Unilever announces leadership reorganisation

Unilever has announced plans to restructure its management hierarchy as it seeks to facilitate its global growth plans.

The company will be appointing Harish Manwani as chief operating officer with effect from September 1st 2011, in order to accelerate the process of bringing new products to market.

Meanwhile, category organisation will be broadened to include four units – personal care, home care, food and refreshments – with the newly appointed presidents of each category reporting directly to chief executive officer Paul Polman.

Unilever intends for these new structures to be in place by Q3 2011 and become fully operational before the end of the year.

Mr Polman said: "We have an opportunity to better support this footprint of the business, to keep our strong momentum, with a more globally aligned country and category organisation."

This comes after the company completed the sale of its Sanex personal care business unit in Europe to Colgate-Palmolive earlier this month.