Learning from Nestle, Unilever might be better off out of food business

Unilever must take some of the blame for its own predicament. Its rival Nestle SA has managed steady sales growth, while pulling off some canny acquisitions and disposals

Unilever NV has made a great deal of “instilling purpose” into its products, trying to flag up the social and environmental credentials of things from Dove shower gel to Magnum ice cream to appeal to millennial consumers. It doesn’t seem to be doing much for its sales.

The Anglo-Dutch company surprised the stock market on Tuesday, warning that revenue growth this year would be below its 3% to 5% range. And it won’t bounce back quickly. Unilever forecasts sales increases will be in the lower half of its target range in 2020, with most progress coming in the second half.

The company