Unilever U.S. Consolidates Several Offices Affecting More Than 800 Employees

26/10/06 Unilever U.S. is consolidating some of its offices as part of the company’s plan to continue strengthening its U.S.-based operations, enabling it to better compete in the marketplace. This decision affects more than 800 employees working in Connecticut and Illinois.

“This is the next step in strengthening our market position in the US,” said Michael B. Polk, president of Unilever U.S. “Our broad footprint spanning both foods and home and personal care categories is a real enabler for growth. By moving our businesses closer together we are creating an environment that will unlock the power of our people and allow us to better leverage what differentiates us in the marketplace.”

The changes centralize the US offices into two primary East Coast locations – Englewood Cliffs, NJ and Trumbull, CT. Englewood Cliffs, NJ will serve as the company’s US and Americas regional headquarters, bringing together a majority of Unilever’s business teams. As a result the Greenwich, CT office will close.

The present downtown Chicago office will remain the primary site for the company’s hair and deodorant business teams, allowing the company to retain a strong Midwest presence.

Unilever today also announced a series of activities to realign its home and personal care research and development organization. As part of this realignment, the Illinois-based R&D location at Rolling Meadows will close, and its deodorants and hair regional technology centers will be relocated to the company’s Trumbull office.

The Trumbull location will serve as Unilever US’s home-base for most of its logistics and Home and Personal Care research and development activities. Some US employees, who are part of the logistics groups currently working in Lisle, IL and Clinton, CT, will also relocate to Trumbull. According to Polk these moves allow Unilever to “establish a world-class logistics and R&D center at our Trumbull site.”

“We are making significant investments in both our Trumbull and Englewood Cliffs facilities to enable our expansion. These moves will help us to drive operational excellence, enable more nimble decision making and greater collaboration of our brands,” said Polk. “At the same time we recognize that change is never easy and we are sensitive that these decisions will present challenges to some of our employees. However, we believe that these are the best options for our people and our business in the long term.”