Unilever

Unilever's mission is to add vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.


At Unilever, we believe that our employees' passion for winning is our strength and what drives us toward outstanding performance. We offer a culture that is open, innovative and performance driven. We encourage an environment that is fun and sophisticated. Our scale and scope, local roots, heritage, commitment to people and high standards of integrity make Unilever a great place to work.


You'll discover new and diverse career possibilities at Unilever. Whether you are interested in a career in R&D, Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain, Finance, or HR - you can find it here. Working as part of a team with some of the very best business leaders is its own reward. So is the feeling that you're making a difference in people's every day lives.

In a fast changing market, the importance of innovation is only going to grow. Research and Development (R&D) plays a key role in delivering proprietary breakthrough innovations. At Unilever, R&D is treated as an investment aligned closely with our overall business strategy. Innovations with proven consumer benefits Around the world, health and vitality are amongst the most important consumer needs, and people expect science and technology to help them achieve their goals. We seek to build R&D capacity in all of our key markets, to gain greater consumer understanding and offer solutions close to our consumers. The purchasing power of developing and emerging markets already exceeds that of America, Europe and Japan combined ─ its rate of economic growth is> double. The developing and emerging markets are also home to the fastest growing over-60 population. In the future, these markets will account for the majority of our business (in 2008: 48% of our sales). Our unparalleled footprint and strong history in these regions, as well as extensive local knowledge, means we’re well placed to deliver products that meet the needs of these populations as they grow in size, wealth and aspiration. A changing landscape As we look ahead, we face many challenges. Competition is fierce and increasingly global, so it’s crucial that we constantly introduce new products and improve existing ones. Key to all this is the discovery and application of new proprietary technologies that address un-met consumer needs and/or improve product functionality. Our global R&D network covers all regions, and we have invested strongly in building large R&D centers in China (Shanghai) and India (Bangalore and Mumbai), Latin America (Sao Paolo) and Africa (Durban), ensuring they are networked with our established centers in Europe and the US.

With 400 brands spanning 14 categories of home, personal care and foods products, no other company touches so many people's lives in so many different ways.


Our brand portfolio has made us leaders in every field in which we work. It ranges from much-loved world favorites including Lipton, Knorr, Dove and Omo, to trusted local brands such as Blue Band and Suave.


From comforting soups to warm a winter's day, tosensuous soaps that make you feel fabulous, our products help people get more out of life.


We're constantly enhancing our brands to deliver moreintense, rewarding product experiences. We invest nearly €1 billion every year in cutting-edge research and development, and have five laboratories around the world that explore new thinking and techniques to help develop our products.

Unilever's mission is to meet the everyday needs of people all around the world for nutrition, hygiene and personal care. We do this with products that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.


Every day around 160 million people in 150 countries will buy a Unilever brand. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the social and environmental impacts which we have onthe world around us come largely from our brands. We are increasingly embedding sustainability thinking into the day-to-day activities of our brand management and R&D teams. We have done this through a simple tool called Brand Imprint.


Brand imprint


Brand Imprint forces management to think carefullyabout both the resources they use (such as water, packaging, energy and raw materials) and the socialand economic impacts that our brands have in the countries where they are sold. For example, it encourages managers selling soap to consider the positive effects which they can have on public health through improved hygiene. For those marketing tea, it prompts them to think about where they source their ingredients and how they can get value from communicating this to consumers.


Our achievements


We are making progress. Around half the tea used in Lipton Yellow Label and PG Tips tea bags in Western Europe is now sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms. In an effort to halt deforestation we have committed to draw all of our palm oil from sustainable sources by 2015. Our Lifebuoy brand has reached 120 million people in India with its education program about the importance of washing hands with soap. Many other examples are referenced in this Sustainable Development Report.


To achieve these goals we have to work in partnership with others. For example, we work with the Rainforest Alliance on tea, Greenpeace on palm oil and UNICEF on handwashing. These collaborations are bringing new insights and new thinking into the business.

Embracing differences, creating possibilities, growing together - that's what diversity is all about.


Unilever understands the importance of diversity and that's why it is a critical component of our business strategy and an integral part of everything we value and do.


At Unilever, we have a diverse consumer base with a diverse array of needs. By mirroring that diversity within our own organization, we can develop powerful consumer insight and incorporate it throughout our business. We seek and welcome unique talents and perspectives at Unilever, because they strengthen us as a company and help us on our journey to add vitality to life in a variety of ways.