Unilever investors call AGM vote to push for healthy food targets

Unilever logo is shown in this illustration taken on January 17, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

LONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – A team of investors in Unilever (ULVR.L) said on Thursday they had submitted a contemporary resolution urging the enterprise to take care of a “essential blind place” in its method and set ambitious targets to promote healthier food items.

The resolution by an 11-robust trader team with $215 billion in property, such as Candriam, Actiam and Increased Manchester Pension Fund, phone calls on Unilever to disclose the recent proportion of gross sales joined to much healthier merchandise.

It also urges the enterprise to established a focus on to “noticeably increase” that share by 2030, and publish an once-a-year assessment of their development.

When Unilever, owner of the Ben & Jerry’s ice product, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Pot Noodle models, is noticed as a leader in sustainable business by quite a few funds, the traders claimed rising regulations close to overall health intended a failure to act could strike its finances.

Governments in numerous of the firm’s principal markets have introduced taxes on products and solutions significant in sugar or energy as weight problems amounts increase.

“Unilever has lengthy been a sustainability leader. Some even criticise it for currently being too targeted on ESG. However the overall health profile of the food stuff and drink products it sells stays a blind location,” claimed Ignacio Vazquez, a senior supervisor at accountable expenditure NGO ShareAction, which co-ordinated the resolution.

British fund manager, Terry Smith, whose Fundsmith automobile is a prime-10 Unilever trader, lambasted Unilever very last week for getting “obsessed” with advertising its sustainability qualifications at the price of efficiency. read through much more

“By voicing their aid for this resolution, Unilever’s investors can enable to drive change at the heart of one particular of the biggest meals and consume companies in the entire world whilst also shielding by themselves from regulatory and reputational risks,” Vazquez mentioned.

In response, Unilever stated it shared ShareAction’s perception in the value of obtaining a extended-time period technique for nourishment and well being, and publishing targets, and experienced made a determination to decrease sugar, salt and energy in its solutions.

The organization mentioned it designs to update its product for evaluating nutrition in 2022, “making it additional stretching and ensuring it improved displays our existing portfolio and the part our merchandise perform in the meal plans of our buyers”.

The resolution follows similar calls for action at previous year’s AGM, which ShareAction reported experienced not resulted in a great deal development.

While Unilever claimed that in 2020, 61% of its food items and consume income have been of goods with “substantial nutritional standards”, the traders stated they qu
estioned its metrics.

“It is critical that a business with these kinds of a scale of leverage and ability demonstrates endeavours to established its targets and disclosures on the basis of govt-endorsed nutrient profiling designs where it operates,” Sophie Deleuze, lead ESG analyst of engagement & voting at Candriam, informed Reuters.

Deleuze urged Unilever to carry out and outline their possibility profile in international locations the place it operates, factoring in areas like current and future regulatory pressures, the wellbeing profile of customers, and their product tastes as a foundation for reformulation.

The shift arrives at a turbulent time for the business, which late on Wednesday correctly abandoned a 50 billion pound ($68.11 billion) proposal to invest in the purchaser health device of GlaxoSmithKline. browse additional

Promoting healthier food stuff and consume has turn into a warm-button problem for traders. Late previous 12 months, investors running 12.4 trillion in assets urged policymakers to use fiscal and regulatory steps to assist correct what they described as a “world-wide nourishment crisis”. browse extra

($1 = .7341 pounds)

Reporting by Simon Jessop in London and Siddharth Cavale in Bengaluru Enhancing by Jan Harvey

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