Unilever gives up on ‘saving the world’ after backlash from investors

UNILEVER has abandoned efforts to “save the world” after a backlash from investors over “virtue signalling” that included giving Hellmann’s mayonnaise a social purpose.

The consumer goods giant, which owns Marmite, Dove, Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s, has watered down green targets and scrapped some diversity pledges after investors told it to focus more on profits and less on social and environmental issues.

Hein Schumacher, the chief executive, told Bloomberg: “I’m not going to shout that ‘we’re saving the world’, but I want to make sure that in everything that we do, that it is indeed better.”

Unilever has softened targets to reduce its use of plastic, improve the health of the land and ensure all the people in its supply chain are paid the living wage. A promise to increase the number of disabled staff to 5pc of its workforce by 2025 has been scrapped,

‘Unilever will do fewer things with greater impact’

as have plans to spend almost £2bn with “diverse businesses” by 2025 and to halve food waste in its operations by 2025, Bloomberg reported.

Mr Schumacher said Unilever would do “fewer things and with greater impact”. Under his predecessors, Alan Jope and Paul Polman, Unilever became focused on improving the planet as well as delivering for investors. In 2019, it pledged to develop a “purpose” for every brand, with everything from Domestos bleach to Vaseline “addressing an environmental or social issue”, Mr Jope said at the time.

However, the focus led to accusations that the company was putting activism ahead of business fundamentals.

Terry Smith, a Unilever investor and the managing director of Fundsmith, repeatedly accused the company of “virtue signalling” and trying to “define the purpose of Hellmann’s mayonnaise” instead of focusing on performance.

Unilever’s share price has fallen by more than 17pc over the past five years.