Unilever to set new wholesome meals targets after investor strain

Unilever is to publish vitamin scores for its meals portfolio, which incorporates Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum ice-cream, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Knorr inventory cubes, towards exterior well being metrics and set new targets following strain from buyers over weight problems.

The pledge to evaluate efficiency towards six measures, together with the UK’s “excessive in fats, sugar and salt” definition and Europe’s Nutri-Rating, comes after institutional buyers together with €150bn asset supervisor Candriam tabled a shareholder decision on the difficulty.

Unilever, which is the world’s largest ice-cream maker, will set out recent targets by October, and mentioned it will be the primary international meals group to publish dietary efficiency on this manner. It should assess efficiency globally and for 16 key markets by product quantity and revenues.

Bigger rival Nestlé has been engaged on new vitamin requirements. An inner report seen by the Monetary Instances final yr mentioned greater than 60 per cent of the Swiss group’s mainstream foods and drinks merchandise don’t meet a “recognised definition of well being”.

Catherine Howarth, chief government of ShareAction, a shareholder group that pushed Unilever to make the modifications, mentioned: “The transparency promised units a brand new customary for the business. We hope and count on that others will observe.”

Buyers with $215bn in property together with Candriam, US healthcare supplier Trinity Well being and the Larger Manchester Pension Fund tabled a decision in January forward of Unilever’s annual normal assembly due in Could, urging the FTSE 100 shopper items group to set formidable targets for promoting extra wholesome meals.

Ignacio Vazquez, senior supervisor of wholesome markets at ShareAction, mentioned on the time that, regardless of Unilever’s sturdy sustainability file, “the well being profile of the foods and drinks merchandise it sells stays a blind spot”.

“That is stunning, because the fast progress of regulation signifies that well being is a important [environmental, social and governance] difficulty presenting an actual monetary menace to its enterprise.”

The decision has now been withdrawn, and Unilever mentioned it will work intently with ShareAction and its Wholesome Markets Initiative. Hanneke Faber, president of Unilever’s meals division, mentioned the modifications would “set a brand new benchmark for vitamin transparency in our business and speed up our constructive affect on public well being”.

Unilever’s present targets for its meals and refreshment arm, which has €20bn of annual revenues, embody doubling the variety of merchandise offering “constructive vitamin” by 2025.

The corporate had thought-about promoting its meals and refreshment arm to assist fund a failed £50bn bid for GlaxoSmithKline’s shopper well being division late final yr. However after a shareholder backlash, Unilever mentioned it was not searching for large-scale mergers and acquisitions.

Governments globally are searching for to fight weight problems, which the World Well being Group says has virtually tripled since 1975, however some measures are contentious, particularly in relation to merchandise seen as “treats”.

On the time of the shareholder decision in January, Mark Lynch, associate at company finance boutique Oghma Companions, mentioned: “Opponents will see the pure logic being that firms like Lindt cease promoting chocolate or Diageo, alcoholic drinks — no shareholder goes to vote for that.”