Unilever reshuffles top marketing director roles
Unilever Bestfoods has restructured its senior marketing team following the departure of the top marketer on beverages, William Brown, to a new role at the corporate headquarters.
The company has three business unit directors who control marketing across its brands. William Brown, the business unit director for beverages, which covers PG Tips, Lipton and Scottish Blend, is leaving to become vice-president of Unilever brand at the company’s London headquarters. It is understood that Brown’s new role will cover corporate brand development. He takes up the post at the beginning of March. Brown worked for Van den Bergh before it was bought by Unilever in 2000.
His role is being folded into that of Paul Nevett, the business unit director for spreads, who handles brands such as Flora and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. Nevett will now also be responsible for the beverage brands. The role of Chris Springford, Nevett’s counterpart on savoury, is unaffected by the changes.
Recently, Unilever Bestfoods has been in the news for attracting criticism from the Department of Health and the World Health Organisation over its use of healthy eating messages to market its products. It attracted the most complaints to the ITC in 2002 for its “slag of all snacks” campaign for Pot Noodle.
Last week, the company announced in its full-year results that pre tax profits had risen by 10 per cent to &£2.7bn but turnover has slipped to seven per cent to &£32.6bn.
