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* Investor group says health 'a crucial blind spot'
* More governments taxing high sugar, calorie products
* Call for more data, targets to boost healthy food share
(Adds Unilever comment)
By Simon Jessop and Siddharth Cavale
LONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A group of investors in Unilever
said on Thursday they had filed a fresh resolution
urging the company to fix a "crucial blind spot" in its strategy
and set ambitious targets to sell healthier foods.
The resolution by an 11-strong investor group with $215
billion in assets, including Candriam, Actiam and Greater
Manchester Pension Fund, calls on Unilever to disclose the
current proportion of sales linked to healthier products.
It also urges the company to set a target to "significantly
increase" that share by 2030, and publish an annual review of
their progress.
While Unilever, owner of the Ben & Jerry's ice cream,
Hellmann's mayonnaise and Pot Noodle brands, is seen as a leader
in sustainable business by many funds, the investors said
increasing regulations around health meant a failure to act
could hit its finances.
Governments in many of the company's main markets have
introduced taxes on products high in sugar or calories as
obesity levels rise.
“Unilever has long been a sustainability leader. Some even
criticise it for being too focused on ESG. Yet the health
profile of the food and drink products it sells remains a blind
spot," said Ignacio Vazquez, a senior manager at responsible
investment NGO ShareAction, which co-ordinated the resolution.
British fund manager, Terry Smith, whose Fundsmith vehicle
is a top-10 Unilever investor, lambasted Unilever last week for
being "obsessed" with promoting its sustainability credentials
at the expense of performance.
"By voicing their support for this resolution, Unilever's
investors can help to drive change at the heart of one of the
biggest foods and drink manufacturers in the world while also
shielding themselves from regulatory and reputational risks,”
Vazquez said.
In response, Unilever said it shared ShareAction's belief in
the importance of having a long-term strategy for nutrition and
health, and publishing targets, and had made a commitment to
reduce sugar, salt and calories in its products.
The company said it plans to update its model for assessing
nutrition in 2022, "making it more stretching and ensuring it
better reflects our current portfolio and the role our products
play in the diets of our consumers".
The resolution follows similar calls for action at last
year's AGM, which ShareAction said had not resulted in much
progress.
While Unilever said that in 2020, 61% of its food and drink
sales were of products with "high nutritional standards", the
investors said they questioned its metrics.
"It is key that a company with such a scale of leverage and
capacity demonstrates efforts to set its targets and disclosures
on the basis of government-endorsed nutrient profiling models
where it operates," Sophie Deleuze, lead ESG analyst of
engagement & voting at Candriam, told Reuters.
Deleuze urged Unilever to conduct and outline their risk
profile in countries where it operates, factoring in aspects
including existing and upcoming regulatory pressures, the health
profile of customers, and their product preferences as a basis
for reformulation.
The move comes at a turbulent time for the company, which
late on Wednesday effectively abandoned a 50 billion pound
($68.11 billion) proposal to buy the consumer health unit of
GlaxoSmithKline.
Promoting healthy food and drink has become a hot-button
issue for investors. Late last year, investors managing 12.4
trillion in assets urged policymakers to use fiscal and
regulatory measures to help fix what they described as a "global
nutrition crisis".
($1 = 0.7341 pounds)
(Reporting by Simon Jessop in London and Siddharth Cavale in
Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey)
