Unilever is reportedly in the early stages of considering a full separation of its food assets, a move that could be worth tens of billions of dollars and mark a dramatic acceleration of the consumer goods giant\u2019s retreat from food and beverages.<\/p>\n
The company is already speaking with advisers about potential options, including spinning off most or all of its food business, according to Bloomberg<\/a>, which cites people familiar with the matter. Unilever could also opt to retain some marquee brands while offloading the rest \u2014 though a deal is unlikely before 2027, and the company may ultimately decide to keep things as they are.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether drinks brands, such as Lipton and Brooke Bond, would be included in any separation.<\/p>\n We have contacted Unilever for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n A portfolio in flux<\/p>\n If it goes ahead, the move would cap an extraordinary period of portfolio reshaping for the Anglo-Dutch multinational. In December 2025, Unilever completed the demerger<\/a> of its ice cream division into The Magnum Ice Cream Company, listed in Amsterdam, London, and New York. That followed the sales of Graze, Unox, Zwan, and plant-based brand The Vegetarian Butcher \u2014 and late last year, reports emerged that Marmite, Colman\u2019s, and Bovril could also be offloaded.<\/p>\n Food now accounts for roughly 25% of Unilever\u2019s revenue, down from as much as 60% in the 1990s. In 2025, the food division posted turnover of \u20ac12.9 billion (US$14.3 billion), with underlying sales growth of 2.5%. Hellmann\u2019s and Knorr together make up around 60% of that business \u2014 a share CEO Fernando Fernandez has indicated he wants to push toward 70\u201375%.<\/p>\n Betting on beauty?<\/p>\n Under Fernandez, who took over<\/a> from Hein Schumacher in March 2025, Unilever has been pivoting hard toward beauty, personal care, and well-being \u2014 higher-margin categories where it sees greater premiumization potential and stronger long-term growth. Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care together generated \u20ac26 billion (US$28.8 billion) in 2025 turnover, more than double the food division.<\/p>\n For the wider industry, a food exit of this scale would be seismic \u2014 unlocking major acquisition targets for competitors, private equity firms, and regional players, and deepening a broader trend of FMCG conglomerates shedding food assets in favor of wellness-driven portfolios.<\/p>\n Kraft Heinz<\/a>, Nestl\u00e9<\/a>, and Coca-Cola<\/a> have all pursued similar restructurings or portfolio overhauls in recent months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unilever is reportedly in the early stages of considering a full separation of its food assets, a move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20694],"tags":[22799,20952,28021,20978,12213],"class_list":["post-57257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-unilever","tag-divestment","tag-food-business","tag-hellmanns","tag-knorr","tag-unilever"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116701585971015680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}