{"id":42277,"date":"2023-07-30T12:12:54","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T16:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/investing\/unilever-has-descended-into-a-vortex-of-immorality-pressure-mounts-on-consumer-goods-giant-to-exit-russia\/"},"modified":"2023-07-30T12:12:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T16:12:57","slug":"unilever-has-descended-into-a-vortex-of-immorality-pressure-mounts-on-consumer-goods-giant-to-exit-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=42277","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Unilever has descended into a vortex of immorality\u2019: Pressure mounts on consumer goods giant to exit Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Pressure is mounting on Unilever to exit Russia, as the consumer goods giant faces calls for a boycott of its products.<\/p>\n

Activist group B4Ukraine is among the voices urging consumers not to buy Unilever\u2019s
\n ULVR,
\n +1.03%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n

UNA,
\n +0.62%<\/bg-quote>
\n products, which include Dove soap, Hellmann\u2019s mayonnaise, and Ben & Jerry\u2019s, which was acquired by the consumer goods conglomerate in 2000.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIf the risk of becoming complicit in Russia\u2019s crimes against humanity hasn\u2019t swayed @Unilever, their consumers need to be the ones to show them that staying in Russia will hurt them much more than leaving ever would,\u201d tweeted B4Ukraine this week.<\/p>\n

Unilever employs about 3,000 people in Russia. In the first six months of 2023, Russia contributed about 1.2% of the Unilever Group\u2019s turnover and 1.5% of its net profit, according to the company\u2019s second-quarter results this week. At the end of June, Unilever had net assets of $882.7 million in Russia, including four factories.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong>\u00a0Unilever urged to exit Russia: \u2018It\u2019s making their hands bloodstained,\u2019 says Economic Security Council of Ukraine<\/p>\n

Earlier this month B4Ukraine released a letter it received from Unilever responding to a number of questions from the group, including one related to conscription of Unilever employees in Russia. \u201cWe are aware of the law requiring any company operating in Russia to permit the conscription of employees should they be called,\u201d Unilever said in the letter. \u201cWe always comply with all the laws of the countries we operate in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Unilever response resulted in a flood of criticism. \u201c\u2018Unilever has descended into a vortex of immorality\u201d said Moral Rating Agency found Mark Dixon, in a statement. \u201cUnilever has done nothing but wriggle with excuses in response to our year-long demands for it to exit Russia.\u201d The\u00a0Moral Rating Agency was set up after the invasion of Ukraine to examine whether companies were carrying out their promises of\u00a0exiting Russia.<\/p>\n

Unilever contributes more than $700 million annually to the Russian treasury and economy, according to the Moral Rating Agency. \u201cBy confirming it will not oppose Unilever staff fighting Ukraine, it may therefore soon move from financially supporting Russia to providing staff to go into battle for Russia against Ukraine,\u201d Dixon said, in a subsequent statement released earlier this week. <\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> WeWork, Carl\u2019s Jr., Unilever and Shell among companies slammed by Yale over operations in Russia<\/p>\n

Unilever was recently added to the Ukrainian government\u2019s \u2018International sponsors of war\u2019 list amid calls for a boycott of the company\u2019s products.<\/p>\n

The Ukraine Solidarity Project has also launched a high-profile campaign urging Unilever to get out of Russia using the images of Ukrainian veterans injured in the war with Russia. Earlier this month, activists from the Ukraine Solidarity Project held a giant poster featuring the veterans outside Unilever\u2019s London headquarters.<\/p>\n

This week the Ukraine Solidarity Project placed their own plaque over the blue heritage plaque at Unilever\u2019s historic home in Port Sunlight in the northwest of England. \u201cIn recognition of significant taxes given to the Russian state budget, supporting Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine,\u201d the Ukraine Solidarity Project\u2019s plaque reads.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong>\u00a0Kremlin could seize Russian assets of U.S. companies, warns Moral Rating Agency<\/p>\n

MarketWatch has reached out to Unilever with a request for comment on this story. In a statement\u00a0issued in February, the company said that \u201csince March 2022, we have ceased all imports and exports of our products into and out of Russia, and we have stopped all media and advertising spend.\u201d The company added that it has also ceased all capital flows into and out of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand why there are calls for Unilever to leave Russia. We also want to be clear that we are not trying to protect or manage our business in Russia,\u201d Unilever said. \u201cHowever, for companies like Unilever, which have a significant physical presence in the country, exiting is not straightforward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, on the anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion, the Economic Security Council of Ukraine\u00a0slammed Unilever\u00a0over its Russian presence. \u201cIt\u2019s making their hands bloodstained because of what Russia is doing in Ukraine,\u201d a representative for the Economic Security Council told MarketWatch. The\u00a0Economic Security Council of Ukraine\u00a0was set up to develop expertise in identifying and counteracting internal and external threats to Ukraine\u2019s economic security.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> Most Ukrainian businesses are fully operational, says Kyiv-based American Chamber of Commerce<\/p>\n

A slew of major Western corporations such as U.S. giants Apple Inc.\u00a0
\n AAPL,
\n +1.35%<\/bg-quote>,<\/span>
\n \u00a0Alphabet Inc.\u00a0
\n GOOG,
\n +2.42%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n

GOOGL,
\n +2.46%<\/bg-quote>,<\/span>
\n \u00a0Amazon.com Inc.\u00a0
\n AMZN,
\n +3.09%<\/bg-quote>,<\/span>
\n \u00a0International Business Machines Corp.
\n IBM,
\n +0.34%<\/bg-quote>
\n and McDonald\u2019s Corp.
\n MCD,
\n -0.39%<\/bg-quote>
\n \u00a0left Russia\u00a0in response to Moscow\u2019s devastating invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

In addition to a flood of criticism, Western companies that maintain Russian operations also run the risk of asset seizure by Putin\u2019s government, as evidenced recently when the local operations of Danone
\n BN,
\n +0.41%<\/bg-quote>
\n and Carlsberg were placed under the control of Russia\u2019s federal state property management agency.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pressure is mounting on Unilever to exit Russia, as the consumer goods giant faces calls for a boycott of its products. Activist group B4Ukraine is among the voices urging consumers not to buy Unilever\u2019s ULVR, +1.03% UNA, +0.62% products, which include Dove soap, Hellmann\u2019s mayonnaise, and Ben & Jerry\u2019s, which was acquired by the consumer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-42277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-video"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Unilever has descended into a vortex of immorality\u2019: Pressure mounts on consumer goods giant to exit Russia | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pressure is mounting on Unilever to exit Russia, as the consumer goods giant faces calls for a boycott of its products. 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