Unilever is an Anglo–Dutch multinational consumer goods company. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. It is the world 's third-largest consumer goods company measured by 2011 revenues and the world 's largest maker of ice cream.
Unilever is a complex organization. Unilever has two holding companies: Unilever PLC, which has its registered office at Port Sunlight in Merseyside, United Kingdom and its head office at Unilever House in London, United Kingdom; and Unilever N.V., which has its registered and head office in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Unilever PLC and Unilever N.V. and their subsidiary companies operate as nearly as practicable as a single economic entity, whilst remaining separate legal entities with different shareholders and separate stock exchange listings.
There were two head offices—in London and Rotterdam—and two chairmen. Beneath the two parent companies a large number of operating companies were active in individual countries. They had many names, often reflecting predecessor firms or companies that had been acquired. The organizational complexity was compounded by Unilever 's wide portfolio of products and by the changes in these products over time.
Unilever is a world-wide investor, too. An early multinational investor, by the postwar decades Unilever possessed extensive manufacturing and trading businesses throughout Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Unilever was one of the oldest and largest foreign multinationals in the United States. Unilever 's longevity as an inward investor provides an opportunity to explore in depth a puzzle about inward FDI in the United States.
Since Unilever became one of the most succeed global companies in the world, thus, Unilever is likely to have many profit sanctuaries. Company with multiple profit sanctuaries like Unilever has competitive advantage over companies with a single or few