Unilever started talks with advisers over a carve-out of its remaining food brands, including Marmite, Colmans and Bovril, to focus on its beauty and personal care portfolio, according to Bloomberg News.
In line with the company’s recent spin-out of Magnum and sale of Graze, the carve-out would tighten Unilever’s strategic focus on core ‘power brands’ that have driven growth at the €50bn turnover fmcg giant.
According to Bloomberg sources, no move is expected until 2027, despite reports leaking late last year of a potential sale process starting for Marmite, Bovril and Colman’s, all based at Unilever’s Burton factory.
The separation could carve out tens of billions of pounds’ assets – but Unilever is reportedly considering all options, including potentially retaining some of its flagship brands or keeping its current structure.
Unilever’s focus on ‘power brands’ helped win the company underlying sales growth of 3.5% in 2025, as CEO Fernando Fernandez reshaped the company to become “simpler, sharper and faster.”
Underlying sales growth was strongest in the fourth quarter, at 4.2%, as the company landed a “strong innovation plan, drove improvements in key emerging markets and successfully completed the ice cream demerger”.
“We are moving at speed to build a business that drives desire at scale in our brands, execution excellence across all channels and cost discipline,” said Fernandez alongside the results.
“We have set clear priorities for growth – building a brand portfolio for the future, with more beauty, wellbeing and personal care, prioritising premium segments and digital commerce, and anchoring our growth in the US and India.”
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