Unilever PLC (NYSE:UL) Barclays Fireside Chat Conference March 6, 2025 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Fernando Fernandez – CFO
Conference Call Participants
Warren Ackerman – Barclays
Warren Ackerman
Hi, everybody. I’m Warren Ackerman, Head of Consumer Staples at Barclays. I’m delighted to be here at Unilever House with incoming CEO, Fernando Fernandez. Welcome, Fernando. We’ve got a fireside chat. It’s a small, spacious time. It’s your first week in the role. And maybe I’m showing my age, but I think you’re the fifth or sixth Unilever CEO, I’ve known. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to spend some time with you and get your thoughts. So we’re going to kick off.
Question-and-Answer Session
Q – Warren Ackerman
First question, Fernando, I’m going to start with the elephant in the room and get your thoughts on the circumstances around the sudden change of leadership. Many investors thought Hein was doing a good job. 2024 was Unilever’s best year in a decade. So there’s been a lot of surprise on the timing of the change. Can you maybe provide some perspective of what happened? Is there any back story? Why it’s happened now in terms of timing? There’s lots of theories out there on disagreements on strategy, on portfolio, speed of change, so it’d be great to get your perspective on what happened, why happened. And maybe something on the timing?
Fernando Fernandez
Yeah, no clearly. Thank you for having me Warren. Hein, I feel the board agree with the investor. Hein has done a really good job. He put to where the basis of the growth action plan that is our strategic path. It’s a path that the Board fully endorses. He took some significant decisions as a variation of [five scheme] (ph). It’s a very important portfolio decision. We have implemented the productivity program ahead of schedule. So there is and the financial
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