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* Dekkers to step down immediately, will stay as non-exec
* Andersen was previously CEO of Maersk and Carlsberg
(Adds details on Dekkers time at Unilever)
By Siddharth Cavale
Nov 13 (Reuters) - Unilever named Danish
businessman Nils Andersen as chairman on Wednesday, hoping his
experience of consumer goods and logistics will help the group
navigate a slowdown in its biggest markets and re-energise its
foods business.
Andersen, a non-executive director on Unilever's board since
2015, comes in alongside Scotsman Alan Jope who took over as CEO
earlier this year. He replaces Marijn Dekkers, who is standing
down after more than three years as chairman.
Jope wants to carve out more market share for Unilever's
foods, but faces a challenge in low-growth categories like tea,
bouillon, mayo and condiments. Unilever has changed internal
leadership of foods twice in the last two years, but sales still
remain muted in the business known for Hellmann's mayonnaise and
Magnum ice-cream.
He also faces signs of a slowdown in India and China, two of
the company's biggest markets. The Sino-U.S. trade war and
sluggish domestic consumption are weighing on China's economy
and irregular monsoons have curbed rural spending in India.
Andersen, 61, joined Unilever after heading shipping giant
AP Moller Maersk A/S and brewer Carlsberg A/S
.
At Maersk, where he served as CEO between 2007 and 2016, he
was credited with bringing customer centricity and exceeding
international growth targets, but the stock price fell a third
during his tenure and the board decided to steer the old
conglomerate in a new direction.
At Carlsberg, where he ran the company since 2001, the share
price doubled in the two years before he moved to Maersk.
His predecessor at Unilever, Marijn Dekkers, who is founder
and chairman of investment and advisory firm Novalis
LifeSciences, will remain on the board as a non-executive
director.
Dekkers became a target of investor ire last year for trying
to consolidate the Lipton tea maker's dual headquarter structure
in Rotterdam, dropping London.
The plan, devised with Unilever's former Dutch CEO Paul
Polman, was scrapped after shareholders opposed the move on
fears it could remove one of UK's best known companies from the
benchmark FTSE 100 index.
Unilever's shares have risen 12% so far this year, outpacing
the broader FTSE 100's 9% rise. The stock was up 0.6% at 4,622
pence in afternoon trading.
Andersen currently is part of Unilever's audit committee and
serves as chairman of Dutch paint company Akzo Nobel NV
and privately held Danish retailer Salling Group A/S.
He is also a non-executive director at BP.
He intends to step down from his roles at BP and Salling
Group A/S in March 2020, the company said on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale and Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru
and Stine Jacbosen in Copenhagen; Editing by Bernard Orr &
Elaine Hardcastle)
