Unilever sells detergent unit for $1.45B

Tag : Fabric White

Unilever ( UN ), the Anglo-Dutch maker of Dove soaps, Lipton teas and Ben &Jerry's ice cream, said the sale was in line with its strategy ofdisposing many of its noncore brands in order to focus on a fewlarger ones.
Unilever is the largest maker of laundry products in Britain andmany developing markets including India and Brazil, but is dwarfedby rival Procter & Gamble Inc. in the United States.
The operations being sold had sales of around $1 billion in 2007,compared with sales of more than €5 billion ($7.8 billion) forits laundry products globally in the same period, Unilever said.
"The choice that we have made is we have better investmentopportunities elsewhere in the world," said division managerKeith Weed in a video statement on the company's web site.
He said laundry was "the lifeblood of Unilever" but"the removal of the North American business...actually removesthe drag."