My belief in sustainable growth

When I was appointed as President of Foods & Refreshment back in January 2018, I knew that huge challenges would lie ahead. The awareness of and interest in what we eat and drink is more relevant than ever before and people are asking for more healthy and sustainable foods.

Having spent all my career at Unilever in other areas than foods, ice cream or tea, the extent of these challenges was even more immense than I realised:

The proportion of undernourished people globally increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016. Yet nearly 1.9 billion adults are overweight, of whom 600 million are obese. This is known as the double burden of malnutrition – or triple burden when combined with food insecurity.

Despite a decrease in poverty, there are still 500 million smallholder farmers living below the poverty line. And sadly, we have over-stretched our planet. I don’t need to list all the effects we are facing, because you know exactly what I’m talking about. We cannot close our eyes for that. And we won’t. I won’t.

Although we have made tremendous progress over of the past year in terms of sustainability and nutrition, there’s still a lot more to be done. We need to move with pace. Not an easy task, but a challenge I’ve taken on with both hands.

So yes, we have business targets. We want to grow our categories via our portfolio of quality brands. Globally and locally. But that’s not stopping us from having a sustainable mission. On the contrary, we need to put sustainability at the core of what we do. That’s what I call sustainable growth.

I believe that Unilever can play a key role to find solutions to feed the world, whilst taking care of our planet. I’m committed to continue our legacy as industry leader whilst staying true to my personal beliefs.

Throughout my 30 years at Unilever, I’ve had the privilege to work in different product groups and with wonderful and bright people. The energy and innovation I experienced whilst travelling to places over the world was truly enlightening. It has helped me to become who I am today.

That’s why I am proud to work with my teams on a sustainable future, as I’m convinced that we can provide products that are sustainable, nutritious, healthy and accessible to all. Or as we phrase it: products that Taste good, make people Feel good and through everything that we do, will also be a Force for good.

I look forward to connecting with you more often in the future. Till then.