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Unilever is a global consumer goods company that manufactures and sells a range of products, including soaps, detergents, foods, beverages, and personal care items. Its products are sold in more than 190 countries.
The company is headquartered in London and operates through a single parent entity, Unilever PLC, after unifying its Anglo-Dutch structure in 2020. It maintains significant operations in both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, including a long-standing presence in Rotterdam.
Origins and formation
The modern Unilever is descended chiefly from three companies founded in the 19th century. In the Netherlands the Jurgens family had been in the dairy business for some 50 years when in 1854 two brothers, Anton and Johannes, formed a partnership, Gebroeders Jurgens, at Oss and began concentrating on butter export, chiefly to Britain.
Heavy demand for increasingly expensive butter, however, led the company in 1871 to start producing the newly invented margarine. Meanwhile, another family in Oss, the Van den Berghs, had established themselves in the butter trade at midcentury and, in the 1870s, also began making margarine.
In the following decade, in 1885, in Britain, William Hesketh Lever (later Viscount Leverhulme), together with his brother, James Darcy Lever, founded Lever Brothers for the making and selling of soap. He was first to market the wrapped bar of soap made from tallow and vegetable and cottonseed oils and, even more important, introduced energetic advertising, with slogans and giveaway-prize campaigns.
The three businesses grew at a great rateâLever Brothers expanding operations into continental Europe and overseas, and the Jurgens and Van den Berghs extending more into Britain and other parts of the world.
By the First World War the British were also making margarine, and the Dutch were also producing soap, for both products were made from similar oils and fats.
In 1927, the two Dutch firms merged to form Margarine Unie NV in the Netherlands and Margarine Union Limited in Britain, bonded together with common directors and equalized dividends and capital values.
In 1928, other major European producers of oils, soaps, and margarines were brought in. Finally, in 1929, Lever Brothers and its associated firms joined the group, and the twin companies were renamed Unilever.
From its formation in 1929 until 2020, Unilever operated through a dual corporate structure consisting of two parent companiesâUnilever NV in the Netherlands and Unilever PLC in the U.K.âwhich functioned as a single business with a unified board of directors and equalized dividends.
Expansion and diversification
In the decades after World War II, Unilever began making detergents and other synthetic products. In the 1980s, the company embarked on a more ambitious diversification program with the purchase (1986) of Chesebrough-Pondâs, Inc., and other makers of personal care products.
Unilever was a major manufacturer of perfumes and cosmetics with the purchase of Calvin Klein, Inc., Faberge Inc., and Elizabeth Arden in 1989. The resulting cosmetics group, Unilever Cosmetics International, was sold in 2005. The company sold its specialty chemicals businesses in 1997 to concentrate on its consumer and household product lines.
The majority of Unileverâs sales came from home and personal productsâsoaps, detergents, toiletriesâas well as beverages and foods such as margarines, cooking fats, salad dressings, ice cream, and packaged meals.
The companyâs $20-billion acquisition of New Jersey-based Bestfoods in 2000 made Unilever one of the largest food companies in the world. Unileverâs sales have been concentrated primarily in Europe, followed by North America.
Exit from foods and McCormick deal
In 2026, Unilever agreed to combine most of its foods business with Maryland-based McCormick & Company (MKC), marking a shift in Unileverâs strategy. The transaction, which excludes certain regional operations, is expected to create a combined company with roughly $20 billion in annual revenue.
Under the terms of the deal, Unilever and its shareholders would receive a majority stake in the combined business along with cash proceeds, while McCormick would retain its name and leadership.
The move reflects Unileverâs broader effort to focus on faster-growing categories such as beauty, personal care, and household products, and to scale back its presence in packaged foods.
