* To create five product-focused divisions
* Long-planned revamp comes after failed bid for GSK unit
* Comes amid news of stakebuilding by activist investor
(Adds graphic, comments from analyst and restructuring expert)
By Richa Naidu and Pushkala Aripaka
LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Unilever unveiled plans
on Tuesday to cut about 1,500 management jobs in a restructuring
aimed at easing shareholders' concerns after a failed
acquisition and reports an activist investor has built a stake
in the consumer goods giant.
The maker of Dove soap and Magnum ice cream, which employs
about 149,000 people worldwide, said on Tuesday the revamp would
create five product-focused divisions - beauty and wellbeing,
personal care, home care, nutrition, and ice cream.
The move, which Unilever said had been in the works over the
past year, echoes the reshaping by rival Procter & Gamble (P&G)
three years ago https://www.reuters.com/article/us-procter-gamble-strategy-idUKKCN1ND37M
when it created six similar business units, in its biggest
reorganisation in two decades.
"Moving to five category-focused business groups will enable
us to be more responsive to consumer and channel trends, with
crystal-clear accountability for delivery," Unilever CEO Alan
Jope said.
Unilever, whose shares have fallen by about a quarter from
their record high in 2019, last week effectively abandon https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/unilever-says-it-will-not-increase-50-bln-pound-offer-gsk-consumer-business-2022-01-19ed
plans to buy GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) consumer
healthcare business for 50 billion pounds ($67 billion).
Its proposal, rejected by GSK, was widely criticised by
investors as being a costly and risky distraction from dealing
with pressing challenges to the business, such as surging
inflation in emerging markets and weakness in healthy foods.
Days later, reports also emerged activist investor Nelson
Peltz's Trian Partners had been building a stake in Unilever,
mirroring a previous investment and push for change at P&G and
other consumer goods companies. Trian has not confirmed that it
has built a stake in Unilever.
"The decision to cut 1,500 jobs globally shows the
significant pressure that Unilever is currently under," Sean
Moran, restructuring specialist at law firm Shakespeare
Martineau, said.
"While today’s news may not be directly connected to the
company’s failed GSK offer, the timing is unfortunate ... When
confidence in a business is low, drastic decisions must often be
made."
REFOCUSING
At P&G, Trian criticized the Tide detergent maker's falling
market share, low organic sales growth, aging brands,
bureaucracy and excessive structural costs, among other things.
"It just happens to be right now that Unilever is in the
fray," Barclays analyst Warren Ackerman said. "Peltz has tried
at Mondelez, Heinz, PepsiCo - a whole catalogue of consumer
goods companies."
Some investors think Unilever focuses too much on
environmental and social strategies and not enough on its core
business, he added.
On Thursday, influential British fund manager Terry Smith
criticised Unilever in a letter to his Fundsmith LLP investors,
calling the lost GSK deal a "near death experience" and urging
the company's management to focus on strengthening performance.
Smith criticised Unilever's "penchant for corporate
gobbledegook as substitute for effective action."
"The company would benefit from focusing its attention on
strengthening its current product ranges and reaching new and
existing customers, instead of diversifying into other sectors
such as healthcare — as seen in the GSK bid," GlobalData analyst
Ramsey Baghdadi said.
Unilever, which traces its roots to a small soap business in
1880s Britain, said it does not expect factory workers to be
impacted by the restructuring.
(Reporting by Richa Naidu in London and Pushkala Aripaka in
Bengaluru
Editing by Mark Potter)
Glaxosmithkline (GSK)
Unilever (ULVR)
