Unilever Job Cuts: The news comes a week after the firm failed in its bid to buy the consumer health division of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for 50 billion pounds.
New Delhi: According to a latest report by BBC, Consumer goods giant Unilever is set to announce thousands of worldwide job cuts this week. The company is expected to cut jobs in over 100 countries. The job cuts have been planned with cuts in the “low thousands”, the report said.
The news comes a week after Unilever failed to buy the consumer health division of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for 50 billion pounds. Reportedly, Unilever has been facing massive pressure from investors to speed up its growth rate.
The London-based firm has over 149,000 people working for it worldwide. According to the report, the company will make the layoffs as part of a wider restructuring that will see it adopt a more competitive operating model. However, the exact number of proposed job cuts is not yet known.
It was also reported that last week, Unilever had to face a lot of anger from some of its investors after it dropped a short-lived pursuit to acquire GSK’s healthcare business. It employs over 6,000 people in UK and Ireland.
In a bid to raise its stake in the healthcare and hygiene market, Unilever offered a deal to acquire GSK. But GSK, which owns famous brands like Sensodyne, Panadol, said that the deal was greatly ‘undervalued’. However, Unilever refused to raise the bid any further than 50 billion pounds.
The saga has sparked unease about the firm’s management under Chief Executive Alan Jope, with the head of Unilever’s 13th biggest investor labelling the GSK bid as a “near death experience”.
Interestingly, according to the report, on Monday, New York-based activist investor Nelson Peltz took a position in Unilever. It is of significance because Peltz’s hedge fund Trian Partners had previously demanded reforms at Unilever’s rival consumer goods firms including Procter & Gamble and Mondelez.
