought the brands
Brooke Bond (maker of PG Tips tea), Faberge and Elizabeth
Arden, but the latter was later sold (in 2000) to FFI Fragrances.
Unilever acquired Cheese brought-Ponds, the maker of Vaseline,
in 1986, which strengthened its position in the world skin
care market. The company later absorbed the American business
Best Foods, strengthening its presence in North America and
extending its portfolio of foods brands. Today the company
is fully multinational with operating companies and factories
on every continent and research laboratories at Colewort and
Port Sunlight in the United Kingdom; Vlaardingen in the Netherlands;
Edgewater, New Jersey in the United States; Bangalore in India;
and China.
Brands
After some recent pruning,
Unilever now has a portfolio of about 500 brands, many of
them local that can only be found in certain countries. The
brands fall almost entirely in two categories as set out below.
Heart brand
A Menu from Unilever's Italian
subsidiary Algida.Unilever operate a number of ice-cream
companies referred to as the "Heart brand", since
in general the only branding they have in common is a heart-shaped
logo. They generally manufacture the same ice-cream with the
same names, with rare occasions of regional availability,
under different brands. Some of these ice-creams include Magnum
and Solver.
