Andrea Felsted, Columnist

Unilever's $45 Billion Food Sale Augurs a More Beautiful Future

March 31, 2026 at 11:20 AM UTC

Updated on

March 31, 2026 at 12:56 PM UTC

Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering consumer goods and the retail industry. Previously, she was a reporter for the Financial Times.

Unilever’s future is about to become more beautiful.
Photographer: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images

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Unilever Plc’s Fernando Fernandez haslucked out by selling the company’s food businesses, including Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Knorr stock cubes, to McCormick & Co. But Fernandez, who’s been chief executive officer for just over a year, shouldn’t squander his good fortune; he needs a clear vision for what comes next.

After spinning off ice cream in December, combining most of the food division with McCormick in a $44.8 billion deal leaves the consumer giant with about €38 billion ($44 billion) of sales generated by its beauty and wellbeing, personal care and homecare divisions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.