Unilever CEO Alan Jope (59) announced his departure on Monday. He will retire at the end of 2023. The company will let you know in a press release. The Scottish businessman has led the group since 2019. There is currently no successor.
Jope has worked for Unilever for 35 years, five of which as a director. He himself says that the “right time” has come to make way for a new CEO. Unilever became a wholly British company under Jope. Earlier this year, he had to deal with dissatisfaction from shareholders about the proposed mega-acquisition of the consumer division of the British GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Ultimately, the takeover did not go through.
Also read this article: Unilever CEO Jope comes with charm offensive for shareholders: criticism was ‘loud and clear’
Dividend Tax
Unilever, the parent company of Dove and Knorr, among others, made an offer at the end of 2021 to take over part of the pharmaceutical group GSK. 50 billion pounds (60 billion euros) would have been offered for the consumer arm of the British company. According to Unilever, this would eliminate some of the competition. With the acquisition, Unilever would become the owner of toothpastes such as Aquafresh and medicines such as Advil. It was Unilever’s largest takeover plan ever.
The markets did not like the takeover. Successful integration into the rest of the group would be difficult, Unilever would find itself in debt and because the group has little experience in the field of drugs that you can buy at the drugstore, experts judged the deal as a bad idea. Alan Jope declined the acquisition, promising shareholders that there would be “no major acquisitions” in the near future.
One of the most important events under the leadership of CEO Jope was the move of the group to London. In 2020, Unilever announced that it would become fully British on paper. It had had both British and Dutch headquarters since 1930, but wanted to get rid of this split organizational structure. The move to the UK was the outcome of a long-drawn-out saga in which Unilever would first become fully Dutch, before deciding to ‘ver-British’. It didn’t help that the Rutte III government promised Unilever to abolish the dividend tax, but decided against it after considerable social and political criticism.
Also read this article: Friendly Scot with Unilever blood