Consumer goods company Unilever announced Tuesday that it plans to spin off its ice cream division, which includes Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum, in an effort to lower costs and simplify its brand portfolio. With this, the company will cut 7,500 jobs.
The ice cream unit generated around $8.6 billion in sales in 2023, equaling about 13% of the group’s total. However, the spinoff—expected to be done by the end of 2025—will save almost $870 million over the next three years.
CEO Hein Schumacher’s said this move would “accelerate” the plan he announced last year to “drive growth and unlock potential” by focusing more on only 30 of the company’s brands. The job cuts, he said, would be primarily office-based roles based across the globe and amounts to about 6% of Unilever’s total staff.
“The company has tried accelerated cost-cutting for accelerated growth for at least a decade,” according to analysts at Bernstein. “This plan remains ‘we will try harder’ to execute the same plan, or hope over experience.”
