Unilever pausing plan to sell ice cream business to private equity
Unilever, an international manufacturer of baby food, beauty products, bottled water, breakfast cereals, and such popular ice cream brands as Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum and Wall’s, is ending its efforts to sell its ice cream division to a private equity buyer.
In March, Unilever announced plans to focus on four key business units in its portfolio, Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care and Nutrition. Its €15bn ice cream business was to be separated into a stand-alone entity and Unilever was seeking private equity groups to take on the business.
Unilever said upon the announcement the move to make its ice cream division a stand-alone entity part of the company’s plans to simplify its portfolio of offerings and deliver cost savings and efficiencies across all parts of the company, in line with its Growth Action Plan (GAP) that the company announced in October 2023.
READ: Unilever announces job cuts, plans to spin-off ice cream business
Now the plan to sell the ice cream division looks like it may have been shelved according to a report from the Financial Times. According to the Financial Times, the reason is that the large size of the ice cream division, and the complex supply chain involved with it, made equity firms hesitant to take it on.
This was confirmed by Private Equity Wire, which reports on the private equity community, that interested private equity firms struggled to find ways to manage the business and voiced concern over the complexity of the supply chain involved in making ice cream. Then there is the recent move by Ben & Jerry’s in filing a lawsuit against Unilever saying it had silenced attempts to express support for Palestinian refugees, a move that may have given pause to some potential buyers.
