Mumbai: Unilever unveiled plans on Tuesday to cut about 1,500 management jobs across the world under a major restructure of the British consumer goods giant.
It comes a week after the firm failed in its bid to buy the consumer health division of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for 50 billion pounds. Unilever, which declined to comment on the cuts, faces mounting pressure from investors to accelerate its growth.
Unilever said its “proposed new organisation model will result in a reduction in senior management roles of around 15 percent”.
It added in a statement that junior management roles would be cut by five percent.
Together the cuts totalled “around 1,500 roles globally”.
Unilever plans to create five distinct business groups: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition, and Ice Cream.
“Each business group will be fully responsible and accountable for their strategy, growth, and profit delivery globally,” it said.
Chief executive Alan Jope, who has faced investor criticism over the recent failed takeover, added: “Growth remains our top priority and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this.”
The group last week said it would not increase its offer for the GlaxoSmithKline-Pfizer unit.
That came after GSK said it had received three unsolicited offers from Unilever for GSK Consumer Healthcare — all of which were rejected for being too low.
