Huish also makes detergents, fabric softeners, dish care andpersonal care produc

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The buyer, Vestar Capital Partners, plans to combine the businesseswith its Huish Detergents business that includes the Sun and WhiteRain brands and call the new company The Sun Products Corp.
Huish also makes detergents, fabric softeners, dish care andpersonal care products under private label names for majorretailers.
Vestar said the new Sun Products company will have annual sales ofmore than $2 billion.
The sale price includes $1.08 billion in cash, and Unilever willget shares in Sun worth around $375 million.
Vestar says it has been investing in consumer products companiesfor more than two decades. Its investments have included companiessuch as Remington, Prestone, Gold Toe, Birds Eye Foods, and MichaelFoods.
Unilever, maker of Dove soaps, Lipton teas and Ben & Jerry'sice cream, says the sale is in line with its strategy to dispose ofnoncore brands and focus on a few larger ones.
Unilever is the largest maker of laundry products in Britain andmany developing markets, including India and Brazil, but is dwarfedby rival Procter & Gamble (PG) in the United States.
The operations being sold had sales of around $1 billion in 2007,compared with sales of more than 5 billion euros ($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 manager KeithWeed in a video statement on the company's website.
He said laundry is "the lifeblood of Unilever" but "the removal ofthe North American business...actually removes the drag."
Unilever is due to report second-quarter earnings Thursday.
"We expect the market to be pleased with the announcement and theprice received," of 1.5 times sales, Petercam analyst Fernand deBoer wrote in a note on the laundry business deal.
But "we expect some more comments on the use of these proceeds andof the other recent disposals at the publication of results," hesaid.
Last week, Unilever agreed to sell its Bertolli olive oil businessto Spain's Grupo SOS for 630 million euros ($999 million).
De Boer rates shares a "reduce," due to the weak U.S. economy andthe impact of increasing food prices on developing economies.