Unilever ‘planning to sell frozen food brands’

CONSUMER products giant Unilever is rumoured to be reviewing its frozen foods arm with a view to selling some or all of its brands, it was reported yesterday.

The Anglo-Dutch group is said to have asked the investment bank Goldman Sachs to look at the options for the division, whose brands include Birds Eye fish fingers and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

The speculation comes after sales at the division fell to €6.63 billion last year from €6.99 bn during the previous 12 months, representing a 3.4% fall in underlying sales, according to reports in the British media.

The business has also suffered from a trend among consumers to shun frozen products in favour of chilled foods.

A Unilever spokesman declined to comment on the reports.

Rumours involving the fate of the group’s frozen foods business have been doing the rounds for the past two years, although in February the group indicated it did not plan to make any major acquisitions or disposals in the near future.

While the frozen foods business as a whole is not performing well, it does contain some strong brands.

The group’s ice cream business, which contains names such as Carte D’Or, Magnum, Walls and Solero, is the number one in the world and worth around €4bn.

Unilever, whose brands also include Lipton Ice Tea and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, launched a five-year Path To Growth strategy in 2000 in a move aimed at concentrating on its 400 leading products.

But the transformation programme failed to live up to City expectations, as Unilever revealed in February that annual profits slumped 36% to €2.9bn.