Unilever Matters
 
A global company interacting with society
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Matters tells the story of Unilever, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of food and home and personal care products, and the company behind famous brands such as Knorr, Lipton, Hellmann’s, Becel, Dove, Rexona and Lifebuoy.

Matters

Photography by Frans Lemmens

It provides insight in the operations of a global company interacting with widely differing local societies, deals with a range of current economic, social and environmental issues, and highlights matters such as Unilever’s global ‘vitality’ mission, its Anglo-Dutch roots and a number of the company’s brands.

In-depth portraits of multinaltionals and their actual operations are rare. But as consumers increasingly want to know more about the companies behind the products and brands they use, providing such information is an important tool to consolidate confidence of consumers and stakeholders. For this reason Unilever specifically looked for independent outsiders, capable of compiling a report on the company’s ‘impact on society’.

Defining the content and scope of the book we chose to focus on Unilever’s activities in fourteen countries across the globe, exploring each of these by means of one or two dedicated themes (‘matters’) – ranging from research & development, business environment, manufacturing, marketing, advertising and distribution to sustainability, social responsibility and environmental & community care. No doubt the production of Matters, published in two different editions, counts as one of the largest corporate book projects ever.