Lynx global director takes top post at Sara Lee H&BC

Sara Lee Household & Body Care has appointed Unilever marketer Margaret Jobling as its top marketer. She replaces Julie Baker, who was promoted to managing director of its tea and coffee business last year.

Jobling, who joined as marketing director last week, will be responsible for brands such as Brylcreem, Radox and Ambi Pur. She will report to Nick van Holstein, who joined Sara Lee as president of the H&BC division from beauty company Kao Brands (MW October 4, 2007).

Jobling had been at Unilever for 15 years, most recently as global brand director for Lynx. She joined the packaged goods giant in 1992, initially working in research and development. She moved into marketing in 1997 after being paired with a brand manager in a Unilever experiment to see if collaboration between departments would lead to faster new product development.

After serving as brand manager for Dove and Vaseline deodorants, she was made brand director for Impulse and from that point worked on Lynx, branded as Axe outside the UK, with responsibility for developing global advertising campaigns.

Sara Lee is revamping bathing brand Radox, which is launching four new ranges into stores this month. The relaunch sees the brand going green with refillable handwash containers and packaging using less plastic.

It is also developing the Ambi-Pur range with the launch last October of Ambi-Pur Puresse, an allergen reduced variation of the air freshener range.