OREANDA-NEWS British-Dutch Unilever, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer goods, plans to separate the ice cream business into a separate company.

"This business has a very different operating model, and as a result, the board of directors decided that separating the ice cream segment would have the best impact on the future growth of both this business and the entire company," the Unilever press service said.

The process will begin immediately and be completed by the end of 2025.

Unilever's revenue in the ice cream segment in 2023 amounted to 7.9 billion euros. The division owns five brands from the list of the 10 most popular in the world, including Wall's, Magnum and Ben & Jerry's.

After the separation, the company will have four divisions: cosmetics, personal care products, household goods and food. Management expects an increase in underlying revenue in these segments by 4-6% (mid-single digit) and a moderate increase in profitability.

In addition, Unilever management announced a productivity improvement program that will save about 800 million euros over the next three years. The program provides for the introduction of new technologies, standardization of production processes and the creation of operational centers to increase efficiency.

The program may affect about 7.5 thousand employees of the company worldwide, mainly working in office positions.

In Russia, Unilever owns one of the leaders of the ice cream market - Inmarko company. In the spring of 2022, the company announced the suspension of investments in marketing and promotion. The total value of Unilever's Russian assets is estimated at around 600 million euros.

Unilever's capitalization has decreased by 6.6% over the past 12 months, to 96.4 billion pounds ($122.4 billion).