New chief for Unilever cosmetics…

Unilever has picked Fergus Balfour to head its Unilever Cosmetics International (UCI) fragrance and beauty division.

Balfour will take on overall responsibility for marketing at the division, which sells global brands such as CK One, Eternity, Vera Wang, Chloé, Cerruti and Lagerfeld. Balfour will take over as president and chief executive officer of UCI from Kevin Boyce, who has left the company for personal reasons.

Balfour has held a range of marketing and managerial roles in his 30 years with Unilever. Most recently, he was senior vice-president of human resource development. His other roles have included European marketing manager for fabric conditioners and bleaches and general manager of Unilever’s detergent business in Indonesia.

Balfour will lead the UCI’s recently reshuffled global marketing team. Last year, the company consolidated three marketing directorships into a single global role, held by Laura Klauberg, who will report to Balfour (MW October 16, 2003). European marketing director Janey Pumphrey left the company in February last year and was not replaced.

UCI is to launch limited-editions of leading perfume brands CK One and Cerruti 1881 this summer. CK One Summer will be the first variant fragrance UCI has launched under the CK One brand. Last month, UCI signed actress Scarlett Johansson as the “face” of a Calvin Klein perfume, to be launched later this year (MW February 19).