HUL says India among top three priority markets

HINDUSTAN UNILEVER has said that India will continue to be among the top three priority markets for its parent Unilever.

"India has been and continues to be one of the three top priority markets for Unilever. We will continue to have executive leadership of Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and MD under the supervision and guidance of the HUL Board," a spokesperson told PTI.

"We will continue to leverage this organisational structure to serve our consumers and customers even better."

British consumer goods giant Unilever on Tuesday (25) announced plans to cut around 1,500 management jobs worldwide in a major restructure for the company, which recently saw a major acquisition bid fail.

Unilever, in a statement, said as part of the reorganisation, Nitin Paranjpe, chief operating officer, will take on a new role as chief transformation officer and chief people officer, leading the business transformation, and heading the HR function.

Meanwhile, Sunny Jain, president - beauty and personal care, has decided to leave Unilever to set up an investment fund in technology megatrends.

Job cuts after failed takeover

According to Unilever, the "proposed new organisation model will result in a reduction in senior management roles of around 15 per cent".

It added in a statement that junior management roles would be cut by five per cent.

Chief executive Alan Jope, facing growing pressure from investor activists over his leadership, added: "Growth remains our top priority and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this."

The announcement comes after Unilever failed in a £50 billion takeover bid for the consumer health care unit owned by pharmaceutical groups GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.

Unilever plans to create five distinct business groups -- Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition, and Ice Cream.

"Each business group will be fully responsible and accountable for their strategy, growth, and profit delivery globally," it said.

The group last week said it would not increase its offer for the GlaxoSmithKline-Pfizer unit.

GSK said it had received three unsolicited offers from Unilever for GSK Consumer Healthcare -- all of which were rejected as too low.