{"id":134463,"date":"2024-10-11T07:30:40","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T04:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/unilever-sells-russian-business-after-pressure-from-campaigners\/"},"modified":"2024-10-11T07:30:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T04:30:40","slug":"unilever-sells-russian-business-after-pressure-from-campaigners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/unilever-sells-russian-business-after-pressure-from-campaigners\/","title":{"rendered":"Unilever sells Russian business after pressure from campaigners"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134463\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>Unilever has sold off its Russian operations to a local manufacturing group after pressure from campaigners who claimed that the presence of the Dove and Ben &amp; Jerry\u2019s owner in the country was supporting the war in Ukraine. Arnest Group, a Russian manufacturer of perfume, cosmetics and household products will take control of Unilever Rus, which includes four factories, as well as the group\u2019s interests in Belarus. Arnest is owned by the businessman Alexey Sagal and bought the brewer Heineken\u2019s business in the country last summer.<\/p>\n<p>Unilever Rus, which employs about 3,000 people, owns the local rights to brands including Knorr stock cubes, Dove washing and beauty products, Domestos cleaning fluids and Axe \u2013 which is known as Lynx in the UK. Unilever has faced sustained pressure to sell the subsidiary since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after it failed to follow an initial stampede of British multinationals out of the country.<\/p>\n<p>The terms of the deal, which must be approved by the Russian government, were not disclosed. However, it has been reported that the sale could be worth more than \u20ac500m (\u00a3418m) to Unilever. Hein Schumacher, the chief executive of Unilever, said: \u201cOver the past year, we have been carefully preparing the Unilever Russia business for a potential sale. This work has been very complex, and has involved separating IT platforms and supply chains, as well as migrating brands to Cyrillic. \u201cThe completion of the sale ends Unilever Russia\u2019s presence in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unilever ceased all imports and exports of its products into and out of Russia in March 2022 and has said it stopped all media and advertising spend and capital flows. It said last summer it had been unable to find a way to sell the business that \u201cavoids the Russian state potentially gaining further benefit, and which safeguards our people\u201d. However, the group has come under consistent pressure to exit Russia, where it continues to make and sell \u201cessential\u201d products from shampoo to ice-cream, after evidence emerged that it paid Moscow $331m (\u00a3253m) in taxes in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>In July last year, the Marmite maker was labelled \u201can international sponsor of war\u201d by the Ukrainian government after it became subject to a law in Russia obliging all large companies operating in the country to contribute directly to its war effort. A group of activists, the Ukraine Solidarity Project (USP), erected a billboard outside the Anglo-Dutch consumer group\u2019s London headquarters featuring pictures of wounded Ukrainian soldiers \u2013 posing in the style of the Dove beauty brand\u2019s advertisements \u2013 and the slogan: \u201cHelping to fund Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday Valeriia Voshchevska of the USP said: \u201cIt\u2019s about time Unilever chose to stand on the right side of history, but let\u2019s not forget it took them more than two years \u2013 and millions in Russian taxes paid into Putin\u2019s war machine. Closing operations now doesn\u2019t erase the past. \u201cTo show genuine accountability, we\u2019re calling on Unilever to donate their Russian profits to aid Ukraine\u2019s rebuild and recovery. Actions, not headlines, will tell us if they\u2019re serious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many western brand owners including Diageo and Levi\u2019s have paused exports to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, and some, including McDonald\u2019s, Heineken and the beauty brand Lush, have sold their operations in Russia to local operators. The brewer Carlsberg was in the process of selling its Baltika Breweries subsidiary there when it was taken over by the state last year.<\/p>\n<p>Schumacher promised to look at Unilever\u2019s presence in Russia with \u201cfresh eyes\u201d when he took over as chief executive last year. A year ago, Unilever said it \u201ccontinued to look at out options\u201d after \u201crecent regulatory developments in Russia\u201d. Schumacher said this summer that Unilever\u2019s goal was to \u201cminimise economic contribution\u201d to the Russian state, adding that it continued to monitor operations in the country \u201cvery closely. This is a very tough situation and very much on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2024\/oct\/10\/unilever-sells-russian-business-after-pressure-from-campaigners\">The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/unilever-sells-russian-business-after-pressure-from-campaigners\/\">Unilever sells Russian business after pressure from campaigners<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[555,16460,2683,2537],"class_list":["post-134463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-csr-news-en","tag-russian-business","tag-sell","tag-unilever"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}