Recently, Vasiliki Petrou, founder and CEO of Unilever's high-end brand division, announced that she will resign at the end of July to pursue her personal dreams. At present, Unilever has not yet announced the successor of the CEO of the department.
About 10 years ago, Petrou joined Unilever to create a high-end product division. Under her leadership, Unilever acquired Dermatologica for approximately $1 billion in 2015, establishing a high-end product division that now has 10 brands.
Now her resignation has attracted much attention from the industry. Whether Unilever's high-end beauty business will undergo strategic adjustments and changes in direction in the future is also a major issue.
In the view of Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, Petrou's resignation may lead to short-term leadership changes and unstable business direction, as well as affect the strategic planning and execution of Unilever's high-end beauty brand.
High end beauty from 0 to 10
"Today, I announced that I will be leaving Unilever at the end of July. I have been founding Unilever's high-end products department for ten years, and in pursuit of my dream of establishing my own investment fund, I made a difficult decision to leave the company," Vasiliki Petrou said in a statement on LinkedIn.
Vasiliki Petrou is a veteran with years of experience in the beauty business. Before joining Unilever, she worked at P&G for over 18 years, with her highest position being Global Managing Director.
It can be said that Vasiliki Petrou led Unilever's high-end beauty industry to achieve a development from 0 to 10. She plays a crucial role in the development of Unilever's high-end beauty business.
In Jiang Han's view, Vasiliki Petrou's departure will bring some uncertainty to Unilever's high-end beauty business, as she has been the core driving force of this business for the past 10 years. Her departure may lead to short-term leadership changes and unstable business direction.
Meanwhile, his resignation may also affect the strategic planning and execution of Unilever's high-end beauty brand. As the founder and CEO, her understanding of the brand, market insights, and resource allocation all play a crucial role, and her departure may lead to delays or changes in these areas.
When it comes to the development of Unilever's high-end beauty business, we can start from 2015. Since 2015, Unilever has acquired a large number of niche high-end beauty brands, gradually incorporating about 20 beauty brands. Currently, its high-end beauty brands include Dermatologica, Murad, Ren, Kate Somerville, Hourglass, Dollar Shave Club, A.H.C, and Tatcha.
"Unilever has always focused on the field of cleaning and daily care. With the growing demand for high-end, personalized and diversified products from consumers, Unilever has also begun to gradually layout high-end cosmetics fields such as perfume and fragrance to meet the diversified needs of consumers and seek further growth." Jiang Han said.
From the perspective of market trends, Jiang Han believes that the high-end beauty market has continued to grow in recent years, and consumers' demand for quality, experience, and personalization is constantly increasing. Unilever's focus on high-end beauty brands aligns with market trends and helps to enhance its market share and brand influence in this field.
At the same time, it cannot be ignored that promoting high-end beauty brands also faces some challenges, such as intensified competition and difficulties in brand building. However, by acquiring niche high-end brands, Unilever can quickly acquire brand resources, market channels, and consumer base, providing strong support for its development in the high-end beauty market.
Overall, Jiang Han believes that Unilever has great potential to focus on high-end beauty brands. With the pursuit of quality living and the trend of consumption upgrading by consumers, the high-end beauty market will continue to maintain a growth trend. Unilever is expected to achieve greater success in this field by continuously optimizing its brand portfolio, improving product quality and service levels.
Pack and sell 20 brands
On one hand, it is acquiring niche high-end beauty brands, while on the other hand, Unilever continues to sell its products.
Private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners recently announced that it has completed the acquisition of Elida Beauty, a subsidiary of Unilever, with an expected transaction value of less than $1 billion, or approximately RMB 7 billion.
It is reported that Elida Beauty was founded in 2021 and is part of the Unilever Personal Care division. It has over 20 non core beauty and personal care brands, including Q-tips, Caress, and Ponds. In 2022, the revenue of this business was 760 million US dollars.
Due to Elida Beauty's poor performance and Unilever's previous actions to sell the business unit, this bundled sale has also been referred to as "shedding the burden" by industry insiders.
Regarding this acquisition, Fabian Garcia, President of Unilever Personal Care Business, stated, "This marks another step towards optimizing our personal care product portfolio." Fabian Garcia stated that the primary task is to accelerate the growth of our strong brand by investing in key strategic focus areas, such as driving unmissable brand advantages and expanding years of innovation.
In addition, in March this year, Unilever announced the spin off of its ice cream business and will lay off 7500 employees worldwide. At that time, the announcement stated that the spin off would begin immediately and was expected to be completed by the end of 2025. Afterwards, Unilever's business will focus on four areas: beauty and health, personal care, home care, and nutrition.
Behind the continuous "slimming down", this consumer goods giant has performed poorly. According to the fourth quarter and full year financial reports of Unilever in 2023, its total revenue was 59.6 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 0.8%; Net profit decreased by 13.7% year-on-year to 7.1 billion euros. The Asia Pacific non regional sales accounted for about 44%, a decrease from 46% in the previous fiscal year, but it remains its largest market.
In fact, there have been signs of weak performance at Unilever for a long time. Looking at the timeline, according to publicly available data, Unilever's revenue remained around 51 billion to 52 billion euros from 2018 to 2021, with slow growth. In 2022, Unilever's revenue increased by 14.5% to 60.1 billion euros (approximately RMB 438.147 billion); The net profit attributable to the common shareholders of the parent company was 2.905 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 6.92%. In 2022, its revenue reached 60.1 billion euros, but more due to price increases.
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng believes in an interview with the Huaxia Times that international food giants such as Unilever, Nestle, and Danone are currently focusing on these development directions: first, high-tech, second, industry threshold, third, high gross profit, and fourth, high growth. Except for these four sectors, other traditional businesses will gradually be divested.
Jiang Han gave his suggestion: Unilever should continue to strengthen the development of its core business, enhance brand value and market competitiveness; At the same time, actively exploring new growth points and expanding new business areas to achieve sustainable development. In addition, the company should also focus on talent cultivation and introduction, providing strong talent support for the long-term development of the enterprise.