Unilever promotes brand chief to top Comfort job

Unilever has promoted Comfort European brand director Jean-Laurent Ingles to head global marketing for the fabric conditioner brand.

Inges will replace Ton Anbeek as global brand director for Comfort at the beginning of January. Anbeek will become chairman of Unilever’s Moroccan business.

Ingles’ first task will be to oversee the roll-out of Comfort Pearls, the single-dose fabric conditioner capsule that launches in the UK this month (MW September 9). He says the early signs for Comfort Pearls are promising and adds that he will try to modernise Comfort’s advertising. Roster agency Ogilvy & Mather handles advertising for the brand in the UK.

Ingles adds: “The category is in need of modernisation. Some advertising still reflects the archetypal mother-child relationship, which is important but is not the only way women define themselves today.”

Ingles has been European brand director for Comfort since 2001. Previously, he held the positions of European category director for machine dishwashing and European marketing manager for Unilever’s laundry brands. He has also held marketing positions at Danone and Evian, and worked at advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. Ingles will be based in Unilever’s London Blackfriars office.

From January, Lever Fabergé will become Unilever UK Home & Personal Care.