Unilever puts Brylcreem up for sale

To date chief executive Paul Polman has focused on offloading Unilever’s food businesses. In May the company sold America’s biggest selling pasta sauce brand, Ragu, to Japan’s Mizkan Group for $2.15bn (£1.26bn).

Earlier this year, Unilever also sold meat snack Peperami to American food producer Jack Links, and last year offloaded Wish-Bone salad dressing to Pinnacle Foods for $580m and Skippy peanut butter to Hormel Foods for $700m. The business is also trying to

sell diet milkshake brand Slim-Fast for around £1bn, but industry sources have said it is a difficult process as slimming habits have changed dramatically.

Analysts have speculated about whether Unilever will sell its Flora spreads business, or separate its food arm from the higher-growth, higher-margin personal care business.

The sale of Brylcreem will be Unilever’s first personal care sell-off as it shifts focus towards its 15 “power brands”, which record more than €1bn of annual revenue each. Unilever and PwC declined to comment.

Brylcreem, made out of water, mineral oil and beeswax, was invented in 1928 by County Chemical Company. It was one of the first companies to use sports stars in their advertising.

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