A famend British firm faces a mounting backlash over its choice to maintain promoting ice lotions in Russia.
Unilever is one in every of solely a handful of Western companies nonetheless buying and selling there for the reason that invasion of Ukraine. Its boss Alan Jope stated in March that the corporate would provide solely ‘important meals and hygiene merchandise’.
However it’s nonetheless promoting Magnum and Cornetto ice cream in Russia, with critics questioning whether or not the treats could be classed as ‘important’.
Tory MP Bob Seely stated: ‘The final time I appeared, ice cream was neither a drugs nor an important good, so why are they nonetheless promoting them in Russia? These corporations nonetheless there needs to be ashamed of themselves.’
Unilever is one in every of solely a handful of Western companies nonetheless buying and selling there for the reason that invasion of Ukraine. Its boss Alan Jope stated in March that the corporate would provide solely ‘important meals and hygiene merchandise’ however it’s nonetheless promoting Magnum and Cornetto ice cream in Russia
US anti-corruption campaigner Invoice Browder stated corporations nonetheless in Russia have been ‘doing enterprise with murderers’.
He added: ‘It is past me how any first rate particular person watching the mass homicide that Russia is inflicting on Ukrainians can for a second proceed to do enterprise with the murderers.
I’m wondering how these individuals can look themselves within the mirror or face their households once they proceed to allow such evil.’
Campaigners questioned whether or not Unilever’s stance on Russia was appropriate with its lofty declare to be ‘pushed by our objective’.
An announcement on the Unilever web site says: ‘We wish to act on the social and environmental points going through the world and we wish to improve individuals’s lives with our merchandise.’
However Mark Dixon, of the Ethical Ranking Company, which is making an attempt to get corporations to withdraw from Russia, stated Unilever was a ‘hypocrite’.
Tory MP Bob Seely stated: ‘The final time I appeared, ice cream was neither a drugs nor an important good, so why are they nonetheless promoting them in Russia? These corporations nonetheless there needs to be ashamed of themselves.
He stated: ‘It claims to care about points going through the world however is correct now supporting the nation inflicting probably the most harmful problem on the planet. It makes use of the phrases ‘important meals’ to justify promoting non-essential meals like Magnum and Cornetto ice lotions. Since when have been such merchandise good for well being or survival?
‘It’s hypocritical to sentence a warfare if you assist the economic system that pays for it. We must always all boycott Unilever merchandise till it leaves Russia.’
Unilever declined to touch upon the allegations final evening.
A spokesman stated beforehand: ‘We proceed to sentence the warfare in Ukraine as a brutal and mindless act by the Russian state.
Unilever declined to touch upon the allegations final evening. A spokesman stated beforehand: ‘We proceed to sentence the warfare in Ukraine as a brutal and mindless act by the Russian state’
‘We’ve suspended all imports and exports of our merchandise into and out of Russia, and we are going to cease all media and promoting spend. We is not going to make investments any additional capital into the nation nor will we revenue from our presence in Russia.
We are going to proceed to provide our on a regular basis important meals and hygiene merchandise made in Russia to individuals within the nation. We are going to maintain this below shut evaluate.’
Unilever has repeatedly boasted of its standing of getting ‘a protracted custom of being a accountable and pioneering enterprise’. The corporate claims to take motion ‘on social and environmental points’ which have an effect on its clients.
Its values have been decried by traders who declare the corporate has change into too woke for its personal good. Earlier this yr, long-term investor Terry Smith, a number one hedge fund supervisor, used an annual letter to his traders to assert that Unilever’s executives had ‘misplaced the plot’.
